52 New Recipes | Week 2
In 2017, I'm committing to trying one new dinner recipe per week. Can I stick with it? Time will tell. 😉
My first recipe was a bit of a dud in the sense that it was boring. But week two went better!
This week's recipe
I tried an Orange Beef stir-fry recipe from my ATK Quick Family Cookbook and ⅚ of us thought it was a winner (person #6 wasn't strongly opposed either).
So, I think this one is going to go into rotation around here.
Yay!
It is a very, very good feeling when you find a good new dinner recipe, isn't it?
I'm not much of a recipe modifier, but I added green beans and just sauteed them lightly.
Also, I served the chili-garlic sauce on the side because I tasted a bit and quickly concluded that 4/6 of my family would be crabby with me if I put 2 teaspoons of it in the sauce (so much fire!)
So, Joshua and I added a little at the table, and all was well.
I'll put the recipe for this up in a separate post so that it's easy to find in the future, rather than buried in a cooking rut post.
The only bummer about this recipe is that it calls for flank steak, which isn't super duper affordable. But all the other ingredients are not expensive, and as I always remind myself, even expensive cuts of meat are always cheaper than getting takeout for my family of 6.
(My number one cheap food rule: Cook at home, Kristen!)
Plus, the sauce and beans are cheap, as is the rice I served it over. It all evens out. 😉
Next week's recipe
I haven't decided for sure, but I think I'm gonna go on the hunt for a new broth or tomato based soup to try, as I already have a fair number of cream soup recipes.
Your turn!
What new recipe did you try this week? And what are you planning to make next week?
I didn't try a new recipe per se, but I've been implementing a new habit: serving everything (for me) on a bed of lettuce. Homemade pizza on a bed of lettuce. Chili on a bed of lettuce. Mexican bowl on a bed of lettuce. Etc.
It increases my intake of green leafies, slows down my consumption of the heavier stuff, and adds more fiber. No salad dressing required - the ingredients are the dressing. I love it.
That sounds interesting!
I've do this too, and it's amazing what tastes good over greens. I was trying to eat less grains, so I started subbing out the grain in most of my meals for greens. And it's true-no dressing needed. The ingredients of your meal really do make everything juicy enough.
Sigh. I meant to say, "I do this too."
Thanks for sharing. It sounds very interesting and I will give it a try.
I love this! I haven't gotten quite as into this as you have, but I've been doing this with leftover lasagna for years - lasagna salad - it works great! The other thing I do along this vein is to steam up a bunch of cabbage and serve leftover whatever on top of it. The cabbage doesn't have much flavor so it just sorta takes on the taste of whatever you put on top of it.
Just made a new recipe a friend gave me. It's like French dip and so easy. I used a 2 1/2 pound roast (whatever cuts on sale). One 10 oz can of beef broth and one 3oz packet of Louie's Italian beef seasoning (find it in the marinade isle). Throw it all in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Add one small jar of banana peppers (optional) add the end. Serve on toasted hoagies with provolone. Yummy
Jenay
I made Roasted Carrots with Farro, Chickpeas and Herbed Creme Fraiche from Cookie & Kate. I served the components separately so that everyone would try it. It's served with toasted pepitas and I'll be making those a lot to just snack on!
We have A TON of venison in our freezer now that my husband has tagged out in two consecutive hunting seasons...so my new year's meal plan goals are to find new ways to incorporate venison. So, Monday I made a quick 30 minute venison chili with ground venison. I also made some elbow macaroni on the side because my husband likes super hearty soups, whereas I like my soups to be, well...soupy. It was a hit, even with our 3 year old!
Today, my husband is going to attempt to smoke a whole turkey in the new smoker we got for Christmas!
My husband's a hunter, too. Our favorite is venison lasagna 🙂
I got The Complete Venison Cookbook for Christmas one year and it has great recipes! I'm the vegetarian in the house who cooks it all so none will go to waste! If they (husband and step-sons) killed it, they're gonna eat it. It really helps our food budget and fills our freezer for the year. You may be able to find this book on a book swap site like Paperbackswap or Bookmooch. I've found that for some foods like hamburgers and meatballs it helps to substitute 1/2 ground beef or ground turkey to the recipe. Even guests have a hard time telling it is any different.
I should remember this for next Christmas! My dad would love it. 🙂
The tougher cuts can be cooked like a pot roast - in a slow cooker or pressure cooker.
My fave is to put a layer of bacon on the cuts before I roast or saute them. Tough cuts get sliced thinner than the more tender cuts.
