Nowadays, families are spending less time eating out and more time at the dinner table. With our busy schedules, we’re looking for no hassle recipes that our families will love. That’s why the makers of VELVEETA are encouraging families to VELVEETA it!-to create a dish that is quick and easy but a guaranteed home run at the dinner table!

To showcase the versatility, taste, and convenience of VELVEETA, they decided to team up with five Mom Bloggers, also known as the “VELVEETA It! Kitchenistas” who will serve up 25 recipe ideas over the course of five weeks from September 28, 2009 to October 30, 2009.

Visitors to Velveetakitchenistas.com can meet the Kitchenistas, check out their ideas, and have the opportunity to enter a daily qualified sweepstakes for a chance to win a VELVEETA It! Prize package, complete with a $25.00 grocery gift card, Cuisinart skillet, Velveeta cookbook, loaf saver, and product coupon!

GUESS WHAT?

I’m ONE OF THE KITCHENISTAS!!!

I’ll be over at VELVEETA It! on Thursdays where I’ll be hosting Tasty Traditions Thursdays, sharing stories and tips for family traditions that center around the kitchen and how you can make new traditions with your family! Some time during this month VELVEETA It! will bring you my original recipe which I developed with busy schedules in mind!

I’ll also be answering questions and talking with readers on Thursdays at Velveeta’s Facebook page. Special thanks to Velveeta for this amazing opportunity and special thanks to you all for making Southern Plate such a wonderful community that great companies such as Velveeta want to reach out to!

I’ve partnered with VELVEETA to serve as one of five VELVEETA it! Kitchenistas. I’ve been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes writing about my cooking experiences, tips and advice at Velveetakitchenistas.com; developing one VELVEETA-based recipe; and hosting “office hours” on the VELVEETA Facebook page. I have also been compensated for the food purchased for my VELVEETA recipe. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

And NOW for a Velveeta favorite from my childhood, My Mama’s Macaroni and Cheese!

My sainted mother made her special homemade mac and cheese this past Easter and took all of these photos so that I could bring it to you. I have had so many readers asking for Mama’s recipe!

You’ll need:

• Velveeta!
• Macaroni pasta
• Milk
• Flour
• Margarine
• and a wee bit of salt and pepper

If possible, don’t tell your family you are making this. Whenever I do they tromp in and out of the kitchen over and over and over wanting to know when its done. I prefer to SPRING it on ‘em!

SURPRISE! I made Grandmama’s Mac and Cheese!!!!!

• While you are assembling your cheese sauce, boil your pasta according to package directions and cooking until almost done.

Cube your Velveeta and fill a cereal bowl with it. Mama’s original recipe calls for a Corelle bowl filled with Velveeta. Of course, we measured it for this post and that is about two cups. You’ll find a lot of “two’s” in this recipe so it should be easy to remember once you make it  a time or two! ~giggles and wonders if you caught that..~

Honestly, life is so much nicer when you are easily amused!

In the dish you are going to bake your Mac and Cheese in, place two tablespoons of margarine and melt that in the microwave

Add two tablespoons of flour and stir

Isn’t it neat that Mama has the date on her camera? I turned mine off because I was never organized to keep the thing on the right date…

Salt and pepper to taste. If you want a starting point, I’d go for a teaspoon of salt and 1/4 of a teaspoon of pepper.

Stir in two cups milk.

Pour in cheese cubes. Place this in the microwave and heat for thirty to forty five seconds, then stir.

Repeat this until you have a smooth and creamy sauce.

Pour in drained macaroni and stir.

Bake at 350 for about twenty minutes (another two there).

Call out that it’s ready and prepare for  the stampede!

Add this recipe to ZipList!

