52 New Recipes | Smoked Turkey Club Panini
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Well, after a week off of new-recipe-trying (due to my trip to South Dakota), I'm back at it!
I'm a big fan of sandwiches, so this week, I decided to try a new sandwich recipe from my ATK Quick Family Cookbook.
(It's out of print now, but there are used copies available on Amazon.)
Usually I spread butter on my panini before I grill them, but this recipe calls for brushing them with the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes.
Which appeals to my waste-averse heart, of course.
Everyone but Joshua was here for this meal, and we all gave it a thumbs up, even with the arugula in the sandwiches (arugula isn't normally on Sonia and Zoe's list of favorite foods).
Joshua is almost as big a sandwich fan as I am, so I feel like he'd approve as well.
So, this one is going into the rotation. Woohoo!
By the way, I cook my panini stovetop on this Lodge cast iron grill pan, and I weigh them down with my cast-iron skillet from Aldi.
(More on those two pans + the 6 others that make up my minimalist cookware collection)
It's not that I have anything against panini presses; it's more that I have no room for one!
Next week's recipe
I think I'm going to try this kebab recipe, also from the ATK quick cookbook.
I have some boneless skinless chicken thighs in my freezer, so this will be a perfect way to use them.
How about you?
What new recipe did you try this week? And what do you think you'll make next week?
Hi Kisten,
Today I was searching for something and found your blog. I am so glad to be here. Your blog is amazing. Although I am not a big fan of cooking but your recipes make me want to cook.
Keep up the good work!
This past Friday we made PUPUSAS DE QUESO WITH CURTIDO AND SALSA ROJA . It is a lenten meal from the CRS lenten rice bowl given to my son at religious ed. The are cheese stuffed tortillas with a spicy cabbage slaw. The tortillas themselves were bland but eaten with the cabbage slaw a salsa the meal was well balanced.
I had no idea it was a Lenten meal. I'm part El Salvadorian and we eat purposes all the time. My favorite is bean and cheese.
The sammies look great! I made two new recipes this week. Last night it was a one pot enchilada pasta meal that was pretty tasty. I used the black beans I keep in the freezer (I make them in the crock then freeze in zip locs), some homemade enchilada sauce (also from freezer), some cut up cooked turkey (freezer), and some mix and match pasta from the pantry. So it was frugal as well! It made too much for a dinner for four, so we will be enjoying it for lunches, too. The other recipe was a cinnamon roll bake which was pricey and kinda blah. We had it for dinner with scrambled eggs. Won't be doing that one again...
Last week husband made saffron chicken. We didn't like it too much (it was just ok), but then the veggie side leftovers were horrible. So we probably won't be making that again. It's too bad, too, because he was really looking forward to making the recipe.
This week I made Budget Bytes' (Not) Refried Beans for beef and bean burritos. Very tasty and probably will make again. The recipe made a lot of beans, so I made burritos to freeze and then used beans to make nachos too.
I had bought canned salmon on sale, so I made a new recipe for salmon patties (croquettes, whatever you want to call them) that my husband loved, so yay for a win with the picky eater! I think one thing that helped is that it called for pickle relish and I used my sweet summer squash relish that he adores.
Dianne mentioned beans: I need to cook another pot of beans. I'm about out of cooked beans and I hate to buy canned beans when cooking them from dry is so, so cheap and easy.
It is a great feeling to please a picky eater. Woohoo!
I have embarked on a Whole30 to try to identify the source of inflammation that is triggering my auto-immune disease. This means no dairy, no grains, no legumes, no added sugar/honey/maple syrup/artificial sweeteners, no alcohol for 30 days. I thought the grains would be the biggest issue for me, but the no added sugar is harder because I'm basically eating meat and vegetables, the sauces I'd normally use to jazz up the meat are off limits. Needless to say, I'm trying lots of new recipes that look like they will satisfy my dietary restrictions while still passing muster with my 3 teens and husband.
This Coconut Lime Chicken was good: https://www.asaucykitchen.com/coconut-lime-chicken/ I substituted a diced poblano pepper for the red chili pepper. If I was able to eat rice, it would have been even better. I am experimenting with cauliflower rice, but it is a work in progress.
This Balsamic Chicken with roasted veggies was also good. I just omitted the sugar. http://www.skinnytaste.com/balsamic-chicken-with-roasted/
If anyone has good Whole30 recipes, please share!
Good luck with your Whole30! I believe it's an amazing program. Just google Paleo recipes and you should get plenty of ideas!
I've tried a few new things this week, mostly because I'm trying to use up things in our fridge:
1. Cauliflower fried rice-it was just alright (the cauliflower was a little raw still)
2. Stuffed bell peppers-these were excellent. I added kale to the meat mixture and DH didn't even blink when he ate them.
3. the Pioneer Woman's pot roast recipe (kindof). This was just okay, probably because I didn't have wine or beef broth. oops. We ate it though, and now we have a billion potatoes left over.
We didn't try any new dinner recipes this week, but I did try a new brownie cookie recipe that everyone gave a thumbs up to. I mean, how could you not? Next week, I'm hoping to throw in a new soup recipe, I just have to decide which I want to use!
