Ground Beef and Macaroni Bake

Tonight was my first dinner with a guest, Kevin!  I wanted to make something impressive, so I got out my Culinary Arts Institute cookbook.  (It's very fancy.)  I found a ground beef and macaroni bake with tomato sauce and cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese.  (Which functioned the same as ricotta cheese.)  It was great!  There was a little trouble blending the cheeses and sour cream, but that's probably because I put the cream cheese in the mixer first and there wasn't enough liquid at the bottom... whoops!  I ended up just mixing the concoction together with a spoon.  All in all, it came out wonderful and decided to make some green beans as a side to counteract all the cheese and macaroni.

Before going into the oven.

After baking for an hour.  

Ground Beef and Macaroni Bake

Ingredients:
1/2 pound ziti noodles
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
1 carton (16 oz.) cottage cheese
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1 pound ground beef
1 24 oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. garlic powder

Preparation: 
Preheat oven to 350.
Cook noodles until tender.
Place half the noodles in greased baking dish.
Meanwhile, with a mixer, beat together cream cheese, cottage cheese, and sour cream.  Pour over macaroni.  Sprinkle remaining macaroni over cheese mixture.
Brown ground beef in skillet, drain off excess fat.  Stir in tomato sauce and garlic.
Pour meat mixture on top of noodles.  Sprinkle with parmesan.
Bake, uncovered for 50-60 minutes, or until heated through.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from The Culinary Arts Institute Cookbook

My Mom's White Chicken Chili

Today was so chili (haha, see what I did there) that I decided to make chili.  This went much better than yesterday!  It tasted great, though it was more like a soup than chili.  My mom uses instant mashed potatoes to thicken hers, but I didn't have any and I didn't want all the wasted calories of flour.  I decided to blend another can of beans instead.  Well, they didn't really do much and it was still pretty runny.  Well, what can you do?  The chili came out tasty, so maybe I will just cut my losses and call it soup.

Step 1: Add chicken and onions to the pot.

Step 2: Add chicken broth, green chilis, and spices.

Finished product: Delicious soup! 

My Mom's White Chicken Chili

Ingredients: 
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 lb. boneless/skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chiles
2 cans white cannellini beans, undrained
Potato flakes, for thickening
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cilantro
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
Toppings (optional): scallions, sour cream

Preparation: 
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and onions, cook until done.
Stir in broth, chiles, garlic, cumin, oregano, cilantro, and red pepper flakes.  Simmer 20-30 minutes.
Stir in beans, simmer 5 minutes.
*Thicken (if desired) with instant potato flakes until desired consistency
Enjoy!