franks red hot

Veggie-Packed Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

/ foodsweatandbeers / 12 Comments

That title, that was the inspiration of my day yesterday.  I wanted mac and cheese, I wanted buffalo chicken and I KNEW I needed some veggies in the mix.  It was all I was thinking about all morning.

It was on my mind while I was eating breakfast.

Oh, it is love.

Welcome the newest addition to my breakfast lineup: Almond Breeze Almond Milk & Coconut Milk Blend. My local Harris Teeter featured this as a NEW ITEM and I can’t resist bold letters and coconut anything.

The verdict? It’s amazing. It’s like a little pina colada in my morning cereal!! Adding in some pineapples, I basically feel like, even though I’m eating twigs (errr… I mean Fiber Fruit & Nut cereal), breakfast time has become a mini-vacation. I mean, I’m not off in the tropics (yet) but it’s delicious.

The mac and cheese was still on my mind when I stopped by the grocery store (to pick up the ingredients).  Luckily, I also picked up a little amuse-bouche from the in-store Starbucks.

Hand shown for perspective

I present the tiniest, tastiest Starbucks shot.  I wanna tell you it was a strawberry smoothie, but I honestly don’t know. It was pink, covered in whipped cream, and even had it’s own tiny straw.  Irresistible.

And, of course, it was on my mind when I got home.  So I did some searching on the internet, scouring Pinterest to see if this had been done before.  And maybe it had, but I got lazy and decided to do it on my own.

The results were cheesy, healthy(ish), and delicious.

Appetizing looking? Maybe not. Fantastic? Absolutely.

I didn’t write down exacts, but here’s the best I got for a recipe.

Ingredients:

  • One cup of whole wheat rotini pasta
  • 2 Cups of water (for cooking the pasta)
  • 1/5 of a red onion, chopped
  • 1/4 of a red pepper, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon of EVOO
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of finely riced cauliflower
  • 1 Laughing Cow Blue Cheese wedge
  • 1/4 cup of Frank’s Red Hot (original is my favorite)
  • 1 Chicken Breast (grilled and chopped in bits)
  • 1/4 cup of milk
  • As much shredded cheese as you’d like (I went with about 1/4 cup of sharp cheddar, and a few sprinkles of mozzarella and “Mexican blend” cheese)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cook pasta as directed, and set aside.
  3. Sauté onion and pepper in the olive oil until soft and delicious.
  4. Place pasta, chicken, and veggies (onions, cauliflower, red pepper) in a loaf pan, stirring to mix up ingredients.
  5. Put milk, Laughing Cow wedge, and 3/4 of the cheese in a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 20 second spurts, stirring so that it becomes creamy.
  6. Pour creamy cheese over mix, adding Frank’s Red Hot to the mix and stir, coating all the pasta/chicken/veggies (liberally).
  7. Sprinkle extra cheese over the mix for a meltiness.
  8. Place pan in the oven, and cook until hot and melted.
  9. Enjoy the HECK out of it!!

Add some extra Frank's if you are addicted to heat.

So good.

What food (foods) do you get cravings for?

Mac and Cheese is always one of mine.

Microwave Titration: Office Hardships

/ foodsweatandbeers / 12 Comments

Here’s the thing: I dont remember much about high school chemistry class.  My teacher’s name was Mrs. Arensberg, my friend has a seizure in the middle of one class, and we did an experiment with titration.  Just because I remember that I did that experiment, I couldn’t tell you what titration means.  I vaguely recall, though, that it involved messing with one beaker, and then another, trying to get the right balance of fluid into a bigger beaker.  My chemistry major whizkid boyfriend is going to hate this post so much.

Titration is not.... you can't just make up definitions for.... nevermind.

Yup, just call me Jordan Nye the Science Guy. (Fun Fact: I met Bill Nye when I was in college, he visited UNC.  Less Fun Fct: He was a total asshole.  Seriously, not nice at all.) 

That’s all beyond the point.  What I’m getting at, is that the act of adding some from one beaker and some from another always sat with me as how titration works. And I feel as though, every day I use the microwaves at work, I’m doing my own little chemistry experiment.  Only, instead of trying to balance liquies from two beakers, I am trying to balance out the power of two different microwaves in the office.

In the red corner, we have this little gem:

Heater of all foods good.

This microwave is the jack of all trades. It can toast, it can nuke, and it does it all without burning anything.  My food always emerges hot, not crusty, there are often treats on top (such as chocolate chip cookies or chocolate frogs like I saw yesterday!!)  It’s a beautiful thing to walk over there, and my popcorn never stinks up the office by burning.  Sometimes, when I’m waiting for my popcorn, I do wallsits by this microwave.  I love it.

Then, in the blue corner, we have this eyesore:

DEMON MICROWAVE!

This. Microwave. Sucks. It turns frozen meals into hard as rock, inedible blocks, it burns the living daylights out of popcorn, and I constantly have to change the length of time as well as the power level.  And on those rare occasions when I am cooking a veggie patty in one, and want to make steamed veggies in the other… I have to choose which gets the demon (or wait 8 minutes to eat instead of 4). 

 
Today, the Morningstar Grillers Chik’n Patty had the shame of being put in the demon.  I had to watch it like a hawk and, even still, the edges got a little burnt/crisper than I usually like.  Despite my best efforts, it was not my finest work, but I avoided the great Lean Cuisine Rock that happened in 2010 (seriously, I couldn’t pull the enchilada from the rice… it was bad.)
Salvaged meal

Chicken patty slathered in laughing cow blue cheese and Frank’s Red hot (A favorite sandwich combo of mine)! The vegetables, of course, were perfect.  Corn, carrots, peas, and green beans.  I rounded things off with a sugar-free jello cup, and I get a feeling I’ll be sneaking over to that beautiful microwave of treats to sneak a cookie… or the head of that frog!!

Until then, I’ll leave the titration to the beau.  I’ll take care of everything else… especially of looking classy.

Don’t worry. I got this.

What’s for your lunch today?

 
How are the facilities at your office when it comes to whipping up a tasty meal?