Layered Green Salad= An Impressive Side Dish

Crisp romaine greens layered with celery, hard boiled eggs, peas, mushrooms, green onions and red pepper. This salad is filling but healthy; a crowd pleasing side dish that's perfect for any summer potluck. If you want to impress friends and family even more, add some cooked crumbled bacon as the final layer just before tossing and serving. 

If you follow me personally on facebook or at our family blog, then you may know in the past year I have lost 50 pounds. I know, I know... it's crazy to think that just one year ago I was SO much bigger. Sometimes it's a little surreal even for me; I look in the mirror and there's a totally different person staring back.

Don't get me wrong! I love seeing this new person, but losing those fifty pounds isn't what makes me the happy person I am today. I was happy then too, I was proud of who I was and what I'd accomplished previously in my life. I'm mostly the same person now as I was then.

The only thing other than my size that seems different is that I feel a little bit stronger, a little more resilient. I understand that things, goals, take time and patience... and quite frankly a truck load of hard work. Consistent hard work, day in and day out. I'm not totally sure I understood that one year ago.

But I do now, and since I've achieved my weight loss goals I'd like to pour all of the energy and time I put into that goal into the one thing I've been wanting to do full time for a long time: writing this blog.  We have a really busy summer ahead of us, so posts will still be slow for now, especially in August. But come September I hope that you (my readers) and I will be seeing a lot more of each other.

That being said, I really need your help! I have this goal to get to 500 likes on my facebook page by the end of September. Would you help me out? Like my page and share it with your friends on facebook. As soon as I get to 500 likes I will randomly select three fans to send home baked goodies to in the mail!

Layered Green Salad

Recipe Source: adapted from Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely

For the salad: 

1 head romaine lettuce

1 cup chopped celery

1 1/2 cups frozen peas *not thawed

1 red bell pepper, diced

4 ounces mushrooms, sliced

3 medium green onions, sliced

3 hard boiled eggs, sliced

For the dressing:

1 cup low-fat mayonnaise

1 cup plain greek yogurt

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons parmesan or romano cheese, grated

Wash the head or romaine lettuce, and pat it dry with paper towels (or spin it in a salad spinner). Tear the leaves into bite size pieces and set aside in a large bowl.

In a large trifle dish, layer some of the romaine lettuce in the bottom. Next make a layer of celery putting it mostly around the edges so that it's visible (we're creating a layered salad look here, though technically it's mostly lettuce through the middle of the trifle dish, if that makes sense). Make another layer of romaine lettuce.

Next put the hard boiled egg slices, standing up, around the insides of the trifle dish. Fill the middle of this layer with lettuce. Top with frozen (not thawed) peas. Petite peas work really well in this salad. The very top layer is a mixture of sliced mushrooms, diced red pepper, and sliced green onion. I like to stand some of the sliced mushrooms up around the inside of the trifle dish, like I did with the egg, so that they are visible too!

To make the dressing, whisk all of the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Spread evenly over the top of the salad. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one day before serving. Just before serving, toss the salad together until the dressing is evenly distributed with the lettuce and other veggies. Toss any salad that isn't eaten as it will become "salad soup" in the refrigerator once it is dressed.

Serves: 10

Calories: 140

Carbs: 13g

Additional Notes: Serve as a main dish for six with some hearty whole wheat rolls or as a side dish for 10-12 people.

Pass the Cook Book Club: Pioneer Woman's Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

I am so excited for today's post because it is part of a new monthly feature I will be doing here at The Taste Tester. Kita, from Pass the Sushi, started a cook book club this year. Once every month I will review a recipe here from the cook book she has chosen for that month. Today I will be sharing a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's second cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier. 

Next month all of the members of this club will be reviewing recipes from Guy Fieri Food: Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It. So if you want to join in on the fun, click on the image below! You don't necessarily have to be a food blogger and you don't have to own any of the cookbooks Kita chooses (she emails three recipes from the book to everyone). If you would like to see other posts from food bloggers who participated in the club this month, you can scroll down to the bottom of this post.

Let me start by saying that the only thing I did not love about this recipe was that fact that it is LOADED with fat. I mean, hard core artery clogging fat. The recipe calls for one and a half cups of heavy cream and half a cup of whole milk. I thought about calculating the nutrition facts for myself but then I figured ignorance would probably be the best choice in this situation.

