Mac n’ Cheese Soup

 

Most people cringe when I say I’m making “Mac n Cheese Soup”… but it’s actually very yummy. Or so I think, my brother doesn’t agree but he lives 4 hours away so I don’t really care.

 

I have decided to blog instead of putting away laundry and unpacking from my trip down south for the weekend. This is my second bought of procrastination- my first was heading to the mall today with my old roommate who moved back up to Sudbury while I was visiting my parents.

My mall trip was very exciting. I got some undies from La Senza, which should have ended up costing me $57 and I paid $1.17!! I had a card that they scratched at the cashier, and it could have been $5, $10, $50, or $500. And you know how it is, it’s always $5… Well, MINE was $50! Using that, plus my prestige card, I ended up paying $1.17!! Gotta love saving money… Which I then spent on other things 🙂

Going back to the soup. I made this last winter for my parents and brother, then a few weeks ago for Chris. This time I made it I used half Almond Milk and half normal milk, and couldn’t even tell the difference.

The soup is pretty much just a cheddar soup with macaroni noodles in it. Can’t go wrong there, not to mention my love for classic meals with a twist 🙂

Mac and Cheese Soup

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 25 mins | Servings: 4 serving | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• Kosher salt
• 4 oz elbow macaroni
• Cooking spray
• Freshly ground pepper
• 3 shallots
• 1 carrot, cut into 1-in pieces
• 1 stalk celery, cut into 1-in pieces
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 3/4 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
• 11/4 cup 2% milk
• 6 oz shredded cheese (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Bring medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook, drain.

Mince the shallots, carrot, and celery in a food processor. Mist a saucepan with cooking spray. Add the vegetables and cook over medium-high heat until softened, 4-5 mins. Add the flour and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Gradually stir in broth and bring to a boil; cook, stirring, until thickened, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat.

Add the milk, cheeses, and macaroni and stir until cheeses melt. Season with pepper. Serve.

And this ^^ is some Summer Sparkle, which I found in one of my MANY MANY cookbooks. It’s Grapefruit juice, OJ Concentrate, Lemonade Concentrate, and Sprite 🙂 Yummy yummy.

 

 

Super BLT Clubs.

I started the day off with a smoothie, yumm. Nothing special, just some strawberries, a banana, and a few splashes of the Strawberry-Pineapple juice that Chris and I made the night before. So SO so easy to make, and perfect for an early morning refreshing breakfast.

This is my smoothie, small, great colour, yummy, and took all of 30 seconds- Thank you magic bullet and premade fresh fruit juice 🙂 ❤

 

On Tuesday’s I go to placement, even though my school is finished I have decided to continue going to Placement in order to become more comfortable in the classroom. I do not think that the 40 hours they made us do this year was nearly enough, so I still go on Tuesdays. (OH, BTW I am in school to become a teacher… that’s what I mean by placement in the classroom)

Usually when I go to placement Chris and I just grab Subway at the mall, but this is getting too expensive for me so I planned an easy similar dinner- we didn’t have homemade subs, we had Double Decker BLT Club sandwichs.

Now what is one of the most IMPORTANT components of BLTs???

Oh yeah, BACON BACON BACON!

 

Chris and I have been watching EpicMealTime a lot lately- Check them out on Youtube. When I asked Chris to make the Bacon (since, obviously, it’s the man’s job to cook the bacon-duh…. *insert emoticon of rolling eyes, lol*), he just HAD to make it the way that the guys in EpicMealTime do. So it was Bacon strips and Bacon strips and bacon strips and bacon strips.

Chris does his thing with the bacon, but once it it done, it’s my turn. I used a tip I read in the newest Food Network magazine… chopping the bacon up to tiny little pieces (I just magic bullet’ed it for a few seconds), and mixing it into the mayo. Yupp, it’s fantastic. The Bacon and Mayo infuse together to make a combination of delicious GOODness. The best part of this bacon mayo- when you get to eating, the bacon doesn’t pull out with your first bite- heaven.

Then we assembled the sandwiches. Bread, Bacon/Mayo, Lettuce, Deli Turkey, Bread, Bacon/Mayo, Lettuce, Bread. For Chris’s there is an extra layer with Tomato, but I hate them so I leave them out… Yeah I know, then you didn’t have a BLT- but we had turkey in them, so there’s my T- boo yeah!

Oh, and we buttered the toast… Oh gosh, these aren’t very healthy are they??

As a side, I made a macoroni dish that is on my list of things to do this summer. Neither Chris nor I were big fans- I actually didn’t like it AT ALL. I think this is because the sauce has mustard in it, which I am not a big fan of to begin with, I am picky with Mustard, I have to really be in the mood for mustard, otherwise the smell makes me feel sick- strange eh?

Overall, the sandwichs were DELICIOUS, and the Macaroni.. well, it wasn;t even needed because the BLTs wer efilling enough. But at least I can check the macaroni off of my list, and never make again! Not too fear though, because I have tons of other macaroni recipes to go through 🙂

Toasted Ravioli

This was on my list of things to do this summer, but it is one of the cooking side of things. I got the idea from Foodgawker while Stumbling, and than found a recipe for it on Allrecipes.com.

I made this on a day where I worked a split shift- so was at work for a while, came home and made dinner, than after dinner went back to work. I think that in itself shows how quick of a recipe Toasted (or Baked) Ravioli is to make.

What you do: Take fresh ravioli, drench it in mixed egg, then cover in a bread crumb, S&P, Parmesan cheese, oregano, basil mixture. Then spray each side with cooking spray and put on a wire rack over a baking tray and bake for about 8-10 minutes. Serve with Marinara Sauce.

This is the Ravioli ready to be put into the oven. As usual, I did not use bread crumbs- I just smushed up some soda crackers.

Finito. Toasted Ravioli is ready to go. I paired it with a simple spinach salad, since I was short on time.

One thing: I suggest making your own ravioli if you have time. The purchased ready to go stuff doesn’t have a lot of filling and once they were finished baking it was mostly just empty crispy pouches.

Another thing: These would make a great appitizer or finger food for a party!

While the Ravioli was in the oven I decided that we should make some fresh fruit juice. So, out came the magic bullet. Strawberries, Pineapple, water, and a tiny bit of sugar… delicious, fresh, fruit juice. I may have a new addiction- making my own juice 🙂

Strawberry Lemonade

This is the start of my list of “Things to do this summer…”

There are 58 things to do on my list. I created the list to keep me busy without going stir-crazy here in Copper Cliff this summer. Everything on the list is stuff I found on Stumble Upon. Most of the things to do are from either Foodgawker or Craftgawker (I absolutely love these sites!)

I began my list with Strawberry Lemonade from Blogs.bable.com

This is how things start… well, at least when they get to my house. They start as seeds and all that, but I live in a small basement-ish apartment with no chance of a garden… I was thinking of trying to grow some herbs or something but I doubt even those would last let alone lemons and strawberries 🙂

Then I blended the strawberries with some water while Chris juiced the lemons (guess he got the short stick :P)

Then as most juices happen, Chris and I added these two liquids together and added warm sugar water to the mix, stuck in the freezer for about an hour, stirring once after half an hour.

AND finito. Strawberry Lemonade. Check ONE on my list of things to do this summer 🙂