Macaroni and Four Cheeses

It was a slow, quiet day at work today. And cold. It's days like these that it's really, really hard to drink plain water. We have a water cooler in our break room, which unfortunately cools the water. Cold water is just not appealing. I haven't yet developed a taste for plain, hot water.

I know, for the sake of WeightWatchers' guidelines, only half of the six 8-ounce servings need to be plain water, but I tend to strive for more than that. I strongly believe I'm fighting my genetics here. According to my mom, I would often go through most of the day without drinking anything.

I'm not sure if that's because I just don't get thirsty, if I'm secretly a camel, or if that just goes to show I hated plain water even when I was an itty-bitty.

I managed to get one water bottle full of water down, (a Kleen Kanteen knock-off) which I'm guessing from holds roughly 32 ounces. I should double check that and I've been meaning to, but well, what can I say — I'm lazy.

Then I *had* to switch to hot fruity herbal teas for my sanity. I was already wearing two sweaters (my cardigan I wore to work today and my "Mr. Rogers" sweater coat) and I just couldn't take another drop of cold water.

Tonight's dinner was a happy accident in terms of planning. A warming comfort-food dish: Macaroni and Four Cheeses, Ellie Krieger's take on a lighter mac and cheese. I've seen this on a few blogs last month and I have her cookbook out from the library, so I thought I would give it a go.

The winter squash intrigued me, and I'm determined to like it in one form or another. I've spent years wishing a store near me would carry frozen winter squash, and now that they do.. I feel compelled to make use of it.

The end result? Eh, it was wasn't really all that cheesey and it was grainy. I've made better. It's not bad as long as you aren't expecting macaroni and cheese.

Here's my other attempts at making macaroni and cheese (with mixed results). Some are light versions and others aren't: Creamy Stove Top Macaroni and Cheese, Grown-Up Mac and Cheese, Macaroni and Cheese

Beef Polenta Pie

Wow, I need new lighting.. pronto. This is awful. Seriously awful. I've been tossing around the idea of specialized lighting for a while, but I've been too scared to make any real purchases. Maybe I'll just start with a bulb and see where it goes. This doesn't look very appetizing, but maybe I'm just picky.

I assure you it wasn't as bad as it looks. The Beef and Polenta Pie wasn't a dinner that wows, but it was cheap and cheerful — meaning it filled my stomach, didn't take much time to make, and was cost-effective. By using 1 pound extra lean ground beef and 4 tsp of oil, it comes out to about 10 points per serving. And I felt the portions were fairly large.

I think my general dissatisfaction with dinner this week stems from the salt shaker. I cook with pinches of kosher salt here and there. Because it's a coarse salt, I can see how much is going in to the dish. I've been at my parents house and my mom does things the way she's always done things.. with a salt shaker.

It works for her, but not for me. I just can't seem to get the right level of seasoning and I'm constantly having to taste the dish, whereas a taste or two at home usually is enough to ensure the seasoning's right. And a dish like there, without much in the way of spices or herbs, really needs to have the right balance of salt and pepper. Otherwise it's just kind of tasteless.

Tonight's dinner, which I plan to share on Monday, should be amazing, though. Looking forward to it :)

Cranberry Sauce

The other day I was reading For the Love of Oats and I saw her use fresh cranberries in her oatmeal. I thought, "Wow, that's a great idea." So I bought a bag of cranberries to add to my oats in the morning.

Only, the were oddly crunchy and pretty bitter and in my mind didn't make the best addition to oatmeal.

So, I'm flipping through my November food magazines when I realized, duh, I could make those cranberries into a cranberry sauce, and that would be a great add to my morning oatmeal. Why didn't I think of this before?

So last night at 10 p.m., I was making cranberry sauce. It's simple, and takes only 10 minutes to cook. I used the basic recipe in the November 2006 Bon Appetit, but added a pinch of nutmeg and a healthy dash of cinnamon after it was done simmering. It was spiced just right and was great stirred in to my oats this morning.

And it comes out to only 2 points per 1/4 cup, which is plenty for a bowl of oatmeal. I'm sure you can get more exotic with it. I've seen people suggest adding things like nuts and blueberries to it.