This will be our last week cooking from "Our Best Bites" for the blog.  Since summer travels are ending and school is beginning we will just have a catch up week.  We will start cooking from the new Pioneer Woman cookbook next week.  Hope everyone has had a chance to get it!
I posted a new schedule on the side so you can check out when it is your turn to pick.  Lets each pick a recipe or two and try to have it posted by the Sunday your week starts.  That way people have time to plan, cook and post during the week:)

Thai Noodles

I made the Thai Noodles this week for dinner.  I used more pasta than they asked for so I doubled the sauce just to be safe.  I also added in some chicken to make it more of a meal.  We all really liked it although I might have made it a little on the spicy side for Summer. It was another quick dinner to fix!

Audrey's recipe catch-up

Here are my final recipes from the cookbook.  The top is the Baked creamy chicken taquitos, Vegetarian black bean taquitos & the Quick & easy salsa.  We really enjoyed the three recipes.  The salsa was quick & easy to make.  I think next time I make it, I will add some hot peppers to it for a little kick, but I thought that it had good flavor.  I used flour tortillas for the baked chicken taquitos & corn  for the black bean.  I thought that they both had really good flavor.  I made the fillings up earlier in the day & that was a big help that evening when it came time to fix dinner. The rest of the pictures are of the Pizza rolls.  I just bought my dough & that worked good. They were fun to make and they tasted really good!  

Jenny's Stuffed Pizza Rolls

I made the stuffed pizza rolls after church today.  They were so fast and easy and my kids loved them.  Avery said she 'loved' them and James declared them to be 'yummy.'

I used the premade pizza dough and got 18 rolls out of that dough.  Then I stuffed ours with just 2 pepperonis and some pizza cheese blend.  I used store bought sauce to dip the rolls in, so I really took the easy way out on these :)  But some times that is just what you need!  I am happy to have another lunch option for my kids.  Lunch is my hardest meal- I am not very creative and don't usually want to put a ton of effort into it.

I think there are so many variations you can do on this recipe.  The one Jacki made sounds yummy, and in the description on the cookbook page they suggested spinach and artichoke.  I found myself thinking about ham & swiss, turkey & pesto, leftover pulled BBQ pork or chicken, etc.

I am planning on making the Thai Peanut noodles for dinner.  They sound easy and good too :)

Jacki’s Stuffed Pizza Rolls

I made the pizza rolls the other night for dinner and I thought they were really good.  I made the pizza dough from scratch (recipe pg 30).  I used the recipe variation on the side of the page – chicken, cheddar cheese, bacon and I also used some mozzarella.  They were really good dipped in the ranch dressing.  I ended up making my rolls bigger than the recipe called for because I found the 24 squares from the 12x8 inch dough way too small and frustrating to work with. My dough was on the sticky side so that didn’t help any.  My rolls are not very pretty but they did taste good.

Pizza Rolls

I made the pizza rolls for dinner last night with some help from Summer.  Using the pre-made, rolled out dough made these really easy to make.  We filled each square with a pepperoni or two and some cheese, some also had olives. They were tricky to roll up in a presentable fashion but that is okay.  They baked up nicely and everyone enjoyed them with the homemade pizza sauce for dipping.  This was a fun and simple dinner to make!

New Recipe For Week of Aug. 19th

Let’s make some Stuffed Pizza Rolls  pg. 164

Don’t forget to buy the new Pioneer Woman Cookbook – we will start cooking from it in September.  The new weekly rotation will be posted soon.

Jacki’s Thai Peanut Noodles

I made this recipe for dinner a couple of nights ago and thought it was very good.  It doesn’t make a lot of sauce so it is best to start with part of the noodles and add them in with the sauce as you see fit.  I ended up with maybe a tad too many noodles for how much sauce there was.  I used linguini noodles and only 1 tsp of Sriracha chili sauce which gave the dish plenty of bite for me.  The recipe is straight forward and easy to make.  It would even be good with assorted steamed veggies added.  I still need to make the hummus – I have all the ingredients so soon.

 

New Recipes for Week of August 12th

Hi All, hope you are having  a great summer.  For this week let’s cook the following:

Thai Peanut Noodles    pg. 165
Hummus     pg. 6

Jacki’s Salsa and Creamy Chicken Taquitos

I made these two recipes for dinner the other night and they were both delish.  I wasn’t sure how the Quick and Easy Salsa would taste with the canned  tomatoes but it was very fresh tasting.  I followed the recipe exactly and would make it again.  It was pretty easy to make – I didn’t blend or put  it in the food processor as I prefer the chunkier version.
I have made the Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos before using corn tortillas so this time I used flour.  The recipe is a little time consuming but worth it.  We ate almost all of them at dinner but the leftovers were good too the next day.  I followed the recipe as directed and didn’t make any substitutions except I didn’t sprinkle sea salt on the top. I didn’t have any chicken already cooked so I just cooked a  whole chicken breast in the microwave and diced/shredded it up and it came out to about 2 cups exactly.  The taquitos were good made with the corn tortillas as well.  I am still planning on making the Sweet Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips but I need to get a better assortment of fruit so that is on the menu for this next week.  I hope you all are enjoying Pioneer Woman’s new season 3 cooking show on Food Network – Saturday mornings.  I think many of the recipes are from her new book we will start cooking from in September.

