Quick Update

Hello my amazing, loyal blog readers!  I have to start off by apologizing for not updating here in a very, very long time.  I have no excuses other than healthy diet (no fun) and sheer laziness.  Don't get me wrong, I still have mac and cheese here and there, but it's been a little less lately, so I tend to stick to my favorite places so I don't have a lot of new material to write about.

Until my next real post, however, I have some interesting things for you to check out.  First, I went down to LA for a work event and found this really awesome sculpture made of nothing but Kraft Mac & Cheese boxes.  Of course I had to snap a photo!  By the way, the "Shapes" box is truly the best.

 

Photo Credit: The Verge

My other fun update  for you is something that I am NOT going to recommend.  Not because I haven't tried it, but because it just sounds way too ridiculous to ever actually try.  I read a Verge article stating that Burger King now has a limited release of an item they are calling Mac & Cheetos.  Supposedly it's mac and cheese, fried with a Cheeto cheese powder coating on the outside.

Okay, guys.  This mac and cheese experimental craze is getting a little out of hand when you start getting this ridiculous.  I thought I'd seen it all when I was passed along a link to a place that makes mac and cheese hamburger buns.  That's right, mac and cheese hamburger buns.  That's just crazy.  But maybe still not as crazy as the mac and cheese pancakes I actually tried to make some months ago.  Boy, was that a disaster.

Anyway, I hope that you are all having a great start to summer and I promise to have some more updates soon, even if it's just to pass along crazy articles while I'm still trying to maintain a healthy diet.  Eat well and stay active!  National Mac & Cheese Day is right around the corner...

Review: American Kitchen

American Kitchen
71 Lafayette Circle, Lafayette
american-kitchen1.com

Thanks to my friend, Andrea, I've found another location with a full selection of different kinds of mac and cheeses.  However, only on Wednesdays.

American Kitchen in Lafayette boasts a full list of 11 different kinds of mac and cheese variations for their Mac N' Cheese Wednesdays every week.

There's everything from a basic mac, to a truffle mac, to a cajun mac, or even a BBQ chicken mac (which is what I chose to try).  Pretty much a little something for everyone.  It's actually pretty hard to choose.  But after a glass of wine and some time to unwind after a long day at work, my friend and I chose our fates: the BBQ Chicken Mac and the Southwestern Mac.

The Southwestern Mac consisted of a mix of pepper jack cheese, crispy tortilla, roasted corn and steak.  While it had pretty decent flavor, the cheese sauce itself was rather watery.  I would wonder if that had something to do with the choice of cheese.  I've never tried to melt down pepper jack.  Not sure how that would turn out.

Andrea's Southwestern Mac

My BBQ Chicken Mac

On the flip side, my BBQ Chicken Mac was relatively creamy, probably because they add an extra topping of cheddar cheese.  It consisted of cheddar cheese, shredded chicken, BBQ sauce, and normally comes with onions, but I had those taken out since I have a weird thing about onions.  No judging!  I know a lot of people love onions.  I just don't like the texture.  Anyway, it was actually pretty good.  The chicken wasn't shredded in a way that I expected but tasted fine, and the whole thing had the taste of a BBQ chicken sandwich.  I'm not sure if that means that I would rather just have a BBQ chicken sandwich... Nah, this was pretty fun :)

There's plenty other menu options I'm hoping to try in the future, the most of which being their basic mac and cheese.  I feel like you get a better feel for how good a mac and cheese dish offering is by knowing how the restaurant makes the basic dish.  Looks like I'll just have to go back. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

I've long been a fan of Valentine's Day, whether I had someone special to share it with or a whole crew of my best girl friends.  It feels like a great excuse to get together and celebrate those people that you love and appreciate in your life.

Today is just another day to be grateful for those around you, and I'm especially thankful for my amazing family, friends, and boyfriend.  I hope that they never doubt how much I cherish my relationships with all of them.

That said, it's also a great day to celebrate with GREAT food, like Mac & Cheese!  I found this really funny matching sweatshirt set.  I love the saying, "You're the Cheese to my Macaroni".  It's pretty adorable.  Anyway, if you are interested, you can find it here on Amazon for purchase.

Again, Happy Valentine's Day from You Don't Know Mac.  Thank you so much for being a reader!

Fit Tip of the Day: The Health Benefits of Cheese

Source: womenshealth.com

Continuing with a theme of healthy living, here's several ways that cheese (in moderation) might actually help with your health!

Did you know that you can actually lose weight by enjoying part-skim mozzerella?

Or have some part-skim ricotta after a strength training session to help build muscle?

A bit of Gruyere could actually help prevent diabetes, while cheddar can help ward off cavities!

If you are intrigued, you can find out more about these cheeses (as well as the health benefits of Parmesan, Feta and Swiss) in this recent article, 7 Delicious Cheeses with Major Health Perks, from Women's Health.

See?  It is possibly to enjoy cheese and still be healthy!  Happy eating!

Fit Tip of the Day: Healthy Mac & Cheese Recipes

Photo source: shape.com

It's the beginning of a new year, which often means the beginning of new, healthier diets for most folks.  In the spirit of healthy food options, I thought I'd share this article for 12 Lightened-Up Mac and Cheese Recipes I found on Shape's website.

In it, you'll find recipes for a Gluten Free No-Mac & Cheese, Quinoa Spinach Mac & Cheese, and, you guessed it, a Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese.  Unfortunately, that last one still makes me feel queasy.  Let's just assume I won't be trying to make that one myself again.  There are several restaurants that make it much better than I do...

