Mac ~n~ ‘Slow Cooked’ Cheesiness

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Mo

Yes indeed. Slow Cooker Mac~n~cheese.
There are tons of recipes out there, in the great wide world of the internet, for macaroni and cheese. Baked, slow cooked, regular pots on the stove, I’m sure there are some out there for a microwave version as well. I’ve seen a lot. Most that I’ve seen involve multiple pans and quite a bit of prep time. Those are wonderful and I can pretty much guarantee that they taste completely scrumptious but I just don’t have the time for those. I’m a busy mom to a toddler and a busy 3rd grader and I have too much to do to be spending that much time in the kitchen. Yes, there are some times that I feel bad about not putting in the time or effort but then I remind myself that I work hard for my family and I love them. Spending oodles of time in the kitchen doesn’t prove that; spending time with them does.
So!
I found a recipe (courtesy of recipe.com) that has very little prep. You stir, you dump, you ditch! Ta Da!!!!
So let’s get on with it shall we??

Cook Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Yield: 6

This was quite tasty. At the end of the initial 2 hours it was still quite thin and watery. I was a bit worried about it but by the time the last 30 minutes was done it had thickened up a lot. As a matter of fact, it was a bit thicker than I expected. That's the closest I can come to a criticism for this one. It was flavorful and filling and creamy and delicious! Justice wouldn't eat it even though it has everything she loves, but everyone else had a loverly dinner and this will definitely have a few replays. :)

Ingredients

1 (8-ounce) package fusilli pasta, uncooked
2 cups shredded smoked Mozzarella cheese (I used 4 cups of mild cheddar/jack mix total)
2 cups shredded smoked Cheddar cheese
10 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
**I added 1 bag Tyson Diced Roast Chicken to round it off

Instructions

In a 4-quart slow cooker, combine all ingredients. Cover and cook on High for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to Low and cook for 30 minutes.

http://www.mosmomstuff.com/2012/01/mac-n-slow-cooked-cheesiness.html

Hope you enjoy this one!

Chicken? Good! Applesauce? Good! Slow Cooker?? Fab!

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Mo

That’s right fab fans & followers. I have yet another tasty Dump & Ditch for you.
Yay!
This one is courtesy of Stephanie O’Dea’s Year of Slow Cooking. And boy am I loving her!! (She’s actually where quite a few of the new recipe’s come from. Definitely go check her out.)

Well here it is for you; Mo’s Momstuff tested.

Slow Cooker Applesauce Chicken

Cook Time: 3 hours

Yield: 5 servings

This was quite tasty. Or at least Dominic and I thought so. Evan wasn't a big fan of the applesauce being warm; "It was weird". And Justice wasn't having any of it. Well ok. The chicken was moist and flavorful though and was super tender. It was shredding as I was trying to scoop it out of the crock. There was a lot of 'sauce' though. More than I anticipated. Which is fine, but it meant that some got wasted after the chicken was all finished off. I probably could have held on to it but I didn't see the need to keep chickeny applesauce... Just not quite the same without the chicken. ;)

Ingredients

4 frozen chicken breast halves or thighs (I used 5 breast halves)
1 T dried onion flakes, or 1 yellow onion, chopped finely
1 1/2 cups of applesauce
1 T apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

Put the frozen chicken pieces into your crockpot.
Add the onion (if you are using the dried onion, wait and add it to the
applesauce).
In a bowl, mix the applesauce, vinegar, garlic, and spices together.
Pour on top of the chicken.
Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 3-4.

Notes

This would be great served over rice or quinoa.

http://www.mosmomstuff.com/2012/01/chicken-good-applesauce-good-slow-cooker-fab.html

I made mashed potatoes with this. Instant but I made them super rich by using beef broth instead of water. I’ve done 1/2 and 1/2 before but decided to go all the way this time. They were so delicious. I added more butter and some chives and they were heavenly. *In a clearly-not-too-proud moment, I totally scraped the remainder out of the pan and devoured the last of them.
Yep…that’s me! What can I tell ya? I love mashed potatoes.
As for a veggie, yeah….totally dropped the ball on that one! I’ve done this before and was hoping that I had stopped this ridiculous negligence…apparently not.
At least we had fruit with it?!?! That counts….doesn’t it?!? LOL

Well there it is for you. I hope that you try this one. Oh! And be sure to let me know what veggies go well with it for my next attempt..

Weekly Meal Plan 01/29/12

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Mo

Ok.
The weekend is at a close and it’s time again to put out the plan for the week’s meals. This week I took a look at my recipe repertoire and shook my head. There wasn’t much in there that I wanted to have this week. And considering how many of these recipes I truly enjoy, that’s saying something.
So…
the search began.
Let me tell you. I found some really great new Dump & Ditch (aka Slow Cooker) recipes! I’m so excited! It’s going to take me a while to get through them all but I am SO on it!
Well, I’ve got three for ya this week. And we’re going to start things off right away…

Sunday – Tonight was a new one carried over from last week. Mac~n~Cheese Dump & Ditch style. Yay! I’ll be posting about it tomorrow.

Monday – Tomorrow holds Beef Stroganoff for us. For those of you that don’t know, this one is a Dump & Ditch. One of the early ones here at Mo’s Momstuff. It’s also one of the rare beef dishes. A definite recommend. And I’m doing carrots again this time, like with the original trial. This time however, I’ve made fabulous use of my newest kitchen acoutrement, the mandolin (you hear the choir singing here don’t you?!) and sliced up the carrots nicely. They’ll still be steamed and buttered but quite a bit easier to bite and hopefully a little more appealing to Justice.

