July 2015 Cooking Challenge

I set out with renewed resolve in July to dig back into some cookbooks and pull out some recipes to expand our palates a little more. I start out each week with a goal to balance beef, chicken, pork, fish/shrimp, and pasta. Sometimes I do better than others, and I think this month was a pretty good balance.  In addition to trying the new recipes below, we revisited Chicken Meatballs, Trout Almondine, and Glamour Salmon and I think we liked them all about the same as we did the first time around!

New recipes for this month were:

Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler - when our best friends went away for the week with a blooming blackberry bush, we had the go-ahead to stop by and pick all we wanted. We did that, enjoyed a few handfuls of blackberries, and put the rest into this easy cobbler, which was also quite delicious.

General Tso's Chicken Wraps - from our Trader Joe's cookbook. I love the similar wraps at that well known Chinese chain and these didn't disappoint a bit! They were a perfect summer dinner and I will build them into our rotation.

East-West Flank Steak Wraps - I had trouble tracking down a flank steak, but wound up finding another cut of meat that worked just as well. However, the seasoning on this one was a little too strong and we decided that we liked other wrap and/or steak sandwich recipes much better, so this one will be recycled.

Chicken Noodle Casserole - When I went to Shipshewana for my retreat last fall, we received a coupon for a free bag of homemade noodles. They've been in the pantry ever since and I had a sudden hankering for them.  This casserole had two cans of Golden Mushroom soup, which gave it the orange tinge. It was tasty (and the noodles were great), but I think next time, I will revert back to the traditional casserole with the white sauce. This one also came from a cookbook - Mary Englebreit's Fan Fare.

Chicken Burgers - the last recipe I pulled for the month was an online recipe pulled in desperation one night when I had to pull something together. I had planned to make another recipe, but didn't have one of the key ingredients, so I looked up something that I could do with ground chicken and common ingredients around the house. I found this recipe and it was delicious!

Comments

Carol said…
I always enjoy reading your monthly recipe reviews, Jennifer :) In fact, I just requested the Trader Joe's cookbook from the library so I will definitely check out the General Tso's recipe. I recently tried this tuna noodle casserole recipe http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/tuna-casserole-recipe/ and was so pleased with it--bet it would be even better with homemade noodles :)

Enjoy your weekend!