Recipe Day. .. .

The smoked meatloaf was good, I do not think I seasoned it enough though, it was a little bland.  Next time I will go  a little heavier on the seasonings, I was afraid I would over season.  The boys do not eat my meatloaf so more for the hubbs and I.   We have a pork shoulder for the weekend, I will have to let you know how that one goes. 
I took some mac and cheese to my sister's for Christmas, I tried a new recipe and when I went to buy my macaroni they did not have any left.  There must have been an awful lot of mac and cheese around the tables for Christmas this year.  I am curious to know how many of my readers served the old faithful carb delight this year?  Along with my new recipe I used a different pasta with it.  I used a small penne pasta, I though it was good, the hubbs complained because it was not the traditional elbows.  I always can adapt and overcome when it comes to my recipes. 
Adjusted Mac and Cheese:

1 box of pasta (elbows, mini penne, )
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk (suggest whole but I used 2%)
1 cup heavy cream
1 block shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 Parmesan cheese
smoked paprika

Boil your pasta one minute shy of being done, drain and drizzle with olive oil to coat and set aside,  grease your baking dish and pre heat oven to 350, ( I never preheat) melt your butter in a deep sauce pan, whisk in your flour making a rue, it should be bubbly and golden, gradually add milk and cream whisking so as not to lump your flour mixture, continue whisking once all incorporated add your shredded cheese a little at a time and whisk till smooth.  Save about 2 cups of cheese to top your dish. When your sauce is nice and thick stir in your pasta and coat. 
Pour into your casserole dish and sprinkle bread crumbs and extra cheese this is where I added the Parmesan cheese, I did not do the bread crumbs for mine.  I sprinkled some paprika over the top and baked 30 minutes. 
This was really good. 

Stay tuned the hubbs has a whole lot of smoking recipes to try and we will share our successes and failures.  So far I give this one 2 thumbs up. 

New Recipe. . . . It's a Winner!

I tried one of my new recipes over the weekend, Mexican casserole, it was a big hit with the hubbs.  I used a recipe off of Pinterest but I tweaked it and made it my own.  I always like to tweak recipes to fit my taste and of course fit what I have in my cabinets.  No sense making extra trips to the grocery store.  This recipe is quite versatile and could be a dip, casserole or even used as a filling in an enchilada.  I have some left overs so I think I may try the enchilada option for work this next week.
Here is what I used to make Mexican Casserole:
2 cans black beans
1 can Mexican corn
1 can sweet yellow corn
1 cup rice (I used basamati brown rice) cooked
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 can enchilada sauce
1 lime juiced and zested
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 small sweet orange peppers chopped
2 sweet red peppers chopped
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped
1/2 block cream cheese,
3 tsp cumin
1 tsp caynne
2tbsp cilantro

cheese and sour cream to serve

Put olive oil in bottom of dutch oven and saute garlic, then add peppers and saute,  6 minutes then add corn and black beans, rotel tomatoes, enchilada sauce, and stir and cook on medium 10-15 minutes, add your seasonings, rice and lime juice, then add your cream cheese and cover.   I add my lime zest last stir and serve with cheese sour cream and chips or use it for enchilada filling.

This is the middle of the process of cooking this casserole 

This is the end result and it was yummy

We will have this again. 

Another New Cook Book. . .. .

A friend of mine at work shared a cook book with me that she had recently purchased, 100 days of Real Food, by Lisa Leake.  I skimmed through it one night at work in between phone calls and I was intrigued.  You know I am always interested in a good cook book, especially one that has quick simple recipes, the bonus here is that they are also better for you recipes.
When you are working and trying to take care of your family you look for quick ideas to help you along, this is one of those resources. **** Full disclosure I am not being paid for this post, you all should know by now I post what I believe in and share things that I find have value. *****
There are a couple folks at work that are trying to keep everyone motivated with little tasks and helpful hints.  One is walking laps at the office when we are not taking calls to keep our energy up and our metabolism too.  Another couple of gals have created this great board to help keep us motivated and entertained with shout outs to other employees and little funny memes about talking on the phone all the time.  It is a big stress reliever and morale booster in my opinion.
So, with all of that said, my friend at work shared her cook book and I of course loved it.  I bought one of them on Amazon and have been reading it. 
The premise behind the book is to eat real food and cut out all the processed stuff that is available at the store these days.  It also hits home the amount of sugar that we consume on a daily basis.  She even tells what you can get at the different stores that are good choices for eating "real food."  I am off today and had to run some errands and decided I would go by the Whole Foods and pick up a few things suggested in my new book.  I do not normally shop at Whole Foods but I wanted some things that the book suggested that only Whole Food carry.  I am notorious for buying things not on my list and today was no different, we are having Salmon for dinner tonight with fresh dill, lemon, and butter.  I fixed my lunch today with suggestions from the book:   scrambled eggs, avocado, on a small whole wheat pita.  It was very filling and very good. 
Stay tuned, this is going to be an adventure for this crew.  Trying to cut back on eating out, eating more "real food," and cutting back on the soda (me).  This is not about calories it is about "real food."