Taters Precious!

These potatoes are a spin off of Pioneer Woman's fluffy new potatoes. I just changed it up a bit.

Ingredients:

10 red potatoes
3/4 tub of cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 stick of butter
salt
pepper
1/3 cup mozzarella

Directions:
Boil or bake your potatoes till they are almost cooked. I did both, I boiled them for about 15 minutes (mine were HUGE) and then baked them in the oven for 10 minutes. I then sliced them in half and scooped out most of the filling. You have to be careful here, because you want to leave a little bit of potato in the skin so it can hold the mashed potato mixture.
I melted the butter and cream cheese together, and then added the sour cream and salt and pepper. I mashed the insides of the potatoes with about half, maybe a little more of the butter and cream cheese mix.
Put the potato mixture back into the skins and then I spooned a little more of the cream cheese/butter/sour cream mix onto the potatoes. Then I topped it with a little mozzarella.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is a little golden.

I got several comments saying these were the best potatoes EVER!!!

Enjoy!

Green Chile Bacon Mac and Cheese

I made this over the weekend using things in the pantry and fridge. You could definitely adjust this to whatever cheeses and meats you have.
Again, there was no measuring, so I'm trying to estimate how much I used.
Start by boiling 4 cups of elbow macaroni until al dente.

Then you basically, you make a roux out of the flour and butter.
Ingredients:
5 Tbsp. flour
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cup milk

Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add your flour. Whisk till all the lumps are gone. Keep whisking until the flour/butter mixture starts to get some color to it. Then, add your milk! Start with 1 cup, then add more if necessary. You want it to be a sauce like consistency, but not too thick because you still have to add your cheeses. That is your basis for any sauce you want to do. After you make that, you can add your cheeses and whatever else you want.

I added:
1 cup mexican four cheese blend (shredded)
1 cup grated parmesan
1 can of diced green chiles (drained)
1 bag of Hormel bacon bits
2 Tbsp. cream cheese

Just add all of these into your sauce and stir until melted. Drain your pasta and stir in the sauce. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Top with more shredded cheese.

I made a cracker crumb topping using club crackers.
Just melt a stick of butter and crush up half a package of club crackers (ritz would be good also!) and mix together then sprinkle over your mac and cheese.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

Hope you enjoy! I'm going to try to start writing down how much I use of things, because it's really hard to think back how much I used.