Wednesday evenings my sister and I have been splitting dinner duty before our evening activities at church. Necessary requirements for these meals: simple, portable, good.
Tonight was my turn and I though crock pot macaroni and cheese sounded easy enough. The recipe I thought I was going to use, though, seemed to have some issues with curdling based on the reviews and comments so I went in search of something new. From Tasty Kitchen I found this recipe for Crock pot Mac and Cheese. The recipe states that it is rich and gooey yumminess and they did not over promise. It was delicious. I used Colby-Jack cheese and a full box of penne pasta. At around the two hour mark I stirred the mixture together and added a smidgen of dried, minced onion but then turned the heat off. The two hours was more than sufficient cooking time. I like the 2 hour time on this because sometimes I want a slow cooker option but my schedule doesn't work with a 6-8 hour cooking time of most slow cooker dishes.
To go along with the mac and cheese, I figured we needed something non-carby and lower in fat. This recipe for Strawberry Broco-Flower Salad seemed to fit the bill. Instead of broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, I just used a bag of broccoli slaw mix to save time. I put a Wishbone Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette on the slaw mix a few hours ahead of time so the salad would have time to absorb the flavors. Just before serving I added the strawberries and honey roasted almonds. It was bland. The recipe needs salt added and probably something else, but I'm not sure what. I doubt I'll try this again to find out.
So there it is--an absolute hit and pretty much a miss. The Cowboy Cookies made everything okay, though!
Tonight was my turn and I though crock pot macaroni and cheese sounded easy enough. The recipe I thought I was going to use, though, seemed to have some issues with curdling based on the reviews and comments so I went in search of something new. From Tasty Kitchen I found this recipe for Crock pot Mac and Cheese. The recipe states that it is rich and gooey yumminess and they did not over promise. It was delicious. I used Colby-Jack cheese and a full box of penne pasta. At around the two hour mark I stirred the mixture together and added a smidgen of dried, minced onion but then turned the heat off. The two hours was more than sufficient cooking time. I like the 2 hour time on this because sometimes I want a slow cooker option but my schedule doesn't work with a 6-8 hour cooking time of most slow cooker dishes.
To go along with the mac and cheese, I figured we needed something non-carby and lower in fat. This recipe for Strawberry Broco-Flower Salad seemed to fit the bill. Instead of broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, I just used a bag of broccoli slaw mix to save time. I put a Wishbone Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette on the slaw mix a few hours ahead of time so the salad would have time to absorb the flavors. Just before serving I added the strawberries and honey roasted almonds. It was bland. The recipe needs salt added and probably something else, but I'm not sure what. I doubt I'll try this again to find out.
So there it is--an absolute hit and pretty much a miss. The Cowboy Cookies made everything okay, though!
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