The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Movie Edition-Week 5

The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Movie Edition-Week 5

Elf 

Because elves stick to the four food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup, I thought it was perfect to focus on for the night before Halloween! I know, I know, I could have done The Nightmare Before Christmas, but this movie has better food options.

Tonight also marks my first fail. I made a recipe I won't bother sharing, because the recipe itself is flawed. I tried out an orange caramel rice krispie treat recipe that involved making my own caramel. Sugar work is very finicky, and I didn't let it get dark enough so the flavor was blah, and the recipe was too much cereal to caramel and was completely dry. It's now in my compost bag sadly...

But dinner turned out great!! I made Confetti Spaghetti and it's basically spaghetti meets sloppy joes and it was fabulous! Since the sauce leaned sweet and even has brown sugar in it, I thought it was appropriate for how Buddy the Elf likes his spaghetti...!

Here is the ingredient line up for both recipes. I won't bother showing the process for my recipe fail, but it was kinda cool to experiment with caramel.

The recipe calls for ground beef, which I don't eat, so I used ground chicken instead. That's why it looks different.

The sauce is super easy to make, and pretty fast, all things considered.

I made it earlier in the day and left it in the fridge till I was ready to assemble the dish.

Action shot! Pasta boilng in the water and the sauce reheating on the stove.

I did not break the noodles in half because you cut the portions later and I thought that would cut them into smaller pieces that way.

All mixed!

The recipe says to put the cheese on after the half hour of baking but I didn't pay attention and put it on anyway. It turned out ok but some of it did stick to the foil, so if you can, go ahead and wait till that last 5 minutes.

Here's the final product. Does this look amazing, or what?!! This will make enough that I can freeze portions for another time.

Here's a close up of the dished-up product. This was really good and my sister really liked it too! It's just sweet enough without being overly sweet. The spices don't come through too much but I hope by tomorrow when everything melds, it'll be more "spicy." I could always add more the next time I make this. 

This is something I could easily make over and over again. It would be good for family gatherings because everybody would like this. And the cheddar on top is wonderful!

Buddy the elf would highly approve of this meal. He would probably still pour some syrup over it for good measure, but he'd love this! If you want a dinner while you watch Elf this year, this is definitely one to go for. You won't regret it!