Mama’s Mac And Cheese

Ingredients

• 2 C Velveeta, cubed
• 2 C Whole Milk
• 2 T Flour
• 2 T Margarine
• 2 C Dry Macaroni

Instructions

1. Cover Macaroni with water and cook until almost done, drain well. In bowl, melt margarine in microwave. Stir in flour. Stir in milk. Salt and Pepper to taste. Pour cubed cheese into milk mixture and microwave at 30 second intervals until melted, stirring often. Stir in cooked macaroni. Place in oven safe dish and bake, uncovered, at 350 for twenty minutes.

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“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.”

~Mother Teresa (Submitted by Southern Plate Reader, Mary)

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and an amazing Easter filled with family, friends, and FOOD! Hey, you know I was thinking it! I was on the Darla Shine show this past Saturday and I have never been so nervous in my life! Okay, the time I won first place in the essay contest at Monrovia Elementary was probably a bit worse – but they sprung that on me at the last minute and I was only in fourth grade and had to get up and read it in front of the entire school – which even had EIGHTH graders ! Y’all know what a tough crowd that is!

I remember stepping up to the podium and placing my paper down, then gripping it tightly as I smiled and spoke as if I had done that all of my life. The funny thing was, my knees really wanted to be sitting down and they shook so badly I was actually hanging from my arms on the podium. Being on the Darla show was much the same way, but without the dreaded eighth grade audience AND I got to sit down. I sent my husband and the kids to Chic-fil-A for lunch and playground time just to make sure  Darla (bless her heart for putting up with me) didn’t have to hear “Mama, my nose is running! I’m hungry…when are we dyeing eggs?” fifty thousand times in the background.

Let me tell you, her show is filled with the absolute nicest people! Even the guy who got my info while I was on hold for Darla was exceptionally nice! He gave me a much needed chuckle to loosen me up a bit, too! He came on and said “Christy, I just need to get a little information from you real quick before you go on with Darla. Are you married?”

“Yes, ten years..”

“Okay, great! Do you have kids?”

“Yes, I have two”

“What kind?”

~laughs~ I would have given anything to have had the quick wit to say “Oh one is a puppy and one is a chicken….”. He immediately laughed at his own wording though and I was busy chuckling as well.

When I got on with Darla (bless her heart for putting up with me), she was just the sweetest thing! Its difficult talking on the radio because you don’t know when the other person is going to be talking and so you hate to say something and risk interrupting – that is my only regret, that I didn’t have more time to gush and thank her for her kindness! It was all I could do not to get on the show and spend the entire time squealing in amazement and glee!

The caliber of guests she had was just stunning. I am in complete awe of them. It is best that I don’t think about that now because I am still worried about how I did! Thank you so much to everyone who listened in and sent me encouragement both before and after!

If you have never heard the Darla Shine Show, be sure to check out her website www.happyhousewivesclub.com. It is a wonderful one-stop-shop for encouragement, affirmation, and homemaking tips GALORE! You can also listen to past episodes of the Darla show in her archives and I’ll be sure and let you know when the one from this past weekend is up (after I listen to it and chew my nails off a bit…)

~takes a deep breath and composes herself~

In the meantime, who wants Mama’s Macaroni and Cheese?

My sainted mother made her special homemade mac and cheese for Easter and I called her first thing Sunday morning to ask her to take photos. I have had so many readers asking for Mama’s recipe!

This is one of two ways I make macaroni and cheese and its the favorite recipe with my kids. All of the grandkids love this! This is a creamy mac and cheese whereas my other recipe is more of a stringy, cheesy mac and cheese. You can visit that tutorial by clicking here and then go with whichever one cranks your tractor. There is no such thing as a bad mac and cheese, anyway!

You’ll need:

• Macaroni pasta
• Milk
• Flour
• Margarine
• Velveeta or other easy to melt, gooey and good cheese product type umm…product
• and a wee bit of salt and pepper

If possible, don’t tell your family you are making this. Whenever I do they tromp in and out of the kitchen over and over and over wanting to know when its done. I prefer to SPRING it on ‘em!

SURPRISE! I made Grandmama’s Mac and Cheese!!!!!

• While you are assembling your cheese sauce, boil your pasta according to package directions and cooking until almost done.

