Audrey & Dana's Ribs & Grilled Potatoes & Onions & Cream cheese-filled Strawberries

Here's our Grilled Potatoes & Onions ready to go into the oven. We weren't able to use the outside grill, so we just cooked them in the oven, which worked great.

Here's the ribs out of the oven. I think the hardest thing about this recipe was putting the ingredients together for the cooking sauce ;) I followed the recipe & I will have to say, that I was worried about cooking them in the crockpot. They did not look too appetizing when I took them out, but as you can see, once you brown them under the broiler with the BBQ sauce, they look very good!
Here's Dana fixing the Cream Cheese-filled Strawberries. It's nice to have her back cooking with me!

And for the final product! Everything tasted great! We will be fixing these recipes again. Everyone liked them & its a nice way to cook them inside. We are partial to our son(&Dana's hubby) Brandon's smoked ribs & they are still our favorite, but these will get us by till he cooks them again for us :) Great recipe picks!

Audrey's Spinach & Feta Pasta & Sugar Cookies

Here's the pasta cooked up and the sauce part of the ingredients simmered up. I just used canned mushrooms from my food storage instead of fresh. I want to try it with the fresh mushrooms next time.

Here's the pasta added into the sauce. I had shredded Romano cheese that needed to be used, so that was instead of the feta.
Here's the final plate. I thought that it was very tasty. I will make this again and it was a nice simple quick meal :)

Cookie dough rolled out.

Sugar cookies ready to eat. I thought that they were very good! I like sugar cookies at Christmas time :) I just used my own frosting recipe.

Audrey's catch up!!

Here is the Cookie Sundae Cup. I mixed up some chocolate cookie dough & followed the recipe for baking it. Once they were cooled, we put the ice cream in & then the hot fudge sauce & regular chocolate sauce. I didn't make the caramel sauce. Brock and I really enjoyed these!

Next is the Chicken & Dumplings. I followed the recipe, but used canned chicken instead of the fresh cooked. It worked out just fine, but you want to wait to add it till a bit later, since its already cooked. Good way to use the canned chicken from your food storage! Brock and I really liked the dish, but Doug, not so much ;)
Here's the Pineapple-Ginger Flank Steak. I opted to slice it up and put it in a salad & I thought that it had a good flavor. I followed the recipe, but cooked it under the broiler, since no one wanted to grill :)

Next is the Natchitoches Meat Pies. They were kind of fun to make, as I hadn't ever made these before. I followed the recipe and it was pretty straight forward. I would say to make sure that you want to make sure that the liquid is cooked out or drain the mixture on a paper towel before putting it on the pie dough. Brock, Dana & I, thought that they were very good!

Here's the Orange Chicken with Snow Peas. As you can see I used Beef instead of Chicken, as my hubby isn't a fan of chicken. Other than that, I followed the recipe and I thought that it was very good! I know that I would like it with the chicken also :)
Here's the Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri. I think that I actually used a pork roast instead of the tenderloin, because they had them on sale. It took much longer to cook, but still tasted good. In fact, I ended up having to put it in the oven wrapped in foil after grilling it in my grill pan. Other than that, I followed the recipe. Doug and Brock had theirs with potatoes and salad.
Here is the final product for me. I had the stir fryed rice and veggies already cooked, so I just added the pork & it really had good flavor in the dish.
Here's the Spaghetti & Meatballs. We thought this was very good, though I will cut back on the onions for me ;) I will fix this again. Very handy to have the sauce and meatballs frozen in the freezer. I really liked the pinch of soda in the sauce to help with the acidity. I will remember that for other red sauces!

Jacki’s Fluffy Orange Fruit Dip, Mint Brownies

Yesterday I made the Orange Fruit Dip and Mint Brownies and they were both delicious.  The fruit dip was very easy to put together.  I served it with pineapple, strawberries, and bananas.   I also made the other fruit dip in the book a couple of weeks ago and it is really good also.  Just don’t use Walmart brand of cream cheese – it doesn’t mix very smoothly.  With the orange fruit dip I used Whole Foods brand and it mixed up perfectly.  The brownies were pretty easy to make as well and really tasted good.  I forgot to add the green food coloring but that was fine.  I halved the recipe and cooked it in an 8x8 inch glass pyrex dish  for 25 minutes.  Next time I think I would decrease the time to 22 or 23 minutes.  I served both of these dishes to the YW leaders at a luncheon/meeting at my house and they all loved them.  I also served the BBQ chicken Cobb salad from the book and they liked that as well.  (at least they said they liked it all:)  I am planning on making the pasta salad soon and will let you know how that goes.

