Macaroni and Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes

I'm finally back. I just finished moving into a new place and now I'm back to cooking. The week between Christmas and New Year's was hectic, lots of packing, moving and unpacking. And lots of meals on the run. Even at my parents house, no one was really cooking — except for Christmas Day, of course. Christmas Eve is always frozen appetizers and Christmas Day is a Honeybaked ham and some sides. Then, we eat off the leftovers for the rest of the week.

Since moving I've made lots of food for myself, but it's either repeats or simple things with so few ingredients they weren't even worth writing about.

The good news about the holidays, besides seeing my family, is that I not only reached my goal of maintaining, I lost weight last week. Go figure. I still have more to lose than I'd like to fully admit, but my strategy between Thanksgiving and New Years is to not gain weight. And that's a feat in and of itself. Lots of parties, lots of food around the office, and lots of cookies and other goodies at my parents' house.

And.. my sister got engaged and is planning a wedding for fall 2009. I'm very excited for her. Plus, it's motivation for me to stick to healthy eating and exercise. I'd love to be back at the weight I was two years ago. I would say that's my happy weight — probably not the thinnest I could be, but not hard to maintain.

So I'm officially back on track today. Lately I've been making a lot of meatless dishes from pantry staples and a few fresh ingredients. I threw out most of the contents of my fridge and freezer from my old apartment when I moved.

Turns, out the Macaroni and Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes was exactly what the weather called for. Something cheesy and comforting to combat the cold front that's coming in. This appealed to me mostly because it had roasted tomatoes. It doesn't look all that cheesy, because I made it with whole wheat macaroni, but it is. I used regular extra sharp white cheddar and it turned out great. Two percent condensed milk and egg substitute gave it it's creaminess. I couldn't even tell it was light. And I loved the roasted tomatoes. YUM. Overall, a pretty good meal!

Pork with Mustard Sauce

The cold/flu has gotten the best of me. I tried so hard not to get sick, but it didn't work. Instead, I'm a sneezing, coughing, stuffed up mess and up until yesterday I suffered from a sore throat. Luckily, I haven't gotten it as some in my family.

Sickness really derails the exercise/food plan. Even once I'm better I have to be careful working out because of the nasty hacking cough I get. Back in high school the cough turned into an exercise-related asthma attack more than once. And whoever told me raising your body temp through exercise helps keep you from getting sick lies like a rug ;) I jogged on Monday and was full-on sick by Wednesday.

Before I got sick, though, I made my favorite pork tenderloin with mustard sauce. I love this pork because it's so easy and stays really, really moist. The pan sauce is up to you, although the recipe makes a mustard sauce. Usually, you see recipes that call for roasting the tenderloin, but I think the stove top method works well. Just brown it, cover it, turn down the heat, and let it cook for about 20 minutes.

Perfect easy meal.

Broccoli Cheese Potato Soup

My family has the flu. My dad is running a temperature of 101 and my mom thought she was for sure getting sick last night. That left me to make dinner. And after grocery shopping and packing boxes all day yesterday (I'm moving to the cheaper apartment!), I was too pooped to make anything time consuming.

So I cheated.

This soup came from a bag — sort of. I started with potato soup mix. Followed the package's directions for the amount of liquid, but used 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 water. When it came to a boil, I whisked in a block of shredded sharp cheddar cheese until melted, and then whisked in the soup mix as directed. Then, I added about a head of fresh broccoli florets chopped small.

Then, I let it simmer for 15 minutes like the package says, stirring often. I didn't stir often this time, as evident from the brown-ish chunks of burnt soup. Still tasted OK.

My only complaint about using a soup mix is that the potatoes are clearly reconstituted dried potato chunks. Otherwise, I guess you'd never know I didn't make this from scratch. I can't claim credit for this idea though, the back of the bag suggests adding cheese and broccoli.

Never said I was a genius in the kitchen. :)

I don't have nutritional information for this because I pitched the bag before I thought to write down the number of servings per bag. I found the nutritional information per serving, though, and I would say it serves 6 to 8 depending on what size of bowl of soup you want. I was using regular sharp cheddar because that's what was in my fridge, but you can cut calories with low fat sharp cheddar. But definitely use a sharp cheddar so the flavor doesn't get too lost in with the potatoes.