Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Since so many asked for my made from scratch Mac and Cheese recipe yesterday, here it is.

It's actually the recipe off the back of a box of Mueller's elbow macaroni from back in the early 1980's.  That's when I married and we set up housekeeping.

It's a simple little recipe.  The recipe can be doubled to feed a large gathering or a couple of teenagers. lolz
I modified the recipe a few years back to use only half the amount of dry mustard called for in the recipe.  We like it better that way.
I also don't do a crumb or cracker topping anymore.  It doesn't need it really. ;-)

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients
2 TB Margarine(I use butter)
1/4 Cup Flour
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Dry Mustard
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 and 1/2 Cup Milk
2 Cups Grated Cheese
8 Ounce Elbow Macaroni
1/4 Cup Bread Crumbs(can substitute Ritz crackers or use nothing like I do)

Boil macaroni in pot of salted water for 6 minutes.  Drain and put aside.

Melt margarine over low heat in large pot.
Stir in flour, salt, mustard, pepper until smooth and flour has "cooked"(about 2 minutes).

Remove from heat and stir in milk.
Stir constantly while cooking over medium heat 10 minutes until thickened.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 and 1/2 cup grated cheese until melted.

Turn macaroni into greased 2 quart casserole.  Pour cheese mixture over macaroni.  Mix.

Sprinkle remaining cheese and bread crumbs(or crackers or nothing)over top.
Bake 375 Degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.

Enjoy.

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "Cooking From Scratch A Lot" Edition.............

I've been doing a lot of scratch cooking this past month.  Above was a meal eaten sometime in June-salmon(breaded fillets for 2 of the diners), roasted Brussels Sprouts(with bacon!)and mac and cheese.

The Daughter had to work until 9 pm that night so she had to reheat hers and missed being the first person to dig into that pan of mac and cheese.  I sent her this photo above at work and told her dinner was ready.
She messaged me back that I was a brat.  Well, yes, yes I am! ;-)

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Leftovers or FFY
2. Monday--Cook-Out Foods
3. Tuesday--Chicken Parmesan, leftover Risotto(for those who want it), Salad
4. Wednesday--Pork BBQ, Cole Slaw, Buns, leftover Cook-Out sides
5. Thursday--Meatloaf, Sugar Snap Peas, leftover stuffing(for those who want it)
6. Friday--Shrimp Dish(Shrimp and Grits or Garlic Ginger Shrimp Stir-Fry or Shrimp Scampi)
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Leftovers or FFY
2. Monday--Cook-Out Foods
3. Tuesday--Chicken Parmesan, Salad(nobody wanted leftover Risotto)
4. Wednesday--Pork BBQ, Cole Slaw, Buns
5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Meatloaf, Leftover cook-out Corn, Spicy Mac and Cheese(leftover stuffing was added to the meatloaf)
7. Saturday--Leftovers

7 meals cooked at home, 2 of them nights of leftovers.

As for my grocery spending..... I spent a total of $161.87 on 6 trips to 3 different stores. I have $145.04 left of my $450 food budget with 20 days to go in the month.
Yah, this doesn't bode well for staying under budget this month. 8-(


Leftovers going into this week........Pork BBQ.  That's it.  Everything else got eaten.  I live with eating machines evidently!

Here is this week's "food plan"--

1. Sunday--Chicken Spaghetti(don't ask!lol), Sugar Snap Peas
2. Monday--Breakfast for Dinner(Daughter is cooking)
3. Tuesday--Reuben Sandwiches
4. Wednesday--Lemon Pepper Chicken, Rice, Zucchini
5. Thursday--Shrimp Scampi, Salad, Garlic Bread
6. Friday--TBD
7. Saturday--TBD

This week will see 5 new meals cooked and 2 nights of NO CLUE yet.

What I need to buy for this menu.....small shrimp, rye bread, 2 bananas, sauerkraut, zucchini, French bread.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?

Sluggy

Grocery Shopping This Week

Well this week is turning out to be a spendy one as far as groceries go.
2 trips to Weis(PMITA)Markets, 1 trip to a small regional chain store in the town South of us, plus I sent College Boy to buy bottled water at Weis as it was 50% off this past weekend.

Here are the deals I got that are worth mentioning............

6 boxes of Nabisco crackers and was paid $2.88 to take them home. ;-)
3 boxes of Jolly Time popcorn for $2.39(Buy1Get2Free Deal)
3 bags of Emerald nuts for $3.99(Buy1Get2Free Deal)
2 boxes of Ronzoni Manicotti shells for $1.14 each(half price clearance deal)
3 boxes of Ronzoni Pasta for $2.50(half price clearance deal)
3 boxes of GM cereal for .88¢ each($1.88 ea. had to buy 3 plus $1 off each box Qs)
2 cans Hormel no beans chili for .74¢ each (after sale/Buy6Get$3Off Deal/Qs)
2 packages of Chi-Chi's flour tortillas for $1.29 each(part of the B6G$3Off Deal) + I also had a Chi Chi's Q for $2 off Eggs wyb2 Chi Chi items, so I got 1.5 dozen free eggs too
2 packages of Perdue breaded chicken cutlets for $1.50 each(after BOGO sale and Q)
1 jar Hellman's olive oil mayo for $1.47(after sale and Q)
1.5 lbs. of ground beef for $1.97 lb.
30 breakfast sandwiches for $21.85 *
3 tubes of Grands! biscuits for $1 each on clearance
6 dozen eggs(besides the 1.5 dozen listed above) for $4.00 total

*The breakfast sandwiches are $42.71 regular retail.  On sale 30 those bad boys were suppose to be $29.97.  The cashier screwed up and when I tried to let her know she was ringing things up the wrong price she got snippy and copped an attitude like, "bitch you don't know". lolz
So I let it go and let her ring stuff up wrong and save me another $8.12, spending $21.85 on $42.71 worth of sammiches.  I will attempt to be honest if you aren't charging me enough, but if you give me grief for it I'll just live with your mistake. ;-)

Grocery spending this week?
$160.68
Yikes!
Savings rate varied from a low of 48.81% to 55% off so it's not so bleak if you look at the deals I got over regular prices.  $160 but I got a LOT of food for that.

There seemed to be lots of deals around the 4th Holiday so why not take advantage of them, right?

Next week's ads aren't so great so I may stay out of the grocery stores next week.....or at least try to because I am over halfway through my food monies for July and it's only the 8th.
Ack.

Sluggy

Eating Out Totals....June Update

We spent $120.82 on eating out in June.  I like to keep it at $100 or less so we are over some.
We had Father's Day in June so that accounted for the bulk of it at $98.14.
Just a little Chinese take-out and a couple of subs from Subway otherwise.
No trips in June so no trip eating out.

We have spent $998.24 so far in 2016 on Eating Out.  That averages out to $166.37 per month.
Hopefully we can keep the last 6 months of the year at this level and keep the yearly amount spent at $2K or less.

My Eating Out Log can be accessed HERE.
For some reason the tab for this page is not visible on my home page.

Sluggy

July 1 Net Worth Snapshot

We are actually up $19,552 from last month's net worth overall(only liquid cash/investments, as I don't count housing or car values).  The retirement accounts were up a mere $4K+ for July 1.

We are up $86,423.90 from one year ago, the July 1st of 2015 net worth snapshot. 

Once Hubs retires I will miss these little monthly look backs, when we move from acquisition mode with money to spend-down mode. ;-)

Sluggy