Big Boobies Macaroni Salad aka Amish Style -revisited

My sister-in-law has two friends named Linda.  She calls one of them "big booby's Linda" to distinguish between the two. 

She got this recipe from big-booby's-Linda and I loved it so much I had to have the recipe. in her honor I named it after her. 

I have tweaked it a little bit from my original post with the amount of vegetables I put in it. Her sauce remains the same. 

1 bell pepper

1 red onion

2 stalks celery

2 carrots

Chopped parsley (fresh) 

4 hard boiled eggs

1 box macaroni 

2 cups kraft real mayonnaise

1-1/2 c sugar

1/4 c white vinegar

3/4 tsp mustard

Boil macaroni. You should be able to figure this out. 

My eggs have smileys in them because I've always distinguished our hard boiled eggs from raw eggs with smiley faces. My kids called them "happy eggs" as toddlers. 

I food process my veggies because I'm lazy. Ha. 

First the red onion and carrot

Then the bell pepper. Remember the veggies will chop differently depending on the texture. I usually put like-textured things together in the food processor. 

Then celery. That was easy. The teaser done. 

Toss together in a big gigantic container. 

In another container...

Mayo

Sugar :)

Vinegar and mustard

Whisk it up. 

Chop the happy eggs

Drain pasta and rinse, tossing in cold water. Drain well. 

Toss with the veggies. 

Pour in the sauce and toss

Gently fold in chopped eggs

Now let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving. It gets better with age. The 2nd day is even better so go ahead and make it ahead of time. 

Is your beauty routine killing you? My 2 cents

I love Ewg's website. It's my go to site when buying any beauty products. 

www.ewg.org

You can check all of your health and beauty and cleaning products for safety on there because they are third party and don't take $ from the companies they rate.  

Many perfumes, beauty products and cleaning products cause liver damage and your liver (if healthy) is what will help keep you cancer-free. 

Go on their site and search your daily used products. You may be surprised. 

Remember health and beauty products and vitamin supplement companies have no regulations. Companies don't even have to tell you everything that is in them. A company may claim to be organic and natural but may contain products that harm you. And they don't even have to list them. 

I started making my own products just to be certain that I know what is in them. 

I'm surprised my sons are on board. They love the products  I've made for  them. 

I've done a lot of damage to my body over the years, so hopefully it's not too late to reverse the bad but, you have to start sometime. 

My eating habits aren't the greatest but it's better than most people I know. Ive used the 80/20 rule long before it was called that. 

Take the health posts you read on Facebook with a grain of salt. Do your own research and find reputable authors. 

Start small. Eliminate bad cleaning products, and perfumed products. Eliminate sugar drinks, artificial colors and flavors, and try cooking from scratch. It's fun, therapeutic and you will know exactly what you are eating. 

Make your own beauty products where you can and check Ewg's website for safe products available commercially. 

Pinterest is a great resource for healthy meals and homemade health and beauty products. If you try one and don't like it, don't give up. You'll find your niche. 

I'm not perfect when it comes to health but I'm always learning. I've started an herbalist program because I've  always loved learning about herbs and I needed more. 

If you like health motivation follow my more serious blog, @ShannonDillman. 

I post a lot of recipes on my blog (Margarita Stewart) that are made from scratch. I also redo recipes that use product that aren't so good. 

It's almost impossible to be totally healthy. Pick and choose and eliminate the worst things. 

My coworker brought in those hidden Valley Ranch pretzel bites. I used to love them and I stopped making them along time ago because he Valley Ranch powder is not good for you. I ate some of his, gosh I remember how delicious they are now. So I went home and pulled out all my spices and made my own using all natural spices. 

You can do this with almost any recipe that you like. 

http://margaritastewart.blogspot.com/2014/05/jalapeno-pretzel-bits.html?m=0

I'm sure there's things in the pretzels that aren't the best for me but I at least eliminated the hidden Valley Ranch powder. 

And by all means avoid eating anything low fat!  

Eat things in their most natural state as you can. We get our raw milk from an organic farmer and we also get our meat from him. Sure I eat out and I'm sure the food in restaurants is crap, but again, we can't be 100% healthy. 

Simple Baked Jalapeño Lox

Disclaimer to the haters: shut up, I know it's not traditional lox, ya bloke. 