Cube your Velveeta and fill a cereal bowl with it. Mama’s original recipe calls for a Corelle bowl filled with Velveeta. Of course, we measured it for this post and that is about two cups. You’ll find a lot of “two‘s” in this recipe so it should be easy to remember once you make it  a time or two! ~giggles and wonders if you caught that..~

Honestly, life is so much nicer when you are easily amused!

In the dish you are going to bake your Mac and Cheese in, place two tablespoons of margarine and melt that in the microwave

Add two tablespoons of flour and stir

Isn’t it neat that Mama has the date on her camera? I turned mine off because I was never organized to keep the thing on the right date…

Salt and pepper to taste. If you want a starting point, I’d go for a teaspoon of salt and 1/4 of a teaspoon of pepper.

Stir in two cups milk.

Pour in cheese cubes. Place this in the microwave and heat for thirty to forty five seconds, then stir.

Repeat this until you have a smooth and creamy sauce.

Pour in drained macaroni and stir.

Bake at 350 for about twenty minutes (another two there).

Call out that it’s ready and prepare for  the stampede!

Add this recipe to ZipList!

Creamy Macaroni & Cheese

Ingredients

• 2 C Velveeta, cubed
• 2 C Whole Milk
• 2 T Flour
• 2 T Margarine
• 2 C Dry Macaroni

Instructions

1. Cover Macaroni with water and cook until almost done, drain well. In bowl, melt margarine in microwave. Stir in flour. Stir in milk. Salt and Pepper to taste. Pour cubed cheese into milk mixture and microwave at 30 second intervals until melted, stirring often. Stir in cooked macaroni. Place in oven safe dish and bake, uncovered, at 350 for twenty minutes.

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“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.”

~Mother Teresa (Submitted by Southern Plate Reader, Mary)

To submit your positive or motivational quote, visit  Give A Penny, Get A Penny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to all of my new subscribers! If you have any questions such as how to print out recipes without all of the photos, what to do if you can’t get self rising flour in your area, or if I happen to know anyone who can sing Row, Row, Row, Your Boat backwards, please visit my FAQ page by clicking here and put your worries to rest!

I do send out each of  my newly posted recipes in printer friendly format about once or twice a month to my email subscribers so if you see something that has been up lately, hang on because its coming as soon as I get the laundry caught up!

To join my cause of making the world a better place by feeding folks homemade banana pudding,

click here!

Remember, today is a GREAT day just waiting to happen!

Gratefully,

Christy

Its just about a requirement that all Americans love macaroni and cheese in some form and at some time in their lives, I’m no different. Growing up, my mother made a creamy homemade mac and cheese with a sauce that was smooth as silk and permeated every particle of perfectly cooked macaroni. It was my brother’s favorite so she usually made it every Sunday.

As a teen, we all became well acquainted with the boxed stuff, thrilling over the marvel and convenience of the powdery sauce which combined with milk to deliver the ideal after school snack for three busy young people on the go.

After I had my own kids, however, I quickly learned why my mother seldom ate Mac and Cheese. My kids loved it so much that I got burned out just from stirring those countless pots of pasta.

Then a few years ago I realized something – I missed my mac and cheese. I needed to reacquaint myself with it. While my mother’s mac and cheese is to die for, I longed for a stringy, cheesy, casseroley, version in my adult years. Something as far from the boxed stuff as I could get without introducing things my children would consider “weird”. Voila, Baked Macaroni and Cheese was born.

Those of you who subscribe to my email newsletter will receive an added bonus at the end of this week because I am also sending you my mother’s macaroni and cheese recipe as well as this one in my weekly recipe email!

Become a kid again .

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy lives to read Southern Plate! I want to especially thank you for all of your comments and emails! I am usually a little behind on responding (so I can keep getting more recipes up and posted!) but I read every single one of them and always respond as soon as I can. You are all such incredibly wonderful people and I appreciate all of the extraordinary kindness you have and continue to show me!


Gratefully,
Christy