Candied Bacon Pretzel Mac & Cheese

Our friend Jason held his birthday at Infusion Brewing in Trinity last week. The brewery was hosting a mac & cheese competition that day so of course we had to participate!

The contest was judged on cheesiness, texture, seasoning, overall taste, and creativity. We spent time on Pinterest trying to find a unique recipe and came across a couple that incorporated pretzels for crunchy texture, which was perfect since they also pair great with beer! As an added bonus, we also topped ours with candied bacon, one of Lance’s mom’s recipes.

There were nine different kinds (one was disqualified since it was made by one of the brewers). There was a pretty good variety, but I’m of course biased and loved ours the best! Our second favorite was actually the disqualified one which incorporated Infusion Brewing’s “Pep in Yo Step” Double IPA, brewed with jalapeño and serrano peppers.

Unfortunately, we weren’t the winners this time – honestly I think it wasn’t as much based on taste/creativity as it was on who had the largest group of people with them to vote. Ours was completely devoured by the time we left, so in my books that means we won. And now we have a really awesome go-to mac and cheese recipe if we really want to splurge!

We doubled the recipe below which ended up making even more than would fit in our large crockpot. Unless you’ve got a huge group, a single version of the recipe will feed plenty of people

Candied Bacon Pretzel Mac & Cheese (adapted from Food to Love)

Ingredients:

• 8 pieces candied bacon (recipe here), broken into bite-sized pieces  
• 1 pound cavatappi pasta (you can use whatever kind you like, but the spiral shape held the cheese pretty well)
• 16 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 T Dijon mustard
• 4 cups milk (we used 2%)
• 1¼ cups heavy cream
• 2 cups sharp cheddar
• 2 cups pepperjack cheese
• 1 cup mozzarella  
• 5 T butter
• 1 cup pretzels, chopped into pieces
• ½ cup panko breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Cook the candied bacon according to the recipe (this can be done a day ahead of time since it takes two hours to cook).

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Cook pasta for 2 minutes less than the cooking time in the instructions.

4. Shred the cheddar, mozzarella and pepperjack cheeses.

5. Drain and dump the cooked pasta into a large greased baking dish (we used a disposable one since we didn’t have one large enough).

6. Process cream cheese, salt, and mustard until smooth. Add half the milk, process until smooth. Pour over the pasta mixture. Stir in the remaining milk, cream, half of the candied bacon, and 4 cups of the shredded cheese mixture.  

7. Top the pasta with the remaining 1 cup of shredded cheese, remaining candied bacon, and the panko breadcrumbs

8. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

9. Take out of oven and top with pretzel pieces.

Note: We had to transfer this all to a crockpot to keep it warm at the competition, so we waited to add the candied bacon and pretzel topping until we moved the pasta to the new dish.

Mediterranean Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

We had our friend Vimmi over for dinner the other night. Since she’s vegetarian, I scanned my “Vegetarian Meals” Pinterest board for ideas. She’s also allergic to gluten, so that vetoed a lot of the options like pasta and pizza. But I came across this recipe for Mediterranean stuffed sweet potatoes and it’s one of my new favorites. It was great served hot, as well as cold leftovers a few days later. 

We cooked the sweet potatoes in the crock pot while at work which is how I’m always going to cook them from now on. It requires zero effort and they turn out perfectly soft inside. 

Recipe (adapted from A Saucy Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 3 T extra virgin olive oil
• 2 T fresh lemon juice, divided
• 1 T lemon zest
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 T chopped fresh parsley, divided
• ¼ t sea salt
• 1 medium ripe avocado
• ¼ cup garlic hummus (or you can use regular hummus and add a clove of garlic)
• ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• Crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. Scrub your sweet potatoes, poke holes in them, and wrap them in foil. Cook them on low in a crock pot for 6-8 hours.

2. In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas, olive oil, 1 T lemon juice, lemon zest, 1 clove garlic, 1 T parsley, and sea salt. Toss to marinate then set aside.

3. In a food processer, blend the avocado, garlic hummus, 1 T parsley, and 1 T lemon juice.

4. Assemble your sweet potatoes. Depending on how hungry you are, either cut a slit in the potatoes to stuff them, or serve half a potato per person (our potatoes were large, so we only ate half per person). Spread the avocado sauce over the potato, then top with the marinated chickpeas, pepitas, and feta. Enjoy!  

