UPDATED MAC & CHEESE

Last night was an especially chilly evening for us in the pacific northwest, and I wanted something warm and comforting for dinner. I made this adult version of mac and cheese and it was so good. If you need some wintertime dinner inspiration, this is an easy one!

Note: I am a "inexact" cook, meaning most of my recipes are more like loose, general guides and less like an exact science. Cooking is all about how you want to make it. Use this as a starting place, and substitute whatever you have on hand.

Ingredients:

pasta (we love the gluten-free quinoa pasta from Trader Joe's but any works)

feta or goat cheese (really any white cheese you have on hand)

greek yogurt 

pancetta (a type of Italian bacon, can totally use regular bacon or sub another meat, or non at all)

chicken sausage

arugula (kale would also be excellent)

onions (I love the pre-cut bag at Trader Joe's. Chopping onions always makes me cry so this eliminates that)

oil of choice (we use olive oil)

Directions:

Cook pasta according to directions.

Saute the pancetta and chicken sausage. Cut the pancetta into small bite sized pieces and the sausage into rounds.

Saute a generous amount of onions in olive oil for a few minutes until translucent. 

Add the arugula, cook until it starts to wilt. (note, arugula wilts much faster than kale, kale will soften but hold it's shape. I like to cook arugula for a short amount of time so that it barely wilts; cook to your preferred style of "doneness")

Add about half a cup of greek yogurt and half a cup of feta cheese to the onions and greens. 

Add the pancetta, sausage, and pasta. Stir to combine.

Add salt and pepper if desired, but taste first! This dish has so much flavor and saltiness from the feta that it doesn't need much else. You could add a little cayenne or red pepper flakes if you're cooking for someone (ahem, my husband) who likes things a little spicy.

Enjoy! This is a cozy, warm, comforting meal perfect for chilly winter nights.

Two Buck Chuck White Sangria

This summer I tried white sangria. I don't know how I was so late to this party. For some reason I've only had red sangria up until recently. But let me tell you, white is such a game changer.

My husband and I created our own two buck chuck version, because we're fancy like that, and it was amazing. Honestly, sometimes the cheapest wines are the best. And luckily, sangria is hard to mess up and you can make it however you want to. Here's the recipe we loosely created and followed:

White Peach Sangria

3 peaches

1 bottle white wine (we used Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc for this one)

3 shots vodka

3 cups lemonade

sugar to taste

How to:

Pour the entire bottle of wine into a pitcher (you know a recipe is going to be good when it starts this way).

Chop the peaches, and blend one and half into a puree (we used our magic bullet). Add the peach puree into the wine.

Chop the remaining peaches and add to the pitcher. 

Add about three shots of vodka.

Then add about three cups of lemonade.

Add sugar to taste. We used a couple tablespoons. 

Stir, serve chilled, and enjoy!

Sangria is so easy to alter. We made a second batch with a White Zinfandel and since the wine was sweeter, we didn't add any sugar to this one. Both versions tasted great. Experiment and see what combination of flavors you like. Such a delicious, end of summer treat. 

Cheers!

How to Grill a Pizza

Earlier I shared our favorite gluten-free pizza dough here.

Today I'm sharing how we grill a pizza on the BBQ. We are by no means experts on this topic, and just wanted to experiment. It turned out to be easy, and was fun to make. Here's how we did it:

First, gather your ingredients: dough, BBQ sauce, chicken, fresh mozzarella, red onion, cilantro.

Marinate and grill your chicken. We like this sauce from Trader Joe's. 

We make our pizza dough on the grill the same way we make it in the oven, which takes two steps. The first is to place the rolled-out dough on the grill (or in the oven) for 8 minutes. We used parchment paper under the dough for this step. Then, take it out and load it with toppings, and place it back on the grill/in the oven for 15 minutes.

Since it was a gluten-free crust and we were afraid of sticking, we added a drizzle of olive oil to one side of the crust, and flipped it over to add toppings to the other side. We put it on a baking sheet for easy flipping. This method worked great and we had no problems.

Add your BBQ sauce.

Add 

mozzarella and onions. 

Slice and throw on your grilled chicken.

Slide off the parchment paper and back on the grill for 15 minutes. 

Remove the pizza very carefully. We pulled the crust back onto parchment paper and then onto a cutting board to help keep it all together.

Chop and add cilantro.

Slice and enjoy!

So good! We loved this method. Really fun to make dinner outside. Have you ever grilled a pizza? What worked for you? I'd love to know!