Tuesday – New recipe #2 here. Sloppy Joes a la Dump & Ditch. I’ve never made sloppy joes and I don’t think I’ve had a sloppy joe in probably 6 years, maybe more. I found this recipe and thought it was definitely worth a try! I’m eager to try something new and a Dump & Ditch to boot…yay!

Wednesday – It’s Chicken Tetrazzini for our midweek meal. It’s quick, yummy and not done very frequently so….sounds good to me. Again, I’m sticking to the original trial here with the peas. It just works.

Thursday – Our 3rd and final newbie on the list; Sweet & Tangy Meatballs. I’ve heard this recipe once or twice and I’ve seen it many times on the internet. Well, I finally decided to give it a try. I’ll be serving it over rice (which I’ll be attempting in my “Multicooker” aka deep fryer.). I decided to throw in a little more color contrast and picked up some purple cauliflower for our veggie. Hmm…I was wanting to steam the cauliflower in the fryer… I’m going to have to rethink the logistics on this one. I’ll be sure to let you know how I work this one out…..just as soon as I figure it out!

Friday – It’s the little one’s favorite….Nachos!! Of course, I’m by no means implying that this one isn’t a favorite of us all. As a matter of fact, I’m pulling more and more people into our wonderful little web of nacho-goodness. We had this a couple of weeks ago when we had some perfectly pleasurable company over and it was quite a hit! (insert devious laughter here)

Saturday – The last day of our week is completely blank. 1st off, we should have plenty of leftovers by this time to carry us through, but 2ndly…it’s my birthday and I don’t wanna cook!! So there!

There it is my fab fans and followers. The recipe run down for the coming days. I am truly looking forward to adding these to the archive.

What about you? What’s scheduled to appear on your table this week?

A tortellini recipe of an easier nature

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Mo

Well fab fans & followers, I have it for you. A tasty, easy, no bake tortellini recipe that’s sure to satisfy!
We have a delectable tortellini recipe already in the Archive but I saw this one & decided that it definitely deserved a shot. No sauce, no bake, and more veggies. Sounds pretty good to me!
So here it is for you, courtesy of BettyCrocker.com. Oh….and did I mention…..

It’s a One Pot!!! Woooooo!

Tortellini with Fresh Veggies

Ingredients:
1 package (9 ounces) refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
1 medium bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup) (I used a 1/2 red pepper and 1/2 yellow pepper)
2 cups chopped roma (plum) tomatoes (6 to 8 medium)
1 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise in half, then cut crosswise into slices (1 1/2 cups) (I used 2 small-medium zucchinis)
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 Cook and drain tortellini as directed on package, using 3-quart saucepan. Wipe out saucepan with paper towel.
2 Heat oil in same saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook bell pepper in oil 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender.
3 Stir in tomatoes, zucchini, Italian seasoning and garlic salt. Cover and cook 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is tender.
4 Stir in tortellini. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until hot. Once dished, sprinkle with fresh Parmesan and serve.

Look at those delicious veggies!!

The finished dish waiting to be devoured

Dominic and I really enjoyed this one! As usual, Justice wouldn’t eat it. Dinner-less again! C’est la vie. She gets to make the choice…the crazy girl.
This recipe will definitely get a repeat or two down the road. While I like the other tortellini recipe (with the sauce), this one is lighter. Not to mention, of course, faster. And that is ALWAYS a bonus in my book!

I hope you try this one at your house soon. It’s a great easy healthy dinner!

Weekly Meal Plan 01/22/12

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Mo

Happy end of the weekend to you Fab Fans & Followers! I hope that this post finds you well. I, for one, had an incredibly rough week and couldn’t see the weekend get here soon enough. And a lovely one it was too. So here we sit, at the tail end, prepping ourselves for the new one on the way. The major planning tool being…..

The Weekly Meal Plan. Wooo!

This week I have 3 new Dump & Ditch recipes on the radar. I’m excited!
Let me present it to you, in all it’s planned out glory, here now. Shall I??

Sunday – Today is a carry over from yesterday that didn’t get made. It’s a new Dump & Ditch, Cream Cheese Chicken & Broccoli. This one sounds tasty and I’m looking forward to starting it here shortly.

Monday – A Dump & Ditch 1st repeater; Cheeseburgers! Yum.

Tuesday – Quiche will grace our table tonight. This one is so easy and delicious, I just LOVE it!

Wednesday – New D&D recipe numero dos comes tonight… Applesauce Chicken and I can’t wait!

Thursday – Our 3rd and final new D&D for the week; Macaroni and Cheese a la slow cooker. I’m going to be tweaking this one a little (as usual) and throwing some chicken in there for a more substantial meal. Looking forward to bringing this post to you as well!

Friday – The last day of the standard work week is holding for us Burgers and Tots. Talk about fancy huh?! I had this one on the plan a couple of weeks ago but it didn’t come to fruition so here we have it again and we’re looking forward to it. We don’t do fast food any more really so a burger will be a nice change of pace.

Saturday – Here it is. I know you’ve all been waiting for it… Our one and only scheduled Scrounge day this week. Usually they’re earlier in the week and there’s been 2 quite a few times recently but this is it for this week. I was actually in the mood to do a full 7 dinners (shockingly) but I like building in one day a week, regardless of whether it stays where I put it or not; it’s really nice knowing that it’s there if/when we (I) need it.

So there it be my dear readers. The run-down of recipes that will please our palates this week. And may I just say now………
Yum!!!
How about you?? What’s on your menu this week??