Author: nk330

Recipes

Mediterranean Macaroni & Cheese

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I really like making casseroles. I feel like they have a bad rep sometimes… like the word ‘casserole’ means bland and yucky. So I am always on the hunt for delicious casseroles 1) to increase their popularity, and 2) to minimize dirty dishes (only one pan to clean after dinner)! The other reason I love anything that gets baked in the oven? It gives me time to wash all of my making-dinner dishes and utensils. Who doesn’t love a clean sink and counter tops before dinner?!

Active time: 10 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves: 6

coarse salt & ground pepper
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1/3 c. pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
1/2 t. dried oregano
8 oz. elbow macaroni
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 c. flour
2 c. whole milk
8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

I tossed in some cooked cubed chicken that I had in the fridge when I stirred in the feta cheese. You can add any cooked meat or canned tuna for added protein.

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Set a large pot of salted water to boil and grease an 8″ square baking dish. In a small bowl, combine tomatoes, olives, and oregano.
2. Cook pasta 2 minutes less than package instructions; drain pasta and return to pot. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium. Add garlic; cook until fragrant, 1 minute.
3. Add flour to garlic & butter and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Whisk in milk and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens, 3 minutes.

4. Remove milk mixture from heat; whisk in 4 ounces of feta. Stir in tomato mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Pour mixture over pasta; stir to combine. Pour pasta mixture into dish and top with 4 ounces of feta.
5. Bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese begins to brown, 20-25 minutes.
**Each serving has about 411 calories, 21 g fat, 14.5 g protein, 41 g carbohydrates, 1.5 g fiber**

Recipes

Baked Eggs & Tortillas in Creamy Tomato Sauce

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This recipe took us by surprise. There’s no meat in here, but there’s still plenty of protein in it to fill you up! We were pleasantly surprised by how filling it was, as well as how very tasty it is! It’s also one of my budget meals, coming in at roughly $1.85 per serving.

Active time: 20 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

2 T. vegetable oil
1 large white onion, diced small
coarse salt & ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 T. flour
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1/2 t. red-pepper flakes
1/2 c. (4 oz) half-and-half
8 flour tortillas, cut into 1/2-inch strips
8 large eggs
1/2 c. (2 oz) shredded cheddar

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30-45 seconds. Add flour and stir to coat. Pour in tomatoes, scraping up browned bits. Add red-pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Cook until tomato sauce is thickened and bubbling, 2-3 minutes. Stir in half-and-half and remove pan from heat.
2. Spread 1 cup tomato sauce in a 9×13-inch baking dish. Place tortilla strips in an even layer over sauce. Spread remaining sauce over tortillas. Break eggs over top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake until sauce is bubbling and egg whites are set, about 25 minutes.

Just a quick note: if your casserole comes out not looking like mine, that’s okay. I mixed up the layers on mine! I forgot to put that remaining layer of sauce on before the eggs, so I cooked the casserole until the eggs were nearly set, then put on the remaining sauce and sprinkled it with the cheese. Still tasted great. 🙂

**Each serving has about 492 calories, 26 g fat, 23 g protein, 46 g carbohydrates, 8 g fiber**

Daily living

First Day of “Winter”

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We have had a very mild winter here in our area of England. We got the occasional flurry of snow (once or twice), and we even got a dusting on our patio one morning!

Once in awhile there was a prediction of snow flurries, but if we got them during the night, they were gone by morning. They were getting snow back home (Wisconsin), and I was very jealous! Andrew is not a fan of snow. Snow = cold. And slippery roads. But I adore snow. When there’s no snow, winter just seems depressing. A nice blanket of white snow everywhere makes winter pretty. Plus I love bundling up in scarves and gloves!

Well, it finally happened. After a snow-less January, we got a prediction for snow again this past weekend (first weekend in February). I was skeptical. Then I looked at a more extensive weather forecast for our area, and saw that 13 cm was predicted. I looked it up…that’s about 5 inches. I was practically jumping for joy!

We were dog-sitting for friends of ours that weekend, so I actually did have a reason to look outside every few hours. We were getting very light flurries by 7pm, and then when I took the dog out again around 10pm we had this:

When we went to bed, we had about 3-1/2 inches! I only knew this because we had a measuring tape in the utility room right next to the back door. 🙂 Very handy when you traipse out in the snow in your pajamas to measure snowfall! Takoda, the dog we were watching, likes to go outside and then have breakfast around 6am, and by then the snow was done falling. But we had a whopping 5 inches covering the ground!

It was perfect snowman-making snow: wet and packable! No, I didn’t go out and make a snowman, but I did make a few snowballs (with my bare hands, brr!) to toss to Takoda (she wasn’t interested). And our yard looked absolutely beautiful with snow!

Since it was a Sunday, it was a pretty lazy day for us. We were hoping to have friends over for dinner, but the roads weren’t well plowed, especially by us out in the country. They didn’t get our road plowed until Monday afternoon! I did a lot of crocheting, Andrew did computer research online (he desperately wants to improve my old desktop from 2003…), and Takoda snoozed between coming by us for attention.

By now, a lot of our snow has melted, but I’m really hopeful for another snowfall or two before spring. At least I finally got my first day of “winter” weather in England!