New Recipe Reviews

In an effort to expand my horizons (and Chad's) I decided to try some new recipes this week. We tend to fall in to these cycles where we have the same 5 or 6 meals over and over and over. And then, after a while, NOTHING sounds good to eat and I spend my evenings being hungry but not wanting to cook anything because it's all become boring.

So, these are a few of the new recipes that I found in my Pinterest archives and finally got around to trying this week.

Honey Sriracha Chicken Thighs

This is a recipe that I found here on the Budget Bytes blog. She is all about good food at affordable prices. Another thing about this recipe that appealed to me is that I had everything I needed already in my fridge or cupboard, I just had to pick up the chicken on my weekly shopping trip.

This is how mine turned out:

Sooooo, definitely not as pretty as the culinary masterpiece that Beth posted with her recipe, but I am going to go ahead and blame that on the quality of my cell phone camera... yep, that's it... the camera quality...

But back to my opinion on the taste rather than the appearance. 

You should know that I really don't always follow recipes as far as measurements are concerned. I'm one of those eyeball measurers sometimes, especially when it comes to ingredients that only affect the flavors.

I really enjoyed this chicken recipe. My sauce that I reduced didn't turn out as much like a dark, decadent glaze like the original picture shoes, it was more of like a strange, gloopy jelly consistency. So I was a bit nervous that I really effed something up somewhere along the line. 

Not to worry though, it was pretty durn tasty! I will definitely make it again, but I think I will change up my sauce/marinade a bit and probably do more sriracha and less ginger to make it a little spicier and not quite as sweet.

Three Envelope Crock Pot Roast Beef Sliders

I didn't get a picture of these guys, and I didn't steal a picture from the original site, but you can find it here. 

I loved the flavor of the beef with the onion soup mix, italian dressing mix, and brown gravy mix. I used a smaller roast, since Chad and I didn't need 3-5 pounds of beef. I also didn't add the Pace Picante sauce, but I did add some bell peppers to the onions when I carmelized them

As for turning them into sliders, it was a little hard. The chunks of meat didn't stay on the slider buns very well.

I will probably use the original roast recipe again because I loved the flavor, but probably won't do so with the intention of making sliders, but I'm sure Chad will use the leftovers for it (which is what the original recipe mentioned).

Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup

Here is the original recipe at the Party in my Kitchen blog. That is also her picture I put there.

Today was a windy, cold, trying-to-snow kind of day. So it seemed like the perfect day to try this soup out. Plus all my other protein was frozen and I didn't want to wait 8 hours for it to thaw out.

Here's how mine looked:

It doesn't have as much of a yellow-y color to it and not as much broth, but whatever. I followed the recipe exactly (aside from the eyeballing of the herbs). This soup has GREAT flavor, but HOLY SODIUM. The recipe calls for 6 bouillon cubes to go with the 4 cups of water and can of evaporated milk. That's SIX cubes. It was the whole box. The box said that 1 cube is what you will use for 2 cups of water. I took a second, said to myself "gee, that seems like a lot of cubes..." but figured I'd follow the recipe. I now regret that. It seriously is almost not edible. Chad and I poured milk into our bowls to cut the saltiness, but it still was rough. 

As I type, I have dumped the soup into a strainer over a bowl, and have taken some of the existing broth, added some milk and water, and am setting it to simmer on the stove again for a bit to see if we can salvage it.

Overall, I will probably make it again, but will DEFINITELY alter the recipe a bit... ya know, so we can actually eat it without the need to chug 5 gallons of water afterwards.

Anyways, those are a few of the things I have tried this week. I'll try to keep expanding my horizons, and then tell you what I think, so you don't waste your time unless you know it's Carly and Chad approved.