Mug Mac and Cheese

I love mug recipes!!!

My lazy teenage sons won't make themselves a real meal.  I have to spell it out for them.  So if I have the stuff, ready to go for them, or a recipe for a mug meal hanging up on the fridge, they will make it.  It's healthier than the box versions. 

Mug Mac and Cheese

1/3 cup macaroni pasta

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup  milk

small pat of butter

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Optional: peppers, broccoli, spinach, etc etc..whatdayalike?

Put the pasta and water in a mug...some water will overflow as it cooks, or you can put it in a bigger mug or  bowl so that this doesn't happen.  My mugs are BIG, because we drink giant cups of coffee in this house. 

Microwave for 2 mins, stir, and microwave again @ 1 minute intervals until the pasta is cooked. this could take about 3-5 minutes, depending on your microwave. Mine is done in about 4.

Then add milk, butter and cheese and nuke it another 30-60 seconds in the microwave until melted and heated through.

 If you like other stuff in your mac and cheese, go for it. I like jalapenos in mine...so I dice it up and throw it during the last minute of cooking the pasta and water. 

Also this could be just nuked and made into buttered noodles. Add broccoli to make it a bit healthy, really, anything you like in your pasta can go into this.  

Stretching Tacos for Surprise Company

Well, its been ages...I HAVE been cooking, but I am such a slacker when it comes to the technical side of the job here.  Fire me.  We have been busy, remodeling the house, and YES!, we are actually getting things done!  It wasn't planned but we redid our already redone living room.  I needed a change again.  ADD sets in fast with me.

I will try my best to post once a week at least...have I said this before?  LOL  Friends who follow my blog ask me why I have not posted. So even if its short and sweet, I will try my best to shout out a tip or maybe even a question some of you can answer for me.  PS  Follow me on facebook, because I post there a little more often with little things I find that are neat, but haven't tried yet. The link is at the top, but I will place it right here → Follow me on facebook 

I have been making my tacos with ground turkey burger and ground sausage...I love ground sausage and put it in everything now a days..I just don't care much for  ground beef, unless I grind it from a good cut of meat which I don't have much time for some days, so I keep these ground meats in the freezer for such times I need to whip up dinner fast

Anyway, here is a quick tip for feeding a crowd....Throw in some corn and black beans...I never know how many are coming for dinner..my teenage boys bring home strays constantly, so I have to find ways to stretch our meals out to feed everyone.  You will want to use extra spices, so the tacos don't get bland.
Here is my go to taco spice mix.
You decide how much you want to use, doubling or tripling, depending on the batch size you are making..This is for one pound of meat..

Magic Taco Spice:

• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons hot smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 
  

Happy Fairy Day!

I may have posted this years ago, but for those with little girls, or even teenage gals...and how about us gals who never grew up....here is a cute easy craft, that gives you professional looking fairy wings.  The sky is the limit. The more you embellish, the better the wings. 

I just love this gal.

Pineapple Pulled Pork Sammiches (pressure cooker)

Pineapple Pulled Pork Sammiches (pressure cooker) 

We LOVE the mango pulled pork and I was out of the mango so I decided to try something new, with what I had on hand.  Those of you who have made my recipes know, I don't follow recipes and I don't measure..so I am giving you what I used and about how much I eyed it up to be. 

My family LOVED it!  Its our new fav way to eat pulled pork.  Go ahead and make it your own...change up the ingredients or amount of ingredients and enjoy.  ♥

It's amazing what you can do with the staples in your kitchen when you are making a favorite recipe and realize you don't have everything you need.  

What could be better than 10 mins prep time for a meal that tastes like you cooked all day. 

