Update

Okay…so it’s summer time….and while we still have to eat, I may or may not be so great at the posting part of this project. I have significantly slowed down on the number of new recipes I’ve tried but that’s okay! I purposely did not put a timeframe on this project knowing that life will get in the way sometimes. Our summer has been filled with parties, visiting friends, and a beach vacation.

Here are some things I’ve been cooking up in my kitchen lately. (P.S. EVERY SINGLE RECIPE was delicious!)

#1 – Supreme Pizza Burgers – most of our dinners in the summer involve the grill, so this was a no brainer. If you like pizza, you will love these burgers. The best part is you put on the toppings you like. I’m not a fan of black olives, so I didn’t use them. The green peppers are pretty important because they hold all those yummy toppings in. Definitely an easy weeknight meal!

#2 – Buffalo Chicken Salad – salads are another summer staple in our house. When it’s super hot it you need a light dinner and this is the perfect way to achieve that. The chicken gave the salad the spice it need while it was balanced out with bleu cheese dressing and crumbles. It makes a great lunch too!

#3 – Black Bean Burgers – I love black beans, but these scared me a little. I love burgers and I was truly afraid that a burger made with black beans would totally ruin it for me. I was wrong! I did add too much breadcrumbs, so they were a little drier than I wanted them to be, but overall they were excellent! I will definitely be making this again especially if I ever decide to implement Meatless Monday (Don’t tell my husband ;))

#4 – Raspberry Fool – when you get fresh raspberries from your in-laws you have to use them well. We ate plenty by the handful, but I knew I had this recipe. Paired with the homemade whipped cream, you could really use any fruit and it would turn out well. This makes a great summer dessert that’s nice and light for the warmer weather.

#5 – Santa Fe Egg Scramble – in an attempt to eat healthier after some of this summer food I’ve eaten lately I’ve gotten back into making eggs and egg scrambles. This past week I made this egg scramble with tomatoes and spinach. I love this and anytime I can add some veggies into my breakfast it’s a bonus!

#6 – Seafood Pasta Packet in Foil – this as probably the best recipe of the 6. If you like Seafood, spicy, and pasta then you will love this! After some amazing seafood at the beach, we were still craving that delicious beach food. Shrimp and scallops over homemade tomato sauce noodles with some fresh herbs from my garden were the perfect combo.

Not sure what’s next for us, but something yummy! I do need to report that I’ve been making a lot of these recipes for a second and third time. It’s added great variety to our weekly meals and keeping us out of a good rut. Still plenty of good recipes to come!!

Retirement Party

Not long ago I was asked to plan a retirement party for my mother-in-law. I immediately went to my Pioneer Woman Cookbook to search for ideas. She loves Hawaii, so I thought about some luau type food that would work well for a crowd. The Pulled Pork immediately caught my eye as a place to start and I soon added the Colorful Coleslaw to menu for the day. In addition, with the help of some family, we added Hot Dogs, Mac and Cheese, Baked Beans, and Fruit Kabobs to round out the menu. With the planning all in place, all that was left was the actual cooking.

I started the pulled pork the day before with an almost 10 lb. shoulder roast.

It was super easy to throw together, cover, and pop in the oven at 300 degrees for 7 hours. I loved that I could just throw it in the oven and forget about it for the day while I did other party stuff.

When I took it out, this is what it looked like.

It also smelled so delicious!!

At this point, I went ahead and shredded what I add, but was a little concerned that I might not have enough for the number of people coming. I’m one that would much rather have leftovers than not enough food. So, off I went to the store to get another smaller roast and repeated the whole process the day of the party.

Once I was done, I took the reserved liquid from the first roast minus the fat and added it to a sauce pan with my BBQ sauce. I used Sweet Baby Rays, but you can use any BBQ sauce that you like!

Once it was heated through a barely bubbling, I poured it over my shredded pork and mixed it all together.

It was really that simple! I’ve never made pulled pork before and it’s never been one of my favorites because I’ve had it places where it’s too dry. This was so far from that! Each bite melted in your mouth and I could have stood there all day eating it.

Earlier in the day, I threw together the Colorful Coleslaw.

This was super simple with just a handful of ingredients. I’m not a big coleslaw person, but I like this because it has a great crunch to it.

I got great reviews at the party for both recipes! The good news is there are lots of leftovers. I even took them into work to share with the girls I work with and got rave reviews including a few requests to make the pulled pork for our next potluck.

