Bacon Cheeseburger Macaroni

Bacon cheeseburger meets mac & cheese. What more do I need to say? It's comfort food heaven.



Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup canned tomatoes
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups macaroni
1 cup shredded cheddar (I used the Tex Mex shredded cheese)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp Dijon mustard (or yellow mustard...whatever you like to put on your burger)
2 tsp Ketchup

Directions
Boil macaroni in a large pot of salted water for 11-12 minutes or until desired
Meanwhile, fry bacon in a skillet. Drain bacon on paper towels, set aside. Drain away fat from the skillet and brown the ground beef.
Make a hole in the middle of the skillet and saute onions and garlic until fragrant.
Add oregano, thyme salt and pepper and tomatoes and mix well and leave on low heat while you deal with the macaroni.
By now, the macaroni should be cooked. Drain water and while macaroni is still hot, add cheese and mix until melted and gooey. Stir in the sour cream, dijon mustard and ketchup. Then add the beef & tomato mixture from the skillet and the bacon. Stir everything together and season with more salt if needed. Serve with additional ketchup and mustard if you so please. I recommend you eat this in your pjs. It's that comforting.

Bloody Mary Burgers with Roasted Broccoli

I am usually a purist when it comes to making burgers. I don't like to add any filler to my patties. I simply flatten out the ground beef and salt and pepper both sides before grilling. Today I thought I'd try out a recipe from the trusty Rachel Ray Cookbook my bestie got me for a birthday present one year. I LOOOOOVE Caesars, the Canadian Clamato twist on Bloody Mary's. The burgers were SO good. Of course, I adapted the recipe to suit my tastes. ;)


Ingredients

1 large head broccoli
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp peri peri powder
1 tbsp olive oil
600g ground beef
1 1/2 tsp celery salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot sauce
1 tsp Tobasco
2 tsp prepared horseradish
3 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tomato, diced
1 tbsp Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1/2 tsp dried dill
4 hamburger buns
4 leaves lettuce
cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 F. Toss broccoli with olive oil, garlic, peri peri powder, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 15-17 minutes or until stems are tender and treetops are brown.

Lightly mix ground beef with celery salt, hot sauces and horseradish with a fork (fluff, do not mash!) Score meat into 4 equal parts and form into patties. Grill for about 4 1/2 mins per side until cooked through.

Mix mayo with diced tomatoes, hot sauce, dill and black pepper. Serve sauce on burgers with lettuce. I also added cheese, because my husband insists that cheese naturally belongs on burgers!

The BEST Baked Chicken Fingers

This totally looks like the most Canadian children's meal ever, but it was seriously good. The taste SO much better than any frozen pre-made chicken fingers. Sharl made the comment that they were the BEST chicken fingers he's ever had. I liked the fact that they aren't fried. You can try it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

500g/1lb chicken fillets (or boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 2-inch strips)

2-3 tbsp light mayo

2 tbsp Franks Red Hot sauce

1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce

1 sleeve saltine crackers

1 cup bran flakes

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp dried thyme

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 F

In a bowl combine mayo and hot sauces, and coat chicken strips in the mixture.

Put crackers and branflakes into a bag (i used an old bread bag) and crush with a rolling pin or your hands into rough crumbs.

Add crumbs to bowl and toss to coat all sides of the chicken strips

Lay chicken fingers on a baking pan and bake for 10 minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through.

I made a extra dipping sauce out of the mayo and hot sauce. DELICIOUS!