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. :) 

Recent Recipe Roundup

Having some camera issues so I've only got a few recipes today. Hope you see something you wanna try!

Broccoli Bites: I don't even particularly like broccoli, but these were great! Basically cheese, chopped broccoli, bread crumbs and egg rolled into balls and baked. YUM! Jason liked them too and they were good reheated. Reminded me a lot of my mom's spinach balls that we make at Christmas. Good way to get in some veggies, especially for kids!

With our broccoli bites and corn, we had Onion Soup Chicken for dinner. This was a recipe from an actual book (crazy, I know!) and it only called for 3 ingredients: chicken, onion soup mix, and butter. Divide the chicken into however many servings you are making and place on individual foil squares (I also sprinkled the meat with poultry seasoning and s&p); place 2-3 butter pads on top of chicken and sprinkle with the dry soup mix (I made two servings and 1 pkt of soup was way too much; I would suggest at least 4-6 servings). If you have never baked meat in foil in individual servings in the oven, you should try it! The meat is always very moist from being inside the foil packet. This recipe was just okay, but I think it may be because I overloaded on the soup mix. 

Next up we have a waffle recipe. All four of us love any kind of pancakes or waffles so this was a big hit. I usually use some kind of pancake batter as a starter (like Bisquick), but this is completely homemade. They were really light and fluffy and everyone loved them.  

Another big favorite in our house is tacos. Well, really any kind of Mexican food. So I thought I would put a twist on our normal dripless tacos (tacos on chips) and try Taco Bake. Of course, we all liked it and even ate all the leftovers. I kept thinking it looks a little bland though: 

It was better once I added sour cream and banana peppers on top for a little color and flavor punch, but I'm thinking you could really have fun adding in some other ingredients. Think tomatoes, scallions, lettuce, peppers, etc. One thing I thought was great was that it added salsa con queso to the ground beef/taco seasoning mix - um, hello! Queso makes everything better. :) 

Last recipe for today was for Pumpkin Muffins with White Chocolate Chips. These were, in a word, AMAZING. It is a good thing the recipe made a lot (I made some mini loaves too) because we ate every last one of them. Usually I am looking for people to pawn extras off on, but we managed to eat all of these ourselves!  

They were so tasty in fact, that we had a thief come through right after the muffins were placed on a cooling rack:

He couldn't hide for long though, especially when his sister ratted him out. :) 

Harry managed to grab two muffins from the countertop (I didn't even know he could reach that high!) as well as graze a couple of the loaves before I found him chowing down on his stash in Eden's room. I decided to take it as a compliment (and not think about the fact he was probably just hungry or bored). :) 

Recent Recipe RoundUp

It's that time again, to tell you guys what new recipes we have been trying! Let's start with the sweet stuff. 

First up is Banana Bites. I had been eyeing this recipe for a while because it seemed like such a tasty snack. Basically you just slice a banana, put peanut butter on top, and dip it in chocolate. I really thought they would be amazing, but I was disappointed. First, mine didn't look anything like the picture on the web, my chocolate was way thinner and didn't set up well. And the taste? Just a little lackluster.  I think it may have been a texture thing, because the recipe said to freeze them (so the bananas wouldn't be mush). The frozen banana just wasn't my thing. 

Next was a version of peach cobbler, done in individual servings. I LOVE peach cobbler and have been using the same recipe for years. This was basically the same thing, just done in a muffin pan. The taste was delicious! The bottom of each serving stuck in the pan though, so next time I will combine baker's joy (the most amazing baking spray EVER) with the butter to keep it from sticking. You can see in the picture below I managed to get one out in solid form, haha:

The next recipe was for White Chocolate Snickerdoodles. These were AMAZING. Jason and I both loved them. The kids were not so positive, but rest assured they all got eaten. I have just recently discovered my love of white chocolate, so when I spotted white chocolate baking chips at Aldi a few weeks ago I knew I had to try some new recipes with them. These were the perfect little cookie for a nice crisp fall afternoon snack. We will most definitely make them again. 