The one thing I learned with the leftovers today was that making a pulled pork sandwich with the coleslaw on top is the way to go! The crunch from the coleslaw is the perfect touch with that melt-in-your-mouth pork. I highly recommend making these two recipes together and eating it this way.

So if your planning a great summer bash consider making these two if you want to impress your guests and fill their bellies!

For Ree’s Pulled Pork recipe click here!

For Ree’s Colorful Coleslaw recipe click here!

New Meal Plan, New Recipes

I recently started this new meal plan called 2b mindset. It really focuses on drinking water, lots of veggies and eating certain food groups during certain times of the day. It’s simple and easy to follow, but it really made me think about this project and how do I mix the two together. It’s definitely doable, but the two recipes I’ve made this week were veggie based in order to for it in.

Over the weekend I made myself some zoodles!

They are incredibly easy to make and I love the idea of using them as noodles. The Pioneer Woman’s recipe was slightly different but I adapted it with what I had. I ended up topping them with marinara sauce, meatballs and a little Parmesan cheese.

One word of caution: your sauce will thin out very quickly because of the moisture in the zucchini. The Pioneer Woman’s recipe used a can of diced tomatoes that would probably work very well.

Tonight I wanted to spice up my veggies a little and remembered this Spicy Cauliflower Stir Fry recipe from the book. Now, normally when I want to try a recipe on the fly, I’m always missing at least one ingredient and it’s always an important one. Luck had it that I had a head of cauliflower in my fridge, so this was perfect.

The hardest part was cutting it apart and it small florets. I paired this with some salmon cakes and had dinner made within 15 minutes.

Super easy weeknight meal for the win! It was like eating stir fry but without the rice. I added a little kick to it with sriracha and it was the perfect spicy to this dinner.

I’m not sure what’s up next but I’m planning a retirement party for my mother-in-law and will be using at least 2 recipes from the book. Hopefully all turns out well!

Check out Ree’s Zucchini Noodles Here and the Spicy Cauliflower Stir Fry Here.

Cocunut Curry Shrimp

Truth: I’ve never had curry before.

I really had no fear about making this dish. My friends and family know that I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to food. I’m not sure how I got this far without trying curry, but now I’m determined to have some authentic curry. Tonight’s dish was awesome!

Plus side is it was a super easy dinner. The hardest part was cleaning the shrimp and that really not that hard. It was a crazy day here with lots going on so easy dinner was a must! I’m already thinking about what I can add the next time. It’s great on its own but I’d love to add some vegetables like zucchini and red peppers next time.

I highly recommend this meal if you are stuck in rut with dinners because it’s something different and delicious. You can spice it up as much as you like.

Click Here for The Pioneer Woman’s recipe!

Rainy Saturdays = Good Days for Cooking

I have so many projects to work on outside, but when it’s been a rainy week and you have a rainy, dreary Saturday none of those project get done. The thing to do on a rainy Saturday is cook a restaurant quality dinner with not one but THREE new recipes!

The great thing about this dinner is none of it was hard or time consuming! Chicken Milanese, roasted Carrots with a Vinaigrette Dressing, and Cheesy Polenta. Seriously restaurant quality and in the comfort of my own home!

Let’s take a few steps back for a minute. I did very little prep work ahead of time for this.

Cut some carrots.

Mixed up the vinaigrette dressing.

And prepped the breading for the chicken.

If I could do one thing differently, it would be the ordered I made everything. I started by putting the carrots in oven, made the polenta, and fishing’s with the chicken. I would definitely make the polenta last next time because that only took a few minutes to mix up once it was started. The chicken took the longest and I could have started it sooner.

Overall, this was an excellent dish! Very light and could easily be done on a weeknight, because it doesn’t take long to put together.

For more info on the recipes see below.

Chicken Milanese

Roasted Carrots with Vinaigrette

Feel free to research Ree Drummond’s Polenta Recipe. The one I found includes goat cheese, but is not the one I made tonight. I made plain polenta and added some shredded Colby jack cheese and it was delicious.

Stay tuned for another new recipe tomorrow! I figured out tonight that after tomorrow I’ll be at 35/135 recipes in this cookbook. Still a long way to go, but it’s all about the food and the process.

Ginger Steak Salad

Two nights in a row with new recipes seems pretty impressive for me at the moment. Thankfully this dinner was super easy because I prepped last night. I mixed up a simple marinade/dressing and used half to marinade the steak in and kept half in the fridge for dressing for tonight.

Tonight I chopped up so lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and red onion, cooked up the steak, and mixed it all together with the dressing I mixed up the night before.

