February Eats

Let me share with you our meal plan of February. First off, I'm using the term "plan" very loosely. There is no real plan behind it...when it's grocery shopping day, I take a gander on my Pinterest Board A Girl's Gotta Eat (which has healthy, sweets, side dish, breakfast, drink and crock pot versions....trust me, the only part of my life that is somewhat organized is my Pinterest Life), pick out some recipes and then shop for said recipes.

I have noticed that ever since I've included Pinterest into my shopping list, I never repeat meals. Ever. Maybe once or twice a year, but that's crazy. I see captions on food pins that say "We make this once a week" and I don't know why it never dawned on me to try a recipe again. I feel like that is the problem with pinterest, there are always new and trendy things to try, and too many to choose from!

So, awhile ago I created 2 boards: Tried and Loved and Tried and Disliked. I think we should all be doing this...I think it's very easy for us all to repin the same dish over and over and none of us are telling each other whether or not we like them!

So my goal for the month was to try some new and used recipes (that were not of the Mexican persuasion).

New Meals added to "Tried and LIKED":

Let me start with our favorite!

This was the first time I've ever cooked with tortellini. This One Pot Tortellini & Sausage Meal was the bomb dot com!! Not only does it have the one pot thing going for it, it was so flavorful! Next time I'm going to try adding in some bell peppers. The ONLY thing that I did differently was in their instructions for the meal they ask you to buy whole, canned tomatoes and use your kitchen scissors to cut them up. Apparently they have never heard of diced tomatoes ;) Diced, BTW, works perfectly!

These Philly Cheesesteaks were awesome. They could kind of be considered a one pot meal + an extra step. I think we all need more cheesesteak action in our lives.

We made these guys one night when Jake made steaks. They were awesome!! Can you really go wrong with bread, cheese and garlic though? My only advise for these guys is to not use too much EVOO...ours turned out a little oily on the bottom.

I'm starting to realize a "one pot" trend going on here. I dare you to complain about it! :) This was just a basic little Roasted Shrimp & Broccoli dish. Not going to lie....it left us pretty hungry. It was good, just not the most filling. Next time we will pair it with a steak.

This Pan Roasted Chicken dish is yet another one potter...but why is there always so many dishes? I'm not going to pin the guy to either boards...if I had to, I would create a Tried and Meh board... It was just ok. Lemon isn't necessarily our favorite flavor to cook with. So I don't want to say it was bad, just not to our personal taste.


New Meal added to "Tried and DISLIKED":

I wanted to like this Cajun Chicken Pasta, I did. The seasonings were just way too much. Jake really likes cajun food too, and he ate his, but you know he didn't like it very much when the leftovers sat in our fridge for 2 weeks!



Ok, now for my "Used" Recipes, all found on Tried & Loved:

 I made this Crack Bread for the Super Bowl. We used shredded cheese this time and I'll say it's just easier to use sliced cheese. But man....this bread!! I'm drooling thinking about it!

The only thing goofy about Cornbread Hamburger Pie is the name. So good!

I've made these Strawberry Cake Cookies twice recently! The first batch I made the icing they suggest, the second I just bought Pillsbury cream cheese icing. Both good, one was a lot less work. Since being married, I have owned a cookie cooling rack. Those are game changers, people. Own one. I use it for the obvious (which cools cookies super fast!), and for our next ribs recipe... After I made these the first time, Jake requested them again a few weeks later. So in exchange for strawberry cookies, he gave me a foot rub! Totally worth it!

Our last used recipe were these Crock Pot Ribs. Need I say more? In the last step of this recipe you have to broil the ribs, so I placed the ribs on our cookie cooling rack, over a cookie sheet. Perfect.

Sorry for the recipe overload! I hope you can pick and choose through some of our favorites, or head over and pin away from my Tried & Loved board.

Happy Hump Day!