So this set of lunches is a little unbalanced. Two dishes are spicy! The first is a somewhat of a grab bag stew. I browned onions, poured in vegetable broth and beef broth, cooked black eyed peas until tender, threw in New Mexico diced chilies, added corn starch to heavily thicken the stew (I’m not a fan of soupy liquids along side the two other sides in the one dish), and tossed in mustard greens.

The second dish was a macaroni and cheese dish. This was my first time making the cheese sauce and I think it came out okay. I cooked a roux of melted butter and a couple of tablespoons of flour until light brown in color. I then poured in about a cup or so of half & half and cooked it until thickened. I then grated 8 ounces of cheddar cheese and stirred until blended. But it wasn’t cheesy enough, so I added pepper jack cheese. Which helped it out considerably. I then added diced roasted Hatch chili peppers. And then poured in whole wheat macaroni.

The last dish was roasted root vegetables (consisting of one sweet potato, one beet, one butternut squash, one carrot, and two cloves of garlic). The only surprising thing about it is how much everything shrinks after roasting in the oven. I was a little short after I put together the sixth container.