you'd never guess that this is a low-cheese Mac & Cheese casserole |
Wintry days find me in the kitchen, a lot.
I'm back to streamlining some of my cooking prep. I now use my food processor to slice several onions at a time, then store in the fridge for the week. And with the garlic, I've been chopping an entire head or two, at once, to store in the freezer. (I blogged about this here, a loooong time ago). So, on Saturday, I pulled out a couple of heads of garlic, minced them fine, and now have them tucked away in the freezer for easier meal prep.
After a week of soup for dinner, Friday night we had made-from-scratch, macaroni and cheese. As usual, I was low on the cheese part. When someone is requesting mac and cheese, but I don't have much cheese left, this is what I do. I make a low-cheese cheese sauce. It's quite good, better for us (less fat, less dairy for me), and seeing as how cheese is sooooo expensive these days, this version is economical.
low-cheese cheese sauce |
For how to make a low-cheese cheese sauce, see this post.
(I was out of carrots, this week, so I used 3 tablespoons of canned pumpkin puree in this particular pot of cheese sauce.)
Don't marshmallows simply belong in a cup of cocoa. I found a few marshmallows in the pantry the other day. They're leftover from making s'mores this past summer.
I don't buy those little packets or larger canisters to make cocoa by the cup. I make mine in the microwave, one cup at a time.
In a microwaveable mug, I heat about 1/8th cup of milk for 20 seconds. Then I stir in 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder plus 2 tablespoons sugar, until it's a nice paste. Next, I stir in more milk, till the mug is about full, and microwave for an additional minute. Finally, I add the extras, such as vanilla extract, almond extract, flavored coffee syrup, a mini candy cane, a sprinkling of cinnamon, or a couple of marshmallows. And for me, being mostly dairy-free, I just use soy milk for my cup.
This particular cup of cocoa has hazelnut coffee syrup, found at the back of the cabinet, needing to be used up. Topped with a couple of marshmallows, and I'm a happy camper, enjoying a cozy winter afternoon.
How did you spend your weekend? Any mugs of cocoa? Building snowmen? A cozy chair and favorite book?