Three-Cheese Shells

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2004



Ingredients:
jumbo pasta shells
ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
green pepper (left out)
mushrooms (left out)
basil
eggs
garlic
seasoned salt
pepper
spaghetti sauce

Comments:
What's better than pasta with tons of cheese? This was a pretty basic recipe for stuffed shells. The recipe itself is for a pretty big family - 9 servings worth - so I cut that in half and stuffed the shells extra full. Heh. Adam liked it and although he didn't dig too much sauce, it was still a thumbs up.

Maple-Glazed Chicken Breasts

From Eating Well via MSN Lifestyles



Ingredients:
maple syrup
soy sauce
lemon juice
garlic
pepper
ginger
boneless, skinless chicken

Comments:
Adam found this recipe online and fowarded it to me. I put the chicken in the marinade on Saturday morning and he grilled them up with some fresh corn on the cob for dinner. The sugar in the syrup produced an extra crispy outside, but the flavor was pretty good. But wow, real maple syrup is sure expensive!

Chicken Enchiladas

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2004



Ingredients:
butter
flour
chicken broth
coriander (left out)
green chilies (left out)
chicken
Monterey Jack cheese
tortillas
Cheddar cheese

Comments:
So, yeah, I'm a big wuss and left out some spicy stuff. But in my defense I did add some red pepper flakes to the sauce so it wasn't just chicken gravy. I also used all cheddar cheese because that's what I had. They turned out well although mine split in the middle (as you may be able to tell in the picture.) Adam didn't dig the sauce but I think they might be a little dry without it.

Skillet Corn Bread

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2004



Ingredients:
flour
cornmeal
baking powder
salt
egg
milk
vegetable oil

Comments:
This was a super simple, super quick addition to dinner. It turned out a little dry and I'm not sure if that's its nature or if I overcooked the second side. In any case, I think if I make it again I'll keep a better eye on the flip side and maybe eat it with some butter.

Spinach Beef Macaroni Bake

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2004



Ingredients:
macaroni
ground beef
onion
celery
carrots
diced tomatoes
salt & pepper
garlic powder
oregano
spinach
parmesan cheese

Comments:
Another recipe that requires some prep work, but also worth it. The flavors of the veggies and meat all mingle together in the oven and create a great end result. This is a potluck dish so even cut in half it will make lots of leftovers.

Bacon Potato Puff

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003



Ingredients:
bacon
eggs
onion
ground mustard
pepper
mashed potatoes
cheddar cheese
parsley

Comments:
This dish requires some prep work and takes awhile to cook, but it's totally worth it. Flavors are good together, the texture is light but filling. What's not to like about bacon, potatoes and cheese? Definitely a success. It's listed as a side dish in the cookbook, but it works just as well as your main dish. I'd think it would be good for breakfast too.

Slow Cooked Mac 'n' Cheese

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003



Ingredients:
elbow macaroni
margarine (I used butter - we don't use stick margarine)
eggs
evaporated milk
cheddar soup
milk
cheddar cheese
paprika (left off)

Comments:
I love a good crockpot recipe. And one that's a tasty mac and cheese is even better. I'm in no way as hard core as this woman, who is making something in her crockpot every day for one year, but it's a nice way to make the evening stress free. As for this recipe, easy to throw together, nice result, but it cooked too much around the edges even on low. Not that a little crispy mac and cheese is bad, but it was almost burned. Live and learn I guess. Still a keeper.

Sesame Chicken Bites

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2004



Ingredients:
bread crumbs
sesame seeds
parsley
mayo
onion powder
ground mustard
pepper
chicken breasts
vegetable oil

Comments:
These were super easy to make and tasted pretty good even though I ran out of mayo so I used about half mayo, half miracle whip. Heh. I also had no idea I even had onion powder before I went looking for it tonight. Wonder where it came from? Anyway, I'm not sure I dig their breading method since it gets a lot of mayo goop everywhere and it didn't stick to some of the pieces, but overall a good tasting end product.

Soft Pretzels

From Alton Brown via foodnetwork.com



Ingredients:
sugar
salt
yeast
flour
butter
vegetable oil
water
baking soda
egg wash
pretzel salt

Comments:
Watching the Food Network is dangerous around here. We see something interesting and it's so easy to go print off a recipe and make it. :) Adam made these this morning. It seemed pretty easy and they turned out great. I can't really comment too much since all I did was wash the mixing bowl (I used it to make snickerdoodles last night) and separate an egg.

Cheeseburger Buns

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2004



Ingredients:
frozen bread dough
ground beef (I actually used beefalo)
onion
tomato sauce
cheddar cheese

Comments:
I can't believe this idea never occured to me before I saw this recipe. Ingenius! Put the burger inside the bun. Amazing. Anyway, I easied-up the recipe for the non-bread-baker in me and used some frozen bread dough rather than making some from scratch. I also made them a little larger to get only 4 rather than 16. Heh. It worked out quite well and definitely saved some time and energy. Overall, simple to make, hard to screw up, and yummy in the tummy.

Tangy Onion Flowers

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003



Ingredients:
large onions
apple cider vinegar
brown sugar
oregano
salt & pepper
crushed croutons (I used breadcrumbs mixed with some garlic powder and parsley)

Comments:
I thought these sounded like they'd be a variation on an Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion but they are so totally not. I didn't dig the taste at all and only ate about half of mine. Adam hasn't tried his yet, but I have a feeling his reaction will be the same as mine. The flavor might be some people's thing, but it wasn't mine. I'm still going to try and find a knock-off recipe to try though. Yum!

S'more Muffins

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003 (although I couldn't find the recipe on the website but this recipezaar one is exactly the same.)



