This week I used a couple of the same cookbooks with different sections. It was fun to pull them out for multiple recipes. I’m realizing how often I pull out the same few. I have some that it may be challenging to use. I’m a little ashamed to say, I bought a few just for the name without really looking at what they actually included. I have a Scandinavian cookbook that is mostly fancy fish recipes, for example, and neither the Husband or I eat fish. So we’ll see how it goes with those cookbooks.

It’s surprisingly hard to think about different uses for ground beef too. A lot of the recipes call for something else, or are too similar and might feel like we’re just eating endless spaghetti variations. Sometimes I can be snotty about how many cans of cream of something soup I choose to eat (the answer is generally none,) which doesn’t help with the ground beef question.

I also need to get a whole lot better at planning meals. We used to be very good, but with this project, it doesn’t seem to be as streamlined. I’m finding myself easily overwhelmed when trying to pick out recipes. The Husband says he doesn’t think I can make anything that is bad, because almost all of the recipes have been working. Even the ones that weren’t something we would make again were fairly decent flavor-wise.

Here are the recipes for this week:

1- Lemon Blueberry Streusel muffins from Pillsbury Best Muffins and Quick Breads. Section: Sweet Muffins

Modifications: Lemon Yogurt instead of vanilla and blueberries instead of raspberries. The recipe is actually called “Lemon Raspberry” muffins in the book, but I had no raspberries and no desire to go into the brief snowstorm to get them. These were good muffins, a little denser than most. I had to add some milk to the batter as it seemed way too thick and I didn’t trust it. The lemon didn’t come through as much, but the streusel topping is divine.

2- Mexican Cornbread from the same cookbook as above. Section: Quick Breads.

Modifictions: Substituted finely diced seeded jalapeños for the canned green chilis. Again, it was what I had and I am trying to stick to using as much as I can to what is actually in the house. Also, made sour milk instead of buttermilk. I had used all the buttermilk in the next recipe!  It turned out good. Very dense though and moist. The Husband didn’t like it as much, so we’ll probably find a friend to share it with. It had canned creamed corn, so I was able to use up the leftovers from the corndogs.

3- Tangerine Beef with Snow Peas from Everyday Asian by Farina Wong Kingsley. Section: 20 Minutes from Start to Finish.

Modifications: I reduced the ginger drastically. The Husband is not a fan of ginger. It was delicious, despite spilling more sherry by accident. We had it over rice. I would make this again. It took a little longer than 20 minutes, but not much longer.

4- Buttermilk Brined Fried Chicken from Better Homes nd Gardens New Cookbook. Section: Poultry

Modifications: I used chicken tenderloins instead of bone in pieces. I really don’t like frying things with bones and had forgotten to pull chicken out to defrost. I also misread the recipe, missed how much salt to actually add to the brine, and missed that there was supposed to be sugar in it. Other than that, no intentional mods. I did add a bunch of salt to the chicken as it was waiting to be breaded and salted it when it came out of the oil. It was good. I would probably make this again. The Husband has been requesting fried chicken for a while, so it worked well.

5- Herbed Creamy Pasta from the same cookbook as above. Section: Pasta

Modifications: I used Boursin cheese for the cottage cheese. Cottage cheese and I don’t get along. I used a little too much of the Boursin, I think, and the shaved parm didn’t want to melt. It was nice and melty until I added the cheese tortellini and then it got a bit gloppy. It tasted good, but it looked a little funny. I didn’t take pictures… I don’t think I would make this as a main dish again, or if I did, I might do something different with the cheese.

6- Turkey Thai Pad from September 2016 issue of Food Network. Kid’s Cookbook. 

Modifications: Used ground turkey instead cooked, cubed turkey and left out the bean sprouts and peanuts. It was good and came together quickly. I’m going to add it to the quick dinner file. We used Chinese egg noodle cakes for it instead of linguine.

It was a pretty successful recipe week. Next week I am going to try to pick books I haven’t used yet. Wish me luck!