March Cookbook Challenge

March is Jack's birthday month, so I let him choose the cookbook for the month. .  I pulled out a large stack and let him go through them - naturally, he chose the one with the cake on the coverTaste of Home's Quick Cooking Annual Recipes (2000).  We looked through together and found a few things to make, and then I came back to the cookbook weekly as I made my grocery list.  This cookbook was a gift from my mother in law and, like the others before it, I am not sure I have ever made a single recipe from it. 

What an easy cookbook! As if the title doesn't say it all, most of the recipes in this book are quick and use very common ingredients.  We maxed out this month with 9 recipes!  Here they are: 

Speedy (and yummy) Salmon Cakes - Jack declared them the best Salmon ever!
These Beefy Biscuit Cups were a huge hit! 
St. Patrick's day menu: 

Pot o'Gold Potato Soup - two thumbs up from all of us!
Leprechaun Lime Drinks (not a hit - way too sugary sweet)
Blarney Stone Bars - a great dessert! 

Bavarian Sausage Supper - we like sausage, and we like the bagged noodle mixes, and this recipe puts them  together. Mike and I liked it more than the kids, but I think they'd be okay to eat it again. 
Breaded Turkey Breasts - could just as easily be made with chicken and very tasty

Aloha Chicken - this was a little bland for our tastes, but we would make it again and experiment with a few spices to some more glaze - Jack wasn't a fan of the pineapples, but liked the chicken and rice. 

Lemon Chicken and Rice - we were supposed to have some carrot in this, but ran out earlier in the week. It looks bland, but this was probably the most flavorful dinner recipe of the month! 

German Chocolate Cookies - these were a big hit and so easy since you start with a box of German Chocolate cake mix. We all agree that Chocolate Chip are our favorite cookies, but there were a good change and we'd also experiment a little with these making them with a few other kinds of cake mix. 
All in all, we really liked this book. We found a couple recipes that we can add to our normal rotation of dinners because they don't take a long time to cook and don't take crazy ingredients.  I am really glad we tested out lots of recipes this month and look forward to making several of them again! 

Comments

Ruthie said…
What a wonderful idea! It's great to involve the kids in the menu planning. It all looks wonderful!
Gari in AL said…
I like the idea of working out of one cookbook a month. I try to have at least one new meal a month but of course I don't do as much cooking as I did when we had kids at home. ;-)
Now, I'm hungry! I have not had salmon cakes in a while and those looked great! Way to go on another great month!

And yes, I am behind on commenting on blogs that I comment on. lol