Toss the following into the pressure cooker

1 C ketchup
1/3 C Cider Vinegar
1/2 C packed brown sugar (more or less I am a sugar junkie)
handful of paprika
1 T red pepper flakes (this did not make it spicy so if you want some kick, add more)
4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper
4 T dried minced garlic
1 twenty ounce can pineapple (cubed or crushed, whatever you like) see update at bottom of page
1 cup pineapple juice or pineapple nectar
1/2 cup molasses
3 lb pork butt (shoulder)  Any size is good. Mine was frozen, that's the magic of the pressure cooker

Roll it over in the sauce, and shut the lid

Cook for 75 mins (probably would be done in 60 but I wasn't playing around.
Pull apart with a fork...this will far apart with no effort.

I think this is my new favorite barbq sauce.  I am definitely going to use this on chicken on the grill too.

Update:  I no longer used canned products..we buy pineapple every week in this house for an on demand homemade fruit salad, so I just toss in a cup or two of fresh pineapple cubes and hit the vitamix button on.

Meal Planning

Well my kids are asleep yet and its nearly noon, and I want to plan our meals for the week. I need to paint a chalkboard inside one of my cabinets so they can write in it foods they want so I know when I am making my list. I can't wait around, so I guess I won't get much input from them for the week..luckily they aren't picky eaters and will eat just about anything, but I was hoping for some ideas.

I love www.cozi.com for meal planning because its also a smartphone app. So my calendar, shopping list etc is always with me and I can also set up reminders to be texted to my family for things like Dr appointments, family meals (we have to have some mandatory meals together or we'd never sit down together).  The kids get a little bit annoyed with the texts they get, but whatever.  I am the  mom!


You can type it up on your phone or online on cozi.com on your acct and it will synch to your phone..as you shop, you can check off what you bought and you can have multiple lists...Grocery, Sams, BJ's, Home Depot, Target...and keep a running list for that time you stop in and say..I know I needed something here.
There are also to do lists. Best of all...IT"S FREE!!!  I don't get pop up ads or anything annoying either.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I saw a recipe on pinterest for an oreo cheesecake cupcake but I wasn't real keen on the way they made their cheesecake filling. I am more of a Hollywood Cheesecake gal, not so much into the dryer Philly style cheese cake. So...I tweaked it to use my cheesecake recipe, as I like the sour cream mixture baked on top of the filling, not mixed in with the cream cheese.  Makes for a moister cheesecake in my opinion.  They are divine!  Hub and I didn't wait the four hours. We couldn't hold off longer than two.  So yummy.

I will post a pic of them later.  Trust me on this one.

Place 30 oreos in 30 foil lined cupcake liners..in cupcake tins. Use the foil lined, as these are super moist and will "soggify" the paper if not.  Heat oven to 275°F

Mix:
2 -8oz packages of cream cheese (room temp)
½ cup sugar
½ tsp almond extract
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Beat until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl halfway through beating.

add in:
2 egg yolks and beat until smooth (keep the whites)
Beat the whites until stiffly beaten
fold in stiffly beaten egg whites

Scoop this mixture over the oreos and bake for about 15 mins.


While they are in the oven, in a mixing bowl mix:
2 containers (1lb each) sour cream
6 T sugar
2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
Put this into a gallon ziploc bag to make it easy on yourself. You CAN just spread it on with a knife in a pinch. 

Pull the cupcakes out of the 275° oven, spread a generous portion of the sour cream on top. (or using the ziploc bag, cut corner off and use it as a pastry bag to pipe it on)   Bake another 15-17 minutes until the cheesecake is done.
Chill 4 hours

My boys loved them, asked me to make them everyday.

Mug Brownie! Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae in minutes!

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While I am playing with mugs and mixes...

Same Concept..

1 package of angel food cake mix

1 package of brownie mix

Mix together and put it a jar, the two mixes

To make brownie : 

In a mug, mix

 3 T powder mix

2-2.5 T water

Nuke for 1 min.

It's done! 

While its hot, add chocolate or caramel syrup, and some nuts if you like...whipped cream and a cherry!  

If your out of whipped cream, pour a bit of milk onto it.