Brianna Madia is a desert-dweller and storyteller who spends most of her time wandering through slot canyons, traversing desert roads, and sleeping amongst the red sandstone rocks of southern Utah. Living in a big orange van with her husband and two dogs, she has to get creative when it comes to cooking.
Living out of a van you can imagine there isn’t much room for cooking supplies. For Brianna and Keith, a knife, skillet, and camp stove are their go-to’s.
The easier the recipe the better. Brianna enjoys taking simple recipes and switching it up with various add-ins. One of her favorite holiday season dishes is Skillet Chili Mac.
The best part of this recipe is it can be made vegetarian, vegan, or carnivorous and it can be cooked over a fire all romantic-like or just on your camp stove or stove/oven at home.
Skillet Chili Mac Recipe
Ingredients:
- Box of mac & cheese (our favorite is Annie’s Classic Mac & Cheese but sometimes we do Annie’s Vegan Mac.
- Can of chili (our favorite is Amy’s black bean chili but you could use absolutely anything here)
- Water
- Shredded cheese of your choosing (we go with a classic Mexican shredded blend)
- Toppings (optional) Avocado, Cholula, Sour Cream, Chives…whatever!
Prepare the boxed mac and cheese as you normally would, then mix the canned chili in with the cooked mac & cheese and stir to combine/heat the chili. Lastly, pour the chili mac into a skillet and top with as much cheese as your heart desires and cook (preferably over a toasty fire) until the cheesy top layer has melted. Top with any toppings you like (our favorite is avocado and Cholula hot sauce). Serve and eat!
It’s that easy!
