This is something that I've never prepared before. I'm always trying to introduce my kids to new foods and textures, so a while back, Velveeta was on sale and although I despise the stuff (I don't believe it has any nutritional value) and have never bought it in the 14 years I've been cooking for myself, I decided to give a recipe a try that included velveeta. I figured that if my kids like shells and cheese, they'll like anything with velveeta, right? I didn't realize that velveeta came in different sizes. So when I went to the store to buy it, I hadn't written down how much I needed. Come to find out that the 2 lb. block was only about 50 cents more than the 1 lb. block. I validated the purchase by assuming that my kids would be in love with it and I could use it on all sorts of things. They HATED the meal I prepared. I don't even remember what it was. But the sad thing was that I'd only used 4 ounces of a 32 ounce block of cheese. Grumble grumble.
Then I had my baby. And then I stopped cooking and forgot about my velveeta. I saw it in there just the other day and hurried and looked at the packaging. It said that it was good up until 8 weeks after opened (just goes to show you how much CRAP is in it!). Considering that my baby is 7 weeks old and that I opened it a week before she got here, I decided that I'd better hurry and use it. So I went to allrecipies.com and typed in velveeta under the ingredient tab/link. Being the miser that I am, I selected the two recipes that used mostly ingredients I had on hand: homemade mac and cheese, and german potato casserole. The only think I had to buy was bacon (and I found some chicken bacon as a manager's special, so that was a major plus. I only had to spend $2 for 3 days worth of dinners). I pulled the mac and cheese out of the oven and was greeted with protests to the tune of "EWWWW! That looks YUUUUCKYYYYY!" Which, as usual, was responded to with, "I know, but it's what's for dinner so you need to eat it." After the first bite, though, they quickly changed their minds and said, "actually, it's pretty good!" They told me I should add it to the favorite list. So I did. I'll post the recipe here later.
Here's the recipe for German potato casserole. It looks gross, but we really liked it. But anything with mayo, bacon and velveeta has to taste good, right?
It's by Dara Luburgh and this is here picture, too
Ingredients
- 5 pounds red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks (We had regular,starchy white potatoes, so that's what we used)
- 1 pound sliced bacon, diced
- 8 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped (I sprinkled onion salt on top instead of using a fresh onion. I maybe used 1/2 a teaspoon?)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise*
- 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 pound process cheese (eg. Velveeta), cubed
Directions
- Place potatoes in a Dutch oven (I don't have a dutch over, so I just used a pot) and cover with water. Bring to a boil. reduce heat; cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain. In a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings.
- In a large bowl, gently toss the potatoes, bacon, eggs, onion, salt and pepper. Combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and reserved bacon drippings; add to potato mixture and toss to coat.
- Divide half of the mixture between one greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish and one 9-in. square baking dish. Top with half of the cheese cubes. Repeat layers. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
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