New Recipes

For this week let's try:

Fluffy Orange Fruit Dip on page 9
Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes-170
Mint Brownies- 218

Jacki’s Spaghetti, Meatballs, and Sheet Cake

I made all three of the recipes the other night for dinner and they were good.   I followed the recipes pretty much as directed and none of them were too difficult or time consuming – good, solid recipes.  I really liked the idea of using the cookie scoop to form the meatballs although they were not the prettiest.  I also thought cooking them under the broiler was genius – very fast and easy.  I liked the tomato sauce but I think I would try diced tomatoes next time instead of crushed.    The Texas Sheet Cake didn’t turn out so great but it was my fault.  I halved the recipe and put it in an 8X8 inch pan and it was a little too thick plus I overcooked it just a bit and then I didn’t beat the icing long enough so it wasn’t smooth plus I think I added too much powdered sugar.  I added walnuts.  It doesn’t look too appetizing but it is what it is I suppose.  I think it is a good recipe though and I am sure you did better with it than I did:)

 

Ribs and Potatoes

This ribs and potatoes were really good! This was the first time I have ever prepared ribs and it was really easy since we just had to throw them in the crockpot.  Before we ate them I broiled them in the oven for a few minutes instead of grilling.  The potatoes were tasty as well and I think I cooked them a bit longer than the recipe called for.

New Recipes!!

Lets make the Spaghetti and Meatballs on page 162 with the Italian Meatballs on page 163 this week! And in case you need a chocolatey dessert for Valentine's Day the Texas Sheet Cake pg 238. Sounds like a delicious dinner to me!

Jacki’s Baby Back Ribs, Grilled Potatoes and Onions, and Cream Cheese-Filled Strawberries.

I made all three of these recipes yesterday and they were all fantastic!  The ribs were absolutely perfect and so easy to make.  I used 2.75 lbs of ribs and followed the recipe exactly except instead of grilling them outdoors at the end for a few minutes I stuck them under the broiler on low –perfection.  They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I used Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce.  For the grilled potatoes and onions I again followed the recipe as directed.  I used red potatoes and sweet onions.  I sliced them in the food processor so it was fast and easy.  I cooked them in the oven but for longer than stated in the recipe because I was distracted doing something else – so not sure how long I cooked them for but they were plenty done.  The ribs and potatoes/onions went well together.  For dessert I made the strawberries and they were really good as well and easy enough to make.  I quartered the recipe and used semisweet chocolate chips for the drizzle.  Be sure and try these recipes and let us know what you think.

Recipe for Week Feb. 5th 2012

I am posting my selection for this next week a little early in case you want to make it on Sunday.  It would make a good Super Bowl meal.

Baby Back Ribs      144
Grilled Potatoes and Onions   184
Cream Cheese-Filled Strawberries

A few updates from Kim

Wow, my life has been all over the place for the last 3 months because of this little girl:


But, I have been cooking and here are a few reviews.

Last week I made the orange chicken. I forgot to take a pic of it. We thought it was good, but I agree it was a little heavy on the orange flavor. I actually liked it a lot better heated up the next day.

I made the BBQ pineapple Burgers the other day. They tasted really yummy but it wasn't anything too special. It was really simple though and will be easy to make again. It was my first time grilling burgers by myself and I was happy it turned out successful. We also made the sweet potato fries. They tasted good but they were REALLY soft. I think I might have added too much olive oil. If I try them again I will add less oil.


We made these as a family one night and they were a HUGE hit with the kids. We ate them for days and days. We even made them again a few days later.

YUM!


A few days ago I made the taco chicken soup. I forgot to take a picture of that one too. It tasted really good, but it was REALLY liquidy. If I were to make it again I would add way more chicken and less chicken broth. Other than that it was pretty good.

My favorite thing I've made in a while was the Chicken and Dumplins. I took a picture of it but I can't find it now. I am really big into textures of things, so I didn't add the biscuits to the soup to cook. I baked them and put them on everyone's plate. You could just tear your biscuit up and add it to your soup. It was DELICIOUS!!! My husband was in heaven. We will make that again for sure.

