deconstructed foil dinner

Wish I'd gotten a picture but I didn't.  I decided to eat a little healthier yesterday by #1, cooking myself dinner after church instead of snacking.  and #2 making mostly veggies for dinner. 

Ingredients on hand:
potatoes
carrots
onions
cookies
ice cream
fritos
lipton onion soup mix
fish sticks
ground beef
canned white northern beans.

after glancing through my pantry at the various appetizing items,... I decided to forgo the cookies, ice cream, fritos, and even the meat.  foil dinners sounded really yummy yesterday,.. even the fish was appealing,.. (I know! right?... though truth be told I do love fish sticks and don't really consider them to be fish but I digress)  ... 

Why the meat?  I've been having a lot of treats lately,.. the leaner this meal turned out the better probably for my weight loss goals and overall healthy eating goals. 

So I really wanted to keep it simple. 

I really didn't want to cook anything.   ....glancing around the kitchen in desperation or anxiety at having to actually cook...noticed the george foreman next to the sink.  Perfect.  I've been re-appreciating this grill lately for various food items.

I decided to slice my veggies into 3/4 inch thick circles and strips,.. (the carrots were in strips since it was the fastest least tedious way to break them down)....slap em on the grill and plug it in and done!...  or so I thought.

I decided given that I really was kinda hungry I'd put a little more effort into it.  I grabbed the can - o -beans and threw that on the stove.  Half the time I really just like white beans plain but today I wanted something a little more.   I also was sure I wanted those onions but I knew they wouldn't flavor anything the way I was cooking them so now enters the lipton onion soup mix.

I sprinkled a little onto the grilling veggies (this made a mess..not my favorite but it did the trick) and put the rest into the beans.  I think the flavor was a little strong and probably not quite what I wanted but still.  for quick and easy it wasn't terrible.  I settled for diluting everything with water to (even on the grilled veggies which I flipped half way through so that they would sear nicely on both sides....very steamy lol)  ....pretty much washed off the beans which I preferred mostly plain and enjoyed the light seasoning on the veggies. 

voila!  grilled veggies a la heated up beans.  :) 

In hindsight I think next time a pinch of salt on the veggies and maybe some butter melted onto the carrots would do just the trick to make it fantabulous but hey... you can't knock it out of the park everytime and this was good enough for just me. 

How did J like dinner?   basically not.  She tried a bean which I was really pleased with but immediately decided she wanted to spit it out and would not touch anything else on my plate so I think she had toast for dinner.   Don't really remember but hey my philosophy right now is that if you don't eat dinner you don't get to make up for it with other snacks.   I'm just not very good at sticking to this but I'm getting better.

Hope this inspires you to try new things with your george foreman.  :)   Maybe I'll go home and grill those beets I've been neglecting to cook next! for my lunches.

Mac n Cheese

Ew!  what is that!  A couple words come to mind,.. Green Eggs and Ham, ...on second thought maybe I won't write all of the things that come to mind lest you quit reading my post out of disgust.  :)

I wanted to make Mac n Cheese for my daughter because she was asking for it.  I always dress it up because Mac n Cheese sounds so devoid of any nutrition.  Goodness knows I would have hated it if my mom NEVER gave me straight mac n cheese growing up.  ...Oh wait.  I'm pretty sure she never did.  :)  but I always loved my mom's mac n cheese even though it was never out of a box it was still always very yummy and filling.  (In fact I was later disappointed when out of the box never seemed to measure up to what I thought it should taste like..but I've since come to appreciate them as completely different flavors).  So one of these times I'm gonna make it straight up for J but of course this is not one of those times.  As you know the whole point of this post is that I made Mac n Cheese with a twist.  :)

Exhibit A - mac n cheese in a box.
Nix! I knew if I made it like the original my daughter would just be disappointed it wasn't the original

Exhibit B - leftover garden penne pasta.
Sweet!  even if she hates my sauce she at least loves noodles and will still get some veggies...
Additionally I do not have to slave over making noodles,.. been there,.. done that. ... sold!

Exhibit C - ingredients for a cheese sauce
I always keep ingredients for a white sauce on hand. 
I opted for regular milk over powdered because I knew my daughter would be craving that milk fat and we had it on hand.
we had some pre-shredded cheddar  (anytime I don't have to grate cheese is awesome!)
home ground wheat flour!  this can be even more healthy and I feel so ...country..or little red hen... using my own flour.... done!

Exhibit D&E - tuna and peas
A second favorite around here is Tuna Noodle Casserole or tuna gravy on toast. 
These are almost identical to homemade mac n cheese except with different noodles or toast or rice. 
and,.. there's tuna and peas.  

You get where I'm going with this.  I guess I always make tuna gravy and call it mac n cheese.  Here's the kicker... My daughter when she was so innocent and care free and under the age of 1 LOVED peas in puree form of course.   She HATES the real thing.  I'm so tired of picking out peas so that she'll try my tuna gravy which she happens to love that I decided to see if I couldn't get her to eat em anyway.  

Enters VitaMix!

I've been into green smoothies lately and I have a lot of success sneaking veggies into my foods if I can just get the fact that you're eating veggies out of the way.   .... hmm,.. Maybe I just gave away the secret to every recipe I might ever post on here. I digress. 

I wipped out the vitamix.. blended up some peas and infused them into my white sauce turned tuna cheese and voila,..  tuna gravy over penne garden pasta.  Trey Magnifique!  wish I knew how to spell that. 

Success? Yes,.. she actually tried it initially and liked it but was struggling with the size of the penne to use her spoon utencil of choice so I think gave up.  After an hour or so of her suggesting dinner alternatives and getting ready for bed she allowed me to cut up the noodles and feed her.  I know,.. She's old enough to do it herself at 2 1/2.  But hey,.. if I can get her to eat that wholesome goodness with just a little extra babysitting and effort on my part I guess I'm going to do my best.  

At any rate. 
Here's the recipe:

cheese sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups defrosted frozen peas pureed in some water.
generous portion of wheat flour to thicken.  (sorry I didn't measure.  It was at least 2 TBSPNs probably more like a 1/2 cup)

whisk together on medium heat until thickens.  Make sure to do whatever you need to the flour so that it doesn't form clumps.  You're probably fine to add it directly as long as its still cold when you add it.  If you use cornstarch or regular flour instead you will want to use less and mix it in a small amount of liquid first to make a thicker but still liquid substance before adding it to the sauce so that it doesn't form clumps.  Another option is to brown your flour and butter first and then add the milk etc after.   that's probably the right way.  I digress. 

Once your sauce is thick it's basically done,.. but you need to turn it into a cheese sauce now. 
Add 1 handful at a time approximately 3 cups of shredded cheese.  I used medium cheddar. 
Also add your tuna. 
wisk over lower heat so your sauce doesn't burn but it still heats/melts the cheese and tuna.  You want to stop adding cheese just before it stops being a sauce and turns into fondue.  lol.  Test it after each handful.  If your spoon comes out with a cheesy string still attached to the rest of the sauce you probably added too much cheese.  You'll know it's ready when it has a mild taste of cheese to the sauce and it's very thick but not so thick it's more cheese than sauce.   Trust me,.. if you think you like cheese a lot and don't mind it too cheesy you will find that real cheddar cheese doesn't mix in right if you put too much in and you will probably not enjoy it as much as you thought you would.  

Well if you don't like long-winded witty posts then this isn't the blog for you!  but that's it.  I hope you enjoyed the post and got some ideas to try in your own recipes.  Until Next time! Happy Creating!

Remind me to tell you about the time I saved a veggie experimental spaghetti disaster using beets.  lol!