The good news about these potatoes is that they are perfect (like the recipe title boasts), creamy, perfectly seasoned, cheeeeeeeeeeesy and tender potatoes. There's really nothing better. Around Christmas and Easter my mom always makes a side dish called funeral potatoes. If you have not heard of funeral potatoes they consist of frozen hashbrowns, butter, onion, sour cream, cheese, and cream of chicken soup. They too are yummy, but after eating the Pioneer Woman's recipe for potatoes au gratin, I have decided that these will be my choice for a potato side dish at holidays because there's no cream of crap soup here. 

At some point I am also going to try making this side dish with cauliflower so that my brother can have a side dish to eat during our holiday feasts (he is type 1 diabetic). Whenever I give that I go I will add an update to this post and let you know how it turns out!

Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

Recipe Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier

2 tablespoons salted butter, softened

4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed clean *not peeled

1/2 cup whole milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons flour

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon salt

fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

2 green onions, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan with the softened butter (yes, all of it). Cut the potatoes into sticks and then dice. Place potatoes in prepared dish.

Combine milk, heavy cream, flour, garlic, salt and pepper and whisk. Pour over the potatoes. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 20 more minutes. Just before serving sprinkle with cheese and return to the oven for 3-5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Sprinkle green onions over hot potatoes and serve.

The Ultimate Comfort Food: Mac & Cheese

If you follow me on facebook then you know that I've been having some computer troubles this week.  When it shut down the other day I had two choices: 1) FREAK OUT or 2) stuff my face with some of this goodness {my favorite comfort food of all time}. 

I went with the second option in case that wasn't clear. If you need proof there's a photo right down there. The good news for me and my computer is it's an easy-ish fix and thanks to a great neighbor I was able to figure out what is wrong and get it working for long enough to write this post. By monday I should have it fixed and running smoothly again.

Easy Mac and Cheesy

Recipe Source: adapted ever so slightly from Clever, Crafty, Cookin' Mama

1 (16 ounce) box elbow macaroni or shell pasta

4 tablespoons butter

1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cheese soup

1 cup evaporated milk+ more if needed

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard

a few drops of hot sauce *I use about 10 drops of Frank's Hot Sauce

Salt & Pepper to taste *You can also season this with a seasoning salt, such as Lawry's

Cook pasta according to package directions. Be sure to salt the water before it boils (it will flavor the pasta). Once the pasta is al dente drain it and return it to the pot.

Return the pot to the burner and turn the heat as low as it will go. Stir in the butter, cheese soup, and evaporated milk. Stir until butter melts. Add in grated cheese, mustard, and hot sauce. Continue stirring until the cheese is totally melted, adding more milk to thin the sauce as necessary. Taste and season accordingly.

Slow-Cooker Refried Beans

Oh, I'm so obsessed with beans. This recipe is so good and VERY easy, two things I absolutely love. I consider this one of my favorite lazy day meals because its just a few ingredients thrown in a crock-pot and cooked for eight hours. We eat our refried beans on {open-faced} tortillas with cheese, green onions, sour cream, salsa, and hot sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about how delicious this simple meal is. They would also make a great side dish for any mexican feast.

These beans are not technically "refried" (in fact there is no added fat in this recipe), but you'll never be able to tell. I almost forgot: you don't have to pre-soak the dry beans!

Slow-Cooker Refried Beans

Recipe Source: adapted by The Taste Tester from 100 Days of Real Food

2 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed

1 large onion, peeled and halved

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeño, seeded and diced

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

2 bay leaves

6 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a crock-pot. Cook on high for 8 hours, stirring every couple of hours, until beans are very soft. Drain excess liquid off of beans into a bowl. Set aside. Remove onion halves and bay leaves from crock-pot and discard. Mash beans with a potato masher, returning some reserved liquid to the beans in order to reach desired consistency. Serve hot. Leftover beans freeze well.

Shared here: Totally Tasty Tuesdays @ Mandy's Recipe Box, Pin Me Fridays @ Diana Rambles, On the Menu Monday @ Stone Gable

Homemade Bread, Is There Anything Better?

Have I ever told you how much I love to blog? Well, if I haven't then I will do so now. I love having a food blog. As a stay at home mom it gives me a hobby, something I can do other than change dirty diapers, clean the house, take out the trash etc. Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom. But it is really nice to connect with myself every so often and have a break from the utterly mundane. This blog helps me do that.

Blogging is not always easy however, and in recent months this blog has grown more. I expect that this growth will continue and as a result, you may see a lot of changes on the blog. For example, the design of the blog might change, I am trying to change host sites for my domain, I am going to start offering advertising for small businesses, etc. A lot of these changes are absolutely necessary because they are going to make my life ten times easier--- and as a mom, I need that.

