I got this recipe from Seattle Food Geek. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to try it. It was delicious!! The Recipe was easy to make. I doubled it up to feed all of us and I had just enough left for my lunch the next day. Let me know if you make it!

They’re 7 points each if using 2 point tortillas for those doing Weight Watchers.

Next up we have Adrienne. Her cheese sauce was very similar to Annette’s (still to come) but it used less macaroni and no meat. She has us add some fresh herbs. I had dill on hand and so used a small handful of that.

We all loved it. Creamy. Delicious. The dill was a great touch. Now that I’ve made Lorri’s (still to come) the only thing I would change with Adrienne’s is to mix the bread crumbs in some melted butter first. Makes them more crunchy.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

3. Melt the butter then add the flour cooking until bubbly.
4. Add the milk and then the cheese. Stir until smooth and thick. Add chopped herbs.
5. Add drained macaroni to cheese sauce. Mix together well.
6. Place in prepared dish and top with breadcrumbs.
7. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until top layer of noodles are “oven done.”

My helper for this meal.

Stirring up the cheese sauce.

Yummy creaminess.

Hmmm…Dig in!

First up was Amy’s. She’s my best friend and I decided I should get it out of the way. I hoped to like it a lot! She had commented that she usually uses a white cheese so I made sure to pick that up from the deli area as there were no white cheddars in the regular cheese area at our store.

It was simple to make, and if I was in a hurry I could skip the oven part and just eat it straight out of the pan. I liked it with the white cheese. It had a weird residue to me … the feel of the mac and cheese … I didn’t like that part. I think it might have to do with using cornstarch instead of flour. I’m going to give this one a try again using flour instead as I did like the cheese flavor.

The kids liked it while eating it, but with no prompting from me, as they have now rated 3, Samantha said it wasn’t her favorite because she said the cheese stuck to her teeth. Alex though has declared it his favorite so far! Different tastes….

Amy’s Macaroni and Cheese

Bake 375* 25-30 minutes.

The milk heating up.

My helper grating the cheese.

The final product.

Let me know if you make it and what you think of it! I had to call Amy and give her my thoughts. LOL She said that everyone at her church loves it and she has given out the recipe so many times!

I was chatting with a friend recently about homemade macaroni and cheese. In the past I’ve not made my own. Not that I can recall. I probably have a few times, but I can’t remember! We love Annie’s in the box. The purple box to be exact, made with butter and yogurt. Yummy!

Anyway, I recently tried a recipe from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook on a recommendation from my sister (Hi Michelle!!). And we loved it! Course I did alter it to suit myself. I don’t like milk, and I especially don’t like skim milk, so I use half and half or heavy creamer. There are a couple other changes too, so now it’s really my own recipe, though the basics of it is the authors.

Anyway, my friend (Hi Amy!!) insisted that her recipe was the best! She said that her sister won’t try it though because her sister (Hi Cheryl!!) insists that HERS is the best. LOL And that is how the Macaroni and Cheese Challenge came to be.

I got 8 other ladies from the HearthKeepers message board to join me. We each posted our own recipe, and are trying each others, and then posting a critique. Each family has their own likes and dislikes and it will be interesting to see which recipes rate highest with which family. Through this I also hope to pick up a couple more recipes that I love…as we do LOVE macaroni and cheese here.

Stay tuned….Recipe #1 coming up.

Oh. Yummy. If you eat pork, you must try this recipe. Even if you HATE mushrooms, I promise, you will still LOVE this recipe (just don’t eat the mushrooms…I didn’t!). These were so good!!!

In the past 11 nights, we have tried 8 new recipes. One night we had pizza because we had had cooking class that day (me teaching = me tired) and two nights I was very ill and couldn’t have stood up in the kitchen if I tried!

We had Mexican Pork Chops & Salad, Creamy Baked Spaghetti Squash Parmesan, Deluxe Pot Roast, Greek Chicken Kabobs, Zucchini Ricotta Cheesecake, Huevos Rancheros, Herbed Summer Squash & Potato Torte, and these pork chops. As you can see there are still more reviews of our week to come. What am I keeping???? What am I not???

