Release your inner lunch lady

Hello comfort food. Oh my, this one is a treat. Mexi Ground Beef Chili Macaroni.

Although hunger drove us to dive right in, I think corn and/or this bread would be the perfect side dish for this meal. The chili base would be wonderful by itself, adding the soup and cheese take it a step closer to full on evil. The pasta remained plump and tender, yet firm. The cheese on top added a nice crust, bubbly and delicious, without burning or getting too crunchy.

This was the perfect food for a football Sunday on the couch. Two thumbs up, I did everything but lick my plate clean.

Happy Late Birthday Rock!

Today Jenn made up two Old-fashioned Banana Cream Pies. One for Mr. Rock and one for Mr. Me!

Instead of something from a box I headed to Recipezaar.com and found this from the kitchen of Lennie. She topped it with Stabilized Whipped Cream from Kittencal. You could also leave out the bananas and add some coconut to make a coconut cream pie.

The pies were quick and easy to prepare and taste amazing. Why do I want to buy pies from the store ever again??

Please try this out and let me know what you think.

Fruit salad for the First grade teachers

Marley's school was doing a breakfast for the teachers. We were asked to bring a fruit salad...hmmm what to do?? Something from a can or package, full of extra sugar and who knows what? Nah, lets see what recipezaar.com can do. Fruit Salad, but with a secret ingredient. Sounds good, low cost, kid friendly and tasty, sign me up!

Jenn opened the cans and set out the tools. Marley helped by adding the fruit, pudding and mixing it all together.

We substituted a 1/2 can of Mandarin oranges for a 1/2 can of Peaches. Fresh blueberries we added to the mix. Feel free to add other fruits and/or nuts for even more variety. My only a tip is to use a large bowl for assembly, you need room to stir and dissolve the pudding mix.

This mix looked great after being stored overnight in a airtight container. Our container was returned clean, so it was either a huge hit or it hit the bottom of the garbage can.

Followed straight from the book this fruit salad is great. Based on the simplicity and low cost, this will be made again soon. It also is a great foundation for your personal ticket to fruit salad heaven.

Vampires Beware!

On tonight's menu we have:
Creamy Fried Onion Mashed Potatoes and Kittencal's Moist Cheddar-Garlic Oven-Fried Chicken Breast

Both of these are courtesy of Kittencal at Recipezaar.

The potatoes were very easy to make, although I would fry my onions more next time to be a little crunchier. I also added some garlic to the onions in the latter part of cooking. I know, we are already eating more garlic than any human should eat in the chicken recipe, but it tatstes so good. This made a ton of potatoes, you could half it and still have enough for 2-3 people.

We make breadcrumbs from dry white bread oregano, garlic and onion powder and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. The bread crumbed up nicely in the food processor and then other ingredients were added.

The chicken cooked up moist and delicious as advertised. We put the extra garlic and butter on top of the chiken, but will probably leave it off next time. The garlic on top was crunchy, but took away from the other flavors. More cheddar was added on top for the last five minutes and will be done again.

Overall this dinner was five stars all the way.

Intro

Hello and thanks for reading. This will be a place for family and friends to follow along with my adventures in cooking.

My main influences currently are recipes from Alton Brown, America's Test Kitchen, my Mother's collected cookbook and the interweb.