 I just love how supportive all of my readers have been so far, so stick with me through the changes and be very patient with me and my lack of technical skills. I promise it will all be worth it.  I have a list of changes that need to happen and it is very long. None of it will be that final until the beginning of 2013. Thank you for your patience.

On the off-chance that you are upset about this news (haha), don't worry I have a solution. BREAD. Good bread makes everything better. Especially homemade bread fresh from the oven slathered with cinnamon honey butter. Is there anything more comforting?

I submit that there is not (with the exception of all things chocolate).

Today's make-ahead recipe is for overnight rolls, which I am assuming will come in handy this coming week. You see, the dough itself maybe takes 5-10 minutes to throw together. Once its done all you have to do is throw it in a bowl and stick it in the refrigerator overnight. In other words this recipe is very little work= small investment of time, big delicious totally-worth-it dividend.

To make your life easier on Thanksgiving Day, make the dough the night before. One and a half hours before you plan on serving your turkey and all it's fixins', shape the dough, let rise for 30-40 minutes, and bake. It's as easy as that.

Overnight Pull-Apart Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 egg , beaten
• 3 1/2- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I do one cup whole wheat)

Cooking Directions

1. In small saucepan combine milk, sugar, shortening, and salt; heat to lukewarm (110 degrees F to 115 degrees F)*. 
2. In large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water**. Add egg and milk mixture. Gradually stir in enough flour to make a soft dough***. Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead gently 2 to 3 minutes to make a smooth ball. (Knead in just enough remaining flour so dough is no longer sticky.) Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and refrigerate 8 to 24 hours.
3. Punch dough down; turn out onto a lightly floured surface; allow to rest 10 minutes.
4. To shape rolls, roll or pat dough to a 10x8-inch rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Cut in 2-1/2x1-inch strips. Lightly roll each strip and place in a greased 15x10x1-inch baking pan, leaving about 1/2 inch between each roll. Cover and let rise until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden and rolls sound hollow when lightly tapped. Remove from pan. Serve warm or cool. Makes about 32 small dinner rolls.

Tips for Making More Successful Rolls:

*If you heat your milk mixture past 110-115 degrees F, allow it to cool until it is back within this temperature range. If you don't you might risk killing your yeast, and dead yeast equals bread that won't rise. Gross.

**Once again make sure your water is warm, not hot. Hot water will kill your yeast. Also, help your yeast grow by adding one teaspoon of sugar in with the water and yeast during this step. Sugar gives the yeast something to feed on. Who doesn't love sugar?

***A soft dough is one of the biggest determining factors of a light, fluffly, heavenly roll. Some cooks are tempted to keep adding flour for some reason and their doughs just become hard and tough. Also gross. You want your dough to be slightly tacky (basically it will look sticky), but it will have formed a ball, and it should not stick to your hands when you touch it. Understand?
One last tip about bread making: Always remember that just like your mother-in-law, bread making is a lot less intimidating than you think it is. 

Recipe by Better Homes and Gardens

5 out of 5 stars

A word about the honey butter: some honey butter recipes also contain powdered sugar or marshmallow fluff. I have had these recipes before and they are good. However, there is something so beautiful about the simplicity of just using honey for the sweetness in honey butter. After all, it is called honey butter.

Cinnamon Honey Butter

Ingredients

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Cooking Directions

1. Combine the butter, honey, cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Whip until light and fluffy. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe by Ina Garten

5 out of 5 stars

Have you liked me on Facebook? At 200 fans, The Taste Tester will be having a giveaway! Feel free to connect with me on Pinterest and Twitter as well :)

Green Bean Casserole, Real Food Style

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for this week's posts. Let me just try and put my enthusiasm into words...

I am really excited for this week's posts. Understand?

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I think it has to do with the fact that I get to cook a lot (which if you couldn't tell, I love to cook). 

So for this week's posts, I picked out three classic Thanksgiving recipes that I would love to share with you. 

Next week will be pretty similar, though I have not decided whether or not I will be posting on Thanksgiving Day (for Happy & Healthy Thursdays).

In the meantime, I thought we should discuss one of my many favorite Thanksgiving side dishes: Green Bean Casserole.

This stuff just tastes okay if you make French's original recipe (don't tell them I said that). Here is why: It uses canned green beans, canned "cream-of" soup, and canned crunchy onions. I imagine it is slightly easier to make it their way, but it tastes so much better made from scratch with real food. My version uses fresh (or frozen) green beans, a homemade mushroom bacon cream sauce, and fresh fried crunchy onion straws. Are you drooling yet?
Just trust me on this one. If you were asked to bring green bean casserole to dinner on Thanksgiving, do yourself and everyone else a favor and make it from scratch. It is so worth it.

