Veggie baked Mac-n-Cheese

I've been on the hunt for a good veggie filled "Healthier" homemade mac-n-cheese recipe, and I finally found one that I really like.  I switched up the recipe a little bit and added in different veggies, then I BAKED it to give it that yummy crispy casserole crust.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces shell noodles, (2 cups)
• 1 half cauliflower finely chopped (you can use broccoli too)
• 3 cups baby spinach or baby kale chopped
• 2-3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1 3/4 cups whole milk (divided; set 1/4 c milk aside)
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard 
• 1/4 cup Panko Bread crumbs
• Optional: 1/8-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (to give it some kick!) 

Preheat oven to 350.  Boil up the shell noodles as directed.

In a separate pan, saute cauliflower and fresh garlic in a little bit of olive oil.  Once the cauliflower is soft, add in the spinach and saute til it wilts.

In a small bowl, mix flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, then whisk in 1/4 cup milk, mix well and set aside.

In a pot, slowly simmer 1.5 cups of milk on medium heat.  Once it starts to boil whisk in the flour/milk mixture and stir for 2-3 minutes or until milk mixture has thickened up.  Add in cheese and Dijon mustard.  Once cheese is melted, add in cauliflower mixture and add in shell noodles.  Mix well.

Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking pan. Sprinkle Panko bread crumbs on top.  Bake in the oven for 10 min. then broil it for 3-5 min. or until the bread crumbs are golden brown. 

Take it out, let it cool for 7-10 minutes.  Serve it up and ENJOY!

*recipe courtesy of "The Picky Eater Blog"

**For lower fat - substitute whole milk for 1% or non-fat and use low fat cheese

Roasted Garlic Chicken & Alfredo Pizza

My kids LOVE pizza. A lot.

I feel like I'm trying to come up with new creations because WE LOVE IT TOO!!! However, I LOVE HOME-MADE pizza, crust and all... 

I decided to take a stab at homemade pizza crust using the Homemade bread Recipe. 

 Read on....you'll see if it worked out! (Kind of a loaded statement...huh? Of course it did, or I wouldn't be posting this)

So first...you need an elephant garlic bulb.
You'll cut off the top to be able to expose the garlic cloves,
Then drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the entire bulb and sprinkle salt and pepper over everything.
Wrap completely in foil. Place on cookie sheet and bake.
Bake at 350 for 50 min.

After it's done roasting, remove from foil and it's ready to use in recipes.

Then, open this "Homemade Bread" tab and prepare your bread and let it rise.

Once the bread is done rising in the bowl, get all your other ingredients and tools ready.

Ingredients:

Flour

Corn meal

Bread dough

Tools:

Rolling pin,

flat surface

Cooking stone (works the best)

or cookie sheet with parchment paper laid on it.

Punch Bread dough down, until all AIR is out of dough.

Take a big chunk of the dough (about half of it) and place it on a lightly floured surface.

As you can see, I took about half the dough and will make the pizza crust from the dough. The remaining dough I will make into homemade dinner rolls. 

Roll out the bread dough to a very THIN pizza crust.

Place some cornmeal on the back and gently rub it in.

As you lift up the bread dough, the remaining cornmeal will fall off.
Cover your cooking stone with cornmeal (or cover your parchment paper with cornmeal)
and lay bread dough over stone.

Cut the hanging dough using a pizza cutter and trim the edges.

Trim the edges, so it fits perfectly on the stone.

VOILA! Pizza crust.
DONE!!!

Place immediately into refrigerator.
 (or it will start rising again)

Next, grab your pizza ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 Roma tomato

5 green onions

1 elephant garlic, roasted

2 c. Mozzarella cheese

1 c. Colby Jack cheese

1-2 c. Rotisserie Chicken

Pizza Seasoning grinder (I LOVE this grinder)

1 jar pizza sauce

1 jar of alfredo sauce

1/2 package of turkey pepperoni

First, place 3 roasted cloves in a food processor, or blender.

Pour in 1/2 the jar of Alfredo sauce.

Pour in 1/3 jar of pizza sauce.

Blend.

Pour over pizza crust.
(My kids love the good ol' fashioned pepperoni pizza, so for the rest of these pictures it will be a half and half pizza)

You may choose to do a half and half pizza or the full garlic chicken alfredo pizza.
Place original pizza sauce on one side and the garlic-alfredo on the other.
Place rotisserie chicken on the garlic-alfredo.

Place topping over the areas you wish to have them.
Grind the pizza seasonings over the entire pizza.

Cover entire pizza with mozzarella cheese.
Place onions and tomatoes on the garlic-alfredo side.

....and DONE!

Preheat oven to 425.
Bake for 15-19 min.
Check after 10 min for big bubbles in dough to develop.
Make sure those bubbles are popped with a fork.

Remove from oven and let cool for about 5-10 min.

Hope you enjoy our spin on semi-homemade garlic alfredo and chicken pizza!

Chicken and Ham Creamy Parmesan Lasagna

Another one of OUR favorites. Go ahead, I dare you to not fall in love with this combination. 

The flavors are unexpectedly perfect together. 

Ham, fresh parsley, chicken broth..... go on, keep reading....or salivating.

Ingredients:

2 C. Chicken Broth

1/2 tsp. Freshly ground black pepper

3 1/4 C. Skim Milk

1/3 C. + 1 tbsp. Flour

1 1/2 C. freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/4 C. chopped parsley

12 no-cook lasagna noodles,divided

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and chopped up, divided (I've used rotisserie chicken in the past, but that increases the sodium, FYI)

8 oz. ham, divided

1 cup thinly chopped asparagus, divided

1 cup Pepper Jack cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place broth and 1/4 tsp. pepper in a large pot over medium high heat.
Bring to a boil.

In a blender, combine flour, milk and remaining pepper together.

Mix thoroughly.

Add milk mixture to broth in pan.

Stir CONSTANTLY over medium-high heat.

Bring to a boil.

Let cook for ONE minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat,
Add 1 C. Parmesan cheese.

Add parsley.

Stirring until cheese melts.

You can use one 9x13 pan
or two 8x8 pans.
Be sure to spray PAM on your pans.

Spread a little sauce over the bottom of the pan(s). 

Layer the "oven ready" noodles over sauce.

Layer the Asparagus, Chicken, Ham & Pepper Jack over the noodles.

Noodles again.

Spoon a little more sauce over the noodles.

Add some chicken, ham, asparagus and pepper jack cheese.

Then noodles and sauce, again.

Last layer of Chicken, Ham, Asparagus and Pepper jack.

Follow up with the final layer of noodles.
Add a pinch of fresh parsley (if you still have some left over) and the rest of the Parmesan cheese on top.

Cover with foil that's been sprayed with Pam as well.
Cook for 30 min

Remove from oven and let it cool for about 10-15 min.
It allows the lasagna to set up.

Then, serve alongside a hearty salad or veggie of your choice.

It makes a great meal, and what do you know....green veggies are even inside!
Eat up!

This was for dessert!
Boy, oh boy....I love cooking for my little family!