When she started in on another costume, I realized I probably could have sent her. But she was home, which wasn't a big deal. The bigger deal was my husband came home from work Wednesday with a cough and temperature. He called into work that night for two days off.
Bleh. I have to admit as sick husbands go, mine's not too bad. But there's the stress of having yet another person in the house on a weekday and trying to keep to a routine all the while listening to him sigh and grunt, follow me around the house to see what I'm doing, coughing.
I usually don't get the bugs my family gets, but still, I made my husband turn away from me in bed so he wouldn't cough at the back of my head.
I asked him if he needed me to buy a roasted chicken and make up some chicken noodle soup. I'm not sure if it was just his passive/aggressive nature or if he couldn't decide whether he wanted chicken noodle soup, but it took him forever to just tell me he could eat whatever (there's 15 minutes of my life I'll never get back).
I made an executive decision though: two people home sick called for comfort food - not for them, for me. I remembered a recipe from The Blind Lady Cafe that randomly propagated on my Facebook page the other day, and with a bag of elbow macaroni from my housebound friend, I decided "Crockpot Mac and Cheese" was just what this crazy housewife needed.
I'm always looking for a good, homemade mac and cheese recipe that is as gooey and good as Costco. I haven't been able to achieve that kind of success - until now. This is a good one for my first double digit episode. Look at that! I've actually had new recipes for Good Food Friday for several weeks now.
- All ingredients into the Crock Pot, EXCEPT the 1 pound bag of Macaroni noodles!! They get added later.
- Setting on LOW to make the sauce. After 1 hour, stir the sauce. Add COOKED Macaroni (cook and drain noodles while sauce is cooking)
- Stir the noodles and sauce together. Add in any seasonings you desire .. like salt n pepper or spices/seasonings you like!! [I added paprika and pepper - Gleigh]
- At this time you may also add in any extras like cooked cubed ham, cooked chopped bacon, cooked chopped sausages, par cooked veggies, frozen mix veg. [I added cubed ham - Gleigh]
- Cook on LOW another 45 minutes.
- BLC TIP *** - you do NOT have to add the full measurement of cream cheese or evaporated milk. Half the amount of those works just as well don't add them at all if you're not fond of really cheesy mac n cheese!! [I did it by the book and it turned out great! - Gleigh]
- Then put setting on "Keep Warm" until ready to serve.
So I tried out my housebound friend's Banana Split Bread recipe on the old bananas in the fruit basket. It smelled so freakin' good and after that yummy mac and cheese it was the perfect end to my comfort food evening.
Banana Split Bread
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened [I used salted - Gleigh]
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/4 cup Maraschino cherries, chopped
1/4 cup nuts, chopped (optional)
1 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips [miniature is really important - they are oh so mini and don't sink to the bottom of the muffin tins; except for a few in each cup which I deemed muffin poop, so cute- Gleigh]
1/4 cup crushed pineapple, optional [it sticks with the Banana split theme, but I didn't use it cuz my youngest doesn't like pineapple and it didn't sound good to me - Gleigh]
Beat together butter, sugar, eggs and bananas. Add dry ingredients. Stir in remaining ingredients.
350 degree oven.
I doubled the batch and got 24 muffins and one small loaf. Here are all the baking times for all the variety of shapes you could make it:
5 - 3 1/2 x 6 1/2" loaves = 40 to 50 minutes
Large muffin cups = 35 minutes
Regular muffin cups = 20 minutes
Regular loaf = 1 hour
This morning my daughter is off to school, my husband is bored so he's fixing my daughter's headlight, and I'm off to coffee with a friend. Comfort food really does work.