Jacki’s Cranberry-Orange Chicken Salad

I made this yesterday and thought it was tasty. The best part was I had most of the ingredients already with a few substitutions noted below.  It was easy to put together once the chicken was marinated and grilled.  For the chicken I marinated it in some of the leftover Honey-Citrus Vinaigrette and then grilled it on my stove top grill pan – yummy.  I was short on mayo so I followed Tarin’s suggestion and used half olive oil mayo and half plain Greek yogurt.  I also used Dijon mustard in place of the coarse grain mustard and walnuts in place of the pecans.  I actually preferred the salad just plain rather than on bread.  I am looking forward to the leftovers for lunch today.

Leslee's Orange Chicken

I made the Orange Chicken last week for dinner.  It wasn't too difficult to pull together and made for a pretty dish! The orange flavor was a little strong for our tastes but it tasted fresh and the veggies were a nice addition.

Tarin's Cranberry Orange Chicken Salad

So I did this recipe about a week ago and totally forgot to take pictures, but I wanted to post what I had done early so that you could see how I did it.

I'm almost done with my 4th week of P90X2 (working off that baby weight :) and I'm on their 3000 calorie/day Fat Shredder diet. It's brutal. I never thought that it could be so hard to eat that many calories, but it's all clean calories.  I've been looking for recipes that fit into the criteria and this was one that I could do...if I changed a few things!

-Instead of using mayo, I used lowfat plain greek yogurt (in fact whenever a recipe calls for mayo I substitute this in.)
-I took out the green onions and celery because we didn't have any.
-I put in one honeycrisp apple.
-I didn't have an orange, but I did have a clementine, so I used that instead, and I squeezed the juice into the mixture to pump up the flavor.
-Finally, instead of using bread, I used the lettuce and wrapped it up in that...delish!

This was a great recipe that everyone loved we will definitely use this again. The craisins were amazing!

Recipe This Week

So I'm sorry for being a little late this week posting. I wanted to make sure that no one had done this recipe already. It's the: Cranberry-Orange Chicken Salad, pg. 82. It's a really yummy one so enjoy!

Jacki’s Orange Chicken with Snow Peas

Tonight I made this dish for dinner and it was quick and easy, just like the recipe book said.  Also, very good!  I followed the recipe exactly as directed without any problems.  I served it over steamed basmati rice.  Not much else to add except I will definitely make it again sometime.

Last Weeks Meal

Tonight we had the spicy honey chicken, coconut rice and the salad dressing. They were all really good. I didn't have much chicken so used some chicken and some steak for the meat. They were both good but the chicken was the best fit for the rub and the glaze. The rice was so good. It smelled delicous while cooking and even my husband who says he doesn't like coconut liked it. I used the pan method instead of the rice cooker since some people seem to think that works better. The salad dressing was really good too. I liked a little mixed with teh rice. I used orange and lemon juices instead of the lime juice since our neighbors have given us some lemons lately. So good!

Sarah's Catch-up

I just went through all my pictures to try and find the recipes I have done. I haven't done all of them but I love the meal ideas you guys give me! Here are a few of the things I have made:

These sure tasted good, but mine turned out kind of soggy. I had to borrow a waffle iron that I had never used before and I think I didn't have the temperature right. It was a fun dinner though!

Mine weren't nearly as pretty as OBB. But I was surprised how good they tasted. They were a lot of work but maybe in a few months I will be ready to try again :) The great thing is that I froze our left overs and my husband can easily take them to school.  

These were pretty good. I only had the bottled Parmesan cheese. I think next time I would definitely use freshly grated. I will probably make them again though. 

These were seriously amazing! Maybe because it had been a while since we had bacon?? I don't know but they were so good. This one is definitely a keeper!

This was pretty good too! I liked it but it wasn't too popular among the rest of my family. 

We had a ton of frozen burgers leftover from Jake's school BBQs so this was a good excuse to use them. These were tasty but the best part was I gave my husband the 'recipe' and he made them :) He doesn't usually cook so this was a big step in our lives!! Since then he has cooked dinner several times!

New Recipe

Although I haven't posted in a bit (due to life being crazy after having my third child), I am still participating! I am a bit behind but have wonderful plans to catch up and post again. So, the recipe I chose this week sounds yummy and simple. I chose:

Orange Chicken with Snow Peas on page 118

I only chose one recipe because I really want to catch up on all the recipes I've missed. I'm excited to see what everyone thinks. Enjoy!

