Recipe Report #2
Alright, the first week of cooking and eating with the new recipes seems to have been an overall s-u-c-c-e-s-s. All ratings are out of 5.
Mandarin Salad -- J: 3.5 B: 3.5
Comments: the salad itself seemed was quite good, but the parsley's bitterness made for a not-so-great aftertaste. Less parsely and without waterchestnuts should bring this one up to a 4 or 4.5 at least.
Fettucine Alfredo -- J: 4.5 B: 5.0
Comments: J found this a touch dry, but I quite liked it. But you have to eat it when it's hot -- the sauce and peas loose their lustre as it cools down. The portion sizes were also a a nice surprise; we were able to eat a lot, without eating "bad."
Mixed-Up Meatballs -- J: 4.5 B: 4.5
Comments: what a surprise! I hate horseradish... and horseradish combined with raspberry jam sounded just bizarre. So bizarre, that we really only tried this because of how crazy it sounded. And yet, we both agreed it's worth having again -- we made lots of meatballs and froze them so we have 3 more meals worth before we have to splurge for the ground chicken again. The price of the ground chicken was really only problem we had with this recipe; we couldn't find ground turkey, and the ground chicken was tricky to find. All in all, though, a great surprise.
Not mentioned last week (but we tried them anyway) were some smoothies. We tried the Bikini Breezer (strawberry - banana - OJ) and a Peach one as well. Both are worth having again, though we're going to try adding some fresh strawberries to the first. This week, we'll be trying a third variety, which is a pistachio banana one.
The other new things this week are:
Orange-Lime Rice Salad: we're having this one as a side to some BBQ'd salmon. J's never had fish other than the canned junk, so this should be interesting for both of us. Cantalope, peppers and green onions fill out the salad. This is our "not sure about" recipe for the week.
Shepherd's Pie: the old classic with red potatoes, ground beef, and the twist is the addition of spinach.
Pizza Pasta: it's pizza on top of pasta. Strange but true!
And as a bonus, there's a recipe for buttermilk pancakes (with blueberries for those who eat them) and a banana-creme topping (with low-fat plain yogurt, cinnamon, banana, etc.) Kev's coming over to help us devour them... thus the "blueberries for those who eat them."
Mandarin Salad -- J: 3.5 B: 3.5
Comments: the salad itself seemed was quite good, but the parsley's bitterness made for a not-so-great aftertaste. Less parsely and without waterchestnuts should bring this one up to a 4 or 4.5 at least.
Fettucine Alfredo -- J: 4.5 B: 5.0
Comments: J found this a touch dry, but I quite liked it. But you have to eat it when it's hot -- the sauce and peas loose their lustre as it cools down. The portion sizes were also a a nice surprise; we were able to eat a lot, without eating "bad."
Mixed-Up Meatballs -- J: 4.5 B: 4.5
Comments: what a surprise! I hate horseradish... and horseradish combined with raspberry jam sounded just bizarre. So bizarre, that we really only tried this because of how crazy it sounded. And yet, we both agreed it's worth having again -- we made lots of meatballs and froze them so we have 3 more meals worth before we have to splurge for the ground chicken again. The price of the ground chicken was really only problem we had with this recipe; we couldn't find ground turkey, and the ground chicken was tricky to find. All in all, though, a great surprise.
Not mentioned last week (but we tried them anyway) were some smoothies. We tried the Bikini Breezer (strawberry - banana - OJ) and a Peach one as well. Both are worth having again, though we're going to try adding some fresh strawberries to the first. This week, we'll be trying a third variety, which is a pistachio banana one.
The other new things this week are:
Orange-Lime Rice Salad: we're having this one as a side to some BBQ'd salmon. J's never had fish other than the canned junk, so this should be interesting for both of us. Cantalope, peppers and green onions fill out the salad. This is our "not sure about" recipe for the week.
Shepherd's Pie: the old classic with red potatoes, ground beef, and the twist is the addition of spinach.
Pizza Pasta: it's pizza on top of pasta. Strange but true!
And as a bonus, there's a recipe for buttermilk pancakes (with blueberries for those who eat them) and a banana-creme topping (with low-fat plain yogurt, cinnamon, banana, etc.) Kev's coming over to help us devour them... thus the "blueberries for those who eat them."
