When I started back at school full-time a lot of my classes took me away from home in the evening. I was the world's greatest student (toot toot) but not the worlds greatest...wife? NO I
WAS- just not in the... kitchen. I felt pretty bad most of the dinners we consumed came in a paper bag with plastic forks. So my mission has been to create meals and NOT our 4 go-to meals that I make ALLLLLL the time. (spaghetti & tacos to name two)
But what did I FORGET to bring to Oklahoma? My friggin COOKBOOKS! I realized that when I went to make dinner one day. Luckily, I have a few of my own recipes on this here blog. So the night I went to make homemade tortillas I had my favorite tortilla recipe right there for me. I
knew blogging recipes would come in handy someday.
A couple weeks ago I went in search for new recipes online since my cookbooks were left- I went to one of my favorite bloggers recipe links and tried a bunch of her dinner recipes out. So, I
HAD to share my favorite one and give you my opinion on two more that we tried...
First was:
"Grilled Chicken Pasta in a Tomato Cream Sauce" ...in other words, "OHM NOM NOM HOLY CRAP GIMME MORE"
I added
this recipe to my blog for you... I RECOMMEND IT- it tastes like something you'd order in an overpriced italian place. Tony even asked for it again so we've had it lots now. And incase you were wondering, it microwaves beautifully the next day too... and the next.. and next. (I made too much I think haha)
Next was:
"Becky Higgins' Garlic Chicken Farfale"
I must've been in a pasta mood that week. OKAY... this one???? I'd be lying if I told you I didn't enjoy it. But half of me really
didn't enjoy it... for
one reason and
one reason only. THE CALORIES! This dish, I would
TOTALLY recommend trying. BUT hows about as a
side dish so you don't have to feel like you loaded yourself up on butter for dinner. I made the mistake of just looking at the picture- and then the list of ingredients
instead of reading how to make it. It wasn't until I started making it that I realized the
only ingredients in the sauce were
1 cup of heavy whipping cream,
1 stick of butter, and
1 pound of bacon. CRIPES!! Now, I'm sure most of the pastas you get at places are just as loaded... but KNOWING it made me feel the guilt even harder. And thence, made it less enjoyable. But if we were grading this based on flavor I'd give it an A.
And lastly we had what she calls
"Pan Seared Salmon Steakettes"
I love salmon- especially since I know it has health benefits. I would eat it weekly if I knew several different ways to prepare it. (I know I could just google stuff but yeah anyways). So I was glad to find a different way to make salmon! There were a couple of drawbacks with this recipe... and I think it had something to do with my crappy pan but we'll see what happens when I do this again in Arizona with my skillet. But the "dales steak sauce" you marinade it in made my apartment sooooooo smokey! It was almost painful to eat it since we were surrounded with smoke. I thought it was my fault but I made it twice and even on
medium heat it smoked like crazy! The other thing I have to say as a disclaimer- even though you are preparing it like steak, it does not taste like steak (she says it does but I don't think so). I even marinaded it longer than she recommended. I guess it tastes as much like steak as salmon can but really it just tastes like delicious salmon!... you can't go wrong with that though since salmon is wonderful. I really liked it, like I said- I'll be trying it again!
Anyway I love making delicious FRESH dinners- it really beats the processed foods sold in the freezer section. Plus, I feel accomplished when I didn't take the easy road when making dinner. So here's to fulfilling my wifey duties and making dinner more often....
I'm trying out more of her recipes this week so maybe one or two will wind up as a favorite recipe here.
