Chili Macaroni

We have had an inexplicable bout of cool weather lately.  Yesterday (July 29th!) our high temperature was 68 degrees.  It has been unbelievable and totally awesome!  I have to remind myself that it isn't fall and we are going to see 90 degrees again this week.

Since it's not actually fall, it's not really chili season.  This is the season where I like something I can throw together quickly, and stove top recipes fit the bill.  But thanks to this chili macaroni recipe, I can enjoy the flavors of chili (tomatoes, beans, spices, oh my!) without waiting for hours, and without a ending up with a hot bowl of soup.  Chili, meet summer.  I think you guys are going to like each other!

Easy Macaroni & Cheese

Until last winter, I had never made macaroni and cheese from scratch.  I have always loved boxed macaroni and cheese.  And when I say I love boxed macaroni and cheese, I mean that I could probably eat it every day.  That's how much I love boxed macaroni and cheese.  And not only is it scrumptious, it takes almost not time to make, and it is cheap!  So why would I bother to take the time to make macaroni and cheese from scratch?  

Well, after seeing several awesome looking recipes online, curiosity finally got the best of me and I gave homemade macaroni a shot.  I guess it was just another step in my journey to start making real food!  The first two macaroni recipes I made were both makeover recipes.  And they are both quite tasty, if I don't say so myself.  But unlike my secret ingredient baked mac & cheese and my stovetop guacamole mac & cheese, the stand out feature of my latest elbow pasta adventure is simplicity.  Macaroni and cheese from scratch is fairly easy, but making it usually involves preparing a cheese sauce, and therefore is a little more time consuming then stirring a package of space cheese into cooked noodles, milk, and butter.  But hold onto your hats, folks.  I am about to introduce you to a homemade macaroni and cheese recipe that doesn't require making a cheese sauce!

Makeover Monday: Stovetop Guacamole Mac & Cheese

This isn't my first makeover mac & cheese recipe.  Back in February I shared my recipe for secret ingredient baked mac & cheese, which substituted pumpkin for part of the cheese sauce.  I have made this sneaky dish several times, and it has been quickly devoured each time.  But now it's time for something a little more seasonally appropriate.  As much as I love mac & cheese, I'm not about to turn on the oven just to make a batch when it's 100 degrees outside.  Stovetop recipes to the rescue! 

Avocados are in season right now, which means they are on sale.  I really try, but I just can't keep myself from buying them by the bagful.  They are just so good!  And while I love guacamole and tortillas chips, after a while I was ready to try something else with my avocadoes.  Then I remembered that I had saved this recipe for stovetop guacamole mac & cheese.  This recipe uses guacamole for part of its creaminess, and a pepperjack cheese sauce for the rest.  And it is easily prepared on the stove.  It was the solution to all my problems!

Makeover Monday: Secret Ingredient Baked Mac & Cheese

Raise your hand if you like mac & cheese.  Keep your hand raised if you would like it more if it had less fat and fewer calories, but still tasted great.  I'm imagining everyone reading this still has their hands raised.  If your hand is in the air, keep on reading.  And you can put your hand down now.

This is a casserole-like mac & cheese.  It consists of cooked elbow noodles in a homemade cheese sauce, with a secret ingredient that gives it creaminess without fat, and is topped with buttery Ritz crackers.  To be totally honest, I didn't think this recipe was amazing.  While I think most foods are better made from scratch, when it comes to mac & cheese, I've got the blue box blues.  I love Kraft macaroni and cheese!  

But I made this baked mac & cheese for my husband and a friend of his and they absolutely loved it.  I think the only thing that prevented them from polishing off the whole pan in one sitting was fear of their intestines exploding.  I didn't say anything about my secret ingredient.  I just sat, watched, and grinned as they gobbled it up.  Some things are better left unsaid.