Chopped Italian Salad & Macaroni and Cheese

A beautiful chopped Italian salad, paired with creamy macaroni and cheese. An ideal pairing for a summer evening!

Welcome to my kitchen! If you’ve been following along you already know that we are currently living in our 27′ travel trailer as we make our way across the United States over the next three months. Right now we are in Oregon for a week and will go back to California for another month before we head east to Virginia. Travel trailers have come along way over the years. The one we have now is leaps and bounds more convenient than the one we had just eight years ago.

My pint sized kitchen has every modern convenience, minus a dishwasher. I even have a little oven. Cute, right? I’m still figuring out the learning curve for baking inside of it. It seems to bake a bit unevenly, but it reheats beautifully! I found a variety of Family Size Stouffer’s entrees and they have been great for easy dinners. Right now we are still driving the kids to school everyday and staying on the Air Force Base 30 minutes away. It’s really taking a toll with dinner prep on the nights that we stay late for track practice or youth group.

Last week I made a tray of Stouffer’s Family Size Macaroni & Cheese and a big chopped Italian salad. The two paired beautifully together! You can heat the macaroni and cheese in the oven or the microwave. I prefer using the oven for heating whenever possible so that’s the route I went.

While my macaroni and cheese got all gooey and bubbly, I prepared my chopped Italian salad. Are you obsessed with chopped salads too? Shreds of romaine lettuce, black olives, red onions, artichoke hearts, grape tomatoes and dried salami. Sprinkled with parmesan cheese and drizzled in Italian dressing. I could eat a different chopped salad every night of the week and never get bored. The temps are in the mid 80s here so it seems like salad season is already upon us.

Prepared foods are a great time saver and there are so many new dishes and flavors to choose from! To build a balanced meal, use prepared foods as your base and pair with an easy-to-make side dish made of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and/or low-fat dairy. Stouffer’s Mac & Cheese recipe includes real, simple ingredients, like freshly made pasta, cheddar cheese, milk and butter. It actually tastes about as close to homemade macaroni and cheese as you’re gonna get! I think it even has the same texture as my homemade macaroni and cheese. A little more grainy vs. overly creamy because it’s made with real cheese instead of processed.

My kitchen may be small, but it is one of my favorite things about our RV. I can still make delicious meals at “home” even when we are parked along the side of the highway.  Follow our summer adventures on Instagram using the #TheNelsonsMoveAgain hashtag!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.