What We Ate: Week One

I'm trying out a new thing here, and we'll see if I can consistently keep it up throughout the year. So I mentioned that I set a goal this year when it comes to cooking. I am challenging myself to incorporate at least 2-3 new recipes into our meals each week. I love pinning good looking/sounding recipes on my Pinterest boards. In fact, food is one of the main things I go on Pinterest for these days. 

I used to have two boards for recipes. Now I have twenty. About a year ago, I took the time to create separate boards for different food and dessert categories, and I love how much more organized it all is. Not to say that everything is pinned on the perfect board. Lol. And some things fall under a few categories, and should be on multiple boards. But it works, and I change things, and add additional boards, as needed. 

What good is pinning all these yummy concoctions if you never actually try making them, right? That's where my challenge to myself came in. I have been trying some of these recipes over the last few months, and all of my Christmas cookie recipes I used for the past two years came from Pinterest. So I've had a little head start on the idea of actually using what I'm pinning, but I wanted to push myself to do even more. 

I'm thinking that every Monday, I'll try and share any new recipes I tried the previous week. Except this week, as I'm sharing on Tuesday ;) I should add that I didn't actually try any of these meals last week, as I hopped back on my diet for two weeks just to re-group a bit. So I have to take my family's word (and anyone else that ate the leftovers) on taste. Here's what I made for the first week of 2018: 

Slow Cooker Broccoli Beef | Creme De La Crumb

Thoughts: We love beef and broccoli, and I have a great recipe that I use from Rachael Ray to make it on the stove top. But I loved the idea of using the crock pot to make it. This was so easy to make. Toss all of the ingredients in the crock pot and let it do it's thing for 4-5 hours, adding in the broccoli a few minutes before serving. I made some steamed rice to go with it. The family loved it and said it was really, really good. I tried asking if it was better than the version I usually make, but they never did answer me. And I will say, while making beef and broccoli is pretty darn easy, this version was way less work than how I usually make it and less dishes and clean up. Which is always a plus in my book.

Slow Cooker Four Cheese Mac and Cheese | Damn Delicious

Thoughts: I love Damn Delicious recipes and this sounded like a good one. Again, using the crock pot. The recipe says to cook on low for 90 min to 2.5 hours. At first, I thought that meant it was good to go after 90 minutes, but could go up to 2.5 hours. But after letting it cook for 2 hours, it wasn't quite ready, as the noodles were still a bit tough. I did use a different type of noodle, so I'm not sure if that played into it. One family member said it was too cheesy (didn't know there was such a thing as too much cheese ;)). One family member said it was good, but filled her up too quick. Joe didn't love it, but took some leftovers to work, and it sounds like his co-workers (who eat a lot of my leftovers btw) said it was ok. Overall, it didn't get rave reviews in my house, so I probably won't make it again. 

Copycat TGI Friday's Potato Skins | Cincy Shopper

Thoughts: Soooo. My family looooooooves TGI Friday's potato skins. You know, the ones you get in the freezer section. And they always want to buy them, but they're so expensive, so I don't let them get them very often. I'm pretty sure that I've always known that potato skins are easy to make, but I admit, I've never tried to make them myself. While I know there are quicker ways to bake potatoes, I'm a rule follower, and did exactly what the recipe told me to do. It was the weekend, so I wasn't in a rush to get these done. They were so easy, and the family LOVED them. And it made a TON. I wanted to try freezing a few of them, to see if they would re-heat just like the real TGI Friday's frozen ones, but the family gobbled them up too quick. I told them they could never buy the frozen ones again, since I could make 10 times as many for the same price as one little box. Lol. I will for sure be making these again and again. 

Sloppy Joe Sliders | Valerie's Kitchen

Thoughts: I made these to go along with the potato skins. I had bought some rolls the previous weekend, and wanted to use them up by making some sliders. And when I went to search for a slider recipe, I knew that I wanted something using ground beef, since that's what I had on hand and thawed out. These Sloppy Joe Sliders were super easy to make, using all ingredients that are staples in my pantry. Joe loved these. Crazy, because they're so simple, but he kept saying how good they were. Sarah took off before dinner was ready, so she (and her boyfriend) has them as leftovers the next day. I only assembled the ones that were being eaten, since they go in the oven for a while. So it was easy to make more of the sliders the next day. 

So there's a look at my first week. I tried out 4 new recipes, keeping me on track with my challenge to myself. I'll be back next week to share what I end up making this week :)

Comments

[Deneen]

ok now I am hungry LOL! Looks wonderful and I will have to try to potato skins for sure.

[Cindee]

I tried the beef broccoli and it was so good! I didn't use the brown sugar because I'm in on day 10 of Whole30 but I still liked it. I cut the recipe in half and used it for lunches for the rest of the week.I was able to get four pretty good servings out of it. I used cauliflower rice instead of regular rice but would like it better with brown rice.

So good! Thanks for the recipe.

[mandyb]

what a shame the mac and cheese didnt work as i wanted to try it
wonder if diff noodles and cheese may change it..
and those sliders...mmmmm

[Natalie (QSOgirl)]

When I read this back in January, I marked the broccoli beef recipe, and I *finally* made it tonight-- great recommendation! I cut the sauce in half (I only had a pound of stew beef), and it was delicious! We just had rice last night, so I served it over spaghetti. Thanks so much for posting these recipe roundups. I need some fresh ideas, and I really appreciate knowing that someone else has tried them ;-)