For the next recipe, I was trying to use up some lemon curd/tart filling that my mom had given me a while back. I thought lemon bars would be the best bet, so I asked my go-to baking girl (Tabatha) what crust recipe she likes best. She suggested Wives with Knives' recipe for lemon tarts. Here is the crust part, mixed and hand-spread in the pan, ready for baking: 

Here's a shot after the lemon curd was added and then baked (it got a little brown):

The best I can say about this recipe was that it was ho-hum. I don't know if it was using the pre-made lemon curd instead of Wives with Knives' filling recipe, but Jason said he thought the crust tasted a little off. I also forgot to sprinkle powdered sugar on top (duh!) for our first tasting, but Jason so cleverly suggested it after we thought they weren't sweet enough. He's so smart! :) They were better after that, but still a little weird. I'm gonna chalk it up to the pre-made filling and give the full recipe another try sometime. 

Now on to some savory dishes! I forgot to snap shots of the first two recipes but I will give you a quick wrap-up.  First recipe was for pineapple chicken. It was a crockpot recipe and the description I read talked about how the chicken just fell apart and tasted so exotic. Well my description is that it tasted like watered-down teriyaki marinade. Bleh. 

Second un-pictured recipe was for Taco Pasta. Honestly I forgot to snap a picture of this one because I couldn't wait to dig in! It was like homemade Hamburger Helper, but SO much tastier! It called for ground beef, pasta shells, taco seasoning, rotel, onion, garlic, tomatoes, sour cream and cream cheese. It was a bit spicy but we both loved it and ate all of the leftovers. Will definitely make again. 

Okay, on to recipes I remembered to photograph! :) 

One food I love but rarely eat is chicken wings (I hate eating around the bones!). When I spotted a recipe for Buffalo Chicken Meatballs I knew we had to try it. It was a slimmed-down version with a twist - all the flavors of buffalo chicken wings with bleu cheese, but all combined in a tasty little meatball form. I used ground chicken and the texture was a little strange, but the flavor was spot on. The recipe called for celery and bleu cheese mixed right into the meatballs. They were delicious! Sorry this picture isn't great, but you can kinda see the flat meatball type creation it made:  

Next up is a cornbread recipe. I have a go-to zucchini cornbread recipe that is the best I've ever had, but I wanted to try something new. This cornbread was very sweet (unsurprisingly, it called for 2/3 cup sugar!) but very light and fluffy, not at all like the dry, suck-all-the-moisture-from-your-face typical recipe. It was good, but next time I will try at least halving the sugar, and maybe even less than that. 

To go with our cornbread, we made a Sausage and Bean Soup.  YUM! The perfect fall dinner. This soup was easy and delicious. I think it may make it onto the "regulars" list for dinner. 

So that's the latest here in the Caranci Culinary Kitchen! Stay tuned soon for trials of broccoli bites, white chocolate pumpkin muffins, and a new waffle recipe. :) 

Recent Recipe RoundUp

So the weekly recipe roundup has become the recent recipe roundup! I can't always get to it every week so I will just save new recipes and do a longer post, less frequently. :) 

First up, Chicken Roll Ups. By the way, in case it isn't clear, you can always click on the title of each recipe and it will take you to the website that I originally got it from. Anyway, these were delicious! The tweaks I made were using canned chicken, adding adobo (if you do not have this in your spice cabinet, get it! It is great on so many things), and halving the amount of shredded cheese in the recipe. Next time I want to use less cream cheese as well because they seemed a little too creamy. Basically, this is just shredded chicken, cheese and spices rolled into crescent rolls and baked. The outside is brushed with butter and bread crumbs, which adds a nice finish. Overall these were good, and I will probably make them again. 