We love stuffing jalapeños with anything we can. Even when the pantry is low, I have salmon packets. 

Simple Baked Jalapeño Lox

You can half this recipe for two people. 

Although two of us in my house could probably eat the whole recipe

Makes 24

12 jalapeños 

2 packs salmon (2.5 oz)

2 packs cream cheese 

Your favorite spices (even if it's just old bay, spice it up) 

Toss it in the mixer bowl and let'r whirl. 

Beat until creamy. 

Cut jalapeños in half. Deseed and if you are afraid of heat, devein. (Not us)

Stuff each half with mixture and place on baking stone. (If you're not using a baking stone you're really missing out)

Bake at 375 until cheese starts to get golden brown (15-ish minutes, ovens vary) 

My local CVS sells salmon packets for a buck in their dollar section. The grocer wants 1.50 and up. It's a no-brainer, I buy them by the case for my boys to have a semi-healthy fast food snack. (Better than chips, and they eat it right our of the pack with a fork)

Jalapeño Pretzel Bits

You can adjust the spices to your liking.

 I don't use hidden valley ranch packets because they contain unnecessary additives so I toyed with my spices and came up with this. 

1 box hard sourdough pretzels (13.5 oz)

3/4 Cup oil (I use coconut or peanut)

1 ½ Tbsp dill weed 

3Tbsp granulated garlic

1 tsp ground or crushed rosemary

1-3 Tbsp  dried jalapeño powder

10-15 turns of peppermill

Mix and pour onto baking stone or your fav baking dish. 

Bake at 200° for 50 minutes

Let cool and store in covered container 

Beets with Béchamel sauce

This is a pretty easy dish you can make it ahead of time and put it in the oven at dinner time. 

2 tablespoons of butter melted

1 pound of beets sliced a quarter inch thick (partially cooked, either via baking or nuking). You can peel them if you prefer. 

1 1/4 cups of Béchamel sauce (recipe below) 

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter. Arrange the beets in the prepared dish and drizzle with melted butter. Season with salt and spoon the béchamel sauce over the beets. 

Bake, covered, 25-30 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 5 minutes. 

Serve immediately. 

Béchamel sauce 

1/4 c butter

1/4 c flour

2-1/4 c milk

Pinch nutmeg

Salt and white pepper

Melt butter over medium heat. Remove from stove and whisk in flour to form a roux. 

Slowly stir in milk, combining until smooth. Stir in nutmeg and salt and pepper. 

Place back on heat and bring to a boil stirring constantly so as not to burn and to keep the flour incorporated. 

Lower heat to simmer and cover, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. 

The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. 

The sauce is used for gratins soufflés and stuffings and can be used to make pasta sauces or put over poached eggs. 

It's also great over fish and vegetables. It is the base sauce to my macaroni and cheese. Or you can also lick it off the spoon all day long it's delicious. 

Béchamel Sauce

béchamel sauce 

The sauce is used for gratins soufflés and stuffings and can be used to make pasta sauces or put over poached eggs. It's also great over fish and vegetables. It is the base sauce to my macaroni and cheese. Or you can also lick it off the spoon all day long it's delicious. 

1/4 c butter

1/4 c flour

2-1/4 c milk

Pinch nutmeg

Salt and white pepper

Melt butter over medium heat. Remove from stove and whisk in flour to form a roux. 

Slowly stir in milk, combining until smooth. Stir in nutmeg and salt and pepper. 

Place back on heat and bring to a boil stirring constantly so as not to burn and to keep the flour incorporated. 

Lower heat to simmer and cover, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. 

The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. 

Bologna Sushi (appetizer with pickles, cream cheese and bologna)

I've been making this for years with all kinda of lunchmeat but the term I give it is "bologna sushi."

Bologna is such a fun word. I love to randomly say "it smells like bologna (baloney) in here". 

Heres all ya do: 

Spread it with cream cheese, and roll it around a pickle and slice. It's that easy. 

It sits in the fridge well overnight. 

They make great appetizers. 

Drain and dry the pickles slightly for better adherence. 

Using a whole pickle...and a whole pickle cut in half. 

My teddy bear picnic lunch at work tomorrow. 

Grapes, banana, bologna sushi, club crackers, cheese cubes, buttered rye bread, Spicy slaw (Kim chi), milk and lemon water.