Macaroni Cheese

Oh what a freezing cold day, we've snow, sleet, rain and now ice, the view is so lovely. Everywhere is a lovely shade of white, absolutely beautiful.

Looked in the fridge and found a jug full of cooked pasta and i thought its to cold for pasta salad so pasta bake it is.

This makes a meal for four people.

Macaroni cheese

500g of dried pasta

2 tablespoons of butter

2 heaped tablespoons of plain flour

1 pint of milk

50g of strong mature cheddar

1 tablespoon of mustard

1 tomato sliced (optional)

Place 500 grams of uncooked pasta and cook till done. Once cooked place pasta into a large oven proof dish ready for when you place the sauce over it.

 

Melt butter in a pan

 

Once the butter has melted stir in the plain flour.stir till its a thickish paste

 

Gradulally stir in the cold milk till it smooth and cream with a whisk.

 

Carry on stirring till smooth and creamy.

 

Add cheese and stir till melted, stir in mustard.

Place cooked pasta into a dish and lay the cheese sauce over it, till pasta is all covered.

I added sliced tomatoes to the top and a sprinkling of cheese

and plae in oven on gas mark 4  or 180 degrees in an electric oven

 

Now as i'm  to cheap to but macaroni pasta i just use what i have.

500g sainsburys basic pasta 39p

1 pint of milk 25p (taken from 2l milk container £1 tesco milk)

50g cheese 43p (taken from 350g cheese pack £2.98)

2tbsp plain flour 3p (from 1kilo bag 45p)

mustard 6p(jar was 45p)

tomato 10p

So the price i think is £1.26 in total give or take and works out about 32p each.

We sometimes serve this with home made bread and salad if we have less leftover pasta.

The sauce should last a few days in the fridge and freezes well.

Till tomorrow

Kez

Ahh Fresh Bread!!!!!

Ahh fresh bread you can't beat it.

Fresh bread normally doesn't last very long in my house as we all adore it  :)

Just thought i would share the recipe i use, its very adaptable and scrummy.
I use it to make to loaves, buns, foccacia and pizza's.

Basic Bread Recipe
300g Strong White Bread Flour
300g Plain Flour
300ml of tap water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
7g dried fast action yeast ( or if using a bread machine about 1 1/2 tsp of fast action yeast)

If making by hand place the flour in first ,then the salt, sugar and yeast.

Mix together till fully combined. Then slowly add the water whilst stirring till it has formed into sticky but not wet consistency.

Now leave to rise dough till its doubled in size. Once it has done this, knock the dough back down again .

You can now shape into loaves, buns etc Place the shaped into a loaf tin, baking tray and leave to rise again. Once it has done this, preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Leave for 5 minutes for the oven heat up and place the bread dough in the oven.

Bake for about 45 minutes or till cooked.

If using a bread machine, I normally place the ingredients in and put it on a dough setting.

Once it has beeped, get the dough out and now you can shape it into loaves, buns etc.

Just follow the instructed given in the hand making recipe.

The great thing about this recipe is that its so adaptable and you can various different things to it such as herbs etc

For a pizza base you can use the same recipe as the bread loaf or what I do is use all plain flour.

If you want to make wholemeal bread, you need add I think about 50ml extra of water.

Enjoy!!!