My Meal

I have actually made this chicken several months ago when I needed a quick chicken recipe and grilled it on BBQ. It was very tasty cooked that way and I believe we just ate it with regular rice.  I tried it again this past week but cooked it inside and served it with the salad and vinaigrette. The chicken cooked up nicely in the pan with the rub on it and I waited until after it was done cooking before I poured on the sauce.  The dressing was light and refreshing tasting and the salad make a great meal!

Jacki’s Spicy Honey Chicken, Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice, and Honey-Citrus Vinaigrette

I made these three recipes for dinner tonight and I loved all of them.  The chicken had just the right amount of sweet and spice.  I used chicken tenderloins instead of thighs because that is what I had and they turned out just fine.  Since it is quite cold here now I just used my grill pan to grill them up – perfect.  I thought the subtle coconut flavor of the rice was a good pairing for the spicy chicken.  I used basmati rice and soaked it for about 15 minutes in water first.  I cooked it in a pan as directed and it turned out perfectly.  Rice doesn’t cook well in my rice cooker with the coconut milk I have discovered.  The vinaigrette had a very good flavor and went well with the rice and chicken.  I just put it on a green salad but I think using it on the Spicy Honey Chicken Salad would be really yummy too.  Maybe I will make that with the leftovers but I will need to get mangoes.  Wonderful, flavorful meal and I would definitely make all of these recipes again.

This is my husband’s plate and I put Blue Cheese dressing on his salad because that is pretty much what he likes but I put the Vinaigrette on mine – excellent.  I actually think he would have enjoyed the vinaigrette as well.

Week of Jan. 15th

Sorry this is so late guys!!

For this week I pick the Spicy Honey Chicken on page 119. It suggests a salad recipe on the side that I think sounds good and a recipe for the Honey Citrus Vinaigrette on page 91. Or it suggests Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice on page 203 as a side dish to go with the chicken. I think I am going with the salad variation, but either way I think it sounds good!

Jacki’s Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri and Natchitoches Meat Pies

I made the meat pies a few nights ago and they turned out really well.  They were pretty tasty.  I followed the directions in the recipe except I used regular beef bouillon instead of the low-sodium beef broth.  I thought the meat mixture was a little salty so I should have diluted the bouillon a bit or used the LS broth.  I used the pie crust recipe in the book and it was very flaky and tender.  It was fun to try a dish from Louisiana. 

I made the Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri today for Sunday dinner.  We both thought it was quite tasty.  The Chimichurri was a bit of work but gave the meat a really good flavor.  I also ended up cooking the tenderloin on my grill pan on the stove because we only have a small table top gas grill and it would have taken the whole canister of propane to cook it.  It took a bit of time on the stove but it was fine.  I let the pork marinate for about 4 hours.  I would like to try the Chimichurri with chicken next time.  In fact maybe I will do that with the leftover sauce. 

Thanks for choosing the recipes, Ingrid.  It is nice to have you back cooking with us:)

Pork Tenderloin and Meat Pies

I was getting a little lazy over Christmas Break at preparing meals so it was nice to have two dinners planned out for me this week! 

First up was the Pork Tenderloin.  This turned out nice and flavorful. I followed the recipe but had to cook it in a pan because we were out of propane.  It took a bit longer to cook then the recipe said but I used my thermometer to make sure the temperature was right.  We all liked this.

I made the Meat Pies last night for dinner.  I used a gluten free pie crust which gave me a bit of trouble and I didn't get it as thin as I wanted.  For the filling I substituted the ground beef with some ground spicy sausage just because I forgot to defrost the beef.  My finished product wasn't too pretty but they tasted good.  I think you could definitely play around with the filling depending on your preferences.  I think the easiest way to make these would be to buy the rolls of pre made pie crusts:) 

This week's recipe from Oregon!!!!

Sorry guys I have been so busy with my training and haven't had time to post any of the recipes we tried so far but hopefully I will be able to post these =;)I want to make Natchitoches Meat pies on Page 128 I think it will make great after school snacks and I like the idea of being able to freeze them!!!! I love chimichurri so I picked the recipe on page 142 Grilled pork tenderloin with chimichurri

Jacki and Leslee’s Meals

Well we have been cooking over here but have gotten a little behind in posting about the recipes we have been making.  My mom was here for a while in December and we made all these together.

First up are the sugar cookies.  Summer and my mom made these one day while I was out of town.  My mom said they turned out great and made a delicious sugar cookie although maybe there was a bit too much flour in them. 