Slow Cooker Corn & Potato Soup with Sautéed Shrimp

I’ve built up an assortment of cooking magazines from over the years, but I’m not very good and taking them off the shelf and using them. Most of the time I end up picking our meals from Pinterest.

I have a collection of Rachael Ray Every Day, Bon Appétit, Southern Living and Cooking Light. We wanted something easy for dinner this week, so I found a slow cooker soup recipe from the August 2016 issue. This soup was even better as leftovers when we added some shredded chicken to it!

Slow Cooker Corn & Potato Soup with Sautéed Shrimp (adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

•        7 ears yellow corn, shucked
•        4 cups unsalted chicken stock
•        1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
•        1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
•        6 small red potatoes, cut into 3/4-in. pieces
•        1 cup half-and-half
•        1/4 cup unsalted butter, divided
•        1 teaspoon black pepper
•        Sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning
•        1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
•        3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, divided
•        Optional: cooked chicken, shredded (great way to use leftover rotisserie)

Directions:

1. Cut kernels from corn cobs to measure about 4 cups. Using the dull side of a knife blade, scrape liquid from corn cobs directly into a 6-quart slow cooker.

2. Add cobs and 3 cups kernels. Stir in chicken stock, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and potatoes. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 hours and 30 minutes.

3. Discard cobs. Stir half-and-half and 2 tablespoons butter into corn mixture. Transfer corn mixture to a blender (depending on your blender size, you may have to do half at a time). Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in lid (to avoid splatters). Process until smooth. Pour into a large bowl. Stir in pepper.

4. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat; cook 2 minutes or until foamy. Add shrimp, remaining 1 cup corn kernels, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt to pan; sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning.  Cook 4 minutes or until shrimp turn pink and are done, stirring occasionally.

5. Stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons chives. Divide soup among 10 shallow bowls; top evenly with shrimp mixture, and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons chives.

Homemade Crockpot Applesauce

Lance just got his wisdom teeth out, finally.  This means that our fridge is stocked full of mush right now – jello, pudding, ice cream, etc. 

I had just bought a giant bag of apples before his surgery, not thinking about the fact that I’d have to eat them all on my own.  I decided to try making homemade applesauce so he could enjoy them too. 

After this, I won’t ever get store-bought applesauce again.  It’s made in the crockpot so it’s super simple and cooking the apples for such a long time gives them a much richer flavor – the Motts stuff seems so bland compared to this. 

It’s amazing just on its own, but I’ve been enjoying it added to oatmeal or on top of vanilla ice cream (like I said, our fridge is all soft foods right now…)  This recipe made 2 large mason jars worth, but next time I plan to double it since we went through them so quick. 

Crockpot Applesauce (adapted from Pip and Ebby)

  

Ingredients:

• 10 medium apples (I used Gala)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 T cinnamon
• Juice from ½ a lemon

Directions:

1.    Peel and core the apples (you can leave the skin on if you’d like the texture, but I wanted it to be as easy to eat as possible so Lance could enjoy it…)

2.    Dump everything into a crock pot and cook for 8 hours.

3.    Use a potato masher or large fork to break up the apples.  Enjoy!  

Slow-Cooker Beef Lettuce Wraps

Two nights in a row of new recipes!  I love anything Asian-inspired.  I get a few cooking magazines in the mail (Everyday with Rachael Ray, Cooking Light, Southern Living).  Honestly, I don’t end up cooking the recipes as much as I’d like – most of my meal ideas come from Pinterest.  But I like getting something in snail-mail besides bills and junk. 

My June copy of Cooking Light had this recipe for beef lettuce wraps with pickled vegetables.  It only had cucumbers and carrots, but I added some red bell peppers, green onions, and mushrooms to make it extra veggie-filled. 

My favorite lettuce wraps are the ones at the Cheesecake Factory.  I rarely eat there anymore since I prefer trying out non-chain restaurants, but every time I go, that’s my dish.  Somehow it’s considered an appetizer but it’s big enough for two people to split it as a meal (that restaurant definitely doesn’t understand portion sizes…)

The beef wraps that we made were so filling that I actually could only eat two. Even though the beef cooks in juices, next time I may throw together a separate dipping sauce since I love the ones from the Cheesecake Factory version (maybe a peanut sauce could be nice?)