New recipes for week of August 5th

Let's try Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos pg. 108, Quick & Easy Salsa pg. 12 & Sweet Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips pg. 14.  Fun & easy things to eat while your watching the Olympics!

Jacki’s Stuffed Zucchini and Zucchini Bread

This past week I had a chance to make both the Grilled Stuffed Zucchini and the Orange-Scented Zucchini bread and they were both delicious.  For the zucchini bread I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted one loaf but I could have made the whole recipe for one loaf pan – it only came to about half way up the pan when it was done cooking which was totally fine for just us.  I did add the pecans.  I forgot to add the topping before I cooked it so I added it at the end and that was fine, it just didn’t all melt into the top of the bread.  It only took about 43 minutes to cook the half recipe in one loaf pan.  It was moist and tasty.  I liked the subtle orange flavor but you could also leave it out if you didn’t have any and it would be good too. 
I used the grilled stuffed zucchini as a side dish because my zucchini was a little smaller than 10 inches.  I only used one zucchini but made a full batch of the stuffing mix and used a whole cup of the diced scooped out zucchini.  Our little grill is out of propane so I cooked the zucchini in the microwave before stuffing it until it was soft  and then a little after stuffing it to make sure everything was warm.  I finished them off under the broiler and man, oh man, were they ever good!  Just eat them skin and all. 

New Recipe for Week of July 29

Tarin just reviewed the Grilled Stuffed Zucchini and said it was great.  I have been wanting to make it myself and I don’t remember that it has been chosen before so lets all make the Grilled Stuffed Zucchini this week – thanks Tarin!  The recipe is on page 194.  While we are at it we might as well make the Orange-Scented Zucchini Bread on page 39.  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

Two Meals

Two weeks ago we had the the cheesesteak sandwiches for dinner.  I have made them before and they were just as good this time!

I made the potato salad last week and wasn’t a huge fan.  I liked the idea of putting sour cream in instead of just mayo but I thought it was a little bland.  It would have been good with some mustard added.  I added the celery but I think I prefer it without.  It wasn’t horrible but I just felt like it needed a little more zip to it!

Tarin's Grilled Stuffed Zucchini

So I'm way behind I know we made this forever ago and I promise I've been cooking along, but I haven't had access to a real computer for a while. I made the zucchini the other day as a side dish, I don't have a grill out here yet so I had to use the broiler instead. I didn't use any meat and I substituted in red and green peppers for the onions. And we LOVED it. I seriously had my doubts, but we will definitely be making these again. Plus they are just so pretty!

In other news-- I am so excited for the new cookbook! My mom got it for me for Easter and I've been cooking up a storm with it, not that we would expect any less!

Jacki’s Potato Salad

I made this potato salad yesterday for dinner and I thought it was quite good.  I did make a few changes though.  I cut the recipe in half and omitted the herbs and celery because I knew my husband wouldn’t care for them.  I added 1 tsp of prepared mustard because I like mustard in my potato salad.  I fixed it earlier in the day and let it chill in the fridge before dinner but I had a spoonful at lunch today and I thought it was even better today.   

This weeks recipe

This week we can try out the Potato Salad on page 74. Pair it with your favorite meat.

Jacki’s Dill Dip and Cheesesteak Sandwiches

I made the Cheesesteak Sandwiches last night for dinner and they were very good.  I followed the recipe as directed and used a London broil steak that was on sale.  I partially froze it and sliced it in my food processor which was nice and easy.  I did broil the sandwich open faced for a few minutes which melted the cheese nicely and toasted the bun.   We thought the meat would be a little more tender than it was since it was sliced so thin but it was fine and made a tasty meal served with corn-on-the-cob and watermelon. 

I made the Dill Dip today and thought it was also very good and easy to make.  I like cottage cheese so I didn’t blend it in the food processor.  I only made half a batch but I wish I would have made the full recipe!

New Recipes for Week of July 15th

Here are two recipes to try out this coming week:

Dill Dip      4

Cheesesteak Sandwiches    127

Jacki and Nika’s Sweet and Sour Meatballs

I made this recipe when I was visiting at Nika’s house a month or more ago.  I made the meatballs as directed in the cookbook.  I love using the cookie scoop and cooking them in the broiler – so fast and easy!  When it came to the sauce I ended up using a recipe I already had and really like.  Nika had mentioned that she had tried the sauce recipe in the cookbook previously and didn’t care for it as much so we just went with what we knew everyone liked.  Maybe someday I will try the Best Bites sauce.  I made extra meatballs and put those in the freezer for another meal. 

The sauce recipe I have calls for canned pineapple chunks so that is why you see pineapple in the picture:)