ATK Quick Family Cookbook is out of print? Already? I wonder why they let that happen.
Last week I tried ..., well I started trying a cauliflower-crusted pizza. I stopped after making the crust. As pizza crust it was terrible - wrong texture, no structural integrity to hold the toppings, not crispy like crust is supposed to be.
HOWEVER. As a potato-type pancake, it was great. I added extra garlic and broiled it to brown up the cheese. Made a nice dinner for me. I shall have to make more and keep them on hand as a snack.
My take-away lesson: Treat cauliflower like cauliflower and it's good. Treat it like a starch and you're going to be disappointed.
I am a big fan of cauliflower pizza crust. But you are right, cauliflower is not a starch. When I make it, we have to eat the resulting pizza with a fork (I always use lots of sauce so it's pretty sloppy). And even my rather picky husband likes it. But if you are looking for crispy crusted pizza, this is not it.
For my birthday, I got my son a kid's cookbook called Kid Chef: The foodie kid's cookbook (the present to me is that DS starts cooking more). He's been going through that at the rate of approximately one recipe a week. This week he used up our growing stash of CSA potatoes to make a really classy mustard potato salad (with olive oil and dijon, no mayo). It was really nice, although only 3/4 human members of the household enjoyed it, not including DS. (His little sister who usually dislikes anything remotely spicy enjoyed it quite a bit.) I'm mentally putting it on my "for company" list of sides.
Despite a few of the reviews on amazon, I don't think the recipes are particularly out-there or not kid-friendly, especially if one has parents who are foodies. So far we've had granola, garlic bread, fried eggs, and sausage and apple skillet in addition to the potato salad. It does call for some "exotic" ingredients like shallots and flax seeds, but going forward we'll be explaining to him about substitutions (ex. onions) and leaving things out (I really don't think whole flax seeds add anything but the need to floss).
I love that your son is cooking! While in middle school, my son also cooked 1x week. Such a great life skill to have.
Deanna Cook was the children's cookbook editor for Family Fun for years. She is also the mother of two girls. My son loved cooking her recipes while growing up.
Here's a link to her website: http://www.deannafcook.com/
Ohhh my gawrsh, these look SO TASTY! We have a version of this sandwich on our menu too (it's a southwest chicken bacon club with homemade mayo and avocado. Yum!). Great job finding a new recipe to add into the rotation. 🙂
We're keeping it pretty simple with our menu this week, thankfully. I've been staying late at work, which means poor Mr. Picky Pincher has had to stumble through more than one dinner. 😉
I tried the chicken kofta with a feta yogurt sauce from the Not Without Salt blog. I have to say I am not a fan of this particular recipe. To me, the lemon zest in the recipe completely overwhelmed the other flavors (cumin, cinnamon, coriander). It was like eating lemon meatballs. However, I am not a huge fan lemon in savory dishes so I should have known better. I may try the recipe again someday, but back will significantly decrease (or eliminate) the lemon. The feta yogurt sauce was good though, and the leftovers will be a good dip for crackers and veggies.
I also made Ina Garten's chunky blue cheese dip which I used to dip oven fries in, and also used it on my asparagus. It is pretty tasty and I would make it again. But now I have more dips than I can handle in the fridge!
I haven't decided on a recipe for next week yet.
Looks and sounds so yummy! I have to try out the recipe one day. Thank you for sharing!
I used leftover chickpeas and peas to make falafels - they are so delicious! I had some cilantro begging to be used, so I added it to the recipe.
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-green-pea-and-chickpea-falafel-230089
My 5yo choice this week was Paleo chicken tenders (chicken coated with crushed almond+spices). It's a good alternative to regular chicken tenders.
My choice this week was a noodles/sausages/cheesy tomato sauce. It's ok.
I'm not a fan of sandwiches personally. I mean, it's fine, but it's more lunch material for me. I like something hot for dinner.
I agree Panini press is definitely a waste of space. I rarely use mine. But I recently got a Instant Pot (pressure cooker) and wow... it is amazing. It took me a little bit of time to get the hang of it. So I tried a lot of new dishes the past 2 weeks:
1)Instant Pot: basic black beans.. no presoaking required. Beans are ready in under one hour
2) Instant Pot: Pork Carnitas
3) Instant Pot: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Also made a few non instant pot dishes:
1) Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken (very Good and flavorful)
2) Pickled Chicken tenders (very interesting... not sure)
3) Italian house salad with homemade Dijon vinaigrette
4) homemade Salsa Verde (yummy)
Fast and furiously writing down recipe names from comments to look up. Also, Kristen why is a video ad link coming up on your blog for the Mormon church? Food ads and products you endorse I expect, not this one.
The display ads aren't things that I personally vett; there's a huge inventory that ad companies have, and what displays for one reader is going to be different than what displays for another reader. I can opt out of certain categories, but not particular ads.
And the ads are targeted toward whoever is reading...so for whatever reason, the algorithm thought that an ad for the Mormon church would be a good fit for you (the algorithms don't always get it right!).
So yeah...I do vett affiliate links and sponsored content, but display ads are random and not personally selected by me.