Comfort Food

A few weeks ago I found out that I needed to have a tooth pulled. Blah! I had a crown come loose and the root underneath was cracked & split. I had my appointment scheduled for this morning and it went very smoothly. The oral surgeon was great and even hooked me up with some Vicodin for the pain! Yeah! LOL! So tonight’s menu and tomorrow was all about comfort food. Food that I didn’t have to put much effort into chewing and to just make me feel good. For the main course I made homemade Macaroni & Cheese. I used a recipe from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook with some modifications. It came out wonderful! The kids weren’t super crazy about it, but they are used to Velveeta or Kraft Mac & Cheese. Here are some pictures:

With Bush’s Baked Beans, topped with some grape tomatoes:

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

2.5 – 3 cups uncooked pasta (I used Trader Joe’s)
¼ cup butter
¼ cup GF flour (I used sorghum)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp ground mustard
¼ tsp Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrin’s is GF)
2 cups milk
2 – 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese (8 – 16 ounces, depending on how cheesy you want your macaroni & cheese; I use 2% milk fat cheese from Kraft)
Bread Crumbs

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cook macaroni as directed on package.
3. While macaroni is cooking, melt butter in 3-quart saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat; Stir in Milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in cheese. Cook, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted.
4. Drain Macaroni. Gently stir macaroni into cheese sauce. Pour into greased (I use Pam) 2-quart casserole. Top with breadcrumbs and spray top with Pam. Bake uncovered for 20 – 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Serves 5 (1 cup servings). Calories: 463 if you use 2 cups of cheese; 595 if you use 4 cups of cheese.

For dessert we had an amazingly wonderful chocolate treat. A friend from a forum that I frequent posted this recipe this afternoon and I knew I had to try it. Not only was it chocolate, my fav, but it screamed “comfort food” to me. The recipe is called “Dangerous Chocolate Cake In-A-Mug”.

Some pics of it in the mug still:

On a plate with some Edy’s Slow Churned Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Delectable, scrumptious, all of the above.

Dangerous Chocolate Cake In-A-Mug**Recipe Courtesy of Courtney (Aug 02 Playgroup)

1 coffee mug
4 Tbsp. flour (I used a GF mix of rice, potato & tapioca; no xanthan gum)
4 Tbsp. Sugar (I lowered this to 3 TBSP)
2 Tbsp. Cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbsp. Milk
3 Tbsp. Oil
Small splash of vanilla
3 Tbsp. Chocolate chips, necessary 🙂

Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well with a fork.
Add egg, mix thoroughly.
Pour in milk and oil and vanilla, mix well.
Add chips, if using.

Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on 1000 watts.
Cake will rise over top of mug–do not be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little; tip onto a plate if desired.
Eat!