New To Me Cooking Challenge for May (wks 17-21)

Week 17- Balsamic Roast Beef (no recipe)

I found this recipe over at Add A Pinch… go there to see it! And while you’re there check out some of her other awesome recipes! I literally didn’t change a thing. Except, I used a smaller roast (there are only 2 of us after all). I used a rump round…

This is my new favorite roast! Next time I think I’m going to cook some potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker with the beef, so I can save a step and not have to make them separately.

I’m def adding this to my recipe rotation, it got thumbs up from both Hubs and I!

 

Week 18- Oven Baked Chicken Wings… and a Jack Daniels Soy Sauce Marinade… and a Maple Jack Daniels Garlic Pepper wing sauce.

 I started the challenge for this week with the intention of making sweet & sour chicken (the Chinese takeout kind), and eventually it morphed into chicken wings. I’ve never baked wings in the oven, in fact I’ve never made wings. Ever. It’s another one of my weird food things… I don’t really like to eat “bone in” foods. Is that strange? Guess what else I don’t do… “butcher” things. Cutting/ trimming raw meat grosses me out. i didn’t really think about that when I decided to make chicken wings this week. I had to take this tips off AND trim the extra skin. I couldn’t make myself separate the drums & flats, it was too icky.

Next up… I couldn’t decide if I wanted to marinate, or just toss the wings in sauce, so I did both! I marinated some, and left some naked. Then I tossed a few of the marinated ones and the plain ones in sauce. I would def recommend marinating them. The plain ones came out… very plain. Even with the sauce on them. Haha, that was so confusing… just marinate them. 😉

I based the marinade off of one my Nana used to make. And then totally messed with it. I’m pretty sure it would taste good on anything!

The wing sauce was adapted from the Tabasco website. They seriously have TONS of recipes on there! I adapted it just a smidge. It was thinner than I thought it would be… I think next time I’ll marinate the chicken in it AND toss them in it too!

Overall, I’m pretty proud of myself… I really liked both the marinade and the sauce. I’m already thinking about how to combined them!

 

Week 19- Homemade BBQ “Baked” Beans

 We starting house shopping last month and it’s been kind of stressful. So I really wanted to make something easy this week. I chose baked beans… and went to my handy Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. Then I changed everything in the recipe besides the cooking time and the kidney beans. They came out pretty good! I think next time I’ll try them with 2 kinds of beans instead of one, and I’ll probably use a low-fat/ low cal BBQ sauce. I’m also not 100% positive that I used 2 teaspoons of mustard… I didn’t measure it out. It’s possible there was a bit more in there. This recipe is a quick and easy replacement for those canned baked beans from the grocery store; I usually have all those ingredients already in my pantry! I wish there was more to say… but there isn’t. Enjoy.

 

Week 20- Chinese (Take-out Style) Beef & Broccoli

 Tastes JUST like the Beef & Broccoli from our favorite Chinese food take out place! I adapted this recipe from an unsourced one floating around Facebook. You know the ones I’m talking about? The one of FB was a little different and it was meant for a slow cooker. I decided to make it in the skillet instead!

I’ve never used cornstarch to thicken a sauce before… I def needed to whisk it in, not stir… I ended up breaking up a bunch of clumps.

I don’t have much else to say… except that I’m sorry there aren’t pix. We ate it ALL before I remembered I needed to take them! Oops.

And one last thing… I did the calorie counts based on the fact that I use Low Fat/ Reduced Fat products as often as possible.

 

Week 21- Impossible Taco Cheeseburger Pie

 This is another meal that my mom used to make when I was a kid. I just jazzed it up a little bit with the Jalapeño cheese and the taco seasoning. I actually “made” the taco seasoning at home instead of using a packet. I was going to put some sliced tomatoes on top… but they were too soft. BOO! I also only used ¾ of the cheese, but I counted the calories for the whole block anyways! This is a super duper, wicked easy meal… I even thought about throwing some frozen corn in there too… but I’m not sure if that would be weird or not.

 

That’s all for the New To Me Cooking Challenge for May!

Happy Cooking!

-Hey Waitress!

 

I just realized that I didn’t take ANY pictures… Sorry! I’ll try and remember to take some the next time I make any of these recipes!