CHORIZO MAC AND CHEESE

Mac and cheese is my all time favourite dish - I could eat it every week (or every day)….although that probably wouldnt be the smartest decision health wise considering the amount of cheese I put in. However I do like to cook it every so often as a treat.

My favourite recipe is this mac and cheese with lardons, leeks and spinach although my daughter Arabella and I are quite a fan of the Kraft boxed mac and cheese although I dont think it contains much goodness :-) This is a new recipe I saw on Lorraines morning TV show - it is a completely different way to cook the dish and took about 50 minutes.

Ingredients for 4 people (big, healthy portions):

350g dried macaroni pasta
4 uncured chorizo sausage (or a flavour of your choice)
1 red onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 x 410g tin evaporated milk
80ml tomato ketchup
1 tsp English mustard
300g Cheddar cheese
1/2 a big pack of cheesy tortilla chips
Couple of drops of hot sauce (we didnt use)

Preheat the oven to 180 C / gas mark 4.

Boil the macaroni in salted boiling water according to the packets instructions - mine took 7 minutes and I cooked them al dente. Drain and then set aside.

Chop the onion, crush the garlic and remove the chorizo from its casing and then cut into bite size pieces. Fry in a dry pan for 3-4 minutes.

Add the onion and garlic and cook for a further five minutes until softened.

Add the evaporated milk, ketchup, mustard, 2/3 of the grated cheese and then stir until melted. 

Season and add the hot sauce if desired.

Stir in the pasta.

Pour into a baking dish.

Blitz up the tortilla chips until they resemble breadcrumbs - I scrunched them in the bag but you could use a food processor. Sprinkle over the pasta and then cover with cheese.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

I have to admit I was pretty dubious about cooking mac and cheese with ketchup and evaporated milk but it actually really worked and the tortilla chips and cheese topping was amaze balls!! It was a little sweet - I think to enhance the flavour I would serve with a green salad next time. Arabella prefers this version to my one with leeks and spinach….although that is not surprising for a kid….my husband Pascal shocked me by loving this too even though he hates ketchup and milk. We will definitely be cooking this again - it was quick and simple and cheap as well.

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Kale Mac N Sweet Potato Cheese

This is day 3, week 1 of my Eat to Live 6 week challenge, and I am feeling pretty great!  I have noticed that my usual "time of the month" pains and woes are much less than they usually are, and for that, I am so grateful.  Here is my daily log and a recipe at the bottom: Kale, Mac N Sweet Potato Cheese.

Food log:

• Breakfast: 2 apples
• Lunch: Dr. Fuhrmans Warm Lentil Salad, 2 slices of gf bread with hummus
• Dinner: Kale, Mac N Sweet Potato "Cheese" (see below)
• Extras: 1 beer

Exercise log:

• Cardio: 30 minutes stationary bicycle
• Body weight exercises: calves, abs, back, core
• Stretching: 5 minutes before and after

How I feel:

Im happy that I was able to get in some exercise today. I know because of that I will sleep a lot more soundly tonight, yay!  I have noticed that I really really felt hungry for lunch today. Once I took that first bite, it was so delicious!  Looking over my food for the day, I feel like I did not get in as many fresh fruits as I had hoped for.  Im hoping to find some time tomorrow to crack into a pineapple I have been saving up.  Yum!  Tonight, I found some time to cook and needed to use up a sweet potato I had had in my produce basket for a while, as well as the rest of the tofu package I used for my last recipe post. What resulted was Kale, Mac N Sweet Potato Cheese.  Hope you enjoy! (Please note, since I am posting daily, my pictures are not being edited, and these are the best ones I could do on my iPad at the time!)

Kale, Mac N Sweet Potato Cheese

Ingredients:

• Pasta:
• 1 cup dried macaroni noodles per person
• 1-2 cups chopped fresh kale

• Sauce:

• 1 sweet potato, baked and peeled
• 6 oz or 1/2 package silken tofu
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp liquid smoke (optional)

Instructions:

1. In a boiling pot of water, begin to boil the macaroni. 
2. In a high speed blender, blend together all of the ingredients until smooth and creamy.  If the sauce is too thick for your liking, add non-dairy milk one tablespoon at a time. 
3. Once the pasta has become nearly al dente (with 3-5 minutes left to cook), add the chopped kale and stir.  Frequently stir the pot until the pasta is fully cooked. Drain the kale and pasta in a strainer. 
4. Return the kale and pasta to the pot and drizzle on the desired amount of sweet potato "cheese" sauce for the entire dish.  Return to the stovetop on low heat.  Remove from heat and serve once the sauce has become hot. 

Amys Notes:

This dish actually came together very quickly.  For the noodles, I used rice macaroni that I had gotten from the bulk bins at the grocery store.  To be honest, they are not my favorite on their own, but this sauce definitely makes them worth eating.  I would suggest that you use a whole wheat pasta instead.  When I made this, I used about 1 cup of kale per one cup of macaroni.  I found that this was a little less kale than I desired, so make sure to overestimate for the greens, they tend to shrink down!  If you dont have kale on hand, you can always use another dark green like collards, mustard greens, or spinach.  Keep in mind that lighter greens like spinach will take much less time to cook in the boiling water.  For the sauce, I have experimented with making several different types of vegan "cheese" recipes including those that are nut base, some that use corn starch to thicken, and some with pretty interesting ingredients.  I found that this has been my favorite one so far.  The sweet potato and tofu add the right thickness and color, while the spices add a great, but subtle kick to it. 

