Friday, March 26, 2021

Velveeta Mac and Cheese

If you were to search the Internet for Velveeta Mac and Cheese recipes, there are many. Here is one that is close to what I made and here is one that is from Velveeta's site called Ultimate Macaroni and Cheese. As it turned out, one of the comments on the Velveeta site tweaked the recipe and it turns out to be the same as how I made it. 

I own a food scale, so I weighed out 8 ounce of elbow noodles.  (turned out to be about 2 cups)
8 ounces (actually it turned out to be 8.8 ounces I was using up what I had left) of Velveeta cut up into smaller cubes
1/4 cup milk
1/8 t garlic powder
1/8 t onion powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

I cooked to noodles according to package directions. To the drained noodles I added the remaining ingredients. Stirred everything over low heat until the cheese was melted. I was that easy.  I say that this recipe would feed 3-4 people.

or just my son, who is a mac and cheese fiend. I took out the portion pictured (1 to 1 1/2 cups)  and I took out a smaller portion for my lunch (which did reheat well) and he took the rest.


So if you want to tweak this to figure out portions per serving, I am thinking 2 ounces (1/2 cup) of noodles, per 2 ounces of Velveeta (or similar product), and 1/2 tablespoon milk. Season to taste.

In case you are curious, it turned out to be 264 calories for one serving. That is according to an app I used.

I like macaroni and cheese and have made many variation of it using many different types of cheese. No doubt that using Velveeta makes the creamiest mac and cheese. 


Thursday, March 25, 2021

Tasty Eats

Here is another tasty eat post where I lump  a bunch of photos of what I ate and I an  now sharing it with you.

My son is usually responsible for dinner Sunday nights, weather he cooks us dinner or buys restaurant food. Most of time he buys restaurant food, but this past week he did cook up some chicken bacon wraps and a salad that has carrot, apples, raisins, and pineapple in it.

This is the homemade granola, I got the recipe for it here. I think I might of over cooked it a little.

The are air fryer donuts using 1/2 cup sugar, 1 single serving container of greek yogurt from Trader Joe's, about 1 cup of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder. It did not quite turn out, I think I needed to add a little more flour. It still turned out tasty with the glaze. 
This is not a good picture of fish and couscous. The fish is Orange Roughy, I found and Garlic Parmesan Orange Roughy recipe here. Turned out really tasty. 
I made peanut butter banana bread.

Finally I have French toast using French Brioche Bread from Trader Joe's. I love this bread. This bread is tasty on its own. It make the best French toast.



 

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Chocolate Bundt Cake

 I hade to make this Chocolate Bundt Cake Recipe. I came across it while searching for the spelling of Bundt while writing my Pineapple Ham Loaf post.




It was easy to make, but you do have to a fudgy cake mix and chocolate instant pudding. Which could be a good thing, or a bad thing if you have to go buy these items to make the cake.

Though there could be other cake possibilities with other cake and pudding flavors, which I might try in the future.

 


Saturday, March 13, 2021

Pineapple Ham Loaf


I made ham loaf for the very first time. I wasn't sure what I was going to expect. I had planned to make meat loaf, but next to the meat loaf recipe in my grandmother's cook book is a ham loaf recipe. I thought about it, but I did not think I would find ground ham in the grocery store. Turns out I did find ground ham while I was at the store. So I on the spot decided to make Pineapple Ham Loaf.
The recipe has 1 pound of ground ham and ground pork


I added a sleeve of buttery (Ritz) crackers and 1 cup of bread crumbs, which ended up 2 cups
Also add:
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of liquid smoke
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper.
I used a round bundt pan, lined the bottom with pineapple rings. I added some brown sugar to the pineapple. Save some of juice from the pineapple.


Top with the meat mixture. Poured a little of the pineapple juice, about 1/4 cup (no more).  Make a past of 2 teaspoon brown sugar and prepared mustard and spread on top. Bake 350 degrees F for about 1hour. 1 1/2 hours if using a standard loaf pan.


How mine turned out after I inverted it onto a large plate. 


Everyone loved it. My son however, was not a fan of the large pineapple. The original recipe used 3 cups of Wheaties. I did not have Wheaties (or any bran cereal) on hand so I used 2 cups bread crumbs / crackers. Had I had gone to the store planning on making this, I would of bought the Wheaties.

With the leftovers I sliced it up and fried it up in a pan. Topped with barbeque sauce I made with brown sugar, ketchup, onion powder, garlic powder, and some of pineapple. It was tasty. It could be equally tasty in s sandwich.


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Saturday, March 06, 2021

Chicken Pot Pie Ring

The week before I made this I made taco ring and ended up with it overcooked because I did not notice that my oven setting was set up for 450 instead of 350 degrees. I wanted to redeem myself with making a chicken pot pie ring.


I used 2 tubes of crescent rolls to form the ring on my pizza stone. The wider end of the crescent triangle is toward the inner center. Go to this taco ring blog post to see how the crescent rolls are laid out.

I cooked up 3 boneless chicken thighs in my skillet, about 3-4 min each side. Took it out of the skillet to let it rest.

Chopped up an onion, some celery, and a carrot, sautéed until tender.
I cut up my chicken and added to the veggies.

I made a little bit of a thick gravy with 1 tablespoon of butter and flour and about 1/2 - 1 cup milk.  I did not add a lot. I fear it would make the crescent roll too soggy. Add the gravy to the chicken and veggies. Season to taste. I added salt and pepper and seasoning salt to mine. I also added some fresh parsley.

Lay the mixture evenly around the ring. Again, the taco ring photo could help as reference. Top with some white cheese. I hade muenster cheese on hand. other cheeses might work. Flip the short/ pointy end of crescent rolls over and tuck underneath to seal the ring.  Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees until golden brown.


 In other words, I failed to plan out the recipe and did not have exact measurements or photos. It was an experiment that worked out really well. Everyone loved it and I will definitely make this again. 


Tuesday, March 02, 2021

Air Fryer Brownies

 Whenever I get a chance to us my air fryer, I will. When I saw a blog post on air fryer brownies. I knew I had to make it.

I do have a bake setting on my air fryer. So in the long run, I might of actually just baked brownies. 

The recipe for the brownies is found here. I made the brownies for dessert and it was tasty with ice cream and whipped cream. Also as a side note, I did add chocolate chips. Maybe about 1/2 cup. I am sure you could add other mix-ins like nuts.

If you haven't had a chance, check out these Nesquick Brownies.



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