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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

More Pinterest Recipes

I really think Chris and I are getting the hang of this menu planning thing.  I typically spend some time on either Saturday or Sunday selecting the recipes I'd like to use each week and comparing that to weekly ads for any deals that make help make my decision.  We are also trying to be better about eating our leftovers.  By doing this, we have been able to make most of our meal plans last us two weeks instead of the one they were originally planned for.  This is really helping our grocery budget go down.  I am still getting most of my recipes from Pinterest and we've been pretty pleased with a lot of what we have tried.  Here is a list of the ones we have tried recently:

Mexican Casserole: This one was easily a family favorite.  We ate off the casserole two nights and Sean asked for seconds both times.  Even Chris, who doesn't like beans, thought this was great.  I did leave out the onions and we used mild Rotel to save on the spiciness.  This one will be added to the recipe box.

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti: This recipe was super easy and, unlike most slow cooker recipe, didn't take a long time to cook.  However, it was almost too cheesy.  Once again, I left out the onion and green pepper (none of us like onion) and used the mild Rotel.  I also opted for the full fat version of all the ingredients.  Chris and I agree to make a few adjustments to this next time we make it, including adding more chicken and cutting back the Velveeta by about 1/4.

Picante Pot Roast: This was great for a quick meal and added a little extra flavor to a basic pre-made pot roast. I used the HEB brand (for those of you in Texas) pot roast for this and it was very good.  We didn't care  for the texture of the couscous so we are planning on trying either a flavored rice or risotto next time.  Also, Sean complained about the spiciness even with me using mild salsa so I may try so some sort of sauce like Sarah mentioned instead of salsa next time. I definitely think this is a recipe concept we could play with and build on.

Cowboy Casserole: I really liked this casserole.  I don't think Chris was 100% sold on it but he didn't hate it.  We agreed that the hamburger meat need a little extra flavor so we are going to try adding some Silly Salt while browning the meat next time.  I will say that this made a lot and we chowed down on this and ate every bite of it over the course of a couple of days.

Chicken Rice-a-Roni Casserole: I was prepared not to like this very much because I grew up hating Rice-A-Roni.  However, I was wrong.  It was quite tasty with an interesting mix of flavors thanks to the Rice-A-Roni and fried onions.  The creaminess vaguely reminded me of the chicken poppyseed casserole I love so much.  This was another winner.

Steak Tips Over Rice: Another super easy recipe. I mean what could be easier than stew meat and canned gravy.  I opted to serve this over mushroom flavored rice and I thought that added an additional bit of flavor to the recipe.  Our only complaint was that the gravy was a tad salty.  I might look for another version of the gravy next time but this is one we will do again.

Crunchy Beef Casserole:  I really didn't care for this at all.  I had high hopes after the success of the Rice-A-Roni casserole but this one failed me.  I wasn't a fan the first time we ate it and I really wasn't a fan when we tried to eat the leftovers.  It just didn't heat up well.  This is one that I don't think we will try again.

1 comment:

Gina said...

I'm in a menu planning rut. This gives me some new ideas!