Jazzed-Up Mac & Cheese and Apple Crisp

I had so many ideas for dinner swirling around in my head last night.  In the end, I decided to use up some leftovers before I cooked any new dishes.  With Dan out of town the past few days, our fridge was full of leftovers.  He’s back now, so I’m guessing those will disappear soon.

To start, I roasted the rest of my brussels sprouts. Rather than making them fancy with maple syrup or chai tea, I simply tossed them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.

I’m definitely picking up more brussels sprouts at the Farmer’s Market this weekend!

There was 2/3 of mac ‘n’ cheese from the other night in the fridge, but eating it plain didn’t sound appealing.  So I jazzed it up!

Jazzed-Up Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1/3 box of mac ‘n’ cheese
• 1/2 oz. goat cheese
• 1 T. asiago or Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 T. white wine (I used a Pinot Grigio)
• Lots and lots of oregano

Instructions: Mix and microwave.  It is that simple.  And it tastes pretty gourmet for a dish with a boxed mix as its base!

I have been meaning to clean the apartment for ages, but keep putting it off.  I’ve been so busy that when I finally have some free time, I’d rather spend it relaxing than cleaning.  Last night was finally the night to catch up.  And catch up I did!

Check it out:

• Took all the burners off the stove and clean them.
• Clean the rest of the stove.
• Do the dishes.
• Run the dishwasher.
• Clean the kitchen counter.
• Clean the bathroom.
• Organize my desk.
• Re-organize the kitchen.
• Clean the kitchen table.
• Put away all laundry.

Tonight, I’m cleaning the rest of the living room & vacuuming, and I will have cleaned the entire apartment!  Between Dan and I, he is definitely the cleaner one.  He’s quite proud of my cleaning job this week.

You may recall that a few weeks ago, I bought almost 20 pounds of apples.  About 10 apples were left, and they were at that point where they were too soft to eat plain, but not mealy.  Naturally, I didn’t want to throw them away, so I made an apple crisp!

Apple Crisp:

Ingredients

• About 4 cups of apples, sliced thinly
• 2 T. maple syrup
• 1 T. cinnamon
• 1/3 c. butter
• 1 c. oats
• 1 c. graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. raw sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Spread apple slices in a greased 9″x13″ baking pan.
3. In a bowl, mix the oats, graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and raw sugar.
4. Mix the butter into the bowl until coarse crumbs form.
5. Pour the oats mixture over the apples.
6. Drizzle with maple syrup, and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
7. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

This apple crisp is Amazing!  Using the graham crackers in addition to the oats made such a difference.

I had mine a la mode with a little chocolate frozen yogurt.  I may or may not have gone back for seconds…

Oh, and as far as workouts go, I did 10 pushups last night.

This morning

I’ll make this quick, since this post is getting lengthy!

Breakfast:

Same green monster as yesterday.

1/2 c. Kashi Go Lean Crunch with skim milk.

 

How do YOU “jazz up” your leftovers?

Tagged as: Quick Meals, Recipe