My Tasty Kitchen's best comfort meal ever!

Last week I got a flu shot. This week I swear I had the flu.... a low grade, mild flu. Not bad enough to stay home sick, but my body ached and my throat was very dry and scratchy and well... I just didn't feel good.

But yet, not bad enough to crawl into bed and have everyone leave me alone.
My 2 year old granddaughter from Virginia is here at our house for 6 weeks also, and she had a runny nose, so perhaps I caught something from her.
(my youngest son, father of the preemies/twins had the swine flu this summer, soon after the babies came home from the hospital. Hopefully that is immunities enough for everyone in their house for the winter!)

Whatever I had tho, like I said, wasn't bad enough to keep me down.... just wish that I could justify going to lay down and bypassing all my housewifery duties.
Here you are reading a "food blog", which is mine. Because I do love to cook. I love to bake, and cook new dishes.... but only when I "want" to. My boys are all grown, with families of their own, so for the past couple of years, it has been just me and the Handy-man. We go out to $1 taco night EVERY THURSDAY, eat with our friends the Miltons EVERY FRIDAY. I might cook like mad for 7 days straight, and then not cook anything at all for 5 days in a row.

I'm lucky like that...the Handyman doesn't care. He's good to make himself something to eat if I don't feel like cooking. Or rather, he's good to say, "where should we eat tonight?"


(a confession: we eat out more than anyone I know. It's not even fun anymore. Except that I don't have to do the dishes).

My point, you might be asking yourself? Is that, my middle son moved home a while ago... he is transitioning. But even with him home, I don't cook every night. He's 26, he knows his way around a kitchen (at least enough so he won't starve), but...... he brings home this cute, adorable, little devil... I mean ANGEL. (did I say devil--ha ha.  She really is adorable, and very spunky)to visit and stay with us for the next 6 weeks, and all of the sudden, I have The Handyman (who should know better), my  son,  and my little "spunky"  granddaughter, (who really does need to eat), looking at me, like "what's for dinner tonight?"

So on Tuesday, I just felt achy and icky...and I was looking thru some food blogs and was laughing at Donna's from Tasty Treasures, when I noticed she had a recipe for Chili Mac with green chilies. She had me at green chilies. Because truthfully, I already make a chili-Mac. My mom makes a chili-Mac, my friend Traci in California makes a chili-Mac. Chili-Mac is not that hard to figure out.... BUT she had green chilies. I had never seen that before, and I love the flavor of green chilies. And Donna also had the addition of cheese... mmmmmmm.

I ran my achy body to the store on the way home from work and picked up the few things I didn't have in my pantry. Because lets face it... Chili-Mac is one of those recipes where most of us, have most of the ingredients on hand, and is easily thrown together. We don't think of Chili-Mac as something grand.


I finish that errand and go home, where, you guessed it, I walk thru the door, where 3 expectant faces are scanning my face for clues as to what I am planning on making and glancing at the grocery bags in my hand to see some interesting ingredient is sticking out.


I tell them I'm fixing Chili-Mac. All of them except for my granddaughter  (she's happy with most things on the dinner table), turn away with disappointed looks on their faces.

That is, until I made this Chili-Mac and they tasted it. They went back for 2nds, for 3rds... the next day at lunch, the Handyman calls and asked what we were having for dinner. I say "leftovers". He is disappointed again, but not because we are having the Chili-Mac for dinner, but because he wanted to come home and heat it up for lunch.
Donna's "Skillet Chili-Mac with Corn and Green Chilies"         was comfort food at it's best. And  super easy to top it off. I think Donna was working on some easy week-night simple suppers. Or maybe one skillet meals.  I can't remember...check out her blog for that.... whatever it was tho, this one is a keeper.

I will never make my old Chili-Mac again.
Good-bye stupid oregano---hello green chilies and cheese!


I can't say enough about it... warm, tasty, filling, easy, comforting. YOU should try it. It really was grand!
I will post the recipe, but for pictures that are 100x better than mine and for a full tutorial, check out Donna's blog. Seriously. She's funnier than I am too.  You won't leave disappointed.

I am going to submit this meal to "thekrazykitchen's"   "Simple Saturday" meme.

Skillet Chili-Mac with Corn and Green Chilies

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 garlic-cloves, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 8oz cans of tomato sauce
2 cups water
8 oz (2 cups) elbow macaroni
1 cup frozen corn
1 4.5oz can chopped green chilies
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped
2 cups shredded cheese ( Donna used a combination of cheddar and Monterey jack, but she says we can use pepper jack or a Mexican shredded cheese blend. I used cheddar this time. I also used sea-shell pasta, because that's what I had)

Directions
Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the ground beef, onion chili powder, cumin and salt. Cook the beef until it is no longer pink. Drain off any excess fat or grease (the amount will depend on how lean your beef is) Stir in garlic and brown-sugar and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato sauce, water and macaroni. Cover and cook, stirring often and keeping the heat a steady simmer, until the macaroni is tender, about 10-12 minutes.

Stir in 1 cup of the cheese, frozen corn, green chilies and cilantro. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top. Cover and let sit until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes.
Yum!!
 

Browning it all up

The addition of brown sugar....not sure what it did, but it was good!

As I mentioned, I had sea-shell pasta.  It worked tho.   That's the great thing about easy week night meals, you can substitute what's in your pantry.

And Wah-La!  It's on the table!

And my little dev...I mean angel.

Evalynn.