Category: Cooking

I love macaroni and cheese.  For the longest time, I’d only eat the boxed stuff, but then I moved to Wisconsin and developed an appreciation for REAL mac and cheese.  The last time I visited my mom, she gave me this great recipe for slow cooker mac and cheese that has since become one of my staples.   I love to make it when I have leftover macaroni, which happens more often than you might think.

This is enough to make multiple meals for me, though if you’re actually trying to feed multiple people, you might want to double the ingredients.

1 c cooked macaroni

2 T butter

1 1/4 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 egg, beaten

1/2 can cheddar cheese soup

1/4 c sour cream

1/2 c milk

1/4 t salt

1/4 t ground mustard

1/4 t black pepper

Melt butter in a saucepan.  Add cheddar cheese and stir until the cheese is melted.  In your slowcooker, add the butter/cheese mixture and then add the remaining ingredients (except for the macaroni).  Stir.  Add the cooked macaroni and stir again.  Set your slow cooker on low and cook for 3 hours, making sure to stir occasionally.  When it’s done, you’ll have a tasty dinner that goes well with a bottle of Hoegaarden.

Those of you who know me know that I hate to cook.  But because The Physicist is selfish and refuses to come over and do all my cooking for me, I’m forced to undertake the drudgery of food preparation much more often than I’d like.

Because I hate cooking so much, I’m always on the lookout for recipes that are quick and don’t require a lot of burdensome chopping.  Today, I made a wonderful dish that’s both delicious and easy to prepare.  It originally served four, but I’ve scaled it down to a single portion:

Oyako Donburi

1 chicken breast

1/4 cup rice

1/2 cup dashi

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1 1/2 tbsp white sugar

1 egg

1 green onion (optional)

First, prepare the rice.  Then, chop the chicken into thin strips and set aside.  Next, take a skillet and pour the dashi in and turn on low heat.  Mix in the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar.  Add the chicken pieces and simmer for a few minutes on low heat.  Then, turn up the heat and, while you wait for the liquid to boil, beat the egg in a bowl.  Once the liquid is boiling, add the egg and reduce the heat.  Let the whole thing simmer for several more minutes until the egg is cooked.  Spoon your rice into a bowl and top with the contents of the skillet.  Garnish with chopped green onion.