Next was the Spinach and Feta Pasta.  I made a few little changes with this, leaving out the mushrooms and substituting parmesan for the feta.  It was really tasty and easy to cook up.  I also added some chicken to bulk it up a bit.  We thought it tasted a lot like Chicken Catactori.

The Pineapple Bacon Burgers with Sweet Potato fries was another really good meal.  This wasn’t something super new but everyone enjoyed it.  We cooked both the burgers and the pineapple on the grill and also added some pepper jack cheese.  We cooked the sweet potato fries in the microwave for a few minutes to start the cooking process before putting them in the oven. 

The last meal we made was the Pineapple-Ginger Steak with Stuffed Blue Cheese Potatoes.  We used Skirt Steak instead of flank and only marinated it for a few hours but it was nice and flavorful! The potatoes with pretty easy to make and were a big hit! We didn’t have any blue cheese so we substituted some feta cheese, which worked just fine. We liked these so much we decided to make them again for Christmas Dinner! Another delicious meal!!

New Recipes

Pineapple bacon burgers p. 130
Baked sweet potato fries p. 180
Easy Pretzel Turtles p. 255

I have a ton of pictures I need to post! Hopefully I will get around to that SOON.

New Recipes for the week of 12/11.

Sorry for my tardiness on getting these up!

Pineapple-Ginger Flank Steak - pg 136
Stuffed Blue Cheese Potatoes - pg 183

Leslee’s Chicken and Dumplings and Green Beans

I made these recipes a few weeks ago.  I made the chicken and dumplings using the stovetop method.  I only ended up using 4 cups of liquid instead of the 6 so it ended up a little thicker but that was okay.  I was excited to have a reason to try out the new Gluten Free Bisquick mix to make the dumplings with.  Sean and I both really liked this dish and it is perfect for winter.  I wanted to make the Caramelized Green Beans that night too even though I didn’t have the bacon.  Even without the bacon they were really good! My kids both surprisingly loved them! We will have to make these again.

 

New recipes for week of 11/4

I chose a quick and healthy meal and a not so healthy dessert ;)
Spinach and Feta Pasta pg. 172
Sugar Cookies pg. 208
With a busy holiday month, this recipe is a one dish meal and I like to make sugar cookies at Christmas time :)
Hope both recipes taste great!!

Review of the Green Beans and Chicken Dumplings

 

We had both the chicken and dumplings and the green beans this week. Both of them were well liked by our family. For the chicken and dumplings I used some homemade chicken broth I had in the freezer and also used canned chicken so it was easy. I did it all in the crockpot, even the dumpling part so it was pretty easy. The green beans were so good. My husband actually made most of it and did a very good job. He doesn't cook much but he did a great job of following the directions (with a few pointers). These were so delicious. We used frozen green beans and boiled them for a few minutes first. I think he cooked it to perfection because everything was just carmelized without being burnt. I was impressed since there were so many ingredients in there are burn easily. Suprisingly, even he said that you could use about half of the bacon the recipe calls for and still have it taste good. We ate it all and forgot to take a picture.

Jacki’s Chicken & Dumplings, Caramelized Green Beans

On Tuesday night I fixed the Chicken and Dumplings and then last night I fixed the caramelized green beans hence the separate pictures below.  We were not big fans of the Chicken and Dumplings.  The flavor was very good but I prefer a thicker, creamier sauce part.  The dumplings were good.  I added a bit more of the vegetables than what was called for.    I cooked it in a crockpot but I think it would be better to cook it on the stove. 

The Caramelized Green Beans were quite tasty but a lot of work for green beans – easier just to steam them.  I used fresh green beans and cooked them in the boiling water for one minute as called for but then I ended up needing to cook them a lot longer in the pan with the onions etc.  I would recommend cooking them a little longer in the water – my onions and garlic ended up quite done as a result.  It was fun to try something different with a vegetable.

I have not had a chance to try the gingerbread cookies yet but they are a perfect choice for this time of year. 

Jacki’s Chicken Cacciatore

I finally made this on Monday night when we had some dinner guests and everyone liked it.  It definitely needed some salt even though I added what was called for (I used regular salt not Kosher so I added just a bit less than what was listed).  I think I must have accidentally grabbed some No Salt Tomato Paste at the store and used it.  I followed the recipe as directed except I left the chicken pieces bigger than bite sized.  I cooked it in the crockpot and the chicken was tender and flavorful.  Excellent leftovers.  I forgot to take a picture on the first night we had it and then I forgot again when I had it for lunch on Tuesday but I finally remembered to take a picture yesterday!