Mac N Cheese

I realized, when sitting down to write this post, that I never took a picture of my finished dish.  And, it came out pretty good - because there's not much left in the fridge.  This came about, because I had some leftover stuff in the fridge, I keep a pretty decent pantry of staples, and I was feeling lazy about cooking dinner.  It's pretty much me not following the directions on the back of the Campbell's Creamy Poblano and Queso soup can.

 

In a heavy large pot - I melted about a tablespoon of butter and a swirl of olive oil, then I added in  1 1/4 cup of mushrooms until they started to caramelize, then added 1/2 cup of onions, 3/4 cup of peppers and one diced serrano(not pictured)  and sweat them out.  Once they were in the pot - I put 1/2 a box of pasta in a pot of water to boil.  The directions on the pasta called for 14 minutes - I did 10 minutes, since they would finish cooking in the sauce.



To the veggies in the pot I added 1 1/2 cups of cut up pre-cooked chicken, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1/2 an andouille sausage (not pictured), a can of Rotel tomatoes - not sure why I own the mild version??  I also added about 1/3 palmful of both cumin and chipotle pepper, and fresh ground pepper.



I added the can of soup, half a can of milk and brought to a boil.  As soon as it stopped boiling, I added a cup of shredded cheddar cheese.  Once the cheese melted, I stirred in the partially cooked pasta and poured the whole mixture into a pyrex casserole dish that I had sprayed with PAM.  I put it in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, sprinkled another 1/2 cup of cheese on top and put it back in for about 10 minutes until the top cheese layer started to brown.  Let it stop bubbling (about 10  minutes) after coming out of the ovenand then let the vultures have at it.

1 tbs butter
3 tbs olive oil
1 1/4 cup diced baby bella mushrooms
1/2 cup onions
3/4 cup peppers
1 diced serrano
1/2 pound pasta
1 1/2 cup pre cooked chicken
3 garlic cloves
1/2 andouille sausage
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1/3 palmful each cumin & chipotle pepper
fresh ground pepper
1 can Creamy Poblano & Queso soup
1/2 soup can of milk
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar  divided