Kitchen Adventures; Five Cheese Mac

Husband has had to travel a lot for work lately. He usually cooks. He is responsible for making the most delicious things in our house. I was recently told by a friend that we should host dinner parties so that others can come over and share in our his glorious food inventions.

I am a dessert person. I bake... but he has even managed to tinker into my realm with the most amazing cinnamon rolls.

With him gone, I am responsible for feeding myself. This is good and bad. A typical weeknight slightly lazy Alyssa means I have chicken and veggie stirfry again - no rice because who needs those extra carbs in LA, or I would rather have dessert.  A lot lazy Alyssa means I scrounge around for something I can microwave - frozen burritos or eggrolls, or those awesome teriyaki chicken bowls they have at Costco - not the most amazing thing ever, but more food groups are represented than in a frozen burrito.

So, when I'm only a little lazy, I eat really healthy, but when I'm a lot lazy or not lazy at all, I tend to make less awesome for my body food choices.

This week with hubs out of town, I A)had a lot of free time and B)needed to cook for myself.

So Monday night I made Five Cheese Macaroni...

First let me just say roux's scare me. I've made them before, but I am always always apprehensive. How much butter do I need? When do I add the flour? How do you know if there is too much flour? How come my roux doesn't look like Alton Brown's?

After staring at the instructions for roux making for far too long, I just dove in. It worked out. I just made a simple nothing special roux, added milk and spices and then threw in a ton of cheese. I didn't really think about the flavor combos before I shredded my cheese. I just went for it.

Wisconsin Sharp Cheddar
White Cheddar
Honey Goat Gouda
Dubliner
and a sprinkling of Iberico.

Oh, and I totally forgot to buy milk when I was at the store right before I made this, so I used up what I had and then added about a half a cup of Vanilla Almond Milk. I had no idea if it would work. Almond milk sometimes has a sorta slimey consistency. That's the best way I can think to describe it. Plus it was vanilla flavored, so this was a total shot in the dark.

And I used shell pasta... because who wants elbow mac when you can have shells. Seriously, now.

I also took an amazing video of the cheese bubbling and popping when I took it out of the over. Not gonna post it because that takes to much time/energy, but it was so yummy looking. 

I made a whole batch of mac. Was this a good idea? Probably not. I ate about 1/6th of the pan for dinner that night and continued to have mac n cheese throughout the week - lunch the next day, dinner the day after that. I almost ate some for breakfast but thought better of it.

I did not ruin it by adding the almond milk. I can't even tell the difference.

To balance out my meal a bit, I sauteed some broccoli and baby zucchini.

I washed it down with some Hoegaarden and sat down to watch Gross Point Blank, which I realized I had never seen all the way through before. It's a great movie, FYI. So much awesome.

John Cusack was wonderful in the 90's.