Lunch Round Up #3

I am feeling pretty pleased with the lunch line up so far...while some things show up in the rotation on a more regular basis than others, I feel like I have kept a decent amount of variety in his lunch box. I will admit that part of the reason for that is the accountability of sharing it here. Whatever gets the job done, right?

Apple slices with peanut butter, homemade fries and cucumbers with ranch dipper, popcorn and chocolate

Rice cakes, string cheese, celery sticks with peanut butter, carrots, banana

carrots, lunch meat, cheese cubes, cucumber slices, popcorn, banana

pumpkin cornbread, oranges, applesauce with cinnamon, carrots, rice cakes with crock pot refried beans

Made this lunch special for my visit to his school (all his favorite things!) carrots, cornmeal and cheddar biscuits, homemade mac n cheese, turkey rice meatballs

orange slices, celery, leftover chicken and fries with ketchup dipper from his brother's birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse

banana, cucumbers, homemade tortillas and crock pot refried beans rolled up and fried with ranch dipper, carrots

Want more ideas? Check out past round ups:
Lunch Round Up #1
Lunch Round Up #2

I also have to be a little bit of a lunch container nerd and share how excited I am about the new dipping cups I got. I love, love, love the EasyLunchBoxes I have been using for 2 years now but couldn't find a dip container that fit inside. Imagine my excitement when they came out with their own perfectly sized dipping cups that have a snug lid and fit right inside the container!! You can find them here or on Amazon. (and no I am not getting reimbursed for this plug...I just truly love the product and wanted to share for any of you looking for the same kind of thing:)

Bacon MacNCheeseburger

I realize that I have shared several mac n' cheese recipes on my blog before (Chicken, Bacon, Ranch Mac N' Cheese - Mac N' Cheese with Steak and Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms). Both of those were using boxed mac n' cheese which I happened to have on hand due to a sale but rarely ever use. Ever since I learned how to make my own homemade mac n' cheese I have continued to tweak and play with the recipe and it has changed many times over. We love it plain but it is always fun to jazz it up with new ingredients as well.

Those of you who have been reading my grocery store posts or following Chrystal's Corner on Facebook know that I have recently gotten a HUGE stock of pasta built up. So this recipe doesn't actually use macaroni noodles because I wanted to use some of the penne I had on hand. I had been playing around with this recipe in my head for a little while and it finally all came together as I was cooking it. You could do lots of different things with this recipe like substituting the mustard and ketchup with BBQ sauce or using a variation of toppings. I am excited because I think it is a great summertime/BBQ/potluck version of mac n' cheese that I hope you will love as much as we did.

Bacon MacN'CheeseBurger
Ingredients:
- 1 lb box of pasta (macaroni, penne, shells, etc)
- 1/2 lb of ground beef
- 6 slices of bacon
- 1/4 cup of ketchup
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 4 Tbsp. flour
- 1-1/2 cup milk (more if your sauce is too thick for your liking)
- 3 packed cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (or whatever combination of cheese you like)
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 extra large egg yolks
- 2 heaping Tbsp. spicy brown mustard
- toppings of your choice (shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, chopped pickles, additional shredded cheese)

Directions:
1. I start by getting the meat all cooked. Season your ground beef with a little salt and pepper and cook until brown and crumbled. Turn heat way down and add the ketchup, stirring until heated through. Remove from heat. In a separate pan (or on an electric skillet) cook up the bacon, remove to paper towel when crisp. Once cooled down chop the bacon into pieces and then mix it in with the meat mixture.

2. Cook your noodles according to package directions. Only cook until al dente as it will continue to cook in the oven (this would be a good time to preheat that oven to 325 degrees while you are at it). Drain the pasta.
3. Time to make the sauce. Heat a pan over low heat and add the butter. Once melted stir in the flour until all mixed in and then let the mixture sit over the heat for about a minute. Slowly whisk in the milk stirring continuously as it thickens. Once thickened, remove from heat and stir in cheeses. Then stir in egg yolks and mustard. If the sauce is too thick just add in a splash of milk and stir some more.
4. Add the cooked pasta and the meat mixture to the sauce and blend all together. Pour into a 13x9 pyrex and pop in the oven cooking for 20-25 minutes. Dish up and add desired toppings.

**I was kind of writing this as I was making it so sorry there aren't more pictures...but I figure most of you know what cooked pasta and cheese sauce look like! I mostly wanted to come back to add that this really was delicious! My husband ate after the rest of us and just heated up the mac n cheese without any toppings and as he was shoveling in large fork fulls he kept saying, "This tastes JUST like a bacon burger!" I liked it with the extra stuff but it is a winner all by itself too:)

Mac N Cheese with Steak and Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms

On the continued quest to use up the stockpile of Kraft Mac N Cheese I got on sale, I tried out another variation on the tired boxed pasta. Last time it was Chicken, Bacon, Ranch Mac N Cheese. This time I decided to go for steak with sauteed onions and mushrooms. Let me tell you, this was delicious! Hearty too. Throw a salad on the side and it felt like I was eating a real meal.

Ingredients:
2 boxes Kraft Mac N Cheese
1 and 1/2 sticks butter, separated 
1/2 c milk
2 c chopped steak meat
1/2 an onion, sliced
8 oz sliced mushrooms

Directions:
1. Cook macaroni according to package directions.

2. If using uncooked steak (leftovers would work well too), cook in medium pan at medium high heat. I used some flank steak we had from my in-laws cow and it cooked up quickly. Remove to a plate once fully cooked. (Mine was bland so I through it in a ziploc with some steak sauce...delicious!)

3. Put 1/2 stick of butter in warm steak pan. Once melted add onions and mushrooms and saute until soft and brown. (I used red onion since I had it on hand but whatever you prefer works). Turn the heat down to low and add steak back in to warm it up.

4. Drain and stir in 1 stick of butter, milk and cheese packets provided. Add in onion, mushroom, steak mixture and stir. Enjoy!

Chicken, Bacon, Ranch Mac N Cheese

Let me start with the disclaimer that this is in no way a figure friendly recipe. You could definitely make it healthier (grilled chicken, turkey bacon) but as is it is super fatty. But oh so very delicious!! I will also say that I typically make homemade mac n' cheese but lately have been stocking up on the boxed version due to sale prices and coupons that have made it practically free. This would also be absolutely delicious with homemade mac n' cheese but since I used the box version that is the recipe I will share.

Ingredients:
* 2 boxes Kraft Mac N Cheese (or your favorite brand/homemade recipe)
* 3-5 slices bacon
* 1 pkg ranch dressing mix
* 2 cups shredded chicken (I used fried chicken leftover from a party, but grilled or rotisserie would work great too)

Directions:
1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Layout other ingredients as listed on box (mine called for 1 stick of butter and half a cup of milk).

2. While the noodles are cooking, fry the bacon in a medium skillet until crispy. Remove to paper towels and chop when cooled.

3. Drain bacon grease, turn down heat and add butter. Once melted, stir in cheese packets and ranch dressing mix. Once mixed, stir in milk until well blended. Let simmer until thickened. I added some cream at this point to make it a little creamier. Put in the chicken and bacon and let heat through.

3. Drain the pasta, add it into the cheesy ranch mixture. Stir and enjoy!

I wish you could taste the ranchy, bacony, cheesy goodness of this through the computer!! Truly yummy:) Be prepared for some continued twists on the plain old boxed mac n' cheese as we have quite a few boxes stored up. There is some serious brainstorming going on around here!