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 pound (16 ounces) fresh or frozen whole green beans
• 6 slices bacon, cut into 1" pieces

For Mushroom Cream Sauce:

• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 oz cream cheese, cut into cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons salt, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

For Onion Strings:

• 1 1/2 white onions
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 scant tablespoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• oil for frying

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a two quart casserole dish, preferrably with butter.
2. Steam green beans until they are fork tender. Drain and set aside (this step is only necessary if you are using fresh green beans).
3. Cook bacon in heavy dutch oven over medium high heat until crisp. Remove from pan leaving about two tablespoons of bacon grease in pan.
4. Saute sliced mushrooms, 1/2 an onion, and garlic in bacon grease until mushrooms are browned and onions are golden and translucent.
5. Add butter to pan and allow to melt. Stir flour into butter and mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
6. Slowly add in milk (keep stirring). Continue cooking over medium high heat until sauce has thickened. Stir in cream cheese, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.
7. Once cream cheese has melted, remove sauce from heat and add in prepared green beans and cooked bacon pieces. Mix well. 
8. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
9. In the meantime, slice onions for onion strings very thin. Place in a baking dish and cover with buttermilk. Let soak for at least ten minutes or up to one hour.
10. Combine dry ingredients and set aside.
11. Heat oil to 375 degrees.
12. Grab a handful of onions and toss them in the flour mixture until completely coated. Shake off excess flour, and drop them carefully into the hot oil. Fry for a few minutes and remove onto a paper towel lined plate as soon as they are golden brown.
13. Repeat until onions are gone.
14. When casserole has finished baking remove from oven and top with fresh fried onion strings.
15. Bake for an additional 3 minutes.
16. Let cool for 10 minutes (the sauce will thicken slightly upon standing). Serve warm.

Recipe by Amanda Jenks (onion strings portion of recipe from The Pioneer Woman)

5 out of 5 stars

To make this an easier dish to prepare on Thanksgiving day, make the green bean casserole from steps one through seven the night before and refrigerate in prepared pan. Make onion strings and bake on Thanksgiving day.

I am partying this week at:

Delicious Dishes

 

Broccoli Cheese Baked Potatoes

Until very recently, I had not eaten a broccoli cheese potato for upwards of ten years. It is actually an interesting story. You see, when I was nine or ten years old I went to my grandparents house with a cousin of mine for a little vacation. One night my grandmother made broccoli and cheese potatoes.

I remember being in love at first bite. There is just something so succulent about a soft pillowy potato smothered in gooey melty cheese and topped with steamed broccoli. It was one of those moments where you overeat just because something tastes so incredibly good.

As a result of over eating, about thirty minutes after dinner I had some severe gas pain (you probably did not want to know that). As soon as I started feeling all gaseous my grandma reached inside her magical bag of goodies, and pulled out a small bottle of bean-o.

That's right, bean-o. Now I don't know about you, but the only bean-o adds I have seen have old people in them. I love old people. However, in my nine or ten year old mind that gas-relieving juice was only for my grandparents.

I refused to have anything to do with it, and brushed off all of my pain. However, the pain was really bad, so bad that about one hour later I found myself a mile away form their home rolling around in who-knows-who's front lawn, moaning in pain.

Yep, you guessed it. I succumbed to the bean-o. It worked like magic too, just fyi.

Since then I have not walked within a ten foot radius of broccoli cheese potatoes, mostly because I am still afraid to admit that beano is for human beings of all ages, not just old folk.

But I have been trying to face all of my fears lately, hence this blog post. I braved the broccoli cheese potato once again, bottle of bean-o in hand.

They are sooooo delicious, just like I remember. Want to make your own?

First I am going to start by showing you how to make a fantastic baked potato. The right baked potato will be like a perfect blank canvas for a masterpiece painted with steamed broccoli and an awesome cheese sauce. For each recipe of cheese sauce you make, you will need four medium-large baking potatoes.  Make sure the top rack in your oven is positioned in the middle of the oven. Put an aluminum foil lined baking sheet on the oven rack beneath that. This one will catch any oily drips. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 

Wash and dry your potatoes. Poke them with a fork; 2-3 pokes per side.

Brush the whole potato with olive oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil (whatever you have on hand, no need to break the bank).

