Thursday, November 3, 2011

Supermom Super Fail

Sooo I was totally on top of it today. Before the hubs got home, I made sure the kid got his homework and book report done before friend time, fed the baby fish sticks AND managed to get a casserole dinner (that takes an hour+ to bake) in the oven - perfectly coordinated to coincide exactly with our family meal time.

Except for the fact that when I went to complete the last step of the dish, for some reason the oven was off. Despite my best efforts to blame the hubs, it seems that in my uber-efficiency I must have turned it off after the fish sticks were done baking.

(And the book report was not done according to the hubs' standards, btw.)

So much for supermom.

BUT, on the bright side, although this potentially had disaster written all over it, the hubs and kid were somewhat patient tonight and I was still able to get our meal on the table before midnight.

Three-Cheese Macaroni
Source: The New American Heart Association Cookbook (Seventh edition, 2004)

Ingredients:
  • 16-oz can tomato puree (used no-salt added)
  • 1 c. water
  • 2 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 3 minced garlic cloves (used refrigerated)
  • 24 oz. fat-free or low-fat cottage cheese
  • 1 large shallot, chopped (used an onion)
  • 8 oz dried elbow mac
  • 2 tbsp parm
  • 2 oz mozzarella cheese
Directions:
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9-inch square dish.
  • In a medium bowl, stir together the tomato puree, water, herb seasoning and 2 garlic cloves.
  • In another medium bowl, stir together cottage cheese, shallot and 1 garlic clove.
  • Spoon 1/3 of tomato mixture over the bottom of the casserole dish. In order, layer half the macaroni, all of the cottage cheese mix, 1/3 of the tomato mixture, all of the parm, the remaining mac and the remaining tomato mixture.
  • Bake, covered for an hour. Uncover and top with the mozzarella. Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.
  • Let casserole stand for 10 mins before serving.
Yield: 6 servings
Per serving: 271 calories; 23g protein; 41g carbs; 8mg chol; 1g fat (0.5g sat, 0.5g poly, 0g mono); 526mg sodium

Reviews:
I don't know if its because I served this so late or it was just that good, but we all were members of the clean plate club tonight. It was very, very simple to prepare and we have lots of leftovers. You may have also noticed (as in, didn't pay any attention at all) the fact that I skipped Meatless Monday this week. I did want to include one meatless dish in our meal plan, so tonight was it. No one complained - or even seemed to notice.

Ranking:
Three Forks

I heart broccoli!

3 comments:

  1. You may consider this an epic fail but I do not. That casserole can be made tomorrow (today) and mad props to you for whipping up a SECOND meal when lesser mortals would have called for a pizza. Supermom WIN!!

    It's all in the perspective. ;)

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  2. Thanks peeps! DD: I didn't whip up a second meal - I just made the boys wait until the original one was cooked through! :)

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