Taco mac and cheese

Ok as many of you have noticed, I usually just post recipes I'm interested in trying or have never had before. But occasionally I invent something random. Today is one of those days! This afternoon I went into the kitchen to see what needed to be used up and I found some leftover green chili chicken from Wednesday and leftover taco fixings from my family's dinner last night. I also found a can of corn and a can of fire roasted green chilis. I also really really wanted to eat pasta so when I put that all together I got: Taco mac and cheese! I know that sounds really weird, but I thought it was really good! Stephen was weirded out by it at first, but he's since changed his mind! He likes it! Try it! See what you think! I think I can make this better, so I'm going to try making it again and changing things up a bit.
note: proportions are small because I only had half a bag of pasta. Feel free to adjust as necessary.

1/2 lb pasta

Leftover meat (I had about a half cup of green chili chicken)

1/2 cup canned corn
1 tsp chopped cilantro
1-2 tsp green chilis (the kind in a can)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2-1 tsp butter
1/4 cup milk
2-3 handfuls shredded cheese (I used Mexican cheese)

Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente, strain and set aside. Throw the leftover meat into a skillet and add the corn. Once the corn and meat are warm, add the cilantro, green chilis, onion powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Let it cook, stirring ocassionaly so that it doesn't burn.

Once everythings hot and delicious, set it aside. After you have drained the pasta, melt the butter in the empty pasta pot over low heat. Add the milk and stir in the shredded cheese. Stir continually so that it doesn't burn. Once the cheese sauce has come together, add the pasta and stir to combine. Add the meat mixture and stir. Pour it in a bowl and eat up! I topped mine with a bit of shredded lettuce and tomatoes which really added a nice cool crunch. I definitely recommend adding lettuce, but if you don't have any, it'll still taste like a taco on pasta!

XOXO

Natalie

I'm a mad scientist

For those of you that are on facebook you may have seen me ranting about my oven the other day. I. Hate. My. Oven. It's like 50 years old, doesn't cook evenly, one of the burners never works, and when the ovens on, two of the burners don't work. that's like a recipe for disaster. On Saturday I had a lot of free time so I wanted to bake something. I decided on chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting but I never got to eat them! Because my oven destroyed them. I double checked the recipe, I didn't over mix (if anything, I under mixed), but still. They sunk. Here's a picture of the spectacular fail.

So hopefully the fix-it people will be coming by and fixing it. Or better yet, replacing it.Now since I had failed so much with the cupcakes, I wanted to make something else that would be awesome. So I put a bunch of ingredients from the pantry, fridge, and freezer on the counter.

Then Dan and Dominick helped me decide what we should and shouldn't use. In the end, I made three different rice dishes. It was super multicultural! Asian, Mexican, and Italian.First I made rice in the rice cooker using a can of chicken broth and a packet of onion soup mix for seasoning. When the rice was done I let it cool in the freezer so that it would be easier to fry.For the Asian rice I fried the rice in butter and added green beans and corn, ground ginger, and Siracha hot sauce.

For the mexican rice, I fried the rice with pico de gallo and taco seasoning then put shredded cheese on top.

For the Italian rice, I made tomato sauce with lots of herbs and spices then added the rice.

Overall I thought this turned out pretty well! My favorite was the Asian rice (the ginger was awesome in it) but the boys liked the Mexican and Italian rice better. They're not much for vegetables.

Sorry I don't have recipes for them, I was kind of improvising. But you can totally make these too! Just season them similarly to your taste.

XOXO

Natalie