January Cookbook Challenge

In the first month of my challenge to myself to use my cookbooks, I decided to pick an easy one, Mr. Food Easy Tex-Mex by Art Ginsburg.  I think I got this as a shower or wedding present from a friend in Houston, but I am not positive. I know I have had it for at least 10 years, and I don't recall ever making a recipe from it, which is a little surprising because I love Tex-Mex and I love easy! My goal/challenge is to make at least 1 recipe from the cookbook and if I can't find anything I really want to make, then it is time to get rid of the cookbook. 

This month, we tried: 
- Taco Burgers - After the second bite, Mike said "Put this in the rotation" which means he liked it. We topped these burgers with salsa, sour cream, and cheese and they were delicious! Jenna didn't want to try them, but Jack liked them. Since I forgot to take a picture of them the first time we had them, we made them a second time. Jack thought they were okay the second time and Jenna thought they were too spicy, but she was able to finish hers in order to get dessert ;)



- Mexican Toast - a yummy alternative to French Toast - we already had a half-used package of tortillas in the house, so all I had to buy to make this was strawberries. We will make this one again. 


- Margarita Chicken - this is a basic chicken that marinates in a lime/margarita/Italian dressing mix. At the end, you top it with the marinade (which is cooked). You garnish with fresh lime wedges. All four of us liked this one - although the kids and I weren't as crazy about the sauce as Mike was. I also forgot to take a picture of it plated, but got a picture of the leftover piece going into a container for lunch. 
- Spicy Beef Empanadas - Mr. Food offered up two ways to make these empanadas - with homemade dough or with refrigerated pie crusts. We opted for the pie crusts in the interest of simplicity. Mike and Jenna made these and they were tasty little hot pockets of yum. They really weren't that spicy and the kids enjoyed them as much as we did. 
- Coffee Milkshakes - these were for the adults since they include coffee liqueur (and our kids wouldn't taste them anyway if they thought they were made of coffee!). We made these one night after dinner and they were incredibly good! We started with Blue Bell Coffee Ice Cream, so it would be hard to go wrong with that in the recipe! 
I had one more recipe that I bought ingredients for, but didn't have time to make this month - Pecan Pralines. I still plan to make them soon and will let you know how they turn out. 

Overall, we loved this cookbook! There are still several more recipes that I would try from this one and we will revisit all the ones we made. I've just picked out the cookbook for February and I will be surprised if we make the same number of recipes, but there look to be several good ones in it, so I will be hitting the grocery store soon!

Comments

Regina said…
mmmmmmm---- these all look good.
Colleen said…
Ummm... YUM! Now you need to share the recipes :) Not good post to read when you're hungry.
Some of those look good. Congrats on getting started with your challenge!