Mel'z 20 Minute Parmesan Mac & Cheese

A few months ago after a family camping trip I got sick & was in a rush to get dinner done. 

Matt was almost home, the kids were grumpy, & I was physically & mentally drained. 

So i grabbed a few staples & decided to see what happened. 

20 min later dinner was served!

This happened & i think its quite good. 

So ill share with you all & you can tell me what you think. 

Yeah? 

Cool. 

Here we go.

Ingredients:

1 LB Fusilli Pasta

4 Tsp Garlic Powder

3 C. Parmesan

1 C. Cheddar

Broccoli Florets (to taste)

2 Tbs Italian Seasoning

1 Tsp Cayenne

1Tbs Butter or Margarine

3 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream or 3 cups Half & Half for a lighter version

1 Cup Water 

Directions:

Boil pasta until its half way done & drain

Add Butter & all wet ingredients.

Turn to Medium Heat. 

Add Cayenne, Garlic Powder & Italian seasoning to pot

Once the liquid starts to boil again add 1/2 the cheese & stir frequently adding the rest of the cheese in slowly. Sauce will thicken pretty fast after this so stir diligently until pasta is done. 

Add broccoli on top pr mix in (as I did) 

Add Salt & Pepper to taste.

This is a pretty versatile recipe & i have added fresh garlic & chopped sauteed onions to it, green onions top it very well as well. 

Get creative! 

As always if you use this or any of my recipes please let me know how it came out. 

I love feedback!

Enjoy!

Crockpot Ball-Tip Roast & A Mishap

This may amuse some of you (as it did my household last night) so I thought I'd share and give you the recipe as well. 

 There is a place down in the bay area here in California that sells a yummy marinated ball-tip called Kinders. I decided to try and make a recipe as close to theirs as I could. Their recipe is top secret so this wasn't an easy task and I spent a good month or more researching recipes and taste-testing to see if I could recreate it. (I have a pretty decent palate)

 I finally just decided to combine some of the ingredients I knew were in the recipe, with a few that I had guessed myself, along with some of go-to ingredients used in a typical beef rub. Here's where the mishap comes in. 

I have numerous recipes on my laptop and I keep them in a few places. Namely a pfd file where I write them out myself. So I go to the crock-pot and start measuring everything and dumping it in. My husband is kind of a picky eater so I always make a side of whatever sauce, dip, marinade etc for him to taste. So I let him taste this one and he HATED it. He got a very sour disgusted look on his face and I had no idea why and I said "Well its too late now because after I spooned your taste out I put the roast in." I figured he was just being picky and he doesn't like too many spices so that's what I chalked it up to. Well a few hours go by and I go to check the temp on the roast and let me tell you I did NOT like the smell coming from the crock-pot. So I took it out cut a piece off and hoped I wouldn't be disappointed. Let me tell you, It took one taste to realize what my problem was and why my husband didn't like it. It was lemon overkill! The marinade itself was  great flavor but I put in wayyyyy too much lemon,which made me scratch my head as I'm usually very careful about balancing my acids. Yet here I was standing there tasting a very lemony roast. So I walked over to the recipe I wrote out on my pfd file and everything seemed fine, until I realized that I had opened a recipe right next to it that called for 3X the lemon. Yep. I did that. LOL! I turned my laptop around and showed my husband who preceded to laugh his lemon hating butt off. So to counteract the acidity from the lemon I made a gravy to cover it and it actually turned out really good! Hubby was delighted with it and we dined happily. 

The recipe you see below is the right version of  my try at a copycat recipe for kinders ball-tip marinade. Its not as close as I'd like but practice makes progress! If you'd like the gravy recipe make sure you go to my blog HERE and get it after you read this. 

I used a 4 lb roast with this so you may need to adjust ingredients depending on how small or big the roast is you're using. Also, if you like to marinate your meat prior to cooking I would recommend 24 to 48 hours as balltip can be tough in certain areas depending on the cut and quality. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Sesame Oil

2 tsp of parsley 

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp ginger

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 cloves of garlic

2 tsp coarse black pepper

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup Lemon Juice

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup Worcestershire

1/4 cup honey

2 cups Beef Broth

Directions:

Combine all wet ingredients into crock-pot and stir. Take dry ingredients and use processor or blender to mince. (I use this method to not only mince the garlic but to also infuse the flavors of the herbs and spices with the garlic) You can also add a little white wine to the processor just to make sure they marry well. 

Empty dry ingredient mix into crock-pot and stir well. Add roast to crock-pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours. 

The finished product with veggies and my homemade gravy

Crescent Roll Pizza with Homemade Garlic Sauce

Ive seen so many recipes for crescent roll pizzas and calzones and to be honest, Ive never been interested. They just seemed boring to me. Ofcourse this means I was very wrong! My kids wanted to make their own pizzas and after some looking around The Hubby and I decided that wed like to combine our love for crescent rolls with our kids love for pizza. I didnt just want to do the same old sauce though. Hubby doesnt really like regular pizza sauce and I am a bit of a garlic-aholic. So he asked if i could make a garlic white sauce, I said "Probably" LOL! Emphatic wasnt I? ahaha. So heres The Herman Family's crescent roll pizza recipe that we all thought was amazing! 

Each pizza is 4 triangles

Ingredients for Sauce:

6 cloves of garlic minced or mashed

2 cups Half & Half

1/2 stick of unsalted butter

1 Tbs Parsley

1Tbs Basil

1 Tbs Oregano

2 pinches of Cayenne

1Tbs Coarse Sea Salt

1Tbs Ground Pepper

2 Tbs Corn starch

Ingredients for Pizza:

1 Tube of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Toppings of your choice

Directions for Sauce:

On low heat combine half & half and butter until butter is melted.