The pork chops are definitely a keeper! In fact, they will be on my menu for next week along with the Mexican Pork Chop and Salad. I think my husband would like the Greek Kabobs again soon also.

Here are the cooked porked chops.

I couldn’t find any inch thick ones…in fact these were kind of skinny…in fact, I thought there were 2 in a package and that they WERE an inch thick but they fooled me. They were 4 to a package so I ended up cooking 8.

Here are the mushrooms sizzling away…they smelled good!

And the final dish. The sauce was a little runny which was fine..it was still delicious. I think the next time I make it, I’ll add just a touch of flour to the drippings first to thicken it up a little. I served them with boiled red potatoes and a side salad.

Pork Chops with Mushroom Cream Sauce (Low-Carb) found on Recipezaar

I have been making a lot of new recipes lately. I enjoy cooking and I LOVE trying new things. Sometimes I stick to tried and true things when I need to just get dinners done. But when I’m feeling creative I like to try new things and see if it can become a tried and true for us.

What makes it a tried and true for our family?

1. It can’t be too hard to make or take too long or have too many complicated steps. Once in a while I don’t mind making something like that but most of the time I just do not have time!

2. I have to be able to find the ingredients in our commissary (grocery store on base). If it isn’t there, I’m not searching it out.

3. My husband has to like it.

4. The kids have to at least eat it without spitting it out. Ha. Ha.

5. and of course…I have to like it!

Cost doesn’t really play into it because I mix my meals up enough that I’m not concerned if something is overly expensive, I just wouldn’t have it as often.

So last week I made this Zuchhini Ricotta Cheesecake from 101 Cookbooks. The pictures on her blog looked so yummy! I couldn’t wait to try it. I wasn’t sure the kids would like it but I thought I’d give it a shot anyway.

Here is my zucchini grated and drained.

Next all the yummy ingredients ready to be mixed up…by now the smells were enticing…

Add the eggs, and mix. Then add the zucchini and mix some more.

Then you should really use a cheesecake pan but I don’t currently own one so I used a cake pan. Takes a little longer than an hour to cook and remember to let it set!

It tasted delicious. Roy thought it had rice in it. Oops! The flavor was really good. I didn’t think Samantha and Matthew would eat so much of it and I was bummed I didn’t get another piece.

Unfortunately it isn’t going on my tried and true. Something in it..or the mixture..maybe the shallots together with something else…gave me the burps. Isn’t that crazy? But that happens to me. Thanks Mom. I get these weird ..almost allergic..reactions to certain foods. Happened here. Bummer. Good though. Really good!

I made these a while back and then forgot to blog about them.  We had them just a couple days after having the brisket…because well, you use the brisket in the recipe!  Everytime I perused Ree’s recipes, the picture of the Cowboy Nachos would catch my attention. I finally decided to try them…but had to try the Brisket first.

So first you need some cooked beans. I didn’t follow Ree’s recipe for this as I make my own all the time and like them and am not messing with what works for me at this time! I cover my beans with water and let them sit overnight.

The next day I drain the water, rinse the beans, and refill the pot with “good” water. Put them on to boil, and once boiling I cover, and turn down to simmer. They sit and simmer for hours. Then I drain. Cook some garlic in olive oil, return the beans, add some broth, do a little mashing. Yummy.

Then I made the Pico de Gallo. Oops. Didn’t have any tomatoes. Roy ran and got me some though..they were added later.

Next was shredding the brisket. The one thing I would have changed was to shred it MORE than I did. It was then re-cooked according to the recipe.

Shred some cheese.

Get out the chips and layer it up! Broil. and yum.

We loved them.  The mix of flavors was great!  I just used a big spoon and scooped out sections from the pan for each pan. Topped with the pico de gallo and sour cream.  The big pan was GONE by the end of dinner!

I have been spending a lot of time reading food blogs.  I consider it to be a good week if we have tried at least one new recipe, a great week if it’s 2 or 3, and a fantastic week when almost every dish is new to us.

This week…it will be a fantastic week!  I am stocked up with the ingredients for 8 new recipes, along with some frozen pizza…just in case.