Lance actually used the leftovers from this dish to make a really tasty quiche a few days later. 

Slow-Cooker Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps: (adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray (we always use coconut oil spray)
• 1 large onion, cut into ½” slices
• 8 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1-1/2 t olive oil
• 1 2-lb boneless chuck roast, trimmed
• ½ cup unsalted beef stock
• ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 11 T rice vinegar, divided
• 2 T dark sesame oil, divided
• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T unsalted tomato paste
• 1 T white miso/soybean paste (I omitted this since it wasn’t an ingredient I’d normally use…)
• ¾ t crushed red pepper
• 1 cucumber, sliced
• ¾ cup julienne-cut carrots
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
• ½ cup mushrooms, sliced
• ¼ cup green onions, sliced
• 1 cup water
• 1 T granulated sugar
• ¾ t sale
• 1 head cabbage
• 2 t toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Coat the bottom and sides of your slow cooker with spray.  Line with onions and garlic. 

2. Heat the olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the roast to the pan, cooking about 3 minutes and turning to brown all sides.  Place the beef on top of the onions and garlic and pour the drippings from the pan on top.

3. Combine the stock, soy sauce, 3 T of the vinegar, 1 T sesame oil, brown sugar, tomato paste, and red pepper in a medium bowl and whisk together.  Pour over the beef, cover the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.

4. Place the cucumber, carrots, and red pepper in a shallow bowl 15 minutes before the meat is done.  Combine the remaining ½ cup rice vinegar, 1 cup water, and granulated sugar in a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.  Remove from the heat and pour over the vegetables.  Let stand until ready to serve, then drain well. 

5. Move the beef from the slow cooker to a large platter and shred with 2 forks.   

6. Heat the remaining 1 T sesame oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the shredded beef and onions, pressing into an even layer.  Cook 2-3 minutes without stirring. Turn off and sprinkle with salt and ½ c liquid from the crock pot (discard the rest of the liquid). 

7. Serve the beef with the pickled vegetables, green onions, and mushrooms.  Top with sesame seeds. 

Crock Pot Sriracha & Roasted Garlic BBQ Ribs

 

Lance was off work last Wednesday, so he had an incredible meal ready for us when I got home that night!  He made ribs in the crock pot and they were some of the best I’ve ever tasted.  He usually likes to just wing it, but I had given him a recipe that he loosely followed and wow – it was fantastic.  He prepared us cheesy toast and side salads to accompany our ribs. 

It was a feast – I ended up saving half my ribs since my portion was huge.   Since the weather has been cooler, he set up our patio with candles and plugged in our hanging globe lights.  He even documented his steps for me since he knows I like showing them when I share recipes on my blog!  I really scored a good one. 

Crock Pot BBQ Ribs (adapted from MMM is for Mommy)

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds pork baby back ribs
• 1.5 T smoked paprika
• 1 T light brown sugar
• 1 t seasoned salt
• ½ t crushed red pepper
• ½ t nutmeg
• ½ t red sea fusion (this is a mixed spice we have from Cork & Olive, but if you don’t have this, you can substitute a mix of garlic, salt, black pepper, and more paprika). 
• 1 cup BBQ sauce (we try to avoid using ones that have high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient or too many chemicals – Trader Joe’s makes an AWESOME Sriracha and Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce that’s organic and the ingredients are all natural)

Directions:

1. Mix together your spices in a bowl and rub both sides of your ribs well (Lance just eyeballed it & threw the spices directly on the ribs). 

 

 

2. Arrange in a large oval slow cooker with the meaty side against the pot.  Pour BBQ sauce over them and cook for 6-8 hours on low. 

3. Carefully remove your ribs from the crock pot and transfer them to a baking pan with a rack on top.  Place in the oven on broil for 3 – 4 minutes, brush with more BBQ sauce, and broil again for a few minutes.  This step only takes a few minutes, but it helped seal the sauce to the ribs and make them nice and crispy on the outside, while still remaining fall-off the bone tender.