*Ehem*... Hello, my name is Jessica... (Hi, Jess-ca...) And I am a carb-aholic.
No really, I'm pretty sure carbs keep me in my super happy mood. Those days when I'm all moody and angry? Probably days that I didn't let myself have carbs. I've tried to cut carbs completely many times, but my soul needs carbs to deal with all the ya-hoo's out there. My usual go-to cravings are carbs. Baked potatoes, french fries, rolls, pizza, pasta and, you guessed it, MAC & CHEESE.
When I saw that my dear friend Karen Mangham (just so you know, Karen, I typed your maiden name here first before correcting myself... LOL) had posted an AWESOME looking version of my staple craving, I was all over that. I actually saw it a few weeks ago when she pinned it, but you guys are giving me such a hard time choosing which one to make that I have a pretty long list of what to make! So thank you to Karen, for pinning this nom-worthy recipe to try!
My husband loves Jalapeno Poppers. When we were planning our wedding reception, I asked him what he wanted to eat at the reception. He IMMEDIATELY said "Jalapeno Poppers". This didn't really work with our decision to have "desserts only", and he was a little bummed out by this. Little did he know I had made arrangements for him to have his own personal plate of Jalapeno Poppers after our first dance! You should have seen his face when I walked him to the stage and there sat a plate of poppers that my maid-of-honor (Thanks, Allie!) had secretly made him during our dance! So when I showed him this recipe from Budget Gourmet Mom, he was more than happy to be a taste-tester.
No really, I'm pretty sure carbs keep me in my super happy mood. Those days when I'm all moody and angry? Probably days that I didn't let myself have carbs. I've tried to cut carbs completely many times, but my soul needs carbs to deal with all the ya-hoo's out there. My usual go-to cravings are carbs. Baked potatoes, french fries, rolls, pizza, pasta and, you guessed it, MAC & CHEESE.
When I saw that my dear friend Karen Mangham (just so you know, Karen, I typed your maiden name here first before correcting myself... LOL) had posted an AWESOME looking version of my staple craving, I was all over that. I actually saw it a few weeks ago when she pinned it, but you guys are giving me such a hard time choosing which one to make that I have a pretty long list of what to make! So thank you to Karen, for pinning this nom-worthy recipe to try!
My husband loves Jalapeno Poppers. When we were planning our wedding reception, I asked him what he wanted to eat at the reception. He IMMEDIATELY said "Jalapeno Poppers". This didn't really work with our decision to have "desserts only", and he was a little bummed out by this. Little did he know I had made arrangements for him to have his own personal plate of Jalapeno Poppers after our first dance! You should have seen his face when I walked him to the stage and there sat a plate of poppers that my maid-of-honor (Thanks, Allie!) had secretly made him during our dance! So when I showed him this recipe from Budget Gourmet Mom, he was more than happy to be a taste-tester.
Mac and cheese is such a good fall food, isn't it? It's the carbs, I'm telling you. It's comfort food that heals. This recipe is perfect for snuggling up with a soft blanket, opening up a good book and getting lost in three different types of cheesey goodness. Won't take my word for it? Well, you'll just have to make it, won't you!
These are all the ingredients you will need to make this carby-comfort dish. The recipe asks for cream cheese, but I used neufchatel cheese which is 1/3 less fat than cream cheese. It also does not call for Turkey Bacon, but I prefer it to regular bacon. You can use whichever you'd like.
Pepper Jack Cheese is a tad pricier than your typical cheeses, but for this recipe it is worth it to splurge a bit. You will have plenty of the block left over to either make this again, or to use in panini's, as I plan to.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Start by slicing your jalapeno in half, seeding if you'd like. The first time I made this (yes, I said "first" meaning I have made this again) I seeded the whole jalapeno. The second time I left one half unseeded to give it a slight kick. It's really all about preference of heat. When I used half the seeds it had a nice heat and wasn't overwhelming. I feel that the recipe really SHOULD use half the seeds to get that full jalapeno flavor in there. It was kind of lost in all the cheesiness the first time (no seeds).
