Homestyle Mac and Cheese

For Valentines day my hubby and I switch off every year on planning the day. When it is my time I usually make a point to cook something for dinner that I know my husband will enjoy! He is a huge fan of southern cooking probably because he was born in South Carolina and grew up eating  lot of southern food. His favorite restaurant of all time is The Golden Corral, I had the pleasure of visiting this restaurant two times a few years ago when we went to visit his mother in North Carolina. This place has everything and I mean everything, It is a place I don't think I would be able to eat very often because my body is not used to all that butter, cheese and fat. Good thing it had a salad bar that I was able to full up on first. One of my hubby's favorite things at The Golden Corral is the Mac and Cheese, I think this is one of his overall favorite foods in general, he was super excited that my cousins fiance brought some to Christmas this year as well. Valentines day was my turn to try to please my hubby with a huge dish of Mac and Cheese in which I also added a few of his other favorite things, Chicken Sausages and Bacon.

MIND YOU WE DO NOT EAT LIKE THIS ON A REGULAR BASIS, I ALSO NEVER COOK WITH BUTTER SO THIS WAS ALL NEW TO ME! :) 

Ingredients:


1 box of Elbow Macaroni Noodles
1 Stick of Unsalted Butter
5 cups Milk
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
3 cups Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese
2 1/2 cups Shredded Colby Jack Cheese
4 Chipolte Chicken Sausage links
4 Previously Cooked Bacon Strips cut into small pieces
Salt, Pepper and Chipolte Seasoning to taste

Mac and Cheese Topping

1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
1/2 Stick Unsalted Butter
1 cup Shredded Colby Jack Cheese
Parsley to taste


Step One: Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Boil water and cook macaroni noodles for about six to seven minutes the noodles should be Undercooked ( al dente)  and set them aside to add to cheese mixture later.

Step Two: Brown Sausage in pan and set aside to add to Macaroni.

Step Three:  Melt stick of butter in pan and then stir in flour to make a paste.

Step Four: After Flour and Butter have cooked whisk in milk and season to taste. The starch from the cooked flour expands in the milk and makes a thick creamy sauce.

Step Five: Mix in Shredded Cheeses into butter and milk mixture: I used Pepper Jack for a kick and Colby Jack Cheese. Mix and then add in the al dente cooked noodles to the Cheesy along with Sausage and Bacon.

Step Six- Pour in the Macaroni into baking dish

Step Seven:  Mix Panko Bread Crumbs with melted butter and Parsley mix together and sprinkle on top of Macaroni top with the remaining cup of Colby Jack Cheese.

Step Eight: Place Mac and Cheese in the Oven, cook for 20-25 min until the bread crumbs on top have browned.

Step Nine: SERVE EAT AND ENJOY!  I added apple and salad on the side to even everything out! :) My hubby however COVERED his plate and didn't have room for any Salad.

Teriyaki Chicken, Broccoli and Brown Rice

Well HELLO again everyone!!!! It has been quite some time since I have posted a new blog so I thought I would get on it and blog a little tonight. This is something I'm throwing together for the first time tonight and wanted to do something simple and healthy.

In September I started using the website Loseit.com and also using the app on my Iphone. I had been sticking to  1200 calories a day as well as working out 5-6 days a week and I lost almost 10 pounds and felt GREAT! Well then Thanksgiving came and I ate a ton of turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie ( My favorite) and  got off track and figured might as well not worry about it since Christmas was coming and I know which my family I would be eating a ton of Christmas cookies as well as drinking many glasses of wine. I didn't do horrible, but I sure didn't stick to my 1200 calories a day.  I started to do my calorie counting again using Loseit.com as of yesterday and I am happy to be getting back on track. If anyone is looking for a great way to help you loose weight and better yet a free way to loose weight I highly recommend this site, I learned about it from the Hubby, who also lost over 10 pounds using it, and is getting back on it again himself. Its all about making the right choices and not having to cut things out of your diet, if you mess up on something just get back on the next meal you eat. I love it and it helps make eating healthy more of a lifestyle rather than a DIET!

OKAY now for the meal and recipe! I wanted to do something simple with as little dishes as possible. I had been seeing recipes on another one of my favorite websites Pinterest forTeriyaki chicken and Chinese beef and broccoli so I thought why not mix them together and make a Teriyaki Chicken and Broccoli dish. 


Teriyaki Chicken, Broccoli and Brown rice

2 Chicken Breasts
1 lb Broccoli florets

2 cups cooked brown rice


Marinaid
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Teriyaki Sauce

2 Tbls Brown Sugar

1 Tbls Olive Oil

3 Garlic cloves

Step one- Cut up chicken into bite size pieces and marinated in a bowl with the above ingredients for at least an hour in the fridge.

Step 2- If you are lucky enough to have an awesome rice cooker like me, cook up two cups of brown rice. I love this rice cooker, I use it all the time and helps us to make sure we eat our veggies! :)

Step 3- Use the steamer at the top of your rice cooker to steam the broccoli, if you don't have a rice cooker you can easily steam your broccoli in the microwave. It takes about 90 minutes for me to cook my rice in the rice cooker therefore that gave me the perfect amount of time to let my chicken marinate and  have enough time to cook up my chicken before the rice and broccoli were finished.

Step 4- Cook marinated chicken on the stove in a pan with olive oil.

Step 5- Add steamed broccoli into the chicken teriyaki when it has finished cooking this helps the broccoli get some of the yummy teriyaki flavor.

Step 6- Serve over Brown Rice, and Eat! YUM YUM!