2 posts tagged “allrecipes”

Note: This is the second in a series of posts looking back at 2007, in some key areas of my life that were important to me. 

I cooked this year.

Even though I've been cooking for years, I had a very limited array of things that we ate.  A lot of boxed meals and frozen pizzas were the base foods of our diets, with a few other more special or homemade plans around them.  This year, I learned how to cook more things than the previous 5 years combined.  This came from reading cooking sites online and cooking magazines and books for inspiration. 

We got several kitchen tools that make it easier to cook - the George Foreman Grill - with different plates for waffles even - (post) and a blender that actually blends, as well as E's immersion blender he got for a gift.  New frying pans - they are purple - are a joy, too.

I have never been a big fan of vegetables, but some of the meal ideas really made for a yummy way to eat them that I wouldn't have thought to try.  I've worked with a variety of squashes, zucchini, onions, lots of broccoli, corn on the cob, parsnips, carrots, green beans, plenty of potatoes, various things with peppers, and more.  As part of an effort to appreciate the things available in the area, we went to the Farmer's Market to purchase fruits and veges locally grown.  We started spending more of our grocery shopping time in the produce section than ever before.    

Cooking meat has always been hard for me because I don't like handling it.  Since E is a vegetarian, this wasn't a big boundry for me, I just got prepackaged things or didn't eat meat in the home.  But when I think of the foods I enjoy eating out, I really wanted to try more to make some of them in the home instead, and started to learn to cook meat.  I still don't enjoy handling the meat, but I've gotten better at it.

This all meant we ate out less.  And we had specific meal plans, knowing what was going to be for which day, and planning for the freshs veges to be eaten first in the week, and so on.  Grocery night turns more into a fun trip when I have a list and a plan in hand, because it's less stressful, and that makes me happier.

And I've started updating theredkitchen with the creations I've come up with.  That site has been neglected for too long, and I'm happy to see posts with this 2007 on them for a change.  I also made use of AllRecipes (profile) and their Recipe Box quite often to save lists of the things I've made or plan to make.  The Reiman magazines I receive - as well as the previous stockpile - were a big help (Simple and Delicious, Cooking for 2)

I've used several of my cookbooks this year, but Betty Crocker is still the most helpful.  Besides that, I've been making use of my Cake Mix Doctor book to think of new and creative desserts.

I haven't kept up with writing up all the meals I made on Vox like I had hoped, but I do have a pile of my weekly plans here in my office, and I'm going to use it to make a comprehensive list of meal ideas to help me in my planning this coming year.

My favorite new thing that I learned to make this year is actually making good homemade yeasty Dinner Rolls (on theredkitchen).  It takes a couple of risings, but it really takes a main dish and turns it into a meal.  Add that to some Mac and Cheese, fix up some carrots, and some sparkling cider, and I am a happy girl while cooking AND while eating (photo above from August).

Bonus, a Vox Tip: If you have a favorite recipe, add it as a link using Vox This! and put a tag for "recipe" on it.  Then you can browse other people's links tagged "recipe" in Explore.  Easy as PIE! ;)

I've got a pile of recent meal lists and shopping lists that I haven't written about, but the pile was so large that it was overwhelming me, so I'm just writing up the last two weeks :)

• Corn on the cob and veggie hot dogs/turkey sausage - roasted garlic butter for the corn
• Shells and Cheese (like theredkitchen: Macaroni and Cheese), dinner rolls (2nd try of allrecipes: Unbelievable Rolls, with cheese and leftover garlic butter), and butternut squash (from Farmer's Market)
• Crepes with cream filling (allrecipes: Creamy Strawberry Crepes), but with apples (allrecipes: Apple Cinnamon Syrup), with Hashbrowns on the George Foreman grill with some swiss melted on top.
• Uncle Randy Nachos (family favorite with a mix of hamburger and refried beans on top of corn chips with cheese and green onions (olives for E)
• Bow-tie pasta with Alfredo sauce, served with grilled chicken/grilled vegemeat and steamed broccoli - the alfredo sauce recipe was one Sarah had suggested (allrecipes: Chicken Fettuchini Alfredo), but modified a bit with the chicken done separately, so I started out with more garlic and no onion/mushrooms, and colby rather than colby jack.  DELICIOUS.
  
• Baked Potatoes with broccoli and carrot alfredo for E/cheese on mine, with an acorn squash
• Fajitas with grilled red peppers and onions, rice, beans for E and Chicken for me
• Baked Potato Soup (theredkitchen) with breadmaker bread

Definitely click through to some of the recipes if you are looking for inspiration.

We planned our meals last week around potatoes being on sale and the alfredo recipe  we knew would be more than we could eat one night (I ate it for lunches a few days too).

This coming week, I have another dentist appointment with multiple fillings, so I'm trying to paln some meals that are going to be soft for the few days after that :)