As the mother of an eleven-month old, I have learned to compromise and that shortcuts are the only way dinner will get on the table...sometimes.
So here is my short list of short cuts:
Trader Joe's pizza dough from the fridge section (you let it rise, you roll it out, it looks homemade)
Stuffed Pork Chops from the butcher
Trader Joe's Pre-cooked Brown Rice from the freezer section, three packets to a box (nuke it in three minutes and viola)
Angel Food cake from the deli + frozen berries (thawed) + Vanilla Cool Whip (cut cake in half - diagonally, scoop out a trough around the bottom with a soup spoon, place berries in the track, replace top of cake, "frost" with Cool Whip stick in the fridge...
Showing posts with label quick and easy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quick and easy. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Macaroni and cheese for one
The stuff in the box is never as good as from-scratch baked macaroni and cheese, but from-scratch M&C is also a big time and dish hog and gives you a ton of leftovers. If you like toasty bread crumbs on top of your dish, the leftovers are also a letdown. Here's my take on single-shot mac and cheese:
Cook a generous handful of macaroni noodles in about three cups of boiling water. Just cook them until they are al dente.
Drain the noodles and dump them into your smallest baking dish. You might have a more suitable dish than you thought, just hanging around. For example, I have a pair of little springforms that would do.
Into the noodles, mix 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese. You may heat the milk, but if not, be sure to put the cheese in first to encourage more uniform melting. You will notice that this way of making "sauce" will not give you that super-thick result you'd get from real sauce, but this is a quick-and-easy way to go.
Grate a generous amount of black pepper and nutmeg over the dish, then top with bread crumbs. You could tear up one heel of an old loaf of white bread, for example, into little bits.
Bake the dish at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the dish is bubbly and the crumbs are crispy.
Allow to cool for a few minutes, then dig in.
Cook a generous handful of macaroni noodles in about three cups of boiling water. Just cook them until they are al dente.
Drain the noodles and dump them into your smallest baking dish. You might have a more suitable dish than you thought, just hanging around. For example, I have a pair of little springforms that would do.
Into the noodles, mix 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese. You may heat the milk, but if not, be sure to put the cheese in first to encourage more uniform melting. You will notice that this way of making "sauce" will not give you that super-thick result you'd get from real sauce, but this is a quick-and-easy way to go.
Grate a generous amount of black pepper and nutmeg over the dish, then top with bread crumbs. You could tear up one heel of an old loaf of white bread, for example, into little bits.
Bake the dish at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the dish is bubbly and the crumbs are crispy.
Allow to cool for a few minutes, then dig in.
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