Add all other sauce ingredients slowly, stirring constantly. 

Bring to a slow boil and whisk until sauce thickens. This process usually takes about 10 minutes once it starts to boil. 

Let cool.

Directions for Pizza

Preheat Oven to °350

Take 4 triangles and put them on pizza tray.

Spread sauce and add your toppings as you desire. 

Bake for 12 minutes. 

Enjoy your own personal pizza! 

Crockpot Orange Chicken (Simple & Quick)

As I said, Lots of chicken this week! This recipe is seriously yummilicious!
 Now normally with Orange Chicken id cut the chicken into bite size pieces before hand but you can cut it afterwards and it wont affect the taste (in my opinion). OK onto the recipe! It cant wait.

Ingredients:
4lbs Chicken Breasts
1 cup Ketchup
1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
3 Tbsp Vinegar
1 Tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
7 Tbsp Orange Marmalade
2 Tbsp Ground Ginger
4 Cloves of Garlic (you can substitute for Garlic Powder)

Directions:

Place chicken in crockpot (you can use a sea salt rub with some pepper but I choose to leave plain because theres so much flavor already and teh soy sauce is salty enough)

In medium or large bowl mix together all other ingredients and pour over the chicken in crockpot.

Cook on low for 5 hours and serve over rice, or broccoli. 

I'm willing to bet this would be phenomenal with some stir fry! 

I may have to try that soon. 

Let me know how you like it! 

This recipe was written by me. Any similarities to other recipes is purely coincidental.

Crockpot Garlic & Honey Drumsticks

As Hubby and I were scheduling our meals for this week, I discovered I had a bunch of chicken still, so the next few posts will involve alot of chicken. LOL! This recipe was very easy & quick. 

It only has 5 ingredients other than the chicken! 

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs of Drumsticks ( I used drumsticks & thighs bone-in) 

1/2 cup of Honey

6 large cloves of Garlic ( i consider a clove to be a shard of the whole garlic)

1 cup of ketchup 

1/2 cup of Soy Sauce 

1 tbsp Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:

Place chicken in crockpot

Mince garlic in blender or chopper or what you have on hand

In a medium bowl combine Honey, Ketchup, Soy Sauce, minced garlic, & Red Pepper Flakes until well blended

Pour over chicken in crockpot 

Cook on low for 6 hours 

Enjoy!!!

This recipe was written by me. Any similarities to other recipes is purely coincidental.

Melodys Lip Smackin Crockpot Meatballs

I love meatballs. Yes I do. They are pretty much the only way ill eat ground beef anymore, aside from the occasional taco or meatloaf. There is so much you can do with these bad boys! Heres the recipe i made tonight for dinner. My kids were pleased! My husband thought they were a bit too spicy so definitely adjust to your (or your S/O's) own spice tolerance.  These were just bursting with flavor & even before I started cooking them they smelled heavenly. Enjoy ya'll! 

This recipe makes ALOT . 

We have leftovers for the next day so be aware of that so you can adjust your servings.

Ingredients:

4lbs of Lean Ground Beef

1 1/2  tbps of Ground Ginger

1 1/2 tbsps Cayenne Pepper 

3 tbsps Garlic Powder

1/2 package of Ritz Crackers crumbled

2 tbsps Basil

1 tbsp Rosemary

2 tbsps Parsley

1 egg

1/4 cup Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce original

1/4 cup Bullseye BBQ sauce (sweet & spicy)

1/4 cup Honey Mustard

1/2 jar of concord grape jelly 

1 can ocean spray cranberry sauce (jellied) 

Meatball Instructions:

Combine all dry ingredients & egg with ground beef and roll into meatballs. 

Sauce Instructions:

In large bowl (or in the crockpot) mix all wet ingredients until combined well. 

Combine meatballs and sauce and cook on low for 6-7 hours. Or on high for 5-6

This recipe was written by me. Any similarities to other recipes is purely coincidental.

Easy Baked Tilapia with Cream Sauce

I love cooking Tilapia.

  Its such a universal fish. I can think of 5 different recipes off the top of my head right now that I've made that are completely different then the next. And it cooks fast which is always a plus in my house! Heres a recipe I made a few nights ago on a whim & an hour til dinner.

Ingredients for fish

6 tilapia thawed 1 large lemon cut into slices Salt & Pepper to taste In a glass baking dish add fish filets & salt pepper to taste. Place slices of lemon on top & a tab of butter per filet.(or drizzle olive oil)

For Sauce

1 yellow onion chopped up into small pieces

2 tbs of garlic powder (depending how much you like the taste more or less)

4 cups of heavy whipped cream (can substitute with half & half)

3 tbs of butter to add to cream and 1tbs for saute' or 2tbs of olive oil for saute'

1 cup white wine In medium saucepan use medium heat & melt 1bs butter. Add onion and garlic powder. Saute' until onions are softened and butter is mostly evaporated. Add white wine & simmer for 4 minutes

Add cream and stir in remaining butter and whisk consistently until sauce thickens. Bake Tilapia at 400 for 25 minutes or until fish flakes with fork (say that 5 times fast!) Plate tilapia and drizzle cream sauce over filets. I served these with broccoli & lemon wedges (sorry didn't get the pictures after they were plated & sauce was on but they were delicious)

  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! Hope ya like it!

And don't forget to comment and let me know you tried it. All feedback is welcome!

This recipe was written by me. Any similarities to other recipes is purely coincidental.