Rosy Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Ok, full disclosure: I did NOT cook this! Nope, fabulous my husband did.  I told my husband the other day that I was in the mood for comfort food, i.e. mac ‘n’ cheese.  He said what he always says, “ok.”  It was Saturday morning and I proceeded to walk out the door to go grocery shopping. 

When I arrived home from the store, I found him and my son sitting in front of the TV, pen in hand, watching America’s Test Kitchen.  It happened that they were making mac ‘n’ cheese on the episode, so dear husband was writing down the ingredients.  Can you say perfect timing?

Now here is the kicker: The version of mac ‘n’ cheese they were making had tomatoes in it.  My husband is allergic, and I mean really allergic, to tomatoes.  I took one look at him and said, “I am not making two different dishes for dinner.”

To that he responded, “Ok, I’ll do it.”

Not cook dinner?  You don’t have to say that twice! 

Not only did I get great mac ‘n’ cheese for dinner, but I didn’t even have to make it.  Talk about a good night! 

As mentioned, this recipe is adapted from America’s test kitchen. 

*If you are not gluten free, use regular pasta and the recipe will still be great.

Rosy Mac ‘n’ Cheese

1 lb gluten free pasta* (I like Trader Joe’s gluten free rotini)
2 cups half & half
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 – 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
4 tbsp oat flour or brown rice flour (or regular flour if you’re not gluten free)
3 tbsp butter
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook pasta until it is al dente. Drain and rinse in cold water.  Place in bowl and add can of tomatoes with liquid. Stir thoroughly.  Let sit for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The pasta will soak up all the excess liquid from the tomatoes.

Melt butter in pan over medium heat.  Add flour and stir to create rue.  Once mixture is bubbly and starting to turn light brown, remove from heat.  While stirring, add chicken broth and half and half.  Return to heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. Simmer 10-15 minutes.  Remove from heat and add cheese and seasoning until well mixed. 

Combine pasta and sauce.   Cook in oven for 20-25 minutes, covered if you want all cheesey, uncovered if you like the top crunchy.

Spinach Pie

I love it when the first thing gone on my son’s dinner plate is the vegetables.  I’ve been working hard to ensure that my nineteen month old toddler has a wide variety of veggies in his diet, and let me tell you, it can be challenging!  So I pulled this recipe out of the drawer and decided to try it. 

Spinach pie is so easy, but I haven’t made it in years.  My husband and I both discovered we are allergic to poultry eggs about five years ago.  However, I have since discovered that duck eggs don’t bother us, which is exciting for baking and cooking.  While they can be hard to find, duck eggs have provided me the opportunity to share this recipe with my son. Looks like I will have to try to find them more often!

Spinach Pie

2 pkgs frozen spinach

2 eggs (or duck eggs)

Dash nutmeg

½ cube butter, melted

Parmesan to taste (I used about 1/3 cup fresh grated)

Thaw and drain spinach well.  Mix all ingredients. Place in greased pie dish and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until the edges turn light brown.

Broccoli Casserole

I am on a quest to get my toddler to eat more veggies. 

I have been trying to make interesting, tasty dinners that have veggies in them, so he doesn’t necessarily get an option of eating them.  One of the vegetables that he doesn’t particularly care for is broccoli.  He will eat the stems in my Pan Roasted Broccoli recipe, but he won’t eat the florets, and that’s were all the good nutritious stuff is stored.

I can remember eating broccoli and cauliflower as a kid with a white cheese sauce on it, but then I think about the toddler running in circles around me at 5pm while I’m trying to make a rue at the stove and realize that white sauce is not a happening thing in my house, at least for next few years.

This recipe is an easy make-ahead casserole that is a complete meal.  I admit it’s not low cal, but I served it for the first time tonight and munchkin actually ate it. And he never eats things the first time I serve them, so I think it’s a winner!

To cut down on the prep time, I have often cooked chicken the day before or cooked, cubed and frozen the chicken.  Then when I have leftover rice, I use it up in the casserole.  This recipe also does well with the chicken omitted as a vegetarian casserole.

Note: If you’re gluten free, you’ll want to use a GF cream of mushroom soup. I like Pacific Foods, shown here.

Broccoli Casserole

2 packages of frozen chopped broccoli

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 or 3 cups of cooked brown or white rice (optional)

1 lb cooked chicken breast, chopped (optional)
Cheddar cheese to taste (I use 8 oz of extra sharp cheddar and 4 oz medium cheddar, use less if you don’t include the chicken and rice)

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Pour into a 9 x 13 casserole pan and level.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes or until edges are brown and it is hot in the center.

White Chili with Ground Turkey and Chicken Sausage

I really wasn’t planning on posting this recipe.

Really.

It’s one of those throw together, made-up recipes that has become a staple in my house. Nothing special. Until tonight, when I decided to add kale to it since I’m trying to increase the amount of dark leafy greens my family eats.  And then my 17-month-old son actually picked the kale out of the chili and ate it.  That’s when I decided that this recipe is worth posting because if you have a toddler, you know that getting them to eat veggies is a challenge, especially something like kale.

White Chili with Ground Turkey and Chicken Sausage

1 package of ground turkey
1 package of ground chicken sausage (I like Iserno’s mild Italian chicken sausage)
3 -14 oz cans of Great Northern beans or white beans
2 onions
6 celery stalks
6 Lacinto kale leaves
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp cumin seed
1 tbsp coriander
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 can chopped green chilies (optional)
Cheddar cheese to taste (optional)
White or brown rice, cooked per instructions

In a soup pot, brown ground turkey and chicken sausage. Chop onion and celery.  Remove spines from kale leaves and chop.  In another pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion, celery and kale and cover. Steam/sauté for 20 minutes or until onion is clear and celery is soft, stirring occasionally. 

Rinse and drain beans.  Take one cup of beans and one cup of sautéed veggies and run it through the blender with the chicken broth until smooth. 

After the meat is cooked thoroughly, add veggies, beans, blended mixture, cumin, coriander, sea salt and green chilies to the soup pot and heat over medium-low heat until hot.

Serve with cheddar cheese over rice if desired.

Toddler Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest for 'Applesauce Cookies' from Shape Magazine and thought they might be good ...... but, well ...... I really did not care from them. However, they were a hit with the toddler. In hopes of making a 'better' cookie I revised the recipe and they improved in flavor and texture.

These are a great go to snack for a child, cheaper than what you can buy in the store, healthier, and easy to make. I think the most difficult part is remembering to buy bananas so they can ripen. I really don't know why they were call Applesauce Cookies since the main ingredient is bananas! I just call them Toddler Cookies - aka Grandma Cookies since I make them for the toddler.

Toddler Cookies

3 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup quinoa flakes (if you do not have quinoa flakes you can substitute with oatmeal and process as below)

1 cup gluten free oatmeal pulsed in food processor or blender so it is not so coarse (don't over pulse or you will have flour)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon ground flax

1/2 cup dried cranberries (cherries/raisins or whatever you have available)

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all of the ingredients together with your mixer or by hand and drop rounded teaspoon on parchment paper lined baking sheet. (Note in the picture above there is no parchment paper - these stick really bad since there is no oil in the cookie. so do yourself a favor and use the parchment paper). Slightly flatten cookie with back of spoon. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.