New Favorite Recipes

While I doubt I'll ever be confused with Rachel Ray, I can follow a recipe and I have two I tried this week and wanted to share. One comes from my good friend Heather Mattos who posted the recipe for her Homemade Mac & Cheese last week. For some reason Tage and I have had a 5 pound bag of macaroni in our cabinet (which I imagine was there long before I met him) and this seemed like an effective way to use it. Being on an organic food kick, I picked up some organic white cheddar on Friday on the way home and tried it out. It was easier than I expected (anything that requires you to warm milk but not boil it and also calls for a Dutch Oven is a little intimidating to me) and absolutely delicious! Tage thought it could use more salt (although he thinks salt could use more salt) but I will definitely make it again. Thank you for sharing Heather!

The second recipe comes from Real Simple, one of my favorite magazines and also one of my favorite online resources for recipes. While talking on the phone to Heidi last weekend she mentioned she was looking for a recipe for Shepherds Pie. Not really knowing what it was, I searched Real Simple's online recipes for Shepherds Pie, finding this one. It could not have been easier and I had time while it was in the oven to actually wash the dishes I had dirtied to prepare it. We had all of the ingredients (I used fresh locally-grown, organic vegetables though) and the "mashed potatoes" I used were from a box. The best part was that Tage liked it. He even gave his approval for me to make this dish regularly, along with Tater Tot Casserole and pizza.

If you're like me and find yourself on Sunday evenings meal planning and writing out a grocery list for the week ahead, you now have two new yummy recipes to try and possibly add to your repertoire.

Make it a great week!