I'm proud of myself.

I just have to blog about this because I am so proud of myself. Twice this week already I have made dinner. That is big, I hardly cook because we are never home at the same, I work nights (that will change in January) so we usually eat sandwiches, or cold cereal or we go out. After seeing how much money we have spent eating out that just had to change. So I made it a goal that I would cook more. So I have made dinner twice this week which usually lasts two days. Here are the recipes that I have made.

Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken

Ingredients:

4-6 Boneless Chicken Breasts (mine were still frozen!)

1 Bottle Archer Farms Hawaiian Style Barbecue Sauce (from Target)

1 20 oz. can Pineapple Chunks, drained

Directions:

Spray the inside of your crock pot with cooking spray for an easy cleanup! Place frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot and cover with sauce. Empty can of drained pineapple chunks on top. Cook on High for 2-3 hours or Low for 4-6 hours. Shred chicken with two forks while still in the crock pot so the chicken will be well coated with sauce. Serve over rice.

*Sometimes I also throw in a chopped up green pepper and chopped onion . . . it tastes good with or without it.

and...

Simple Macaroni and Beef with Cheese

1 large onion, diced

1 tablespoon canola oil

salt to taste

optional seasonings: black pepper, oregano, cumin, coriander, chopped garlic, hot smoked paprika, chilli powder—whatever you’re in the mood for (I just used black pepper, garlic and a tablespoon of fish sauce, which gives it depth)

one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, pureed in the can with a hand blender or in a blender blender

2 pounds lean ground beef

1 box macaroni

1 cup each grated cheddar and mozzarella cheeses

Sweat the onions in the oil with a three-fingered pinch of salt. Add the beef and cook it, breaking it up as you do. (Because my beef was very fatty, I cooked it separately and added it to the pot along with the tomatoes. Also an option, but uses an extra pan.) Add another three-fingered pinch of salt or two, along with any dry seasonings you want. Add the tomatoes and any fresh seasonings you may be using, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low and cook for an hour.

Cook the macaroni in boiling water till it’s half done. Drain it and add it to the tomatoes. (I wanted this to stretch into two meals, so I used the whole box, but if you want your dish to be very tomatoey and beefy, you might want to add only half the macaroni). Stir it into the sauce. Taste it. Add more salt and other seasonings as needed, and cover. When it’s cooled and the pasta has absorbed the tomato juices, transfer it to a large baking dish and cover it with foil. It can sit out for several hours like this, be refrigerated for up to two days, or frozen a few weeks.

Bake it in a 400 degree oven till it’s piping hot (about 45 minutes if it’s cold to room temperature). Just before you’re ready to eat, remove the foil, cover macaroni with the cheese and broil till it looks beautiful.

Having used all the pasta, I put the second batch into the cleaned baking dish and covered it with foil, wrote “Mac and Beef, bake, cover with cheese and broil” on the foil with a sharpie—so that next time I’m gone, Donna has a mid-week meal ready to go.

Now that we have this frozen version, it begs the question, “What is the difference between pulling this homemade version and baking it, and cooking the ubiquitous store-bought kind?” Besides the fact that it’s more satisfying to serve from glass than from foil or plastic? Besides the good ingredients and lack of bad ones? Besides all that extra, gooey, delicious melted cheese? Besides that it was fun to make? Besides that it tastes better?

I got all these recipes off of pinterest. Pinterest has saved my life and I actually enjoy trying all he new recipes. I can't wait to see what else I can make and hopefully the hubby enjoys my hard labor and my attempts at cooking.