I tried out a recipe for Italian Brown Sugar Chicken but I subbed pork loin chops. It was merely "ok". Next week I am going to try a new crock pot recipe - green Beans, potatoes and Kielbasa. The Orange Beef looks good - yay on the green beans. I love ordering those sauteed green beans from a Chinese restaurant, but would love to learn how to make the sauce and do it at home.
I'd love to hear about the crock pot recipe with kielbasa and green beans. We all love Kielbasa and green beans around here and it would be great to have a new idea of what to do with it.
3 new recipes in the last 2 weeks: beef stir fry, veggie stir fry with salmon, and crock pot cream cheese chicken taquitos. Stir fry was good. Yes, beef was more expensive but I used skirt steak instead. Salmon with Asian sauce under the broiler--YUM, I need to do this more often. 3/4 of us like the chicken taquitos, and I like that it really stretched using a small amount of chicken.
That looks tasty! I've found (from our half beef = one flank steak life) that sirloin tip does a pretty good job in stir-fry recipes that call for flank steak. I'm not sure if that's cheaper or not, but it might be worth a look!
I tried this one and it was super easy (crock pot and rice cooker!) and a big hit!
http://www.frugalmomeh.com/2013/06/slow-cooker-chicken-curry.html#_a5y_p=5054182
Also, regarding the flank steak, we grill it frequently, and it is MUCH cheaper--and better quality--if you can get it at Costco/BJs/etc.
Oooh, bravo with the new recipe! I'm glad to hear this one worked out. 🙂 I've never combined orange and beef before, so this is a new one on me.
Maybe an affordable alternative to flank steak would be chicken thighs? It totally changes the dish, but it would be a little cheaper I suppose.
This week we actually didn't try any new recipes! I forgot to get cookbooks from the library last week so we played it safe. Next week, however, I think we'll try four-cheese eggplant rotini or chipotle turkey avocado sandwiches.
I wonder if the cooking method would be slightly different for chicken thighs. I think chicken breasts would cook like flank steak, but maybe not chicken thighs.
Must research!
I've had to wing it a bit this week, because our van started blowing cold air out of the heating vents and it's been super-cold here, so we have been avoiding longer car trips until the car is fixed and didn't do our usual big weekly grocery trip. I've made a lentil and swiss chard soup, a beef stew, and a baked cod, none of which are in my normal rotation. I was a big fan of the soup, and everybody seemed to like the cod, but the stew came out so-so, although I think that's mostly because 1) I made it in my instant pot, which may have a low heat setting for slow-cooking but I can't find it, and it would have been better cooked at a lower heat and 2) I added the potatoes right at the beginning, as per the recipe, but I think they come out better if you add the potatoes later, because otherwise they just become mush.
Not really a new recipe but a new way to cook an over stuffer roaster......in the crockpot!
Of course the skin does not get crispy but it was so easy and delicious.
I put an 8 pound roaster in the crockpot with salt, pepper, minced garlic and lemon slices. It took about 3 hours on high. Once it was done I put it on a platter and made a gravy from all the juices.
So happy I tried this...will be perfect for the hot summer months when I do not like to put the oven on.
This is amongst my favorite soup recipes. Tomatoes, onion, garlic and red peppers. How can one go wrong! http://cookieandkate.com/2011/roasted-red-pepper-and-tomato-soup/
I add four cups more broth, then pureee, return to a boil and add pasta and cook for additional 5-8 minutes. Whatever broth I have in the house is what I use, everything from chicken, turkey, veg and beef has been used.
Also have been known to make a batch of the base w/o the broth and toss it in the freezer for quick assembly on those busy weekday nights.
I am doing a pantry challenge and have been sticking to fairly basic recipes. I am focused on not buying more food when we have too much food already. This week I made a potato soup: http://ahomeinthecountry.blogspot.com/2017/01/52-new-recipes-week-two.html
I'm doing a freezer challenge! (It's a good thing I like doing puzzles :)! I love potato soup--we just finished a potato leek soup from Taste of Home, but I have a few more potatoes here, so I'm going to try it. This one looks really good! I sooo love Ree Drummond! We just made her mac n cheese here two nights ago. Sadly, it's gone....
I made this and it was really good. I made a few modifications. Added sundried tomatoes and used 1/3 block of greek yogurt cream cheese to thicken the sauce and a big splash of white wine at the end.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/89334/portobello-penne-pasta-casserole/?prop26=dailydish&prop25=116731&prop27=2017-01-05&did=116731-20170105
Try tom kha gai- there are lots of recipes out there. It is a thai coconut soup with chicken and veggies. I made one last week that I loved and everyone in my family loved. I served it with quick fried rice.
That reminds me! I've seen a Thai coconut soup recipe in my cookbook that I wanted to try.
I love this kind of soup. It is especially great when I have a cold or my sinuses are acting up.
