Atlantas Frugal Mom

Macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite dishes.  Not the fake version that comes in the blue box, but the real deal.  My mother made it from scratch when I was a child, and now I do the same for my family.  Often times I’ll just make it with American cheese and a little bit of butter and milk, but lately I’ve been playing around with richer, creamier versions.  Multiple cheeses, heavy cream, and even a pinch of cayenne can take this simple comfort food to an entirely new level.  My newest recipe (which I’m sharing today) has quickly become a favorite in our home.  A layer of seasoned breadcrumbs and a few minutes in the broiler gives it a lightly crispy topping that is a perfect compliment to the delicious, creamy sauce.  The result is a delicious dish that is similar to one you would get at a restaurant!  (For more make-at-home restaurant style dishes, check out this post with 10 of my favorite copycat recipes!)

Restaurant Style Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

6 cups water

2 cups elbow noodles

1 Tbs butter, unsalted

3/4 c milk

3/4 c shredded Colby and Monterey Jack cheese

3/4 c shredded Italian style cheese

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Pinch of cayenne

1/2 c Parmesan herb panko bread crumbs (Private Selection from Kroger)

Directions:

1.  Bring water to a boil on high heat.

2.  Add in noodles and boil for 8-10 minutes.

3.  Remove from heat and drain in a colander. Set aside.

4.  Set oven to high broil.

5.  Melt butter in pot on medium heat.

6.  Add in milk, cheese, and spices.  Whisk until melted completely.

7.  Fold in elbow noodles, stirring gently to coat with sauce.

8.  Pour noodles into oven safe dish.

9.  Top with panko bread crumbs.

10.  Place in oven for 2 minutes until top is browned.

11.  Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Printer friendly recipe for Restaurant Style Macaroni and Cheese

Do you have a macaroni and cheese recipe that’s a family favorite?  I’d love to hear your version, please take a moment to share in the comments below!

One of my favorite dishes to make is chili.  It’s effortless, great for any season, and it freezes perfectly!  It’s also a great source of protein, and can be very good for you when it’s not coming from a can!  I’ve been making lots of chili over the last month because the hubs won’t stop eating all the frozen stock I put away.  He eats it on everything.  Fries, hot dogs, rice, nachos, potatoes….you name it, he’ll cover it with chili.  Luckily it’s made with ingredients that are simple to find at any grocery store, and I spend about 10 minutes physically preparing it, so it’s not too bad.  Don’t let the longer list of spice ingredients scare you off either.  I promise this spice mix is 1000x times better than what you get in the pack at the store, and it’s wheat and preservative free!

My favorite two ingredients in this chili are the sausage and the smoked paprika.  Something about chili with sausage is just SO much better to me than plain ol’ beef.  Of course, if you don’t eat pork, just switch it out for more beef.  If you aren’t familiar with smoked paprika, it is one of my most favorite spices of all time.  It’s subtle and smoky, and you don’t need too much, but it gives you a delicious finish that would make you swear that the meat in your chili had been cooked on a smoker.  Just don’t go nuts with it, too much smoky flavor can be a bad thing!

The Bizy Mommy’s Best Chili Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Tbs oil
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 lb beef
1 lb sausage (I use mild)
1 can light red kidney beans (drained)
1 can chili beans (I use mild)
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
2 can diced tomatoes (15 oz)
4 beef bouillion cubes
4 cups water
1.5 Tbs chili powder
1/4 Tbs red pepper flakes
1.5 Tbs onion powder
2 Tbs garlic powder
1 Tbs ground cumin
1 Tbs parsley
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbs salt

Directions:

1. Heat oil on medium high in a stock pot and add in pepper and onion.  Cook until the onions start to soften.
2. Add in beef and sausage and cook on medium high until browned throughout.
3. Add in all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent burning to the bottom.
4. Once boiling, reduce heat to low/med and cover.  Let simmer for at least 2 hours, the longer the better.

(Click here for a printer friendly version of this recipe)

-It’s going to look *really* thin while it’s simmering.  Don’t worry, it thickens up as it cooks and then cools.

-The red pepper flakes give it a tiny bit of heat, but it’s not spicy.  If you don’t do heat, leave that out.  If you love heat, keep on pourin!

-You can sub out 4 c. beef broth for the bouillion cubes and water.

-Smoked paprika *really* gives this a nice finish.  If you can get it, I would really suggest using it!

-This makes about 16-18 cups of chili, so if you don’t need a ton, throw it in the freezer for lazy dinner nights!

-If your slow cooker is big enough, you could definitely simmer the chili in it all day.  I would still cook the peppers, onions, and meat in another pot first though, and then add in everything on medium heat for an hour, and then low heat for another 3-4.

Hope you enjoy our family’s favorite chili recipe!  Let me know what you think!

So I kinda threw my food budget out the window over the holidays, and now we’re playing catch up.  I actually find it rather entertaining, because being short on funds means I have to get really creative with healthy meals that don’t break the bank.  Earlier this week, Lori over at Vann Clan 5 shared a simple no peek beef tips recipe that got me thinking.

I headed out to Aldi to do my shopping and was stoked to find THREE marked down packs of eye of round steak for right at $3.00 each.  I LOVE picking up discounted packs of tough-as-leather-nobody-wants-to-buy-it meat at Walmart and Aldi, because once you slow cook it, it’s tender as can be!  I grabbed some carrots and onions and a few more ingredients and headed home to make some magic.  This is *such* an easy recipe for anyone to make, check out my $5.00 No Peek Pot Roast below!

