Recipes I've tried lately

It seems like I've been getting lucky lately and have had a lot success with the last few recipes I've tried. My two favorite sites to get recipes are myrecipes.com and allrecipes.com I love them both because readers can rate and review the recipes.
I like myrecipes when I need inspiration and/or ideas about meal planning. Allrecipes is great when I already know what I want to cook but need to find a good recipe for it.

I didn't take any pictures, so all the photos are snatched from the websites.


One of my favorite main dishes is Tortilla Soup, a San Antonio classic. This recipe comes from my favorite magazine, Southern Living. I love that this meal can be made in the slow cooker (8 HRS ON LOW). Per Jon's request, we substitued a can of drained black beans for the corn and served it with corn muffins instead of tortilla chips. To get flavorful chicken, put the whole chicken breasts in the slow cooker. When the soup is finished, take out the whole breasts and shred with a fork. You can even put in an few extra breasts to use in meals later that week.



What busy student and wife isn't on the lookout for another good casserole recipe? Green Chile-Chicken Casserole was quick to prepare and made great leftovers for lunch. I had already cooked 2 extra chicken breasts in the tortilla soup 2 days before, then shredded and reserved, so this made prep extra easy. I halved the recipe to make 6 servings, then added in 1 can Rotel tomatoes and chopped cilantro for extra vegetables. I love one-dish dinners like this one!


I made croutons for a potluck we went to on Friday and boy, they were good! Everyone was very impressed, but they were so easy to make. I used olive oil instead of butter and added some Italian seasoning. Warning: these are an addictive snack!




Jon and I love making pizza, but usually we just buy a refrigerated crust. The last few non-bread machine pizza dough recipes we tried we a bust. But yesterday, we found the pizza dough recipe. It came out light and chewy with a great flavor. The only changes I made were to add slightly more flour (the dough looked sticky) and pre-bake the crust at 450F for 5 degrees to prevent sogginess.

The dough paired very well with our favorite homemade pizza, Carmelized Onion and Goat Cheese. Hopefully we'll be able to top it with homegrown basil soon.




I already had a banana bread recipe, but I tried Cooking Light's Classic Banana Bread and it is now my new favorite. I followed the recipe to a T, and next time I won't change a thing. I wouldn't call it health food exactly, but it does call for less sugar and fat than most banana bread recipes.

Happy cooking!