Fast, Easy, Creamy and SUPER Yummy Mac and Cheese!

So last night the Prince and I play "CHEF!", an almost daily game around here, LOL...and he made his daddy garlic and kalamata olive hummus and together we made our favorite version of mac and cheese...the title of the post tells all the reasons we love this recipe...Below is the recipe, we tweaked it a bit to our liking...you should really try this one...Don't we always feel better when we make something and when it's just as easy as opening a pre-made package and much yummier!

Enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package elbow macaroni (We of course used GF, last night we used Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta, bought at Walmart, this is really a great substitute for wheat pasta)
• 1 (8 ounce) package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 (12 ounce) container small curd cottage cheese
• 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (we used a bit more, we love the tast of Parmesan)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil, add pasta, and cook until done; drain. (If using the GF kind above cook the pasta ~14 minutes and then rinse with cold water)
2. In a mixing bowl, add Cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and blend together with mixer until nice and smooth.
3. In 9x13 inch baking dish, stir together cooked macaroni and cheese mixture.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until top nice a bubbly. (Once it is done, I mix it once more with a spoon, it helps blend all the melted cheeses)

FABULOUS Chore Charts for the Kiddos

The Prince has chores (he is actually unloaded the dryer as I type);yep, in our house we all do our share to have a clean and happy house. I have wanted to redo his chore chart for a bit now, so I started looking at some of my favorite blogs. The above chart is great for older and multiple kiddos and on the same page she has a younger child version, seen below. If you are interested click HERE! and read her complete post, find out where and what you need to purchase and PRINT FOR FREE all the adorable chart cards and tickets! Confessions of a homeschooler ROCKS!! and provide me with so many great ideas!!

FREE Early Age/Pre-school Solar System Packet

Here is a completely FREE and wonderful Pre-school/early age Solar System packet!

This is one of my favorite sites, 1+1+1=1, she offers so many free things, BUT for $12 you will have access to all of her Members only stuff also, which includes things from tots to ~8-9 year olds! I am joining today, I have been meaning to for a while now....but she has an older version of the Solar System and the Prince LOVES asteriods!! You can join for $12, here.

Lil Chef's cooking class: Week #2 Berry Parfait

Below are the ingredients and pictures from the Prince's second week of Lil Chef's online cooking class

Ingredients Needed
2 different colored yogurts (can use any kind even the Horizon-type yogurt sticks)

Fresh or frozen strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc (all kinds but at least one kind - you will want to be able to cut strawberries. Please dethaw frozen berries)
8 oz Heavy Whipping Cream
Up to 1/4 c sugar
Optional: granola ( we used GF rice crispies!)

Kitchen Items Needed

Clear tall glass (or festive plastic one)
Small knives for cutting
Cutting board
Spoons
measuring cups
Hand/Stand Mixer

Cream Cheese Cold Veggie GF "Pizza"

I served this today for non-GF friends and it was a hit! So much so, that a couple requested the recipe....here you are ladies!!!

• 3 Eggs, separated
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
• 3 oz room temperature light cream cheese
• 3 TBSP Parmesan cheese

First separate the eggs and whip the whites with cream of tarter until VERY fluffy

Second, stir the cream cheese with the egg yolks till blended, and fold into the egg whites.  Also fold in the Parmesan cheese.

Spread in a greased 13X9 pan.

Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes. (In my gas oven and the NM altitude, I tend to cook a few minutes longer)

While the crust is baking I combined a room temp. 3/4 block of cream cheese with ~ 4 tbsp of Greek salad dressing, ( I typically use Italian, but was out ;) until it is smooth. In my mini-food processor I processed baby carrots, broccoli and red bell pepper; once each was processed I mixed them together.

Let "pizza crust completely cool and top the “pizza crust” with the cream cheese spread and top with veggies.

YUM-O!!

The Prince loves to cut out different shapes (cookie cutters) of this crust and make mini-pizzas!! (This is actually what he had for dinner since D.A.D. is out of town.....:(

Free Net Flix for One-Month

Netflix is currently offering a free one-month trial.

It's interesting that Net Flix came up in one of my conversations today and hubby and I have been talking about getting it again....

If you haven’t heard of it already, Netflix is a great program that allows you to rent as many movies as you want from two sources: in the mail or instantly on your TV, computer or select video game systems.  If you continue on after the trial you get unlimited instant access to movies for $7.99 a month or for $2 more get unlimited DVD’s mailed too.

Thanks, Southern Savers

Snapfish: 100 Prints for $5

 

From now until February 20th you can get (100) 4×6 prints for only $5 from Snapfish, including shipping.

Use the code CUPIDPICS to get the discount and make your prints 5 cents a piece!

Don’t forget to also get a free disney themed 12×12 photo calendar.

Thanks,Southern Savers

FREE Online Animal Games for Kids (Science!!)

Matching Memory Games: Use your memory to make pairs! At the same time, learn which animals are carnivores omnivores or herbivores, as well as mammals or birds!

Above is a small sampling of what is offered on this site, the Prince loves classifying animals and creating food chains...and well, I LOVE him learning and having fun!! You MUST check out this site.