31 Days of Dinner #3: Ribs & Broccoli mac


Gosh, this challenge is really challenging me! I've never been much of a shutter-bug, so remembering to take pictures before I do things has been really difficult. Like dinner today, for instance. 

Mum & Pops had leftover soup. It was scheduled to be split pea from the freezer, but apparently we did in fact eat the last one and I don't remember it (also it could be stashed at the back of the shelf right where I think it is and we just can't see it). Mr. Moon pulled out a leftover frozen tortilla soup, but Mum didn't know how to reheat it from half-frozen and I wasn't feeling well enough to even do that much at that point. So they had leftover seafood chowder from... well probably a week ago now. Anyway it smelled fine and could reasonably be served in a restaurant so she decided to risk it. 

Mr. Moon and I shared a pork country style rib, and each had a full mini-loaf-pan of broccoli mac & cheese. Now, I only ended up with a 5 oz portion of meat and his was only about 6 oz, but we could have split one of those loaf pans as a side and been fine. I'm feeling a little too full after powering through the last 1/4 of it because it was soooo tasty and not something I wanted to reheat again. Ah well, know for next time. 

But Mr. Moon is raving about the broccoli mac and suggested I share a little more in detail what we did. We were making Mac & Cheese for dinner one day, and I decided to add some veggies to it so it wasn't JUST a carbtastic ambrosia. The next time I made it, I made 2 full loaf pans and 4 half/mini loaf pans (not the double-cupcake size ones, those are smaller). Baked one off right away and froze the rest, minus the top layer of cheese because we ran out halfway through the project. These were covered in foil and I should have topped them with parchment first because unsurprisingly the foil shredded though there were no chewy pieces thank goodness. But I tossed in a little milk to cook the noodles that had dried out in the freezer, topped it liberally with cheese, and baked them up right from frozen at 350 F for about... oh, half an hour? Until the cheese on top was melty and bubbling from underneath. 

They're delicious and a fabulous freezer meal. One mini loaf pan for one person's dinner (well, Mr. Moon's or my dinner, one would have served dinner for Mum & Pops together). One full loaf pan for the four of us, and you could probably drop the serving sizes down to feed a couple extra if they're kids. 

And that's dinner!

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