Cooking from your Pantry – Real Macaroni and Cheese

You’ve just gotten in the door from work, and you’re starving. You look in to your sad, empty refrigerator and realize you desperately need to pick up some groceries. But what’s that?  You have cheese, milk and butter?  Some flour and short pasta too?  Even a stale piece of bread to make bread crumbs?  Never fear and stop reaching for that take out menu! You have in your empty pantry the very ingredients you need to make a DELICIOUS dinner, one that you’ll find yourself craving, even when your fridge and pantry are full. You’re going to make yourself some delightful macaroni and cheese!

Now, not only are you saving money by using what you have in your kitchen and not ordering in; you’re also eating vegetarian, which in and of itself can also save you money as protein is usually the most expensive part of any meal. The best thing about this dish, for you carnivores out there, is that it is so rich and satisfying that you probably won’t even realize there isn’t any meat on your plate.

I think this is the first dish that I learned to make from scratch, when I was probably 11 or 12. Since then, I’ve made it so many times I no longer need to look at the recipe.  Its simple, its easy, its tasty, it makes wonderful leftovers, it freezes well, and its inexpensive to make. What more could you ask for in a recipe?

Macaroni and Cheese – from Scratch

3c. your choice of short pasta (macaroni, penne, fusili, gemeli, whatevery you have)

2c. grated cheddar cheese, or whatever you have in your fridge

2c. milk

3tbsp. margarine or butter

3tbsp. white, all purpose flour

½ c. bread crumbs (take that stale piece of bread and buzz it up in your food processor or blender) OPTIONAL

• Preheat your oven to 400F.
• Put a pot with lots of water on to boil to cook your pasta.
• Once you’ve got your pasta in cooking heat a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add the butter, and melt it down being careful not to let it burn.
• Once the butter is melted, whisk or stir in your flour until a paste forms. Let this cook for a minute or two. This is a roux, and will thicken your sauce.
• Slowly whisk in the milk. Be sure to keep the sauce moving so the milk doesn’t burn. This should thicken up. If it doesn’t, add a little more flour.
• Once the sauce has thickened a bit, add 2 c. of the grated cheese and stir until melted through. Remove from the heat.
• When the pasta is done cooking, drain it and mix it in with the completed cheese sauce. Mix it well, you want it to get into all of the nooks and crannies of your pasta. Trust me.
• Pour this into a 9x13” casserole and top with remaining cheese and bread crumbs if you wish.
• Bake until sizzling, and cheese on top is melted. About 20 minutes.
• This can easily be prepared ahead and stored in the fridge, or even frozen. Just wrap it up before you bake it, and once you're ready to have it add between 10-20 minutes of baking time.

Notes on Cheese Choice:

Use up whatever you have in your fridge. The taste will vary depending on what you use, but I find that my most successful Macaroni’s are often those for which I use a mix of odds and ends of cheese. The last one I made was with a mix of gouda, mozzarella and old cheddar and it was great! I would probably stay away from types like feta because they don’t melt well. If you only have a block of plain old cheddar, well that’s really good too.

Notes on Pasta:

My favourite pasta to use for this is fusili. There is something about the way the cheese sauce gets into all of the crevices of the pasta that I find really pleasing. Really, any short pasta will work. A short pasta is just that, a short cut pasta that often has a hole in it, or rough edges to catch sauce. These include macaroni elbows, penne, ziti, fusili, rotini, gemelli, cavatapi, etc. My mom usually uses traditional elbows. Use what you have or what you prefer. It doesn’t affect the taste. The only type I wouldn't use is shells, because they all stick together and I don't like them.

This is a tasty yet inexpensive way to feed a crowd.   Always buy your pasta on sale, whether you use whole wheat, or normal, watch the flyers and every other week or so, one or the other is on sale. This past week I picked up a package of macaroni for only $1.  Bricks of cheese also are often on sale, usually once or twice a month Kraft or Cracker Barrell will be on sale for $5.  You only use ½ a brick for a macaroni, and would only use about ½ the bag of macaroni. If you get these key items on sale, then a large pan of macaroni will only run you between $5 and $7 and it can easily feed about 6 people, or even 8 if you’re serving a salad too. Or, it will feed 2 for one dinner, and two to three week-day lunches.

Chicken Soup for the Cold (both the temperature and the illness...)