Pepper Jack Cheese is a tad pricier than your typical cheeses, but for this recipe it is worth it to splurge a bit. You will have plenty of the block left over to either make this again, or to use in panini's, as I plan to.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Start by slicing your jalapeno in half, seeding if you'd like. The first time I made this (yes, I said "first" meaning I have made this again) I seeded the whole jalapeno. The second time I left one half unseeded to give it a slight kick. It's really all about preference of heat. When I used half the seeds it had a nice heat and wasn't overwhelming. I feel that the recipe really SHOULD use half the seeds to get that full jalapeno flavor in there. It was kind of lost in all the cheesiness the first time (no seeds).
Place the jalapeno halves on an oven tray and roast in the oven. You don't have to do this part, but its really good if you do.
Boil some water over high heat. Once its come to a rolling boil, add your macaroni elbows and cook until al dente. "Al dente" translates to "to the teeth" which means if you bite the noodle you should still feel a little "bite" to it. Or if you break it in half, the noodle is cooked mostly through with a little spot of uncooked noodle in the center. The package will usually tell you how long to boil their product to reach al dente, but it is usually about six or seven minutes.
Cook 4 slices of bacon in a pan over high heat until cooked all the way through. It should be a little crispier than you would like it to work with the recipe. Remove from pan then crumble into pieces. Turn the pan to medium heat. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in pan, then add 2 tablespoons of flour, whisking to create a rue (paste like substance). Slowly add 1 cup of milk to the pan, whisking constantly to incorporate the rue. If you get clumps, that's okay. Keep whisking over the heat to break up the rue into the milk.
Once all the clumps have gone, add 4 oz of neufchatel cheese and melt it thoroughly into the mix.
Boil some water over high heat. Once its come to a rolling boil, add your macaroni elbows and cook until al dente. "Al dente" translates to "to the teeth" which means if you bite the noodle you should still feel a little "bite" to it. Or if you break it in half, the noodle is cooked mostly through with a little spot of uncooked noodle in the center. The package will usually tell you how long to boil their product to reach al dente, but it is usually about six or seven minutes.
Cook 4 slices of bacon in a pan over high heat until cooked all the way through. It should be a little crispier than you would like it to work with the recipe. Remove from pan then crumble into pieces. Turn the pan to medium heat. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in pan, then add 2 tablespoons of flour, whisking to create a rue (paste like substance). Slowly add 1 cup of milk to the pan, whisking constantly to incorporate the rue. If you get clumps, that's okay. Keep whisking over the heat to break up the rue into the milk.
Once all the clumps have gone, add 4 oz of neufchatel cheese and melt it thoroughly into the mix.
Once the neufchatel cheese is melted, remove from heat and add the 1 cup each of the cheddar and pepper jack cheeses. Stir until melted and incorporated.
Check on the jalapeno. If it is roasted to your liking, remove from the oven and chop into bits. Add the jalapeno to the cheese sauce and mix well.
The recipe says to pour cooked pasta into a cassarole dish then pour sauce over it and serve. I didn't want to do it that way. I wanted to bake mine. Yup. Good ole baked mac and cheese. So I poured my pasta into a mixing bowl, then poured the sauce over the pasta and mixed, mixed mixed. I sprayed a casserole dish with Pam, then put all the mac and cheese into the dish.
Check on the jalapeno. If it is roasted to your liking, remove from the oven and chop into bits. Add the jalapeno to the cheese sauce and mix well.
The recipe says to pour cooked pasta into a cassarole dish then pour sauce over it and serve. I didn't want to do it that way. I wanted to bake mine. Yup. Good ole baked mac and cheese. So I poured my pasta into a mixing bowl, then poured the sauce over the pasta and mixed, mixed mixed. I sprayed a casserole dish with Pam, then put all the mac and cheese into the dish.
Then I sprinkled panko breadcrumbs over the top. Jalapeno Poppers are breaded! So why shouldn't this bad boy be breaded? I say, "hail to the carbs" and toss 'em on there.
After sprinkling the breadcrumbs, sprinkle the bacon pieces on the top and put 'er in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
After sprinkling the breadcrumbs, sprinkle the bacon pieces on the top and put 'er in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
Voila! The best dish of fall (this far) is complete!
John ATE this stuff up. We both decided that it needed more jalapeno flavor, and that the bacon should be throughout the mac and cheese and not just on top. So I made this again today... Yes, two days in a row.