In other news, I promise I'll be posting about my NYE Mac and Cheese treat soon!  It's definitely going to be a new addition to my top ten!

Anyway, enjoy!  Happy cooking!  Happy eating!

Recipe: Vegan Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

Alright, I can hear the criticisms now.  A vegan mac and cheese?  Yes, friends, it's possible.  And no, there's no cheese.  But! Some recipes do a great job with non-cheese mac dishes, so I decided to try my hand at it.

I went with a recipe from Le Petite Eats.  It seemed pretty straightforward, so I went to the local store and picked up all the ingredients, including something called nutritional yeast, which I'd never heard of before.  I'll be honest, however, and mention that this was not a pure vegan mac and cheese.  I wasn't willing to pay eight bucks for a giant portion of vegan butter substitute when all I needed was 2 tablespoons, so I used regular butter instead.  There.  Now that that's off my chest...


I began by steaming the cut up butternut squash in a vegetable steamer.

Then, started putting all the ingredients together under instruction of the recipe.  It was weird how many spices I would need to add flavor since with a regular mac and cheese, it's relatively straightforward.

There was also the need for a kind of vegan bechamel sauce.  This recipe used cashews and almond milk.  Not many cashews.  Just a handful.  It was hard not to just eat them.  Mmmmm, cashews...

There was also a fair amount of prep for the sage breadcrumb topping.  Some butter, breadcrumbs, garlic and sage leaves all had to be prepped and made crispy over the stove.

As I started to realize how many steps would be included in this recipe, I decided some wine was in order to get me though the journey.

After the butternut squash had been steamed to a soft, easy to cut state, it was time to puree in the blender.  This actually proved pretty challenging since the butternut squash kept forming a kind of air pocket above the rotating blades, so I had to constantly start and stop the blender to pop the air pocket.

Once the butternut squash puree was ready, I started the process of heating up the bechamel sauce.  Once that was hot and formed a somewhat thicker consistency (it never really got all that thick...), I added in the butternut squash puree and mixed it all together.

Then it was time to add in the noodles.  The sauce was so thin that it almost didn't even seem to cover all the noodles.  It also didn't help that they were basically the same color.

Then, everything was transferred into an oven safe bowl and topped with the sage and breadcrumb topping.  Popped into the oven for 20 minutes to toast the breadcrumbs, and then, it was done!

The final product had a pretty okay flavor.  I don't know that I would call it a mac and cheese substitute really, but my boyfriend seemed to enjoy it.  He even went back for seconds.

Unfortunately for me, I did not have such an enjoyable time with this recipe.  I'm slightly convinced that I may have had some kind of allergic or intolerant response to the nutritional yeast.  It's possible it was also some bad butternut squash, but since I had such a negative reaction and my boyfriend was relatively fine, I have a feeling it was more than that.

So, that's what I get for trying to go vegan (or almost vegan).  I guess it's good I still really like cheese.

Happy New Year 2016!  I hope the year ahead is filled with lots of good times and good meals.  And good macs! :)

Review: Murray's Cheese Shop

Murray's Cheese Shop

254 Bleeker St, New York City

murrayscheese.com

Hey friends!  It's another field trip post!  This time all the way from New York City!

There were several restaurants to try while visiting the Big Apple, but I knew that I had to make some room for some local Mac and Cheese!  I did some research and eventually found that Murray's Cheese Bar was a pretty popular choice.

To be fair, somehow, we found ourselves at Murray's Cheese Shop (owned by the same folks) in Greenwich Village instead.  I haven't been to the Bar location, but from what I've read, I would assume that the Bar is more like a restaurant, whereas the Shop is more like, well, a shop.

Looking back, I'm actually kind of happy we found ourselves in the Shop location.  it was cute and had a massive amount of unique and fine cheeses and meats and right in the middle of it was this awesome kiosk where you could order all sorts of goodies, including a build-your-own mac and cheese.  I opted for just adding some bacon (I don't care what the World Health Organization says).

The sauce was made up of their special blend of 3 cheeses and then you could choose between any number of toppings or additions.  The sauce wasn't super creamy but it definitely wasn't dry.  I would say this would be a great recommendation for anyone who doesn't like their sauce super heavy.  The bacon flavor was a little overpowering of the cheese, so it was hard to judge alone, but overall, I really enjoyed it.  And I enjoyed my trip into the shop.  They had some great old jazz music on and loads of local foods and candy to purchase.  It was pretty awesome.

While writing about NYC, I have to recommend a second spot, not Mac and Cheese related.  Not far from Murray's Cheese Shop, in neighboring West Village, you'll find some really, really AMAZING cookies from Sweet Corner Bakeshop (535 Hudson St, New York City).  We picked up a large Peanut Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip.  They were super delicious.  I highly recommend stopping in if you're in the area and need a sweet treat! :)

And lastly, I have to show off my new souvenir.  We happened to be in town just before the New York Marathon, which was both really cool and kind of annoying.  It was cool because you could see all the excitement during newscasts and lots of runners started coming in to the city and bringing along their pre-race energy.

The best part was that the local sports stores (Nike, New Balance, Asics) all had some special marathon specific swag that you could purchase for that week only.  Since I'm somewhat obsessed with Nike city specific swag, I figured I'd opt for this cool customized running shirt over the classic "I heart NY" tee.

 

I even made sure to fit in a very quick jog through Central Park,  just so I could wear it without feeling like a hypocrite.  Haha!

Anyway, cheers everyone and happy eating!