Weekend Eating

It was rainy and dreary around here this weekend. What’s that leave time for? Lots of cooking and eating of course!

I think my favorite meal of the weekend was a quick throw together lunch that turned out amazing! I took a box of Trader Joe’s organic white cheddar mac and cheese and turned it into something great. I added an entire head of chopped broccoli to the boiling pasta for the last 3 minutes of boiling. When I added the cheese sauce, I added a couple slices of cut up bacon, and an extra 1/2 cup shredded cheddar to make sure everything got nice and cheesy. My gosh, so simple and so good. But honestly, what isn’t good with bacon? When I cook bacon to use in recipes, I first cut off all the fat then pan fry it. I figure since I am going to chop it up after I cook it anyway, why not get rid of the fat beforehand? Since animals store their toxins in their fat tissue, its best to cut off the fat before you cook it, especially if its not organic.

We had our Saint Patrick’s Day meal of corned beef and cabbage with irish soda bread a week late. We had parties to go to each day and night last weekend so there was no time for it. And then the grocery store was out of corned beef, so it had to wait. This may be my favorite meal all year long. I prefer corned beef and cabbage over Thanksgiving dinner anyday!

Although that little pile of mustard is a little, or a lot, deceiving. I douse my corned beef in mustard and in reality ate about 5 times that amount. I love this Irish soda bread with raisins as well. Its slightly sweet and dense but still fluffy. We ate this entire loaf that night. And by we, I pretty much mean me and Alyssa. Dave got home late from work Friday night so there wasn’t much left for him, oops sorry Dave.

Sunday’s dinner was another winner. I didn’t realize it was already 530 and hadn’t even thought about dinner. We wanted to be able to get in an evening walk so I had to throw something together fast. These are always the best meals! We had grilled chicken breasts marinated in honey mustard topped with bacon and cheddar cheese, with some ranch on the side. I rounded the meal out with a bunch of roasted green beans and 2 pieces of homemade garlic bread. From start to finish it only took 20 minutes and we had plenty of daylight left for our walk.

Now don’t let me fool you…we all know my weekend included dessert as well. Honestly, it included A LOT of dessert. I actually feel kind of gross and sick at the moment from all the dessert  I ate.

Friday night I made homemade brownies and turned them into sundaes. Saturday night dessert was enjoyed as well. And then again on Sunday, we went out for these.

Most of the time I healthify desserts (like the brownies on Friday were made with sweet potatoes and no butter or oil with very little sugar). But there are sometimes you just can’t. These Cookout milkshakes are just too good not to indulge in every once in a while. However, they may be contaminated with nuts from shared machinery so we can’t have them because of Alyssa’s tree nut allergy. Well we just got a new Cookout close to us and I know Dave has wanted to have one for a while. So I made it happen. I made Alyssa her own little milkshake at home in the magic bullet with frozen yogurt and milk and brought it with us in the car. When Dave and I ordered our shakes, I got an extra cup, lid, and straw and poured Alyssa’s into it without her noticing. Hey, I might as well trick her while I can! It wouldn’t have tasted as good if she knew it came from home. Sometimes food is all about the experience and Alyssa really wanted to eat at the ice cream shop.

If you judge my weekend based on how delicious my eating was, I’d have to say it was pretty fantastic. Although I don’t think I want dessert for a while after all that indulging this weekend (although I may change my mind tomorrow around say, 8 pm)!

Did you indulge this weekend?