Recipes from winter into spring

We've had some good luck (and a couple duds) with our cooking endeavors over the last few months. I managed to catch up on all my Cooking Light magazines, so had lots of new recipes pulled to try right away. Here's the rundown. 

Jenna (with long hair - she just got 10" cut off and looks very different now!) holding Spicy Chicken Shawarma from Cooking Light. This was a hit with all of us and we will surely make it again. It is nice for an night you don't want to do much cooking. 

Another Mr. Food recipe and it was good - Chicken Tortilla Cake. You layer chicken, tortillas, cheese and probably a few other things and bake it all together, and then "frost" it with sour cream. It was quite good and we gobbled it up! Anytime you have some leftover shredded chicken, this would be a great recipe to try. 

If you've been reading for a while, you may know that I love coconut. I've mostly used it in desserts, so when I saw this recipe, I was excited to try it. The Coconut Chicken Strips from Cooking Light turned out great. You use unsweetened coconut. We didn't make the sauce in the recipe, as it was a spicy one, and it would benefit from having one. We'll have to experiment a bit - if you have any ideas for a good sauce to dip these in, please let me know. 

 I picked the Creamy Chicken Alfredo recipe just for Mike, as he loves Alfredo. The picture looks a little bland as we forgot to add the parsley, but the taste was good. Even Jenna who swears that she doesn't like any sauce, liked this one. It is an easy weeknight meal ready in about 30 minutes. I don't have a recipe link for this one as it is on a card labeled "Comfort Food." It was and we approve! If you'd like the recipe, just let me know and I will send it your way. 

The next recipe was an awesome one - and the best kind, one from a friend! She made this for our mini-retreat in March and I came home and made it again! It is called Lasagna Soup and includes pasta, mushrooms, and italian sausage in a tomato base. It was sooo good and we will be making this often next winter! No need for soups as we head into the summer! This recipe is pretty close to the one I had. 

The next yummy recipe was Meatball Stroganoff, also from Cooking Light. It was a great alternative to beef stroganoff and I think we'll make this one again. The flavor of the sauce was really nice. 

Now that we've been through the good recipes, we will move on to those that weren't quite as good....

Let's start with Hamburger Steak with Onion Gravy, another one from Cooking Light. I thought these looked and sounded good in the magazine and I thought Mike would really like them. In the end, the sauce was a gluey mess and the hamburgers weren't even as good as what we would usually make (and you buy ground sirloin for these). This recipe will wind up the in the recycling bin. 

Next up was a recipe that I originally intended to make just for me. I decided that the kids could try these too - Hummus and Rice Fritters with Mediterranean Salad. The fritters were just ok...the texture was a little weird between the rice and hummus, but the lemon vinaigrette salad dressing was delicious! We will save the recipe even if just for that! I think I will keep this one and I might try it again with a flavored hummus to see if that is better. I will definitely pull out the dressing recipe again! 

 The last one for this set of recipes is one from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I got a deal on ground turkey and then went looking for a recipe to make with it. I was excited about these Turkey and Broccoli Lasagna Rolls. They wound up quite dry and the sauce wasn't as saucy as it should have been. I don't mind some veggies in my lasagna, but now I see why beef or Italian sausage is the preferred filling - I think the extra fat helps with the overall flavor. 

So you can see we were about 50/50 this time. I continue to pull out recipes and we will keep trying some new ones as well as going back to those we enjoy. Hope you've seen something here that you'd like to try!