$5.oo No Peek Pot Roast

Ingredients:

1 pound of cheap beef (cut into 1/2-1″ cubes) – $3.25

2 cups of chopped carrots (I used 5 medium carrots) – $0.40 [Read more…]

Today while doing last minute stocking stuffer shopping, I grabbed a bag of Kraft peppermint marshmallows.  My kids love marshmallows, and I thought the peppermint ones would be really tasty in their Christmas morning cocoa.  Once I got home, Angel saw there was a recipe on the back and asked if she could make it for everyone.  I love letting the kids cook and create in the kitchen, so of course I said sure!

Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp salt

12 cups air-popped popcorn (6-8 Tbs kernels)

1/2 cup dark chocolate morsels

1 stick unsalted butter

40 mini peppermint marshmallows

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 275.

2.  Add chocolate and butter into a microwaveable bowl and heat for 30 seconds at a time until melted completely.

3.  Stir in marshmallows and heat for 15 seconds at a time until melted.

4.  Stir in salt.

5.  Pour over popcorn and toss until coated.

6.  Spread out on a greased baking sheet.

7.  Bake for 10 minutes, stir and bake for another 10 minutes until crisp.

8.  Enjoy!

This would make a great treat for a party, or a gift for someone special on your list.  Adding in extra marshmallows after the mix cools can give it some extra color and texture.  The original recipe called for semi-sweet chocolate, but we are big dark chocolate fans over here, so we used that instead.  If I hadn’t used all of our mint flavoring on fudge this week, I would have added in a bit more to the chocolate mix, as it wasn’t *quite* as minty as we would have liked.  Still delicious overall though!

My friend Nancy (she’s an artist, check out her stuffs y’all!) sent me a link to a post about omelets in a bag recently.  I can’t believe I had never heard of them before!

Each weekend that I have a day off from events, I try to plan a hands on breakfast that I can make with my kids.  We love omelets, but it’s hard to make 8 of them at once and still manage to eat all together.  I always have two pans going, but even so, by the time I finish cooking, the first two batches have already been gobbled up.  This method allows the kids to customize their own breakfast, and everything can be cooked all at once.  (For another delicious breakfast recipe that’s easy to make with the kids, check out my Biscuit Breakfast Bake post!)

Omelets in a bag

Directions:

1. Set out your ingredients.

2. Write everyone’s name on a bag (permanent marker).

3. Let everyone pick out their own ingredients.

4. Add a ladle of egg to each bag.

5. Double check everyone’s bags to make sure they are sealed all the way. (watery eggs, yuck!)

This time, I chopped up a wide variety of ingredients.  The kids were able to choose from peppers, onions, olives, tomatoes, peppers, cheese, apples, bacon, and more.  For seasonings, I set out cinnamon, honey, garlic powder, onion powder, jelly, pepper, and salt.  Cracking eggs can get a little messy with kids, so I did that part for them before portioning the eggs into the bags.

6.   Put the bags into a large pot of water.  Bring to a boil.

7.  Cook for about 10 minutes, you’ll be able to see when the eggs are finished cooking.

8.  Open the bags and remove the omelets.  They should just slide right out. (No grease, oil, or butter needed!)

9.  Enjoy!

Not only is this a quick way to prepare omelets, but it takes the caked-on egg skillets out of the equation!  My kids loved that they could choose exactly what they wanted in their omelets.  Allowing children to make their own choices about small things helps to build their confidence, and teaches them about independence.  Plus, it’s a lesson in consequences as well.  If they refuse to listen to mom and instead put in 6 Tbs of jelly and 2 Tbs of salt into their eggs, they’ll learn really quick that maybe they should have paid attention, and you won’t even have to nag!

I may be busy a lot of the time with business, but weekend breakfast with my kids is a moment I treasure.  We get a chance to talk about school, friends, their activities, and more.  It’s such a great way to start the day!  And now with this easy bagged method, we can all eat at the same time on omelet day!

(BTW, if you are a camper, this is an excellent way to cook eggs at a campsite!)

Want to make this meal even easier?  Check out some of my favorite time saving kitchen tools below!

1.  Double balloon whisk – Mine is from when I was a Pampered Chef consultant, but any brand will do.  They work so much better than a traditional whisk, and really beat things up pretty quickly.  Twice the wires means half the work time! (Be sure to use the end of the whisk to “pop” the yolks first, they’ll mix up much faster that way.)

2.  Food chopper – Another thing I had from Pampered Chef days, a food chopper really saves times on chopping up ingredients, and you can get the exact type of chop you desire, from rough to extremely fine.

3. Mini ladles – My favorite is the one ounce size.  We have a variety of ladles, but this one is the most versatile.  Works great for ladling eggs in this case, but it’s also perfect for gravy, dessert sauces, and more.  Using those huge soup ladles just doesn’t cut it sometimes!

*This post includes affiliate links, and I earn a small commission from any items purchased. Maybe even enough to take my kids out for ice cream. Or buy myself a cheap bottle of wine!*

Have you ever tried to cook eggs in a bag?  What’s your favorite way to eat your omelet?  Share your favorite recipe in the comments below!