52 recipes: 1-7

Remember when I talked about wanting to try 52 new recipes this year?

Well, I kinda got off to a rough start. Hospitals and all….

I played a little bit of catch up and had some awesome successes and some utter failures.

I must remember to NEVER cook an entire meal that consist of new recipes.

Sooo ….

#1 – Baked potatoes in the crock pot.

Potato and Roast

I was already making a roast and wanted to mix things up a bit.

Instad of cutting the potatoes up and putting them on top of the roast, I wrapped them in foil and then put them in with the roast.Absolute heaven. It made the most perfect, moist, soft baked potato. If doing it alone there would be no MESS!! Double awesome.

The boys don’t like potatoes so they didn’t care. I’m pretty sure I saw the idea on about 10 DIFFERENT pins across pintererest.

#2 Lemon Italian buttery shrimp.

Lemon Buttery Italian Shrimp

I found this on pinterest. It linked to fishing forums and had the recipe in the pin notes.

I may try to use a little less butter next time. We served with simple broccoli and fruit.

The boys DID not like this.

#3 Chickpea CousCous

This actually came from a fellow blog friend. She made it when I had Nathan and I loved it SO MUCH, I requested the recipe. This will be a summertime staple. It was sooooo easy! Again. The boys didn’t like it. I don’t have a picture but I do have the recipe.

Couscous Chicken Salad

1 ½ c. fat free reduced sodium chicken broth
12 oz. chicken breasts
1 (10 oz.) package of couscous
1 c. chopped fresh basil (I usually use less)
¼ c. extravirgin olive oil (I usually use less)
3 T sherry vinegar
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 ½ c. halved cherry tomatoes
1 c. sliced green onions
1 (15 ½ oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• Bring broth to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add chicken, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until chicken is done.  Remove chicken using slotted spoon; set aside.  Cool slightly and coarsely chop.
• While chicken cools, add couscous to broth; stir well.  Cover and let stand 10 minutes.  Place couscous in a large bowl; cool completely.  Fluff with a fork.  Stir in basil and next 5 ingredients (basil through garlic).  Add chopped chicken, tomatoes, onions, and chickpeas; toss gently to combine.  Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

To made veggie couscous salad, I substituted veggie broth for chicken broth and of course no chicken!  

Now…onto my failures.

#4 was a Jello mousse  pudding thing. I’ll call this a so-so instead of a fail and I am including a box item in my 52 because I got a late start. Like it or not. My game, my rules, hehe.

It was “ok” and we all ate it. IT was chocolate after all!

I was reminded why I rarely make Jello Pudding. It just has “that” taste to it.

# 5,6&7 were absolute flops.

Charlie actually like the pork tenderloin but …. not me or the kids. They actually complained all day as it cooked.

The asparagus had SO much potential and all the reviews were RAVE! It made a huge mess and only sorta lived up.  . . just enough to sample it.

And lastly we have #7. The biscuits. OOOh, goodness me, I was SO excited about these. Just flour, salt and greek yogurt. They were GROSS.

Alrighty. I’ll hopefully be posting again soon.

I wonder if I will make it to 52?