Sprinkle the tops of your potatoes with coarse sea salt. Place on the middle rack in oven. Bake for 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of your potato. The skin should be crispy and the insides should still be firm but soft, not mushy.

During the last fifteen minutes of potato cooking time, steam your broccoli and make cheese sauce to your hearts content. Resist the urge to eat all of the cheese sauce before the potatoes are done cooking. Really, it's that good.

Although the potatoes may take up to one hour to cook, preping the potatoes for the oven+making the cheese sauce+steaming the broccoli= less than thirty minutes. This is truly a perfect and simple weeknight meal. 

Simple Cheese Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) block sharp cheddar cheese, grated on the large holes of your grater
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 2 teaspoons Frank's hot sauce

Cooking Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, toss the grated cheese and cornstarch together.
2. Add one cup of the evaporated milk and the hot sauce.
3. Place on burner over medium high heat.
4. Stir constantly until completely melted. It will get thick.
5. If you would like a thinner sauce add more of the evaporated milk.
6. Serve immediately over potatoes, with french fries, on nachos, etc.

Notes:

Reheats well in microwave.

To make a spicier sauce, do half cheddar cheese and half pepper jack cheese. Add a few diced pickled jalapenos.

Recipe by Serious Eats

5 out of 5 stars

Shells and Cheese for Everyone

Fact. I collect cookbooks. Lots and lots of cookbooks. I will continue to collect them for the rest of my life until I have a library full of them, and I am not talking just any library. Oh, heck to the no. I want I library reminiscent of the one in Beauty and the Beast. Someday...

In the meantime I am building my collection, book by book. My newest addition was this one right here:

                          
    Perfect One-Dish Dinners By Pam Anderson

I have read this cover to cover several times now (and yes, I read every word, I did not just look at pictures). I am absolutely in love with this book. Let me tell you why:

1. This cookbook is geared toward easy get-togethers. Pam Anderson plans the whole menu for you from the appetizer to the dessert, plus there are several different menus to choose from. 
2. If the recipes she has chosen aren't easy enough for you, she has these snippets called "instant alternatives" at the bottom of her recipes. Basically they are easier substitutions for her recipes. I may have to steal this idea from her... Everyone loves easy and delicious.
3. The pictures in this book (taken by Judd Pilossof) are breathtaking.

I got my copy of this book at Barnes and Noble on clearance. What a steal. So far I have only made two recipes from it but I am already very impressed.

Pulled pork is actually on of my go-to entertaining recipes, so when I saw it in the cookbook I was very excited. It is easy to throw a pork roast and a bottle of bar-b-que sauce in the crock pot on low for 8-10 hours and then shred it.

Pam Anderson pairs her pulled pork sliders with this awesome baked shells and cheese recipe. I made two huge casserole dishes of this and it all got eaten.

In other words, buy this cookbook. Make the food. Love the food. You won't be sorry. I will definitely be showcasing more recipes from this one; it's a keeper.

Shells and Cheese for Everyone

Salt

1 lb. medium-size pasta shells

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 (16 oz) container cottage cheese

1 (16 oz) container light or regular sour cream

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Freshly ground black pepper.

1 cup plain dry breadcrumbs

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Bring 2 quarts water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil in a large soup kettle over high heat. Cook pasta using package directions as a guide. Drain.

Meanwhile, mix cheeses and sour cream in a large bowl. Add hot pasta and toss to coat. Adjust salt and pepper according to taste. Transfer to baking dish.

Mix breadcrumbs, parsley, and butter in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over shells and cheese. Bake until casserole is bubbly and crumbs are golden brown, 30-35 minutes. Serves 8-12.

Recipe Source: Perfect One-Dish Dinners by Pam Anderson

get printable recipe here.

Loaded Baked Potato Salad

Here is another recipe I served at our 4th of July party. Normally I am not a huge fan of classic potato salad. You know, the kind with olives and pickles and mustard, etc? It is just a little too tangy for my taste.

This recipe is my new favorite potato salad recipe. It is perfect for summer potlucks. So make a batch and take it to your next barbecue. You will be the life of the party. Anything with bacon is a hit, right? Well, I guess I cannot vouch for every recipe with bacon, but I can vouch for this one.

Loaded Baked Potato Salad

Recipe Source: Dishing With Leslie

8-10 small/medium russet potatoes
14 slices of bacon
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
3 green onions, sliced


Peel potatoes and cut into cubes. Boil until fork tender (approximately 20 minutes). Do not over boil or you will end up with mashed potatoes when you stir everything together.