It’s Wednesday, and we’re halfway through the work week. While it’s a mere -10C in our nations capital today, it was a bone chilling -38C (including the ever-present wind-chill) on Monday morning when I left the house for work. Between Monday and now, I’ve managed to pick up a cold. This is just one in an endless number of minor illnesses from this cold and flu season, and I’m tired of it.  There is only one answer:

Cold Temperature + Cold the illness = One need for Chicken Soup

So, taking the advice of my Mom (eat more garlic), and my Aunt Karen (eat chicken soup) to heart, I whipped up a batch of Chicken  soup last night.  This recipe contains a rediculous amount of ginger and garlic, but that’s because I’m hoping to scare this cold away. If you’re healthy, feel free to tone down the garlic and ginger.

Chicken Rice Soup

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 carrots (one washed and cut in to 1” pieces, one peeled and sliced)

2 ribs of celery (one washed and cut into 1” pieces, one washed and sliced)

2 small onions (one quartered, one diced)

2 inch piece of ginger (cut into 8 pieces)

6 cloves of garlic (3 cut in half, 3 diced)

2 bay leaves

¼ tsp. red chilli flakes

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 puck, Knorr Homestyle chicken stock

6 cups of water

1 c. rice (I used a combination of wild rice, white rice and brown rice)

First you make a broth:

• In a large sauce pot put 3c. of water, the 1” pieces of carrot and celery, the ginger, the halved cloves of garlic, the bay leaves, the chilli flakes, the soy sauce and the chicken on to boil. This will both poach the chicken for the soup, and create a yummy broth. Leave this to simmer until the chicken is cooked through, between 20 and 30 minutes for a thawed piece of chicken, and 30-40 minutes for a frozen piece of chicken.
• When the chicken is cooked (use a meat thermometer to check, it should read 180F), set it aside to cool and strain the vegetables, bay leaves, ginger and garlic from the broth.

Interesting Food Trivia:  Sometimes the terms stock and broth are used interchangeably. However, there is a difference between the two. Stock, is made using bones, like when you roast and boil the turkey carcass after Christmas to make turkey soup. Broth is made by poaching a meat, in this case chicken, to create soup.

To make the soup:

• Add the remaining 3 cups of water to the broth and heat to a boil. Throw in your sliced and diced veggies, and the remaining garlic. Add in your rice, and the stock puck as well. Turn the heat down, and let simmer for 20-30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, tear your chicken into bite sized pieces.
• Add the chicken in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

This recipe makes enough for about 5 medium bowls of soup. Hopefully it doesn’t take that many to make my cold go away, but if it does, at least it tastes better than cough syrup!

Happy New Year! A new year, and a new start!

Happy New Year everyone!  Here we are 4 days in, and its shaping up to be a good year.

I'm taking advantage of this time of the year to press the reset button on my blog. I apologize for the long absence, but this fall flew by, and was side tracked with the sinus infection that wouldn't end, and my dad (my most dedicated reader) had a heart attack which, no need to say, occupied my mind and thoughts for some time.  The sinus infection is gone, and I'm happy to say that after 9 weeks of rest and relaxation my Dad is back to work today, much healthier than he was before.

His heart attack was a wake-up call for my family that we need to be taking better care of ourselves. Healthy food is a great place to start.  With that in mind, and with an end to holiday leftovers in sight, I'm back to cooking from scratch in my kitchen.

Here's a quick recipe for a hearty soup, great to whip up on a Sunday to have for lunch all week. Sorry no pictures this time, but rest assured its a lovely orangy colour and is delcious to boot!

A note on lentils:  There are many types of lentils, I've chosen red because I think they're pretty. This soup would work equally well with other types.  Lentils are well priced (a bag of dried lentils, enough for many pots of soup, will run you maybe $3), high fibre and very filling. They're a great way to round out a meal or a soup.

Curried Red Lentil Soup
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 celery stalk, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1c. red lentils, rinsed and sorted**
4c. water
1 tsp. each cinnamon, cumin, curry powder
1 bay leaf
3/4 c. crushed tomatoes or  leftover marinara sauce
Canola oil (or whatever mild tasting oil you might have)
Low Fat Greek Yogourt
Lime, cut in to wedges

**make sure you rinse them to get the dust off, and have a peek through to make sure there are no stones or miscoloured lentils)

1. Saute in a large pot, the carrot, onion, celery and ginger until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add in spices, and bay leaf. Saute an additional 2-3 minutes.
3. Add in tomatoes, lentils and water. Mix well.
4. Simmer for 45-50 minutes. This will look more like a stew than a soup.
5. Serve with a dolop of greek yogourt and a squeeze of lime.

There you go, a heart healthy, delicious recipe, ready to fill your lunch bag in just under an hour!