Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese

Recipe from How Sweet It Is, aka the blog where dreams are made.

I saw this recipe last week, and thought, "Holy CRAP, that would make an incredible 'bad' meal!". Friday night, LeGreg and I were figuring out dinner and we brought it up. NO! We were going to be HEALTHY! And, we were. He said that we should save that mac and cheese for some night that involved steak and wine.

The very next morning, my parents invite us over for dinner. Dad is bbq-ing steak. Both of our heads whipped towards each other.

THIS IS HAPPENING.

I got all the cheeses for this from Trader Joes, which wasn't too pricey. Each little triangle was the exact right amount we needed, which was perfect.

THIS

WAS

PHENOMENAL.

ingredients:

1 pound whole wheat mini elbow noodles
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups milk
8 ounces fontina cheese, freshly grated
8 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
8 ounces buttermilk blue cheese, crumbled
salt + pepper
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup seasoned fine bread crumbs
chopped fresh herbs for topping

directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray.

Bring water to a boil and prepare pasta according to directions, shaving 1-2 minutes off of the cooking time.

While pasta is boiling, heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once sizzling, add flour and whisk constantly to create a roux (FANCY), until golden and bubbly, about 2 minutes. Pour in milk and whisk constantly, stirring until the mixture slightly thickens. Reduce heat to low and add in 6 ounces of the fontina, all of the gorgonzola and about 6 ounces of the other blue. Stir until cheese melts and sauce is thick (I mean...it never got REALLY thick. We probably did this for 20 mins, before giving up. It thickened a LITTLE, but not a lot.). Taste and season with a bit of salt and pepper if desired (I didnt add either).

Add noodles to the baking dish. Pour cheese sauce over top, tossing to coat all the noodles. Sprinkle remaining fontina and blue over top evenly, then cover in breadcrumbs (I just used regular bread crumbs, and added a pinch each of dried oregano and parsley). Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until top is golden and crunchy.

This was absolutely killer. 

It wasn't super saucy, but the flavor was incredible, IF YOU LIKE BLUE CHEESE. If you don't, bugger off. This is not for you.

Baked Oatmeal

Source

I whipped up this baked oatmeal this morning. It was super easy and made our apartment smell like CHURROS. Heaven.

I tweaked the recipe just a touch, based on what I had on hand.

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup pecan pieces, toasted and chopped (I bought a bag of chopped and toated pecans from trader Joes)

1/4 natural cane sugar or maple syrup, plus more for serving (could use less)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups almond milk

1 large egg

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas, cut into 1/2-inch/1 cm pieces

Preheat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the top third of the oven. Generously butter the inside of an 8-inch square baking dish.

In a bowl, mix together the oats, half the pecans, the sugar, if using, the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the the milk, egg, and the vanilla.

Arrange the bananas in a single layer in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Cover the fruit with the oat mixture. Slowly drizzle the milk mixture over the oats. Gently give the baking dish a couple thwacks on the countertop to make sure the milk moves through the oats. Scatter the remaining pecans across the top.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is nicely golden and the oat mixture has set. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Sprinkle with a bit more sugar or drizzle with maple syrup if you want it a bit sweeter.

My tweaks: I used almond milk instead of regular milk. The original recipe called for butter, which I didnt have, so I left it out. Didn't miss it. I used pecans instead of walnuts, cut back the sugar (could have cut it back even more). I used the 1/2 tsp of salt the recipe called for, but it tasted like too much. I would half it next time, to the 1/4 tsp mentioned above. 

Overall, this was super easy, and super tasty. A keeper.