Did you know that you can make creamy, rich, and saucy stovetop mac and cheese from scratch in the same amount of time it takes to cook boxed mac and cheese?

And I’m happy to say that this pasta is infinitely tastier than the boxes of mac and cheese that used to have a home in our pantry.

Creamy Stovetop Mac and Cheese

I’ve tried countless mac and cheese recipes over the years and never found one that I truly loved. This recipe though is absolutely foolproof and it turns out wonderfully creamy every time.

I am so very happy to have a new favorite dinner and my kids are pretty excited about it too. I’ve made this creamy mac and cheese at least a half dozen times over the past few months and we absolutely love it.

The recipe below is loosely adapted from a mac and cheese recipe that I found over on Cookie & Kate. The spices here are the game-changer – adding the garlic, onion, ground mustard, and a pinch of cayenne makes such a lovely difference.

Everyone has their own opinion on the best mac and cheese recipe. For me, the best mac and cheese is creamy as it possibly can be.

While lots of people swear by baked mac and cheese, I’m a stovetop mac and cheese girl for life.

Mac and Cheese with Heavy Cream

Want to make this even easier? Or would you prefer to skip the step with the flour? Replace the milk with additional heavy cream (for a total of 1 ½ cups heavy cream). Skip the flour. Just warm

The sizzle of perfectly seasoned fajita vegetables is snugly under wraps with oodles of gooey cheese in this golden, crispy Fajita Quesadilla.

Fajita Quesadilla

Each bite of these quesadillas is a burst of bold flavors. The smoky char of sautéed peppers and onions is balanced with the creamy flavor of melted, freshly shredded cheese.

And for toppings, you can finish your fajita quesadilla with a fiery tomato salsa, a dollop of sour cream, or guacamole. Or, if you’re like my niece… more cheese.

I typically have bell peppers of every color on hand, so using a mixture of colors makes this vegetable quesadilla a little bit more fun for me. But, feel free to use whichever color pepper you have on hand.

If you’d like to make these a little bit spicier, throw in some fresh chopped jalapeno. At my table, you can’t go wrong adding in a bit of that lingering heat.

My boys would never let me live it down if I didn’t note that you can easily add the meat of your choice to this recipe. Grilled chicken, pulled pork, and tender steak bites keep my meat lovers quite happy.

Fajita Quesadilla Recipe

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Crunchy greens, juicy tomatoes, and a medley of meats and cheeses are drizzled in a delicious creamy dressing to make this Italian Grinder Salad.

Grinder Salad

Whoa. This salad. It is SO good! As soon as I tasted the Italian Grinder Sandwich that I shared earlier this week, I knew that a salad needed to happen. The tangy slaw mixture topping the sandwiches was my favorite part, so I wanted to make the most of that flavor combination in a loaded salad.

Luckily, I had plenty of extra ingredients on hand, so I was able to make this salad the very next day. The whole family gave it two thumbs up and I’m pretty sure I’ll be making it again soon.

If you don’t need 8 servings all at once, or if you aren’t feeding 3 teenage boys, I suggest prepping all of the grinder salad ingredients and storing them separately in airtight containers, as instructed in How To Eat A Salad Every Day.

Just stash the meats and cheeses in a couple of ziploc bags or containers, and pour the grinder salad dressing into a jar until it is needed. This makes it so much easier to prepare salads consistently and quickly.

When you’re ready to eat a great salad, just combine however much of each ingredient you need in a bowl and toss your individual serving with a bit of dressing. These ingredients should keep well in the fridge for several days.

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Savory deli meats are piled high on a toasted hoagie roll, then topped with an unforgettable tangy slaw and gooey provolone cheese to make this Italian Grinder Sandwich your new favorite lunch.

Italian Grinder Sandwich

The slight crunch and crackle of toasted bread, soft and warm meats topped with gooey, melted cheese, crisp onions and peppers in an incredible slaw. What’s not to love? Put them all together and it’s pure lunch heaven.

Toasted hoagies are bursting with incredible flavor and all of my favorite grinder sandwich ingredients. This Italian grinder sandwich may be the best sub sandwich I’ve had in the past year.

This recipe is extremely versatile, making it great for large gatherings. Everyone can pick out their favorite lunch meats, just swap out the turkey for roast beef or pepperoni, etc. Or, you can just pile them on. I won’t judge.

Kids adore this quick lunch. But, especially for little mouths, cured sliced meats can be difficult to chew. If you chop up the meats, it makes it easier to manage. And, what child wouldn’t want their own, special “chopped” grinder sandwich?

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Tender, savory beef simmers with a medley of herbs and earthy veggies under a golden, flaky pie crust in this simple Beef Pot Pie.

Beef Pot Pie

Isn’t pot pie just the epitome of cozy comfort food? Rich, savory gravy hugging every chunk of meat, nestled beneath a flaky crust. The vegetables are wonderful, too, but that’s not why I’m making this easy beef pot pie recipe.

The boys at my table don’t think about the vegetables too much when it comes to beef pot pies. They want steak in their pot pie nearly as much as they want it in their chili. It makes the meal, let me tell you.

Ground Beef Pot Pie

This recipe uses steak, but you could easily swap it out and make a ground beef pot pie. The flavors would be very similar.

That said, I highly recommend making it as written with steak. The texture of tender steak that has been properly seared is something incredible to experience in a pot pie.

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