Welcome to my annual recipe crush. Each February I
choose a theme, and provide one or two recipes each day for the whole month.
This year the theme is Weekly Menu Planning. What are the categories, you ask?
We have Sunday Special, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Worldly Wednesday,
Thrifty Thursday, Fishy Friday, and Celebrate Saturday.
There is a huge movement
around Meatless Monday. We’ve been doing it for years at my house. Partly
because it’s good for us, partly because those Meatless Monday Movement people
are in your face with delicious recipes on the Internet! Only kidding. But
recipes tagged “Meatless Monday” abound. And I click on them regularly. In
fact, I might be able to do a month of Meatless Monday recipes only. It would
be close. I included a bonus recipe at the end of DH’s rating to increase your
repertoire, too.
Meatless Mondays are one of
the ways that we can move toward healthier eating by adding in more plant-based
and alternate-protein meal options. Even going meatless one day a week can cut
your grocery bill and your girth. Win-Win, right?
It’s easy to do frittatas,
soups, and stir fry’s for this category. So feel free to add in your family’s
favorites on Meatless Mondays. Just learn some about making a complete protein
for your meal. Beans and rice make a complete protein. Beans and corn do, too.
Cheese with a grain is a complete protein. See what I mean? Whereas meat is
always a complete protein, for Meatless Mondays you need to find the
complementary proteins to make it complete. So do some reading.
For today’s first in the set
of Meatless Monday entrees, I present one of our family favorites, Mac and
Cheese.
What American mom has not,
at some point, resorted to making boxed mac and cheese”? I’m one, I’ll admit.
And maybe I resorted to The Box more than I should have. When I made homemade
macaroni and cheese, and my kindergartener said he wanted The Box because it
was “cheesier”, I determined to ditch the box forever. Powdered cheese is
cheesier? I knew I had to educate his sad little palate.
No one can say this isn’t
the cheesiest they’ve ever had. Your plate is a mess from the drippy strings of
cheese coming off the macaroni.
This recipe, however,
doesn’t require you to make a cheese sauce. It’s all made in one pan and fast.
The longest time is for cooking the pasta for 7 or 8 minutes. Throwing
everything else into the pot and stirring it together takes a couple of minutes
more. Dinner in fifteen minutes? Sign me up!
Easy Cheesy Mac and Cheese (serves 6-8)
1 pound of pasta (I used
shells but it could be any shape)
2 cups cheddar cheese,
shredded
1 ½ cups Monterey Jack
cheese, shredded
½ cup Asiago
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup half and half
Cook the pasta in heavily
salted water in a large pot according to the package’s al dente instructions.
Drain the cooked pasta and
return it to the pan over low heat.
Add cheeses, butter, and
half and half all at once. Stir well so the ingredients melt and blend
together. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn. This will take 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat and serve
with salt and pepper as desired. A lovely fruit or garden salad offsets the
heaviness of the cheeses.
NOTE: I find the mac and cheese salty enough both
from the pasta water and cheeses, but I add a lot of pepper.
DH’s Rating: 3 ½ Tongues Up
DH: “This is really
filling. I feel stuffed.” Me: “So your rating is based on how full you feel,
not the taste?” DH: “Right. It tastes great. I just don’t like feeling so full.”
Me: “Hmmm.”
Bonus Recipe: Brown Butter Pasta with Fried Sage
(serves 4-6)
This is a fast dinner! DH
loves it! A great alternative to marinara sauce.
1 pound pasta, any shape (I
used fresh mushroom ravioli)
1 and ½ sticks unsalted butter
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
¼ cup fresh sage, cut into ribbons
While pasta is cooking
according to package directions, heat butter over medium heat in a medium
skillet. Stir to melt butter in whole pan. Add brown sugar, salt and pepper.
Keep stirring.
Cook until the butter
mixture has a light caramel color with the solids at the bottom a slightly
darker color (10-15 minutes). Toss in sage and after bubbling stops, continue
to cook for another minute or two. Drain pasta and toss with the brown butter
sage mixture. Serve immediately.
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