What types of vegan "cheese" sauces have you tried making at home?  Which ones have been your favorite?

This post was submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday.  Thanks to one of the hosts, Carrie from Carrie on Vegan for giving bloggers such a fun stage for recipe creativity!
(Backlink: http://www.carrieonvegan.com/2013/05/10/healthy-vegan-friday-recipes-my-favorite-submissions/)

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QUINOA MAC AND CHEESE

Regular readers of my blog will know I am a huge fan of cheese and I am very partial to mac and cheese - in fact I have 3 different versions on my blog already. It is not the healthiest and so I decided to try a recipe for quinoa mac and cheese that I had found on Pinterest…..which is slightly better for you. I have saved so many recipes here but I rarely use them as they are all American measurements and American ingredients, however it actually wasnt difficult to covert and nowadays you can buy lots of American ingredients in shops here or over the internet.

Ingredients for 4 people:

1 small butternut squash, chopped into bite size pieces
1 tbsp of dijon mustard
60ml milk
160g uncooked quinoa
200g grated cheese (I used a combination of Parmesan and Cheddar)

Preheat the oven to 190 C.

Peel and de-seed the butternut squash and then chop into bite size pieces. Put in a saucepan of boiling water and boil for around 15 minutes until tender.

After about 5 minutes cook the quinoa according to the packets instructions. My quinoa needed to be rinsed first and then I put 160g in a saucepan with 800ml of boiling water. I covered the pan and left it to simmer for 15-18 minutes until all the water had been absorbed and the quinoa was tender.

Drain the butternut squash and transfer to a blender. Next add the milk and Dijon mustard and blend on high until silky smooth and creamy. If necessary, add some more milk, the texture should be thick but pourable.

Pour into a bowl and add the quinoa and cheese and stir until combined. Keep a big handful of cheese to one side. I have to admit it did not look appetising - more like vomit to be honest - but dont let that put you off! 

Transfer to a ceramic baking dish or even mini ramekins, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake in the oven for 25 minutes until bubbling.

Remove from the oven, cool slightly and then enjoy immediately.

I was worried Arabella would turn her nose up at this as there was obviously no pasta but she really enjoyed it, as did I. It surprised us. You can taste the butternut squash quite strongly but it goes brilliantly with the cheese and the quinoa is much lighter than pasta. We will definitely be making this a regular meal, perfect for this time of year and I might even try the quinoa with some other of our favourite pasta dishes…..quinoa carbonara anyone?!

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MUSTARD MAC N CHEESE WITH PASTRAMI CRUMBS

Every time I see a recipe for mac and cheese in a magazine, I rip it out, so consequently I have several! Thankfully we all love mac and cheese and it was the perfect comfort food to cook last Friday when it was pouring with rain. This is a recipe I found in Olive magazine from Mishkins in Covent Garden, a New York deli style restaurant. I have never tried to recreate a recipe from a restaurant before as I always think it would be too complicated but apparently this was "easy" so I thought I would give it a go.

It took around an hour to cook and prepare.

Ingredients for 4 people:

800ml semi skimmed milk

1 bunch of spring onions, white and green part both sliced and separated

300g macaroni

50g butter (and an extra knob for the pasta)

60g plain flour

100g Parmesan, finely grated

300g cheddar or Gruyere, grated

1 tbsp English mustard

120g pastrami, cut into strips

6 heaped tbsp of breadcrumbs

Put the milk and the spring onion whites in a pan together. Bring the milk to just below boiling point (this took a few minutes), then turn off and leave to infuse while you cook the pasta.

Cook the macaroni until al dente (according to the packets instructions) in a saucepan of boiling salted water - ours took 6 minutes. 

When ready drain and mix with a knob of butter to prevent the pasta sticking. 

At this point preheat the oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6.

Melt the 50g butter in a large saucepan.

Stir in the flour to make a smooth pasta and cook for a couple of minutes.

Strain out and discard the onion from the milk and then very gradually stir the milk into the flour and butter until you get a smooth sauce. I used a whisk for this and originally felt that the sauce would never form but it did in the end! Dont give up!

Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 3-4 minutes until nicely thickened and then take off the heat and stir in half the Parmesan, two-thirds of the grated cheddar/Gruyere, a heaped tablespoon of mustard and season generously.

Stir in the macaroni, pastrami and spring onion greens and mix all together.

Tip everything into an ovenproof dish.

Scatter with the 6 heaped tablespoons of breadcrumbs.

Cover with the remaining Parmesan and grated cheese plus a little more salt.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes (we did 30) until golden, crunchy and piping hot.

Cut into portions and serve.

Even though I probably say this about every mac and cheese I make, this was really really good. I absolutely loved the combination of the pastrami, spring onions and mustard plus the crispy topping was delicious. Pascal doesnt like a white sauce and I could see him turning his nose up when we were cooking this but he was very pleasantly surprised as he loved it too. As for Arabella, she wasnt too impressed when she saw some green on her plate as I had promised her no spinach or leeks like in Fays Mac and Cheese however she absolutely adored it and now pronounced it as her favourite (her previous number one was chorizo mac and cheese). 

Another great recipe, I cant wait to tuck into our leftovers as I reckon it will be great reheated - plus it has also reminded me that I must pay a trip to Mishkins again soon!

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