Mac & Cheese

I wasn't going to do a post about macaroni & cheese, but then I thought maybe like me, you also sometimes can't think what to make for dinner and we forget about these simple things like mac & cheese. I was reminded about this when someone posted on facebook that they're making this for dinner. So perhaps you're scrolling through blogs looking for ideas for dinner (like I do) and then I might just be able to help!

I don't know if it's common to add mince to this dish. I grew up with it only being macaroni and cheese sauce with some tomato. But we now add some mince too. Whenever I cook mince I usually make extra to freeze. To spice up the mince I add a can of tomatoes of course and then whatever I have in the fridge like mushrooms, green pepper, and sometimes carrots or zucchini or peas. Finely chopped of course except for the peas.. You can add some fresh tomatoes too and vegetable stock gives great flavour. (Try Ina Paarman vegetable stock if you're in SA.) And don't forget the herbs and red wine!

So you've cooked your pasta (I actually used penne instead of macaroni here), add your cooked mince and cheese sauce. Mix, grate some cheese over the top and bake.

I made this a while ago and I'm actually making it again tonight. We'll be home late so I'll be preparing the cheese sauce and pasta before we go out and the mince is ready anyway. When we get home all I'll need to do is stick it in the oven for about 25 min.

Pasta with veg & pesto

I received this pasta and pesto in a parcel (see this video) from the bank in Germany when we got married. It was filled with interesting things to eat like chocolate (that's the first thing that came to my mind now! It was the most amazing chocolate truffles...) and olives and a bottle of red wine and lots of other goodies including this packet of colourful pasta:

and this sun dried tomato pesto:

André was a bit skeptical about the pesto. He apparently once ordered pasta with pesto and didn't like it. But I convinced him to give it another try, and this was a different kind of pesto anyway.

I knew he wouldn't be very satisfied with only pesto with his pasta so I added some chopped veg - zucchini, mushrooms, red pepper and garlic - fried in a pan with some olive oil.

Here's the final product: Colourful pasta, served with veg and pesto. And freshly baked (ready bought) bread rolls.

Nice and easy!