Tonight we had Mexican Pork Chops with Mexican Salad thanks to Nancy at A Recipe a Day.

The pork chops were really easy to make – this is just one of those recipes that I have to remember to start SOONER – I had a Rachael Ray phase and still tend to think everything should take 30 minutes.

I heard a lot of yums and oh wows and even my we-refuse-to-let-him-be-picky-4-year-old ate 5 bites without complaining! The recipes are below but first some pictures to entice you to try this yourself!

First I browned each side of 6 chops.

They went into a 9×13 pan and I added the rice.

Then poured on top the tomato sauce, taco seasoning, and water mix. Note: I did not use a packet of taco seasoning mix. I have a huge bottle and I just poured some in. It was just the right spiciness for me, one child said it was a tad spicy but ate it anyway, and Roy probably would have liked it spicier.

And right at this moment I started wondering how you all stored your rice. Back in 1999, I lived next door to a Tupperware lady. They were having a special. Two of these 25-gallon containers for $25. I snatched them up! One holds rice, one holds flour.

Alright. Cover that up with foil – the pan – not the rice bucket! Put in the oven for an hour. Remove, add cheese and green peppers (which I don’t eat!) and cook another 10 minutes.

I made the salad and dressing in the last 15 minutes or so with Samantha helping with the dressing. Note: I used my food processor as I currently have no blender. Oh and we didn’t add chips to the salad as I really am..sort of..trying to lose weight.

The final product. The chops were moist and delicious – easy to cut with a fork. The salad? LOVED. IT. I want to go eat some now. The dressing is delicious!

Mexican Pork Chops

6 pork chops
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup rice, uncooked
1 package taco seasoning mix
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup grated monterey jack cheese
1 green pepper, sliced into 6 rings

Preheat oven to 350.

Brown pork chops and arrange in 9×13 pan. Season with salt. Sprinkle rice around chops. Combine taco seasoning, tomato sauce, and water. Pour over chops and rice, cover tightly with foil. Bake for 1 hour.

Remove from oven. Sprinkle with cheese and add a pepper ring to the top of each chop. Recover and bake 10 minutes more.

Mexican Salad

Salad:
1 head lettuce, torn or 1 bag variety lettuce
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped black olives
4 medium tomatoes

Dressing:
1 avocado
1 T lemon juice
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 cup crushed tortilla chips

Combine salad ingredients.

Combine dressing ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth.

Pour dressing over salad and toss to mix well.

Stir in corn chips if so desired.

I have enjoyed Smitten Kitchen for a while now. Her recipes all look so yummy! Recently she posted the Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake that I made and posted about here.

She was on Martha Stewart Live…a real quick shot..on the show she mentioned her cake! As well as the fact that she gets over 1,000,000 views a month on her blog. That’s a lot of views!

Here is a link to a YouTube showing her on Martha Stewart. She comes on at about 5 minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52z7iOdmXNE

My mom has been making this cake for as long as I can remember. On her recent visit, she made it with Samantha. And we all devoured it. Yummy! It’s very simple. The cake is moist and the frosting is sugary delightful!

There is not a piece missing from the corner. It’s your imagination.

Okay. Okay. It was me. The cake was sitting on the counter and I just grabbed a spoon and dived in. My mom and daughter got after me before they too admitted to wanting to do the same thing! Just because they didn’t … well… whatever!

Coca-Cola Cake

• 2 c sugar
• 2 c flour
• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c oil
• 3 T cocoa
• 1 c Coke
• 1/2 c buttermilk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix together sugar and flour.

In sauce pan, bring just to a boil the butter, oil, cocoa, and Coke. Pour over dry mixtue and mix.

Add buttermilk, baking soda, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until well moistened.

Bake at 350 in a 9×13 pan for 30 minutes or until cake is finished.

Coca-Cola Frosting

• 1/2 c butter
• 3 T cocoa
• 6 T Coke
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 box powdered sugar
• 1 c walnuts, chopped

Using saucepan, bring to a boil the butter, cocoa, and Coke. Remove from heat and add vanilla, powdered sugar, and walnuts. Mix well and pour over hot cake.

Let everything cool and serve!