It really was as simple as 1-2-3. This is a great summer meal for those nights that you don’t feel like cooking because it’s too hot and you just want something easy. There are so many ways to alter this with other ingredients but it’s also good the way it is. I highly recommend the ginger dressing on any salad and will definitely make another batch for my fridge.

Click here to check out the recipe!

Back in Action

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve tried any new recipes. I knew when I started this journey there would be bumps in the road and life would get in the way sometimes. Now that it’s FINALLY getting nice out, we’ve been spending a lot more time outside and a lot less time cooking, but tonight I had my first grilling experience. Normally I leave the grilling to my husband, but for this project I knew I’d have to do it myself. Tonight’s menu consisted of Hawaiian Burgers and Roasted Asparagus.

I have to say that even though I’m not normally the one doing the grilling, I do love grilling season! Cheeseburgers are one of my favorite foods, so any time I can jazz one up I’m game.

These burgers are topped with provolone cheese, grilled pineapple, grilled red peppers, red onion, lettuce, and the special sauce. I will tell you that the special sauce involves teriyaki sauce and a kick.

I really loved the flavor in these burgers and will definitely make them again.

Click here for The Pioneer Woman’s recipe to make this yummy recipe tonight!

Burrito Bowls

Let me start off by saying I LOVE Burrito Bowls! I first discovered Chipotle about 5 years ago and this is when I was introduced to the Burrito Bowl. Ever since, I’ve been in love and have recreated my own. When I originally saw this recipe in The Pioneer Woman Dinnertime Cookbook it was no big deal, because I make these all the time. I decided to give it a try since I was craving them this weekend and I’m so glad I did!

Lots of chopping and prep work for this recipe, but nothing that is time consuming. Once you actually start the cooking, it goes pretty quickly. Plus, you can make it all in one pan!

Things I love about these Burrito Bowls:

1. The veggies – I’ve never made anything like this for my Burrito Bowls, but they were fabulous!
2. All the toppings – tonight we had chicken, venison, veggies, black beans, quest, homemade pico de Gallo (another Pioneer Woman recipe), shredded lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole

There are so many possibilities. I’ve made a corn salsa before that is awesome. Jeff used sriracha tonight. If you like cilantro, add it and some lime juice to your rice (I do, Jeff doesn’t so I didn’t this time). Anyone can make this their own with the toppings they like! I highly recommend this to anyone who loves burritos. Start with some rice and pick your toppings. Enjoy!

Shrimp Scampi and Roasted Asparagus

It feels like forever since I’ve posted! Probably has something to do with life getting in the way. We went away for Easter and I spent two days at a conference this week. I was anxious to get back in the kitchen and make something new! I’m itching for warmer weather and sunshine, which we should have by this time of year, but spring seems to be no where in sight. Summer will bring lots of time outside spent working in the garden and playing with the girls. It also bring easy meals, so I need to get in the kitchen before it gets too nice out. I’m excited to start into the salad section of The Pioneer Woman Cookbook this summer, but in the meantime let’s talk about tonight’s meal.

I started with prepping these! I love asparagus. I always have. I’ve roasted them in the oven before, but it’s in the book, so I had to officially do it for the project. A little olive oil and salt and pepper and these are ready to go.

The next step was prepping the shrimp scampi. Any new that involves seafood is right up my alley. This was super easy and could easily be done on a week night. Very few ingredients and all the goodness of eat restaurant quality shrimp scampi.

Who wouldn’t want to eat this deliciousness for dinner?!?!

Two thumbs up from Jeff and definitely something I’ll make again.

Check here for Ree’s recipe!

Chicken Enchiladas

When I started out making these Chicken Enchiladas, I thought it would be easy! It all started when I went shopping this weekend and couldn’t find green enchilada sauce. Two stores and only red! Thankfully one of the variations to this recipe included red, so red enchilada sauce it is!

My next thought was, I make enchiladas on a regular basis with a different recipe. They are fairly easy and and a good go to for a weeknight Mexican meal. This is NOT a weeknight meal. It’s not overly complicated, but has a lot of moving parts (hence few pictures!) and takes time to put together plus bakes for 30 minutes.

This is what my kitchen looked like at one point.

What I like about this meal is that there are so many possible variations. You could make it using a variety of meats or even vegetarian. You can switch up the sauce (green or red) or the type of cheese (I used Colby Jack tonight). Plus, the toppings!!! The recipes calls for sour cream and diced tomatoes. You could also add green onion, avocado, sriracha, or anything you like.

I definitely will make this again with a different variation but on the weekend!

Click Here to check it out!