'gourmet' mac-n-cheese

As much as I try to create unique dinners for my family - there's no avoiding the basics and the go-to / easy fix for side dishes.  For us, it's the creamy goodness of Velveeta Shells and Cheese.  My daughter will eat half a pot of macaroni and cheese "as-is." Me, on the other hand - I need to add flavor and kick it up a bit. Previously, I've used black pepper, then I switched to Tony Chachere's - but the salt content in Tony's makes it too salty for me. Hot sauce made it too spicy.  When I brought home Slick Rick's "Red" Spice that's supposed to be an everything-spice - I decided to try it.

It was beautiful... it added that burst of orange/red color to the dish and it tasted GREAT.  Not too salty,  not too spicy, just right.  Red Spice is good on almost everything - seriously.  When my daughter saw me "pinch and sprinkle" the spice onto my plate, it must have looked like fun because she immediately wanted to 'spice up' her macaroni too.  So it was a done deal- we now had a new favorite at my house. It may be a 'box dinner,' but it sure as heck was good.

I think that's the beauty of Slick Rick's spice blends, is that the possibilities are endless - and they are a solution to make the simplest, every-day recipes or 'out-of-the-box' fixes taste A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  Salt and pepper - you're moving to the back of the cabinet.