Recent Recipe Roundup

I have gotten a bit behind on my recipe posts, so get ready!

First up is a copycat Olive Garden Soup. This sausage, kale and potato soup is one of my favorites! I figured trying to make it at home couldn't hurt, and it turned out delish. I did tweak her recipe a bit since I didn't have the called for chicken bouillon cubes - I subbed chicken broth and water, then added a sazon packet and some adobo (both can be found in the mexican food aisle, they are great in everything!). We all raved about this soup and I will definitely make it again.  

A common fad going around pinterest is cookies made in the waffle iron. The idea is that you don't have to heat up your oven, you can just throw however many rolled cookies you want/need onto the waffle maker and they only take a few minutes to bake. I found this recipe for Chocolate Cookies here, but changed a few things. I omitted the chocolate chips and icing and added a bit of nesquick powder for extra chocolate flavor and then dusted them with powdered sugar. They were nice as something sweet, but were really more like cake-y brownies than cookies. The kids ate them but Jason and I weren't big fans. 

Next up is a side dish trial of Roasted Potatoes. I make roasted potatoes all the time, but these were different because they weren't cubed, and they were sprinkled with butter, parmesan and Lawry's seasoning salt. YUM! A bit salty but a very nice change to our normal pattern. 

I have attempted to make chinese food at home one other time and it turned out just as good as this next recipe for Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice. In a word? AMAZING. It was a bit complicated, but nothing I wouldn't be willing to do again. Jason's exact words were "I will never order take out again if you make chinese food like that!" :) 

Ever since trying paleo I have discovered that I really enjoy sweet potatoes. In an effort to try them a new way, I decided to go with this recipe for Garlic Mashed Sweet Potatoes.  These were very tasty! The process was to roast the potatoes before mashing instead of boiling, and it gave it a nice flavor from the crisp edges. The recipe called for coconut milk and herbes de provence, neither of which I had, so I used milk, butter, garlic, chili flakes, lemon, basil and thyme to season them. It wasn't stellar, but I would make them again. 

Six Sisters' Stuff is a popular website for recipes, and I've been wanting to try their recipe for Crockpot Lasagna. I didn't even have to cook the noodles first! This turned out great. It was super easy and delicious. Next time I want to try it with ground sausage instead of ground beef. 

Last up is another pancake recipe, this time for Buttermilk Pancakes. I had some leftover buttermilk, even after using it for the original recipe I needed it for and freezing two ice cube trays full. Seemed like the perfect time to try a new pancake recipe! The batter was very thick but they came out very light and fluffy. The bad news is that I can't tell you how they tasted since I had just moved to gluten free foods. I can say the kids didn't like them at all. Jason never tried any, so most of them ended up getting tossed. 

Most of these recipes were done before I switched to gluten free foods, but the soup, roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes are all naturally gluten free with their ingredients. Stay tuned next week for some new GF recipes I've been trying out. :)