Ingredients:
flour
graham cracker crumbs
brown sugar
baking soda
salt
egg
buttermilk
vegetable oil
chocolate chips
mini marshmallows

Comments:
In an effort to come up with some new ideas for meals since the last few Cooking Light and Everyday magazines have been a bust, I decided to page through a couple more years' worth of Taste of Home annual recipe cookbooks. I've got them all the way back to 1995 as it was my mom's Christmas gift to me for many years.

Anyway, these muffins looked simple and yummy. I scaled them back from the "Jumbo" size of the original recipe and made them normal-sized. I forgot to add the extra marshmallows on top so that flavor note kind of got lost. Other than that, delicious. The graham cracker in the batter is an interesting addition. No campfire required!

Sky Blue Potatoes

From Everyday with Rachael Ray June/July 2008



Ingredients:
red potatoes
EVOO
sour cream
bleu cheese (I used cheddar)
bacon
parsley
red onion (omitted)

Comments:
These are mini loaded baked potatoes. How could they be bad? They're a little more labor intensive than some of the stuff I've been cooking lately, but it was all in good fun and they turned out awesome. They'd probably be a good party food to add to our rotation. They are good hot, warm, cold, and they also reheat decently.

Meat Loaf Cups

From Taste of Home's Prize Winning Recipes



Ingredients:
eggs
milk
ketchup
cornflakes (I used breadcrumbs)
dried minced onion
mustard
salt & pepper
ground beef

Comments:
While cleaning off the bookshelf in the living room I decided to go through some of the cookbooks/magazines there and only keep the recipes I was interested in. This led to the discovery of all kinds of forgotten treasures, including this recipe. It's a basic meatloaf recipe baked in muffin cups so not only are they individual serving sized, but it also takes a lot less time to cook. Genius!

Oven Fried Chicken

From Foodnetwork.com



Ingredients:
breadcrumbs
parmesan cheese
butter
Dijon mustard
chicken

Comments:
I was just looking for a simple fried chicken recipe that wasn't really "fried." I remember some such recipe in a magazine or book but couldn't find it so I just went on over to foodnetwork.com and found this easy version. I strayed from the recipe a bit by skipping the sage and using bone-in legs and breasts. It all worked out. Very tasty. The leftovers were good too.

Pineapple Chicken and Potatoes

From Slow Cooker Magic in Minutes



Ingredients:
flour
salt
nutmeg
cinnamon
onion powder
pepper
chicken breasts
potatoes
cream of chicken soup
pineapple juice
brown sugar

Comments:
I left out a couple things (mushrooms, orange peel) and swapped the sweet potatoes for regular potatoes. It turned out alright although I think maybe 8 hours would have been plenty. Adam didn't dig the potatoes and even the chicken wasn't really his thing. It was ok for me but I don't know that it's a keeper either. And I'm not really sure why it's called "Pineapple chicken" when it's just the juice and you can't even taste it anyway. Oh well...

BBQ Pork (Non)Sandwiches

From Slow Cooker Magic in Minutes



Ingredients:
boneless pork roast
beef broth
Worcestershire sauce
hot sauce (used some cayenne pepper instead)
ketchup
molasses (used honey)
mustard

Comments:
With relatively few substitutions for ingredients I don't have because I would use them so rarely it doesn't make sense to have them, this turned out quite nicely. It definitely has a tang to it. And I forgot to get rolls so we just ate it by itself instead of in sandwich form. I blame this on the list of ingredients. Rolls aren't listed and that's how I make my shopping list. Nevermind the name of the recipe is "sandwiches." Whoops.

Moo-Less Chocolate Pie

From Alton Brown via foodnetwork.com



Ingredients:
chocolate chips
coffee liqueur (Left out)
vanilla
silken tofu
honey
chocolate wafer crust

Comments:
I was interested in this recipe because it's pretty much a chocolate mousse pie made with tofu, thereby eliminating any dairy side effects. It took some effort to find the tofu. But we did it. It also took some effort to make the pie filling. We didn't have any coffee liqueur and I debated subbing some Godiva for it but ultimately just left it out. The vanilla made the chocolate seize up almost instantly and the tofu/chocolate mixture was too think for the blender. We had to thin it out a bit with some water to avoid burning up the blender's motor. It set up fine and tastes good. I might go with milk chocolate rather than semi-sweet chips if I attempt this again. It's very rich and it's almost required that it's cut with some whipped cream to eat. Heh.

Spaghetti with Asparagus, Mozzarella, and Bacon

From Giada De Laurentiis via foodnetwork.com



Ingredients:
asparagus
spaghetti
EVOO
garlic
salt & pepper
proscuitto (I used bacon)
mozzarella cheese
basil

Comments:
This recipe seems very similar to the gnocchi one we tried a while back. This one was pretty basic and although the cheese kind of clumped up and made it hard to eat without making a mess, it was still pretty good. Next time maybe I'd go for shredded mozzarella or some parmesan instead.

Lamb Pitas

From Everyday With Rachael Ray June/July 2008



Ingredients:
Onion
ground lamb
oregano
salt & pepper
pitas

Comments:
If you look at the original recipe you'll see I changed a bunch of stuff (as in it's original name is Spicy Beef Pitas.) I just kind of used the original and inspiration. I swapped out the beef for lamb since I had it anyway from a different recipe I didn't make and it was more pita-ish. I left out the bell pepper, chiles, and cumin since we don't like them. I also omitted the yogurt topping since Adam doesn't like that. So, what we ended up with was pitas with lamb and onion. A little bland so maybe next time I'll try and add more spice somehow.