Challenge 9: Breakfast Burritos

I'm not gonna lie to ya. I'm not a big fan of breakfast burritos. Mainly, because I don't like eggs much, and most all breakfast burritos consist of eggs.

This one is no different.

But, these also have potatoes, so I thought they might change my opinion.



I started by grating a lot of cheese. Anything with this much cheese is bound to be good, right?



Next, I browned my sausage and drained the fatty grease.



Next in were the frozen breakfast potatoes. I bought the kind with red bell peppers and onions included, because hey - I like my spice.



Pioneer Woman says to cook the potatoes in the sausage for five minutes, but I'm here to tell you that I had to cook mine for twenty WITH a foil tent over them. After 5 minutes they were still frozen. Just a little heads up.



TEN eggs go into these bad boys. Along with several spices. I should have halved the recipe, but we all know how I feel about halving recipes. Right?



Nothing says Good Morning like raw eggs and rubbery sausage. Yum.



Finally, the eggs set and our filling was ready to be rolled up into flour tortillas!



Heat, fill, roll, repeat. Heat, fill, roll, repeat. Heat...fill...roll....

REPEAT!



If you are feeding an army, I recommend using the whole recipe. It made ten burritos, so I guess it calls for one egg per burrito if you add it all up.



I made them all in hopes that Husby would eat them in the morning for the rest of the week before work. He didn't.



In our opinion, these were just "alright". I felt like all you could taste was the potato. We probably won't make them again, but hey, if breakfast burritos are your thing, go for it!

Challenge 8: Chicken Spaghetti

This was my first encounter with chicken spaghetti. I have often heard of it, but have never tasted it.



The very term "chicken spaghetti" doesn't sound too appetizing. Some things just don't belong in the same sentence. Like toenails and ice cream. But it doesn't at all taste like it sounds. It's not your typical red sauce spaghetti with chicken chunks instead of ground beef. Thank goodness.



I've noticed that a lot of these recipes call for a green bell pepper. Or a red one. Which is fine by me because I love bell peppers. My nickname in high school was Bell Pepper Whitney.

Just kidding.



My water boiled over. Can you tell? It made a sizzling, smoking mess.



I could be a Top Chef with my chopping skills.



Al dente!



In a very large bowl, you mix the noodles, cream of mushroom/chicken soups, peppers, onions, cheese, pimentos and a variety of seasonings! Oh, and of course, the chicken.

I forgot to get any pictures of the chicken. Oops. I just boiled a few breasts and shredded them.



This is a very colorful dish. But you can't tell because of all the cheese I threw on top. Ree made me do it.



Hot, bubbly and simply delicioso!



Want some?

Come on over. I need someone to help photograph my steps because I get to cooking and forget to snap pictures. So come on over and help me. K? Thanks.



Chicken. Spaghetti. Yummy.

Challenge 7: Mac N Cheese

I totally botched this recipe.

I want to blame it on Husby, though, because he made me half the recipe. I told him that halved recipes never turn out right and that it was impossible to half an egg. But he insisted that two pounds of macaronie was a little excessive for two people

HURRY UP AND EAT TABLE FOOD, LEVI, SO I DON'T HAVE TO HALF RECIPES!



The whole roux thing turned out fine. Flour, butter, vigorous stirring. Cake walk.

Things took a turn when I added milk. Ree specifically called for whole milk. Did I have whole milk? No. So, Husby suggested I use part 2% and part half and half.



This whole disaster was all Husby's fault.



The creamy cheesy sauce LOOKED good in the end, but it did not taste right.

It tasted WEIRD.

It was probably that half an egg Husby made me use. And the half and half with half 2%. I'm sick and tired of halves. I was never good at math.



I thought that maybe once it was covered in a healthy dose of cheese and baked, it would cover up the weirdness and taste like it was supposed to.



It did not.

I'm telling you, I TRIED to eat it, but I couldn't. I strayed from the path set before me and added things that shouldn't have been.

And I halved it.

Don't half it.

It will come back to haunt you.



What a waste.

Should you embark on the Mac and Cheese Mission, do not veer from the recipe. Use whole milk and make the whole batch. Oh, and keep your Husby OUT of the kitchen!!!

Challenge 6: Meatloaf!

I have to admit. I was a little leery of this recipe because there is bacon on it. Bacon on a meatloaf? It just seemed a little weird to me. But I went with it.



Here's my bread soaking in milk. Sop Sop Sop it up!



The rest of the ingredients were thrown into a bowl and I got to mixin'. With my hands! Ground beef, parsely, parmesan cheese, the milk soaked bread, eggs, salt, season salt and pepper and....I strayed from the recipe and added an onion. I'm sorry. I just can't imagine a meatloaf without an onion. It's just sinful to think about.

Sorry, PDUB.

Forgive me?



Now isn't that appetizing? I am very anti meatloaf in a bread pan because it can just never get crispy! And I love my meatloaf ends. So I flattened it and made it wide.



Here goes the bacon! We didn't realize it when we bought it, but we chose "thick sliced" bacon. I won't do that again.



This topping (tomato gravy, as PW calls it), is exactly like the one my Mom always makes. Which is what I always make, too. So, I was very happy with that, because it's simply the best.



I covered the loaf in the topping and popped it in the oven for about an hour and 15. Mmmmmm.....!



It turned out wonderfully! It was SO delicious. I kind of feel like the bacon was kind of pointless being there, but that may just be me. But everything else was fabulous.

If you don't like meatloaf, I bet you'll like this one.

Challenge 5: Mashed Potatoes.

Is there ANY bad way to make mashed potatoes? I think not. I love them. I prefer my potatoes mashed over baked, because I feel with baked, you can never get enough butter.

I set out to make these potatoes and while PW said to use 5 lbs, I felt that was a little excessive for the two of us. I didn't need 5 extra pounds of potato on my booty, so I used like 3.

Pounds. Not 3 potatoes.



I boiled them for about 30 minutes, until I could stick a fork in them and it would come right out with no resistance. I used Yukon Gold potatoes which are small, so they cooked up pretty quick.



Hot Potato, Hot Potato, 1-2-3!



Something that makes these potatoes absolutely divine and creamy is the half and half, the cream cheese, and....THE BUTTER!



I've never seasoned my potatoes with season salt (I usually just use salt and pepper), but PW said to, so I did.

And they were GREAT.



Butter anyone?

I love this recipe because you can whip them up ahead of time, throw 'em in the fridge and then heat them through in the oven when ready to serve. This made my life so much easier.



Not healthy. But DELICIOUS!



A pillowy mound of mashed potatoes....just for me.