Next up is Cookie Dough Balls. I was drawn to this recipe because it contained no eggs and no baking. The best thing I can say about them is that they were interesting. Not bad necessarily, but I threw them out after only eating a couple. The texture was a little strange, kinda powdery and greasy at the same time. I feel sure I will not make them again. 

I realized on the day of (Sept. 10th) that it was grandparents' day. Since my own grandparents live in the area and the kids have grandparents locally as well, I decided to whip up some cookies to show our love for them. I stalked my pinterest cookie board to see what looked promising, and what I could make that I already had ingredients for in the house. I came up with the skinny version of Chunky Monkey Cookies.  And honestly, I didn't realize they were a skinny version until Jason tasted them and asked if they were diet cookies, haha!  After he said that, I couldn't eat them without thinking they tasted weird. Maybe not weird, but definitely not sweet enough to classify as a cookie. They tasted heavily of unsweetened cocoa powder and seriously needed some kind of sweetener. I forgot to snap a picture of the finished product, but here is the batter:

I felt too bad about the taste to give them to all of the g-parents so unfortunately they ended up with delicious (store-made) no-bake cookies. I will say though that Jason had the clever idea of rolling them in powdered sugar which made them edible enough for his co-workers! :) Oh, and I also had several friends who made them and actually liked them too. Goes to show that cooking/baking is always subjective!

Alrighty, next up we have Blueberry Angel Food Cake.  I am almost always drawn to recipes that have few ingredients, and in this case there were only two: angel food cake box mix and a can of pie filling. And it was delicious! I was impressed by the low calorie count that went along with such a tasty sweet. It was best with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on top. 

Somehow I forget to snap pictures of some of our trials (I blame mommy brain), but another recipe we tried was called Ranch Chicken. You mix crushed cornflakes, parmesan cheese, and a ranch dressing dry packet together, dip the chicken in butter and then coat with the cornflake mixture. This was very easy and very tasty. I will definitely make it again. 

Last up is a pancake recipe. These claimed to be 1-point weight watcher pancakes, but after I did the math they are actually 2 points (this was before I made my decision not to follow weight watchers). They were delicious, nonetheless! The recipe called for wheat flour, but I used white since that was all I had. I also only made 5 servings instead of 6. These were a great comfort food and I really enjoyed them. Eden didn't like them though, just as a side note. 

That's it for now! I did want to mention that I tried another pinterest trick of freezing chopped green onions in an empty, cleaned water bottle to be used to top dishes as needed (I always buy a bunch and end up throwing them away before I use them all). Worked like a charm! Didn't lose any flavor in the freezing process and I didn't have to thaw them, they thawed while sitting on the hot dish. Just an extra tidbit for ya! :) 

Weekly Recipe Roundup

First recipe this week was for Resurrection Buns. They are called that because they can be used as an object lesson for kids about how Christ went into the grave but then was gone when they rolled away the rock (when you bake the buns there are marshmallows in them, but after baking they disappear). This is what my lovely rolls looked like going into the oven:

Unfortunately, it would appear that I did not seal the edges very well, because this is what they looked like coming out:

A big marshmallow explosion. These things were so sticky they almost weren't worth handling. I forgot how marshmallows get SUPER sticky when heated. Took me forever to clean the pan! The taste was good so I really think these would be great if I had sealed the sides better. Interesting trial though. :) 

Next up is a cauliflower pizza. I had such good luck with the cauliflower breadsticks I though this would be roughly the same. Turns out, it was gross. I couldn't even eat it. I'm not sure what happened, but I think maybe the cauliflower had been in my fridge too long. It smelled almost vinegar-y. It was also very moist (I didn't have a tea towel to wring out the riced cauliflower with, so I think that made a big difference in the crust not crisping). I also have major issues with parchment paper - someone please tell me how to use it! Every time I do, it burns in the oven and sends smoke through the house. And everything sticks to it - even rubbed with oil or sprayed with Pam. Ugh. Recipe trial #2 = FAIL. 

