January 28, 2012

Recipe Round-Up

My sister-in-law sent out an email the other day asking for new recipes.

After thinking about it for a while, but not long or hard enough to hurt myself - I know my limits - I decided it might be easier if I put all the new recipes I've tried via Pinterest into one post and how much my family liked it.

Now I know everyone has different tastes and experience with cooking, so just because I may or may not like something, or something was easy, or was time consuming for me, doesn't mean the same will true for you. So if you see something you like, try it out!

I also decided to do my best to try and rate them using the favored 5 star scale. 1 being bad, hard, or long, 5 obviously being fabulous, easy, or quick.

Again, the rating are according to me. But what do I know? I'm just a chocoholic.



BBQ Chicken Calzones


I confess that I'm not a big fan of Pillsbury biscuits, I think they taste weird. So I liked the filling in these calzones just fine but didn't care for the biscuit part. Hubby liked it too but we had to bribe the kids like there was no tomorrow to get them to eat them.

Apparently BBQ ranks on the bottom of their favored foods list.

If I did make these again, I would want to try homemade pizza dough for the crust part.

Taste: 3 out of 5 stars
Ease: 3 out of 5 stars
Time: 3 out of 5 stars



Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole


I was excited for this recipe since it looked so easy. My big mistake was using lunch meat ham for ease instead of real ham. The lunch meat tasted really weird. And I think I would add more swiss cheese next time. I also used a batch of homemade cream of chicken soup mixed with only one can of the store bought kind.

We all liked it fine, even the kids.

Taste: 3 out of 5 stars
Ease: 4 out of 5 stars
Time: 3 out of 5 stars


Baked Sweet N' Sour Chicken


This is, by far, the BEST recipe I've tried yet! We all LOOOOOVE it and it has become a regular part of my meal planning. Yum! Everyone likes it and will chow it down! So good!!

Taste: 5 out of 5 stars
Ease: 3 out of 5 stars
Time: 3 out of 5 stars


Chicken Taco Soup


Hubby and half my kids really, really liked this. I thought it was good, not great, but good. I'd make it again for sure.

This is a crock pot recipe so I wasn't sure how to rate the time.

Taste: 4 out of 5 stars
Ease: 3 out of 5 stars
Time: 2 out of 5 stars



Chicken Pillows

We all liked the filling in these but the crust part was pretty salty. I don't know why; whether it was the recipe or something I did. Again with the Pillsbury biscuits, not my fave, but edible. I would make this again and just avoid adding any salt to anything, and maybe use homemade pizza dough for the crust.

Taste: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Ease: 3 out of 5 stars
Time: 2 out of 5 stars


Taquito Enchilada Bake

I guess I need to be careful with my mexican. My kids really did not like this, apparently they don't like enchilada sauce. My Hubby didn't care for it either. I personally thought it tasted fine, but the leftovers were all soggy and I had no desire to eat them. But I did since no one else would. I don't think I'll be making this again.

Taste: 2 out of 5 stars
Ease: 5 out of 5 stars
Time: 4 out of 5 stars


Garlic Cheese Bread


I made this with stuffed pasta shells, and my personal batch didn't turn out that good. I'm sure it was my fault since I used some old garlic bread seasoning mix left over from another recipe from a while back that I didn't even like then! Plus my bread wasn't crispy or anything, I probably just needed to cook it longer.

If I were to try it again, I would try and follow the recipe better.

Taste: ? out of 5 stars
Ease: 3 out of 5 stars
Time: 3 out of 5 stars

Have you tied anything good recently?? Do share! I'm always looking for good recipes!

Next time I'll be sure to post some dessert recipes too. I just have a bad habit of eating the ingredients before I get around to actually making something with them.

I hope you'll share a link in the comments or add your recipes to the linky!


9 super cool people speak:

Susan Anderson said...

These all look so good that I was surprised when you didn't give all of them great ratings.

It was fun to look them over! (It made me hungry.)

=)

Kristina P. said...

I will definitely be trying some of these!

Brittney said...

I've made that exact recipe of sweet and sour chicken, and it really is the BOMB! Tastes like restaurant quality.

So what was salty about the chicken pillow crusts? The only thing I see that you add to the crust is italian bread crumbs... is it the inside that is too salty? (email me or msg me on fb if you can answer cuz I'd like to try it knowing what to eliminate..)

Also, I'm not a fan of the pillsbury dough either. It leaves a gross film on the roof of my mouth. Yuck

Charlotte said...

I've had about 50/50 success with pinterest recipes. The good ones have been GOOD, so we keep experimenting (although I did institute a budget for pizza when the failures are less than edible).

Serene is my name, not my life! said...

Brittany: I think it was just the combo of the pillsbury dough and the butter it was rolled in. I could be wrong, but that's what it seemed like to me. I think next time I make them I'll just brush the crusts with a little olive oil.

Charlotte: LOL! Awesome. I need to do that!

hjsmith said...

Thank you so much Sarah for the post. I wilol be trying some of those recipes and keeping an eye out for any more. I just get so burned out from cooking all the time I need something different, yummy adn easy to make....most important that my kids will eat(: Thank you again(:

Brick said...

I love your blog! I always look forward to reading your posts. I started following you on Pinterest and feel like I have repined everything on your boards. Ha I sound like a stalker but i'm not, (but I guess a stalker would say that) but really I promis I'm not. I LOVE this black beans and rice recipe. I was so skeptical to try it, but the taste is out of this world! And I usually have all the ingredients other than the bell pepper, and cilantro on hand. It is also extremely easy and and fast to make. I love it with the cilantro, but honestly I forget to add it more than half the time and it still turns out great.

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/06/classic-and-simple-black-beans-and-rice.html

Serene is my name, not my life! said...

Ahh! Thanks Brick! You're so sweet!

Hmmm... I will definitely be checking out the recipe. Thanks!!

The Bagley Family said...

Sweet and Sour chicken was AWESOME!!! I am so thrilled with it, way better the the restaurants deep fried version!! I ate it and no gross 'I ate chinese..' food coma that followed!

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