Clean Mac n' Cheese

Triple Post Sunday!!! You have to wonder why I don't post throughout the week instead of overloading on a single day. Your guess is as good as mine. I'm going to start with laziness and end with I'm busy. Maybe I'll try to do better next year. New Year's Resolution? Lol. Anyway, I wanted to do a second review of thegraciouspantry's Clean Mac n' Cheese. That's right, I tried it again and really aced it this time! I figured out that go get the flour to meld into the milk, you have to nurse THE MESS out of it. I mean adding fragments of teaspoons of flour at a time and then alternating between swirling the pot and whisking. Of course, simultaneously, you have to make sure the milk doesn't boil. So at this point you're swirling, whisking, taking the pot on and off the stove, sprinkling fragments of flour, repeat until all the flour is in there. *whew* right? Definitely WHEW! But, totally worth it in the end. Also, instead of whole wheat flour I used basic unbleached white flour. I think using both whole wheat flour and whole wheat noodles creates too strong of a whole wheat flavoring. In addition, I used less ground mustard. Overall this attempt was far superior to the one prior. And, plus side, the recipe is so simple it's super easy to throw together in a pinch. Which I did. At this point, I would 100% say this is a 4 star recipe. If for nothing more than the ease of creation. It taste good too, not yet kraft, but definitely passable as a mac and cheese sauce recipe. Check it!


http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-macaroni-and-cheese/

(I really need to buy a camera.)

Rookie Mistakes

I've been making them all day. *sigh* But, lesson learned, you know? So I had this serious hankering for Mac and Cheese and we all know, if I'm cooking it's going to be clean. Therefore, I turned to my favorite clean chef Tiffany at, you guessed it, Thegraciouspantry.com. Check it:

I thought it was good. Kinda hit the spot. A 3.85 out of 5. I don't think I like Mac n' Cheese that has a pourable sauce. I like it to be combined. Like with Kraft. Or baked, like real homemade Mac n' Cheese...but mainly like Kraft. ANYways, I don't think using whole wheat flour (which I assume is used as a thickener) was wise...it's not that it settled or clumped, but you could definitely taste it. But I will say the sauce, overall, has a lot of potential. I would try it again sans flour and less ground mustard (my B!) AND I was thoroughly surprised how tasty the whole wheat macaroni turned out. I was expecting it to taste like poop. If  you really want clean Mac n' Cheese I recommend trying it; it's easy and tasty in it's own way.
http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-macaroni-and-cheese/

Further, I decided that along with my Mac n'Cheese I wanted to have mini meatloaf. Great idea, on the one hand, that I stole from Lacey at http://shesinyourface.blogspot.com. (Clearly I don't come up with my own recipes) She stole her recipe from Jamie Eason (I die!) and overall, it looks totally legit. Check it:

http://shesinyourface.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-heart-mini-meatloaves.html
I didn't use that recipe. Maybe one day. Instead, I used a basic meatloaf recipe (ground beef, green onions, bbq sauce[clean aspect OUT THE WINDOW!], bread crumbs[c'mon Lady!], an egg, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce & 1/2 serrano pepper). If you really want the recipe laid out bit by bit, let me know. Well, let me tell you. Generally speaking, I'm an ace meatloaf maker, however, because I decided I wanted to make mini meat loafs, here are two key aspects that everyone should know, and I should have caught.

Rookie mistake #1: If you note, the recipe at Lacey's site specifically uses a super lean meat (ground chicken or turkey). I, on the other hand, used lean ground beef. Normally this would be okay except when you make meatloaf in a muffin tin, there's no where for that extra oil and fat to drain to. Instead it's just sitting in the bottom of the muffin paper waiting for you. *sigh*

Rookie mistake #2: I like to minimize cleanup and thereby always use aluminum foil, or in this case, paper cupcake holders. I think, I know, this caused the meatloaf to cook unevenly so the whole thing was cooked, but the bottom part sitting in that contained oil didn't stiffen. It was super lame and super rookie-ish on my part. *sigh*

We'll get 'em next time, tiger, no? Salud!