This time I reserved only half the bacon for the top, and mixed the other half in. I also left half the seeds in the jalapeno (as mentioned above), and just to add a slight flavor, I added about 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic to the rue. It made it so much better! I think this might be the only way I'm going to be making the hearty comfort dish from now on. Way to feed my carb addiction, Karen!
Verdict: this is a for sure WIN. As the recipe is, it's great. You can tweak things around a bit according to preference, but as is, this is great. Make it BETTER by adding the breadcrumbs, mixing half the bacon throughout, and baking it a bit. But be prepared to join my carb-aholic anonymous. You'll see.
Keep up the pinning! Just a reminder, if you are not pinning onto our Housewife Material board and would like to submit pins for the blog, go under the "Contact" section of the page and enter your info to be added to the board!
Until next post, send me your pins, and I'll send you the wins!!
John ATE this stuff up. We both decided that it needed more jalapeno flavor, and that the bacon should be throughout the mac and cheese and not just on top. So I made this again today... Yes, two days in a row.
This time I reserved only half the bacon for the top, and mixed the other half in. I also left half the seeds in the jalapeno (as mentioned above), and just to add a slight flavor, I added about 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic to the rue. It made it so much better! I think this might be the only way I'm going to be making the hearty comfort dish from now on. Way to feed my carb addiction, Karen!
Verdict: this is a for sure WIN. As the recipe is, it's great. You can tweak things around a bit according to preference, but as is, this is great. Make it BETTER by adding the breadcrumbs, mixing half the bacon throughout, and baking it a bit. But be prepared to join my carb-aholic anonymous. You'll see.
Keep up the pinning! Just a reminder, if you are not pinning onto our Housewife Material board and would like to submit pins for the blog, go under the "Contact" section of the page and enter your info to be added to the board!
Until next post, send me your pins, and I'll send you the wins!!
Three Cheese Jalapeno Popper Mac & Cheese
Servings: 4
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb elbow pasta
4 slices of bacon
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp gran garlic (Jess suggests)
2 cups milk
4 oz cream cheese (neufchatel)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup pepper jack cheese
1 jalapeno pepper
1/3 cup panko (Jess suggests)
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bring pot of water to boil over high heat. Once rolling boil, cook elbow macaroni to al dente (about 7 minutes).
2. Slice jalapeno in half and seed if desired. WEAR GLOVES. Place jalapeno in oven to roast. Cook bacon in pan over high heat. Remove and crumble when done.
3. Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add flour (and garlic, if following Jess' suggestion ) and whisk to make rue (paste-like mixture). Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. If clumpy, continue to whisk until smooth.
4. Add cream cheese to mixture and melt thoroughly. Remove from heat and add cheddar and pepper jack cheeses. Mix until incorporated.
5. Remove jalapeno from oven, chop, and add to sauce. Jess suggests adding half the bacon to the sauce as well, reserving half for topping. You can either stop here and serve sauce over cooked pasta, or mix pasta and sauce together and place into a casserole dish for baking. Sprinkle panko over top and reserved bacon pieces as well. Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy!
Servings: 4
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb elbow pasta
4 slices of bacon
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp gran garlic (Jess suggests)
2 cups milk
4 oz cream cheese (neufchatel)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup pepper jack cheese
1 jalapeno pepper
1/3 cup panko (Jess suggests)
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bring pot of water to boil over high heat. Once rolling boil, cook elbow macaroni to al dente (about 7 minutes).
2. Slice jalapeno in half and seed if desired. WEAR GLOVES. Place jalapeno in oven to roast. Cook bacon in pan over high heat. Remove and crumble when done.
3. Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add flour (and garlic, if following Jess' suggestion ) and whisk to make rue (paste-like mixture). Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. If clumpy, continue to whisk until smooth.
4. Add cream cheese to mixture and melt thoroughly. Remove from heat and add cheddar and pepper jack cheeses. Mix until incorporated.
5. Remove jalapeno from oven, chop, and add to sauce. Jess suggests adding half the bacon to the sauce as well, reserving half for topping. You can either stop here and serve sauce over cooked pasta, or mix pasta and sauce together and place into a casserole dish for baking. Sprinkle panko over top and reserved bacon pieces as well. Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy!