Bacon Mac and Cheese

So this summer with the chaos in the house we got lazy with the cooking.

Last night I made a scratch made Bacon Mac and Cheese. My macaroni and cheese connoisseur still complained. He said it was good but still missing something, I am pretty sure he is giving me a hard time because he had 2 insanely large plates. 

Everyone thinks making macaroni and cheese is difficult and time consuming, I promise you it really is not. 

To start boil pasta. While I was boiling my pasta I set everything else up. 

 Shred the cheese this will make the rest simple. 

Drain the pasta out and I used the same pot for everything. 

Cook the bacon until nice and crispy. and set it aside. 

In the bacon fat toss the onions, salt/ pepper ( I used my Tex- Mex blend) and equal parts flour. 

The flour and fat will make a rue and that will thicken the milk creating a white sauce which we will add the cheese creating a cheese sauce. 

So I added about 2 cups of milk, and you simmer until it starts to thicken. 

Chop up the bacon and add with the cheese. 

Mix until the cheese is nice and melted and the bacon is well incorporated. 

Add the pasta and mix until everything is coated. 

Now enjoy the beautiful bacon macaroni and cheese.  I served with green beans. 

I will try to remember to price everything out and do my budget prices but it should come to about $2 a person depending on what kind of cheese you use. Better taste comes from the stronger flavored cheese. 

Looking Wreath

I talked about major changes coming because we just needed it in the house. The positive attitude has helped so much in accepting things that I can't change. When we lived in Maryland and Desmond nearly died we ended up drowning in debt so things like decorating for the holiday was limited. 

 This year is the first time we have the extra to decorate so here it is. 

First I bought a really nice black wreath with orange bow. Everyone is starting to pull out Christmas stuff so Halloween is on sale and this baby cost me $20 

Next I took cheap ping pong balls....

googly eyes and a hot glue gun.

I glued the eye on one side.

 I glued a small piece of wire on the other side to twist it on the wreath.

This is my lovely bowl of googly eyeballs ready to go.

Then slowly add the eyes. 

Voila it is done, I plan on buying a few more glow in the dark eyes to add on because I feel like it is missing something but have not decided yet. 

Tomato slow cooked chicken

I am always taking pictures and I can never remember which picture actually make it up and which ones don't. I started this article and stopped so many times I totally forgot which story I was going to share with it.

My background is Hispanic. I am not a pureblood but my mom is from Panama and I grew up for the most part with her family. I spoke Spanish at home for years and my Mami Abuela made sure I knew how to cook. She also tried to teach me how to crochet and sew which is something I did not master until recently. So my version of comfort food is Spanish or Spanish type food. This is my quick toss it in the pan Spanish style chicken served with rice.

This is also considered low budget because I used 2, (3 if a want a ton) chicken breast and feeds about 6 people. 

2 cloves of garlic

2 chicken breast 

1 large onion 

rice 

can of tomato or 3 medium tomatoes 

oregano 

salt and pepper 

parsley 

1 cup of  Chicken broth

Sautee onion and garlic until translucent with seasoning and salt and pepper. Add chicken until browned. Add tomatoes and broth and simmer until liquid is reduced. Make rice and serve.  

This meal came to about $10 ( I forgot how much the chicken breast is going currently) 

which puts it at about $1.70 per person. :) Happy eatings

Quick grilled pork

We have recently started shopping at Bj's and I came across a buy one get one free for dressings. We got a caesar and a balsamic but unfortunately I was the only one who liked it on salad but it worked on the pork.

I figured nice hot days require grilling but I can not use my grill unless I want to deal with stupid landlord rules. This is where the cast iron comes into play. I truly love my collection :)

I marinated the pork over night. 

I grilled the pork on my cast iron pan and added pepper.

I tossed the asparagus in oil with salt and pepper. 

As I let the pork rest, I grilled the asparagus. Which makes this dinner perfect for 

really hot summer days. 

I chopped up the asparagus and grilled some onions and made a quick salad. 

The plating was simple I put potatoes on the bottom with a pork on top and a salad to the side. 

Budget planning : I buy the pork in bulk at $12 and I get 6-8 meals. Potatoes cost about 1 to 2 dollars and asparagus during the summer is about $4  and an onion is maybe a dollar. 

this meal for 6 people is about $8 coming to $1.50 each. 

Pepper Steak

                                                 
There is nothing worse than working hard all day and all the sudden remembering you have 3 hungry kids and a husband to feed. I am not a huge fan of the crock pot but from time to time the thing has saved my butt a few times. After the insanely long weekend I caught a fun head cold which in turn has made me moody and not pleasant, I also do not want to cook. So savory pepper steak it is.

 ½ inch thick strips of beef 

Salt and Pepper

2 cups of pepper and onions 

1 can diced Tomato

1 cup chicken broth

1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce 

1 tsp Tex- Mex seasoned salt 

                                             Toss in a crock pot and serve with rice. 
                                               I also made green beans. 

As for the budget of this meal the total for 6 people ( I had enough for 2 people) and a lunch set up as well. The meat was $4 and a can of tomato, half a bag of pepper and onion blend and rice brings the total at the most $10. This makes the meal about $1.50 per meal. 

Lowes Build and Grow

I am some what handy, my dad made sure I knew what the different screw drives are.  I want to kids to  know how to take care of things for when they move out.  I have started looking for projects and things to do that allows me to teach the kids basic skills. Lowes offers build and grow clinic, the best part is it's all free!!!! So the kids got aprons and little hammers with googles.  Our first project was Iron man's Jet and they turned out amazing. We did not take pictures as we made the project because it was 3 kids to the 2 of us and one of them were in constant need of help. Maybe one day as they feel more comfortable  and we can take pictures from the beginning. But for now I will just tell you how much fun it was and the after picture. It is also a solid project and simple enough for the kids to figure out the only thing was hammering was difficult for them but once they get use to it I think it will be a breeze.

Red Chili sauce

I have never tried to make my own sauce. I am not Mexican and my Spanish family loves to remind me that when I cook. I have always figured if i want to food to taste amazing it needs days to cook so the sauce should be the same. Well I quickly learned that is not true. The sauce took a few hours and it was not really time consuming at all.

Ingredients:
5 cups chicken broth
1 onion chopped ( do not worry about finely cutting it)
3 garlic cloves
about 12 dried New Mexico chile peppers stemmed (it said seeded but I left it)
2 corn tortillas
Salt
extra hot sauce as needed

Supplies:
Ninja Master Prep (QB900B)
pot
knife and cutting board

Directions:
Sautee the onion and garlic until it becomes slightly soft and translucent in color.
Add broth, bring to boiling then reduce heat to medium. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Then add chile peppers and tortilla and remove from heat. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Strain. Put back into pot and simmer sauce for about 15 minutes until thickened.

Now you are ready to cook. 

Flour tortillas

I feel tortillas should be a staple in any house not just us crazy Latinas. I use them for pretty much anything chips, burritos, random made up things, and my kids favorite quesadillas. So we are working on making them from scratch again. Going to the store and picking them is great but reading the labels terrified me with some of the listed things. This takes me 10 minutes ( I love my press and I move quick) and the taste can't be beat so it is worth making it. 

If you plan on this being a normal occurrence you should really look into a press they come in two different sizes a large and a small. Check out the quick link to Tortilla Press-heavy Duty Cast Aluminum Tortilla Maker 8''inch-metallic.

Ingredients:

6 cups flour (I use all purpose)

1 Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 1/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups hot water

Mathew was pressing the shortening into the flour. 

He then realized he had flour up his arm and was unsure about that situation. 

Directions: 

Mix flour, salt, baking powder really well. Add shortening and it it into the dough until it if crumbly, it is best to use your hands.

Making sure it was completely incorporated. 

This became a big game. 

This is before we add water. 

Slowly add hot water to make a dough soft enough to roll out. Divid up and roll into balls about the size of a golf ball. I was always told the size of a lemon but they go from really tiny to baseball size and I never understood the whole lemon thing. 

This is way to dry. 

This is to wet. 

It will look like this when it is properly incorporated. 

This is what the press looks like closed. 

Open it all out and you get this. 

Put your ball here. 

Fold it all back into place and squish. 

I open it rotate it and squish it again.

Cook on an ungreased skillet or griddle. 

Toss in a hot pan and cook it. 

I use my hand and rotate it. 

This prevents sticking. Flip it over and rotate it again. 

I like to store my tortillas in a play pot with a bread linen. 

Then continue until done. 

The kids had a blast doing this!!! and we made about 36 small tortillas.