Velveeta Mac and Cheese

For some reason when I was at Co-op the other day, I just HAD to buy some velveeta cheese. Now in the past, the thought of velveeta cheese has kinda grossed me out and I would much prefer the real cheese version vs the processed kind. However, I don't try and understand my pregnancy whims, I just try and deal with them! So since it was on sale, I decided to buy it, not having a clue what I'd do with it. Since lately people have been tempting me with mac and cheese, and I needed some good comfort food, I found a recipe for mac and cheese using velveeta. It actually turned out quite creamy and delicious, I must say. I got the recipe off of the kraft website and here is the link to Velveeta Down Home Mac and Cheese.

Lunch With Holly!

So my new friend Holly from work and I have been trying to get together for a while, but usually something comes up. Finally we had a day that both of us were off and not busy, so we decided a lunch date was in order. We were planning on going out until I called her this morning with a plan to cook lunch together, using these fantastic new recipes I had found. I don't know if she was pro on everything at the get go, but she was a trooper and agreed to my crazy menu! For an appetizer we had Brazilian Cheese Bread, for a soup we had Asian Egg Drop Soup, and for the main course we had Tomato Pie! It is quite a random combination, yes, but it really turned out amazing and we had fun making it! Thanks for coming over Holly! Read on for the recipes and pictures of everything we ate!

Tomato Pie

Okay, I had never heard of tomato pie before last night, but I love everything tomato so I thought I'd give it a try. Besides the fact that I love tomatoes, it has ooey gooey cheese on top, and really who could turn that down! Holly was also pro on the tomato pie, albeit a little unsure of the mayo used in the cheese mixture on top, but it ended up turning out great! We use bought pie shells, quickly tossed them in the oven for 10 minutes to cook first, then piled fried onions, fresh garden tomatoes with the juice/seeds removed, sprinkled fresh chopped basil from Holly's garden on top of that and finished with a mayo and cheese mixture that had a shot of tobasco mixed in and voila! Delicious ooey gooey cheesey goodness! The link to the recipe from the SimplyRecipes website : Tomato Pie

This pic is right before the cheese/mayo mixture was dished on top.

You have to let it sit for a few minutes after taking it out of the oven, as it won't stay together the greatest when you serve it piping hot, but it still tastes good either way!

We used smoked gouda and a kraft four cheese blend, plus a bit of feta, so it was smoky, tangy, and delicious! I will definitely make this again!

Egg Drop Soup

The soup course for our meal was the easiest and quickest soup I've ever made. I found this recipe last night and couldn't believe how easy it sounds. And using ingredients that I have on hand makes it super economical and did I mention how quick it was? Egg drop soup is just as it sounds, soup that you drop eggs into, which makes it look like thin little ribbons in the soup.

It tastes distinctly Asian with the soy sauce, but it is msg and gluten free. All you need is soya sauce, chicken stock, green onions, ginger, eggs, cornstarch, and the recipe calls for mushrooms, but I conveniently left them out as I don't care for them! Seriously, this was ready in 10 minutes including prep time!

The link to the recipe direct from the SimplyRecipes website: Egg Drop Soup

Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread

So I found this recipe on SimplyRecipes.com, which is my new favorite food blog to follow. You whir up all the ingredients in a blender and pour it into your mini-muffin tin, which sounded super appealing and easy, right? Well, it would have been had we been able to find tapioca flour. Holly and I went to a couple different places looking for this type of flour and found every other type of flour under the sun, except tapioca flour. We were considering trying potato flour, but seeing as we hadn't made this before, we wanted to stick to the recipe. So we ended up using minute tapioca, as it said it could be used as a thickening agent instead of flour, cornstarch, etc. However, we ended up doubling the recipe by accident as the conversion we were using was a bit confusing. But needless to say, thank goodness we did because the original 16 tarts it would have made simply wouldn't have been enough!

Here is the direct link to simplyrecipes.com for: Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread

Our "dough" turned out a lot thicker than that in the recipe, due to the fact that we didn't have tapioca flour, per sei. So we had to spoon it into the cups instead of pouring.

The recipe calls for queso fresco, which is a Mexican fresh cheese, however, we don't have access to that so we used feta and they tasted delicious! (Although we could cut back a bit on the salt next time, due to the saltiness of feta already). The inside was a bit chewy/doughy like the recipe said it would, and it was really a nice texture.

We ate these as an appetizer, then with our soup, and then Holly also had the excellent idea of spreading jam on top and so we had them as dessert too! They tasted the best once they had cooled a bit, but they recommend eating them warm on the recipe.

Judy's Black Bean and Corn Casserole

With this whole pregnancy thing, my taste buds have gone through a whirlwind of flavor changes. For example, I now like fried onions on burgers, hot dogs, perogies, or anything else that it can be put on. This may not seem strange to some of you, but my parents (before they knew I was pregnant) seriously thought I was ill when I ordered a rink burger with onions. I'm also really needing strong vinegar things to actually taste any kind of tartness - for example when I'm putting mustard on my hot dog, I need to give my hot dog a bath in it so that it's dripping out of the bun. Otherwise, I don't taste it at all. Also, I've stopped being able to detect the strong smell of 'cream corn' after a stem cell transplant at work - it's a glaringly obvious smell that even just by walking by a patients room, you can smell it without a doubt. Now? a subtle smell if I really really look for it.

So imagine my surprise when all my life I've stayed away from anything spicy, only to find out that I can't taste the spicyness anymore, just the delicious flavour of the food! My husband's a fan of spicy food, so mom saved some of her leftover casserole for him to try (as she wouldn't think of making it when I come home since I can't eat it). Well he hardly had two bites of it as he wanted me to try it and I scarfed it down! Mom was shocked! (so was I to be honest), but alas, a new casserole recipe for you guys! My mom threw a little of this and a little of that together one day and it came out great! I've already made it and doubled the recipe so we could enjoy it for a few days!

Judy's Black Bean and Corn Casserole

1/2-3/4 lb ground beef

1 can of corn

1 can of black beans, strained

1 taco seasoning packet

1 tbsp chille powder

salt & pepper

garlic (powder or the real deal - as much as you want)

1 small jar salsa

1 prepared box of Kraft Dinner

1 cup grated cheese

Fry up your ground beef with some chopped onion, then strain and rinse to drain some fat. Return to large skillet and add corn, black beans, all the seasonings, and salsa. Add your prepared box of kraft dinner (with cheese stirred into cooked noodles already) to your beef mixture and mix together. Pour into a casserole dish or roaster and top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until cheese melts and you're too hungry to wait any longer.

When I doubled the recipe, I used 1.5 lbs ground beef and two boxes of KD and two cups grated cheese on top and 2 tbsp chile powder. Otherwise, I kept the liquid from the corn and added about 1/2 cup of water to rinse out the salsa jar. Myself, I would probably only use half a taco seasoning package if I wasn't doubling the recipe, but that's just my personal taste. Enjoy!