Once potatoes are cooked, drain them and refrigerate until completely cool (this takes approximately 1.5 hours).

In the meantime, cook the bacon. I like to do this in the oven. It works incredibly well and makes less of a mess. Plus you do not have to worry about grease splatters and burns. This website has a great tutorial on cooking bacon in the oven. Allow bacon to cool to room temperature. Crumble with hands or use kitchen shears to cut into pieces.

While bacon is cooling combine sour cream, mayo, salt, pepper, and half of the cheese. Taste the sauce and add more salt to your liking. Refrigerate until potatoes are cooled.

Once the potatoes are cooled, stir them together with the sauce mixture, crumbled bacon, remaining cheese, and green onions.

You could serve this right away. But it is 10x better after you refrigerate it for a full 24 hours. Trust me. Make it the night before you plan on serving it. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmm. Serves 10-12.

Stovetop Mac and Cheese

As a crazy pregnant woman, occasionally I will have a craving for something. This week it has been mac and cheese. It all started when I was shopping for BYU-Idaho this past monday. It just so happened that one of the teachers is doing a "Using Your Food Storage" lab so I actually had to purchase some kraft mac and cheese for the school.

I know almost every adult has been in this situation at some point in time. You are standing in the mac and cheese aisle, usually by accident. That friendly blue box catches your eye. You stop and stare. It summons you. All of a sudden warm memories from your childhood begin to flood your mind. You reach for the box.

Usually I give in and I purchase it. It has been like an addiction. And every single time when I get home and make the mac and cheese, I am always disappointed. It is just not the same as when I was a kid. Curse you one-dollar and twenty-five cent box of macaroni.

So I am standing there in the mac and cheese aisle this past monday, about to grab a box for myself. My common sense must have kicked in. It was like a voice in my head was saying, "Amanda, Amanda, Amanda. You should know better than to do this by now."

I did not buy it. Instead I went through my "recipes to try" board on pinterest and found a mac and cheese recipe that I have wanted to try for some time. I switched the ingredients up some to use what I had on hand and to make it c-H-e-A-p-E-r. That is what this blog is about after all.

Is this cheaper than the good old blue box? Definitely not. Is it tastier? Heck yes it is. Way more delicious. You might even start to drool while you are eating this stuff.

Just a word to the wise. This recipe originally called for white extra sharp cheddar cheese, and white american cheese. This will be a whole lot cheaper if you use yellow cheeses. The only thing that will be different is the color. Which quite frankly, I would eat mac and cheese if it was blue. In other words I do not care. Also, you can spend a lot of money when purchasing cheeses. Really explore your options. Usually the least expensive items in a grocery store are on the top and bottom shelves, because the middle shelves are the ones your eyes see first. However this is not always the case. When I bought the extra sharp cheddar cheese for this recipe I noticed that most of the extra sharp white cheddar is somewhere around $8.00 per 8 oz. To me that is an arm and a leg. That is when I decided to go with the yellow variety of extra sharp cheese. These are usually about $4-5 per 8 oz. But if you look really carefully like me, you will find an 8 oz block of extra sharp cheddar cheese that is around $3 with a fifty cent off coupon attached. I guess I just got lucky. But if you are wise and explore all of your options, you can get lucky too.

I am never buying the blue box, ever ever again.

Stovetop Mac and Cheese
1 lb (16 oz) rotini, elbow, or other small shaped pasta
5 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups 2% milk*
8 American cheese slices, plastic removed (for obvious reasons) and torn into pieces
8 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated**
2 tsp prepared yellow mustard
1 tsp salt
a few drops hot sauce, to taste (like tabasco or franks)

Cook the pasta according to package directions in large pot.

While pasta is cooking, make the cheese sauce in a large saucepan by first melting the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted and bubbly add the flour. Stir with wooden spoon until combined. YOU WILL WANT TO COOK THIS MIXTURE BY ITSELF FOR APPROXIMATELY 2 MINUTES. I put that in all caps because it is a really important step. If you don't do it, your macaroni and cheese will taste like raw flour. Yuck.

When this mixture is ready (aka you have cooked it for 2 minutes) slowly add the milk in. Stir constantly until milk is bubbly and has thickened (this takes about ten minutes in my experience).

Add the cheeses a handful at a time, stirring until melted before adding a new handful. Then stir in the salt, mustard, and hot sauce.

Pour over prepared pasta, stir to combine, and cook on medium heat for a couple more minutes. Serves 8.

recipe source: adapted from Smells Like Home Panera Mac and Cheese