{"id":12941,"date":"2011-02-16T12:02:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T16:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=12941"},"modified":"2011-02-16T12:02:50","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T16:02:50","slug":"skillet-burger-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2011\/02\/skillet-burger-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Skillet Burger Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac.jpg\" data-rel=\"attachment-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-12942\" title=\"Skillet Burger Mac \" src=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Both Scott and I grew up with those meals that had a big hand as a mascot and wanted to &#8220;help&#8221; you out with dinner.\u00a0 You know what I&#8217;m talking about. The meal ended up looking like runny cat vomit on a plate.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a great image for ya!<\/p>\n<p>But let&#8217;s be serious, that is totally true. It was also yummy once you stopped looking at it too closely.\u00a0 In fact it was one of the few ways I would actually eat beef growing up.\u00a0 I wasn&#8217;t much of a fan and ground beef was yucksville as far as I was concerned.<\/p>\n<p>But add in some crap pasta and cheap powder preservative laden cheese sauce and I was all over it!<\/p>\n<p>Years ago, when I started cooking full time for Scott and I, most boxed items went out the window. Once I learned the technique for making a basic cheese sauce, making a homemade version of &#8220;helper&#8221; anything became easy peasy.<\/p>\n<p>Now we have an upscale, much healthier version that I bust out from time to time.\u00a0 Or when Scott asks.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Andrea&#8217;s Skillet Burger Mac<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1lb Ground Sirloin (or ground meat of your choice)<\/li>\n<li>3C Whole Wheat Elbows<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 Large Onion Chopped<\/li>\n<li>1 Green Pepper, 1 Red Pepper, chopped<\/li>\n<li>2C Shredded Carrot<\/li>\n<li>4 Huge handfuls of spinach<\/li>\n<li>4 TBSP White Whole Wheat Flour<\/li>\n<li>1\/2C Unsweetened SO Delicious Coconut Milk<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2C Chicken Stock<\/li>\n<li>2TBSP Worcestershire Sauce<\/li>\n<li>Salt and Pepper to taste<\/li>\n<li>Big Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes<\/li>\n<li>2tsp Garlic Powder<\/li>\n<li>2tsp Chili Powder<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2C Shredded Cheddar<\/li>\n<li>Olive Oil for cooking<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a large pot, bring water to a boil and add in the pasta.\u00a0 Cook until just half way down, drain and set aside.\u00a0 In a medium sized, high sided skillet, add in olive oil, about 1\/2TBSP and heat over medium heat.\u00a0 Add in the ground beef and cook until done.\u00a0 As it&#8217;s cooking sprinkle with a touch of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.\u00a0 When it is done cooking, remove by putting in a bowl lined with some papertowels.\u00a0 If the skillet has a bunch of oil in it, drain in a glass heat proof container.\u00a0 Put back on medium heat and add in some fresh olive oil, about a TBSP.\u00a0 Add in the onions, peppers, and carrots.\u00a0 Stir and add in the seasonings, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and chili powder.\u00a0 Cook until the onions and peppers soften.\u00a0 Add in the worcestershire sauce and stir.\u00a0 Add the ground meat back into the skillet.\u00a0 Sprinkle in the flour and combine until everything is coated.\u00a0 Allow to cook for about 2 minutes then add in the chicken stock, slowly.\u00a0 Stir and add in the coconut milk.\u00a0 Bring this mixture to a simmer and add in the spinach.\u00a0 Stir until the spinach is wilted, then add in the cheese.\u00a0 Stir until the cheese is melted.\u00a0 Add in the pasta and combine.\u00a0 Remove from heat, dish into bowls and serve!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac2.jpg\" data-rel=\"attachment-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12943\" title=\"Skillet Burger Mac \" src=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Skillet_Burger_Mac2.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I ran out of elbows so I had to improvise with some shells! Still got the job done though.\u00a0 This also makes a lot resulting in plenty of leftovers for the next day or you can freeze and reheat for later.<\/p>\n<p>The dish isn&#8217;t heavy or overly sauced like the old school inspiration nor is it a very heavy dish.\u00a0 You would think with pasta, beef, and cheese it would feel and sit a little hard in the stomach but I promise it&#8217;s a light pasta dish.<\/p>\n<p>You can use whatever ground meat you like, we have access to some great local beef so that&#8217;s what I stuck with to keep it more traditional.<\/p>\n<p>Feel free to use milk or another nondairy liquid of your choice in place of the coconut milk.\u00a0 Totally up to you! You can play around with the veggies too, maybe you want some corn or even some asparagus tossed in. Your call!<\/p>\n<p>Perfect one pot dinner that takes a short time to make and pleases just about everyone!<\/p>\n<p><em>Have fun guys, and remember, always play with your food! Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both Scott and I grew up with those meals that had a big hand as a mascot and wanted to &#8220;help&#8221; you out with dinner.\u00a0 You know what I&#8217;m talking about. The meal ended up looking like runny cat vomit on a plate. There&#8217;s a great image for ya! But let&#8217;s be serious, that is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[13,36,30],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KYWa-3mJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}