I made hunter-style chicken using a whole chicken and my crockpot...I thought it was delicious, as did our baby who's eating more table foods now. Hubby was not super impressed but said he would eat it again if I made it, lol. I took that as the "please don't make me eat this again" that it was 🙂 The good news is that I had healthy lunch for the rest of the week, and the sauce made a lot, so I have extra Italian tomato-type sauce to use up as well. I'm thinking a soup of some kind?
Next week I'm making Marsala chicken in our crockpot...possibly with a whole chicken if I can't find chicken breasts on sale-we'll see. Ooh...or chicken thighs. I like to keep my meat options open.
For me, a lot of the time I can find flat iron steak for less $, and it is very similiar.
I did try the curry recipe as planned and it wasn't a hit for us. I'm sure it could be better as all I did was follow the recipe on the back of the little red curry paste jar, but I used chicken instead of shrimp. I think it was just a bit to sweet for our taste. I'm not sure what new recipe I'll try this week, but I better hurry up and decide. 🙂 I wonder if you could use a different cut of meat instead of flank steak?
I'd say you can use any beef, pork, or venison cut for this recipe. If it's a tough cut, slice it thinner and across the grain.
Substituting chicken for beef isn't necessarily a no-brainer: some cooking methods don't transfer well and the taste will be different. For example, Orange Chicken is just as good as Orange Beef. However, Beef with Broccoli (characterized by a sauce heavy in oyster sauce) is much better than the same recipe made with chicken - the chicken just can't stand up to the heavy oyster sauce-based sauce.
I can't tell you how it turned out yet, but I made sauerkraut with kale instead of cabbage. Per one person's advice, I added some garlic to it. We'll see how it tastes before long. I had bought a big mess of kale, only to find out my husband doesn't care much for it cooked alone, only as a very limited ingredient in things, so I had to do something, and we don't either of us like smoothies, so...
Still cooking out of my freezer, so nothing new, but I did use up the remaining frozen okra, so yeah! I made chicken-okra gumbo, which the husband loves, and I froze two portions for those days when I'm rushed. Your recipe looks great, and I do have flank steak in the freezer!
So this week was all about rediscovering a meal that I had forgotten about. is a recipe that I *forgot* about from several years ago (how does that always happen?? I love something when I make it and then never make it again!!?!?)
This is a meatless meal that is absolutely amazing! I'm not vegan, so I sub in regular cheese and used sweet potatoes in lieu of butternut squash (because that is what I had on hand), and OH MY WORD it was delicious:) I would highly recommend trying it!
http://ohsheglows.com/2011/10/24/black-bean-and-butternut-squash-burritos/
I am vegan and this site is absolutely fabulous! Made her vegan banana bread this week. Moist and delicious!
Good for you for modifying the recipe for your own dietary needs!
I am so trying this! I found her on Pinterest, but haven't tried this yet! I will try sweet potatoes, too. Looks fabulous!!
I love that you are doing this! I do have a white chicken chili recipe that I love, but requires 3 whole heads of garlic. 🙂
A recipe that I made that my husband liked recently was a Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff from Skinnytastes's Fast & Slow cookbook.
Also, from that cookbook, we tried the Egg Roll Bowls, which were okay. But then I needed to use up all the leftover napa cabbage and bok choy, so I found this Asian Chicken Soup: https://onceamonthmeals.com/recipes/paleo-asian-chicken-soup/ Instead of chicken, I used up the rest of the ground pork from the Egg Roll Bowls. It is delicious and low-cal!
Have you tried the tortellini minestrone in the atk quick family cookbook? It is sort of tomato based? It is amazing. I use frozen tortellini ad add shredded chicken. I also Leave out the pesto and just serve it with Parmesan.
So good with a salad and garlic bread.
That stir-fry looks very tasty but, when I looked at beef flank for another recipe, it was rather expensive. I decided to do this chicken Adobo instead and it was a great success: http://www.fromthepennyjar.com/chicken-adobo/
I had hoped for some leftovers to freeze for later but the boys went through 2 kg of chicken thighs in one sitting!
I've been trying a lot of new recipes since the new year, and one of my favorites (and my boyfriend's) was the Portuguese kale, potato & sausage soup on page 40 of the ATK Quick Family Cookbook. It's brothy, so it might be a good one to try. My boyfriend was so enamored of it that he went flipping through the cookbook and wants to make me the Cajun corn chowder this weekend 😉
Oh, I forgot to say that I added a can of drained white beans to the recipe 🙂
I tried a one-dish pork chop and veggie meal given to me by a friend, which I didn't really care for, but I was able to retrieve the left over pork chops from the dish an repurpose them as leftovers so it wasn't a total loss.