Last up was a recipe for Strawberry Oatmeal Bars (the recipe called for raspberry jam, but I only had strawberry).  These were easy and delicious. Not very sweet, so definitely more of a breakfast item than a dessert. 

(before heading into the oven)

Not a horrible week, but more "bad" than "good." :) 

Next week will hopefully include Chicken Roll Ups, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites, and Ranch Chicken. :D

Weekly Recipe Roundup

Here are some recent pinterest recipes from this week:

Cauliflower Breadsticks/Pizza

I have been wanting to try this out for a while – the idea of using cauliflower instead of a flour based bread had me interested! The recipe I used called for “riced cauliflower” which I discovered simply means cauliflower that has been ground into a rice shape with a blender. Easy peasy. Here is the crust before and after it was baked:

And here it is before and after it was baked with the topping (cheese, etc.):

I have to say, it was absolutely delicious. The flavor was intense and I would take this as a trade off for breadsticks or pizza any day! I would love to experiment with more toppings too, but I just went by the recipe for the first try. The only bad thing was that it was a bit hard to get off the stone because the bottom wasn’t super sturdy. However, the recipe called for parchment paper that I didn’t use so that would probably fix that problem.                             

Next up was a pasta dish I named Mediterranean Pasta:

This was great too and very easy. Basically just tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, olive oil and garlic tossed with spaghetti. We decided it would be better with smaller pasta because the spaghetti clumped a bit. But the flavor was great!

Lastly was a One-Pot Chicken Dish:

This isn’t my photo, but it essentially looked the same. This was another easy recipe, you just put everything in the dish, sprinkle it with an Italian dressing packet and pour a stick of melted butter over top. The flavor was fantastic on the veggies, although we thought the chicken was a bit dry, even after soaking it in brine all afternoon. I loved having everything in one dish though and I was able to get it ready early and then just pop it in the oven an hour before we wanted to eat.

Overall this week’s newbies have been good! I still have a few more I am hoping to accomplish from this week’s list so I will keep you updated!

Side note: my camera has no batteries at the moment so my next post might be a bit stalled. I’m working on it!

Weekly Recipe Roundup

I have been on a kick lately with trying new recipes. Here's what we've had the last week or so:

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Ring:

This was very tasty, but basically just everything you would have for breakfast presented in a pretty package. Jason said I could just serve each thing separately and not go to the trouble, haha. This was my first ever attempted ring though, so I was glad for the experience. I didn't do a great job but at least I have the first one under my belt. They make nice presentations at holidays and such. 

Next up, Crockpot Mexican Chicken:

(my plate) 

(Jason's bowl) 

This was a big hit! A nice deviation from our normal dripless tacos to get our mexican food fix. We made the chix in the crockpot and then served it on rice with black beans, green onions, and cheese on top. We even scooped all of it with corn chips and it was delicious! This will definitely be a keeper. 

Third, Melt In Your Mouth Chicken:

Although mine looks absolutely nothing like the picture on the website (in fact, mine looks kinda gross), this was very tasty.  Basically it tasted like chicken with alfredo sauce on top. Very rich. And very high in calories, haha. But still tasty and easy, nonetheless. 

Next was Homemade Applesauce:

Oh my word...this was DELICIOUS! So, so easy too. This was actually an impromptu experiment because I had some apples I needed to use and was planning to make applesauce cookies later in the week. I used four apples and got about 3/4 cup of applesauce. I'm thinking this may be a good thing to give as Christmas gifts - it had such a comforting, home-y taste to it. Will definitely be making this again. 

I used the homemade applesauce for these Applesauce Cookies:

These were pretty good as well, but more like biscuits. In fact, I decided to rename them Applesauce Snickerdoodle Biscuits. They were very dense but delicious with a cup of coffee in the morning. I don't think Jason was a big fan. :) 

So that's this week's roundup! Stay tuned next week for more experiments, including Mediterranean Pasta, Cauliflower Tater Tots, and Strawberry Oatmeal Cookie Bars!