Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Baked Macaroni & Cheese topped with shredded cheese and homemade toasted breadcrumbs

Pretty much every OC student does their grocery shopping at Walmart. It's not ideal for gourmet meals, but I have been trying my best. At Walmart, the cheapest brand is called "great value" some products still taste pretty great, others however, are disgusting. One unfortunate great value purchase I made was their 30 cent macaroni and cheese. I made it a few weeks ago and the cheese mix had the consistency of paste. I didn't want to waste the perfectly good noodles, so I saved them for this recipe idea.

The other day, I was watching Rachel Ray and learned how to make my own bread crumbs. for the past few weeks I have been saving the heels of various types of bread and freezing them, then when I was ready to use them I toasted them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 5-8 minutes and then let them cool a bit. Then I put them in a food processor to turn them into bread crumbs. (They are an important aspect of this recipe) I found this recipe on Foodnetwork.com. I did not use the onions or paprika, and I also used regular dijon mustard for the sauce and felt like it worked well.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon powdered mustard
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Fresh black pepper

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

Homemade Mini Toffee Cheese Cake

Making the batter and spooning it into the muffin tins

Finished product of the Mini Toffee Cheese Cakes, with a homemade graham cracker crust

I used the leftover batter and crust and laid it in a loaf pan to make a whole cheese cake, I used this pan because I don't own an actual cheese cake pan.

I got this recipe from food network.com and brought some of my own ideas into it. Instead of using peanut butter cups, I used some toffee chips I already had in my cupboard and some leftover brownie crumbs. I stirred these straight into the batter as opposed to placing a single mini peanut butter cup at the bottom of the muffin tin. I wanted chocolate in every bite:-)

Also, this is the first time I have ever made a graham cracker crust and it is so easy, there is really no reason to buy it pre-made (just another money saver idea)

Peanut Butter Cheese Cake Minis

Ingredients

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

4 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

12 bite-size peanut butter cups

Filling:

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or almond extract

2 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a paper cupcake liner in each cup of a standard muffin pan.

To make crust, in a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter until crumbs are moistened. Press crust into bottom of each muffin cup. Put 1 peanut butter cup into the center of each crust.

Beat cream cheese with a handheld electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar, flour, and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Spoon cream cheese mixture over peanut butter cups and graham cracker crusts. Bake until just set, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

I suggest putting these in the refrigerator about 10 minutes after they leave the oven, to quicken the cooling process. I also learned that once they have been refrigerated it is a lot easier to remove the baking cups from the cheese cakes.

Smoked Paprika Salmon

Baked Salmon with a smoked paprika and mayonnaise topping. sides include a brown rice and quinoa mix, carrot sticks and of course, applesauce

This meal was relatively easy, and Shane helped so it made it even easier. We started with one frozen salmon fillet and covered it in a thin layer of mayonnaise and sprinkled smoked paprika. Then we put it into the oven, on a cast iron pan for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F. We this fillet was thicker on one side than the other, so the thicker side did not cook all the way through. One way to fix this is to nuke it in the microwave for 1 minute (we learned this after eating it of course.) Microwaving it brings out the nice flaky texture. For the sides all we had to do was heat up the already made rice, slice the carrots and pour the applesauce. It was easy and delicious and only took about 30 minutes. I could send this idea to Rachel Ray and maybe get a few dollars... just kidding :-) Until next time.