I am trying out new grains this year. So many more available in the grocery stores than there used to be!
Week 1: Slow cooker apple pie steel cut oats from thehealthymaven.com --really yummy and great for last week's snowstorm!
http://www.thehealthymaven.com/2014/09/slow-cooker-apple-pie-steel-cut-oatmeal.html
Week 2: Curried Carrot and Sorghum Salad-recipe on the back of the Bob's Red Mill Sorghum package. Sweet and spicy! And, the perfect topper for a load of lettuce leaves :)!!
Thanks for the inspiration, Kristen!!
That stir-fry looks delicious! I made lentil soup this week; it turned out to be really tasty and a bit different than the norm.
I made some whole-wheat cornbread-blueberry muffins this week that turned out really well! I have been discouraged about trying new main dish recipes, because it is so hard to please a majority of my family at any one meal (without making what feels like several dinners). However, we are all tired of our small regular rotations, so it's time to step up my game and get out the cookbooks! Or get some new ones at the library.
Main dish recipes that are healthy and inexpensive and that everyone likes are hard to find!
I made "clean out the fridge stir fry" - ground turkey, broccoli, red peppers & onions in a sweet teriyaki sauce. Not too shabby for complete wingin' it!
No new recipe for me this week - I was travelling for work most of this week, and other obligations have meant a lot of not eating at home. But I want to thank you Kristen, for providing this awesome forum for sharing recipes and ideas and encouragement.
Egg fried rice. So this is not new for normal people, but why pay a guy to make it for me (even if it's super good) when I could do it myself? Got a five-of-seven acceptance rate. The one who won't eat scrambled eggs evidently smelled it cooking, and she told me even before we sat down she wouldn't eat it. And the man of the house who says rice and eggs aren't filling enough enjoyed it but supplemented with a ham sandwich. Which, fine. Excellent solution. He wasn't expected to be here anyway. 😉
Is it possible to share this recipe? Thanks
So far this month I have tried several new recipes, all from my new ATK cookbook that I got for Christmas (the complete TV show cookbook, a mammoth beast of a book). Filipino Adobo chicken (everybody liked), vegetarian curry (everybody cleaned their plates, even though they didn't rave about it), an Italian soup (a big hit), a lentil soup (very good), and brownies (just took out of the oven). Not sure what I'll make next. . . .
Have you ever tried riced cauliflower instead of rice? It is my new favorite thing!
Sat. morning I messaged my daughter to see what she would like for dinner as her husband was working an extremely long day and would not be home. Granddaughter chose chicken pie. We usually buy frozen chicken pies, a specific brand, because we like the gravy, but the frozen pies are getting more expensive with less chicken (and this one has no vegetables so it means making sides). Yesterday I picked from two recipes and my own creativity and made a "great", if I say so myself (the granddaughter did) chicken pot pie. (http://www.friendsfoodfamily.com/friends-food-family/2011/02/thomas-kellers-chicken-pot-pie.html and http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-pot-pie-recipe.html) Here is my recipe: Chicken pot pie
For 2 children and 3 adults, I used
1 large chicken breast. I pan fried, but could oven roast or boil.
1+ cup pared and cut up potatoes.
1+ cup pared and diagonally sliced carrots (Could use frozen carrot and pea mixture)
3/4 cup sliced leeks. (Could use onions.)
about 1/2 cup frozen peas.
2 boullion cubes
4 tbl unsalted butter
2-3 tbl flour
2 cups liquid (vegetable water and stock made in pan that I pan fried the chicken breast).
1/8 cup (or less) heavy cream
salt
peppercorn
thyme
bay leaf
I used Everglade seasoning
I seasoned the chick breast with Everglade seasoning and pan fried it. While doing that I simmered the vegetables. Now you could do that in individual pans adding thyme (fresh 1 stick or a few shakes), a bay leaf, a few shakes of salt, and some peppercorns. I chose to do each vegetable in the same pot while I was cooking the chicken. I reused the water and saved it at the end of the vegetable cooking.
When the chicken was done, I added about 2 cups of water to the fry pan with 2 bouillon cubes and scraped the bottom of the pan.
I then melted the unsalted butter in a saucepan, added the flour and stirred while it blended for about 2 minutes, then added 2 cups of hot stock (from the chicken frypan and the vegetable saucepan) and let that thicken slightly, then added the heavy cream and blended.
I had sliced up the chicken and added with the vegetables to the pie plate, poured the gravy over the chicken/vegetable filling and topped with a pie crust (homemade or premade). I then brushed with an egg wash. Cooked at 375 deg. for 45 min. Everyone liked it.