As I continue trying out new recipes on the regular, some certainly stand out above others. I love trying new stuff to keep it different. Chris doesn’t always love it as much as I do, but that’s what he gets when I am the one doing most of the cooking! 😉 So in my most recent recipe trials, here are a few that were awesome, and a few not so much.
FAVORITES:
One Pan Pesto Chicken and Veggies: I thought this was FREAKING AMAZING!! It has the right amount of saltiness and flavor and was just a nice way to spruce up chicken and veggies. I have only used pesto a few times in my life, and never used sun dried tomatoes, so I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. Well, I got myself into a plate of awesomeness. Highly recommend! Side note: I got organic pesto, I SUPER drained the sun dried tomatoes, and I swapped out the asparagus and tomatoes for green beans and a few red potatoes. YUM!
Honey Mustard Chicken, Bacon, and Avocado Salad: Chris is not the world’s biggest honey mustard fan, so I don’t really cook with HM very often, but this just looked FAR too tempting to not try. You make your own dressing, so you can tweak it how you want. I used only Dijon mustard (skipped the whole grain mustard), used a little less honey, and added 2 packets of stevia for a little extra sweetness. I followed the rest of the recipe as it called, and I topped my salad with a few chow mien dry noodles for some crunchiness. Another AWESOME recipe. Chris didn’t want the HM dressing on his salad, so he used a raspberry vinaigrette, and that was delicious too, but I quite enjoyed the HM as a dressing. Will definitely be doing this again soon.
Guacamole Turkey Burgers: I am fairly certain I could eat these every day of my life and be ok with that. HOLY GUACAMOLE! LITERALLY!!! The idea of making a turkey burger with all those seasonings is ok, but then remove the bun and I was like ehhhhhh…. BUT then topped with guac, and it just turned into this flavorful, low carb deliciousness. I make my guac with a few more flavors though. I mash up avocado with diced jalepeno, diced onion, a squirt of lime juice, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and if I am feeling frisky I will add a little tequila for flavor. I think I have made these like once a week since discovering this recipe. Perfect-o!
Butternut Squash and Spinach Tortellini: I have been trying to incorporate the “meatless monday” idea into our diets. I enjoy animal protein, but just one day a week (or even just one or two meals per week) without animal protein goes soooo far to lessening the impacts of the mean industry on this world. I found this and it looked good so I went for it. I had a really hard time finding a butternut squash puree, so I ended up making my own which was easier than I imagined. How to make your own puree is included in this article s well. This ended up being nice and creamy and tasty, and was just a nice recipe without meat, and any excuse to have cheese tortellini is a win in my book. I will do this again, but probably not in the extremely near future.
FLOP:
Old Bay Baked Tilapia: I was looking for a quick and easy way to cook fish at home that didn’t involve buying fresh fish, because the store I shop at doesn’t have the best fresh fish selection, so I found some great looking frozen tilapia filets and wasn’t really sure what to do with them. I found this recipe which looked straightforward and I love Old Bay so I figured this would work. Not sure if it was the frozen fish or just the fact that this is super bland, but it was not a win in our house. Chris hated it, I tolerated it, and now I have a bag of frozen fish chilling in my freezer and not really sure what to do with them. LOL! If you have a favorite way you cook using frozen fish filets, please let me know your secret!!!
That’s all for my faves and flops this week, but on an awesome side note: I just joined the Tone It Up Team and bought the 2017 Bikini Series Bundle with the nutrition plan, so I am STOKED to try out some new TIU recipes here in the new future. The bikini series starts in less than 2 weeks, and even though I am already following a workout routine, I am excited to incorporate some of the workouts into my life, and even more excited to try out new recipes. Are you a tone it up girl? What’s your favorite TIU recipe?
Hope yall enjoyed, and thanks for reading!
xoxo Katy