I LOVE macaroni and cheese. It’s a favourite of mine. Homemade is especially divine although I’ll gladly settle for a box of President’s Choice deluxe white cheddar. Recently, I received the cook book, “Deceptively Delicious” by Jessica Steinfield. It’s an attractive book that’s for sure. I made the mozzarella sticks last weekend and they were gross, but I was willing to let that slide and continue on with the book. Tonight I tried out Macaroni and Cheese and found it to be delicious! It was totally quick and easy to make and I definitely recommend it. We’ll consider this a brief quotation, after all her directions are very comprehensive and any one could follow along. I’ll cut ‘em down to avoid… belittling?

Macaroni and Cheese

1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
nonstick cooking spray
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. flour
1/2 cup nonfat milk
1/2 cup butternut squash or cauliflower puree (I used butternut)
1 1/2 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces)
4 ounces (almost 1/4 cup) reduced fat cream cheese – okay, I think this is an error because 4 ounces of cream cheese is half a cup. Throw in only 2 ounces, your common cookin’ sense will tell you why.
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. paprika

Prepare macaroni according to package.

Meanwhile, coat a large saucepan with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add the oil, then flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles a thick paste but has not browned, 1 to 2 minutes (or less in my case).

Add the milk and cook, stirring every now and then until the mixture beings to thicken, 3 to 4 minutes (or less again). Add the remaining ingredients (excluding the mac) and stir until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. Stir in the macaroni and obviously, serve warm.

Try it out! I’m kind of thinking it’s a lot of sauce for the amount of pasta so next time I might make more pasta. I like the butternut squash because that vegetable has quite a rich flavour and it’s not called “butternut” for nothing! Let me know if anyone makes it with the cauliflower.

Here it is folks! My kitchen wall! After running out of a few things (staples, ribbon, etc) and second guessing my colour choice for the frames, it is complete! I was really excited to do this because I do spend a ton of time in my kitchen and I wanted it to be mine and reflect me and my personality. I really love how this turned out! I think that if I were to have my own kitchen and be able to do it all up, the colours would be cream, navy and lime green. One day…

Here’s a photo of something new and notable… “Made with Love and a little mess…” by Freyja and Cora! Thank you so much to everyone. It’s great to see the photos and have the treats!

As many of you know, I was wretchedly unwell for the majority of January and the first bit of February. Good news: I’m feeling way better and I’ve started my running regime again! Monday was my first day and I started out strong by running for a half hour and ending with a distance of 2.5 miles. I felt great, my breathing wasn’t huffy in any way (fabulous considering my hereditary sports asthma), and I wasn’t getting tired mentally or physically. The only thing that was bothersome were my blessed hips which are going to hurt no matter what, run or not! Today I went again and was feeling pretty good so I decided to push the bar a little bit and thought maybe I’d run a little longer, but when I started on the treadmill I was feeling so motivated and decided that I would run for 40 minutes. For the first five minutes, I run 4.6 miles per hour and then for the rest of it I run 5 miles per hour. It’s not very fast, but it works for me for now. When I got to 35 minutes, I decided I want to run 3.5 miles and so I had to increase my speed and I ended up running for 41.5 minutes and I made my goal of 3.5 miles. I feel good, the only exception being the curse of my easy-to-blister big toe. I’m going to see what kind of 5Ks and 10Ks are here in Denver on Saturdays. Obviously I can run a 5K, but it’ll be fun to compete and have something to work towards. Whenever I get back into my Aasics I always wonder why I ever stopped.

What do you do to motivate yourself to get out there and exercise? I would love some tips and tricks. Right now I’m going to set a certain amount of miles and once I run that I can get a new running top. Still haven’t decided how many miles is fair!

PS: I picked up a runners’ magazine and it was so motivating and I learned a lot! I might even get a subscription. I totally recommend just picking one up at the grocery store if you’re into running!

Recently I’ve decided that Conor and I would have the perfect children (and the easiest to care for) if we mixed my craving for sleep and Conor’s ability to fall asleep no matter what. Really, that would be a great child! Easy to put down for naps and at bedtime. And the babe wouldn’t be getting up after hours to tell us this or that because they’d be out cold! Perfect. Now if only we could order that specifically…

Gotta love it when things seem to break all at once. My Kitchenaid Mixer is completely out of order which means I need to take it in and most likely leave it at the fixin’ place. Ugh. It’s way far from where I live so it may take me a little bit of time before that happens. I’m heartbroken. Completely. And I’ve come to accept that my beloved iPod Nano has had the biscuit. It doesn’t play properly – I can hear fuzzy stuff over the music, kind of like if you didn’t tune a radio properly. Conor can’t hear it, but then again he is hearing impaired. I definitely want a shuffle (in purple) and I still can’t decide if I like the new nanos. So I might get a refurbished old one… Yes, I want to own a shuffle and a nano. In my mind they serve different purposes; one is for running the other is for bus riding. So there! Conor said that he’s been offering to get me a shuffle for a long time now so I think I’ll cash in on that!

Well I’m a loner for the next few days and I had this great idea that I would post photos of what I’m getting up to but it didn’t click that Conor needed to take the camera with him to Cali until this morning. Uh duh! So if you would like to know, I went shopping this morning. I bought some way cute things (have I mentioned recently that I’m in love with the store Anthropologie?) and I’m totally excited about that! I’m doing a little “reno” in my kitchen, basically making it more homey and a little more me! Look forward to photos at the end of the week!