Recipe Update

Remember this post? I thought I'd update you with our take on these recipes. I've hyperlinked (hover over the red food names) the good recipes from the web, added comments to them all, and let you know which ones were flops (without hyperlinks, because, well, why bother?).

Our menu idea is working swimmingly! Thanks again for the inspiration, Lena! We're SO doing it again. It's been fun, economical, and VERY delicious. And it's so nice to mix up our usual with some new stuff.

Chicken Satay with peanut sauce, coconut rice, and a green salad with mango, avocado, and fresh red grapefruit (that we brought from Florida) This was sooooooooooo good and such a big hit with everyone--it has definitely been added to our list of favorite recipes, no question. And our kids love coconut rice.

Garlic-Lemon Double Stuffed Chicken, oven-baked potatoes, and Caesar salad This was very good and on the rich and filling side.

Clam Chowder (the secret? Add a splash of red wine vinegar before serving--YUM!) with Mini ham and cheese rolls and salad We make whatever creamy clam chowder recipe we like (Mark's mom's recipe is a good one) and add a bit of red wine vinegar before serving--wow, what a difference a splash makes!

Twice-cooked Coconut Shrimp, sticky rice with mixed veggies This one didn't turn out so well. We might try a different recipe. Or not. This one was a mess.

Thai chicken salad with grilled Na'an bread This chicken wasn't very flavorful, but our recipe for grilled Na'an bread is one of THE most requested recipes from our friends. We discovered it when we made it with afghani chicken kebobs (also very good) for our book club when we read The Kite Runner and it has been a HUGE hit ever since! We make it for BBQs and dinners and oh man, they're good.

Awesome honey pecan pork chops with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans These were good but VERY sweet, almost candied . . . but very tasty (I'd tone down the sweet next time).

Mexican baked fish with beans and rice, salad, tortillas, and virgin lime margaritas Omigosh, SO good. Everyone loved it. YUM!

Our VERY loaded lasagna (our recipe) with salad and homemade garlic bread. We basically load up our lasagna with lots of meats (ground turkey, Italian sausage), cheeses (ricotta, mozzarella, etc.) and veggies (mushrooms, green peppers, olives, tomatoes, onions) and we mix some silken tofu (for health) and spinach in with the ricotta. It's a very FULL recipe and very delicious! And our homemade bread turned out PHENOMENAL. I'm seriously so proud of us for making bread that both looks and tastes so professional!

Grilled teriyaki salmon with brown rice and mixed vegetables (our recipe) This is a regular meal for us--it's pretty simple . . . grill salmon with teriyaki sauce on it, that's it! The kids LOVE it.

Rotisserie ribs with spruced up mashed potatoes and creamed spinach (using our half-a-farm-raised-hog for these pork recipes) We use the Boston Market recipe for the spinach (a favorite with our kids).

Breakfast pizza with fruit salad (We're not big on breakfast for dinner (brinner), but we'll try this) This was okay; don't know that we'd do it again.

Tex Mex corn chowder with salad Delicious!! SO delicious! And spicy. Very, very good. A very pleasant surprise. Everyone likes this recipe.

Seared tuna with wasabi butter sauce, roasted potatoes, and sesame green beans (Thing 2's favorite way to eat green beans) This recipe . . . where to start? I felt like we were eating food from a 5-star restaurant. It was DELICIOUS. It was restaurant-quality GOODNESS. Such goodness. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this one. WOW! Major wow factor on this one. Wow, wow, wow.

Creamy chicken enchiladas (our recipe) with corn and beans (we have garden corn in the freezer and we're making room for this year's crop) This is a favorite standard recipe of ours--also very simple and delicious--you pretty much mix your chicken with cream cheese and roll them in whatever sauce you please (we like green sauces).

Tacos with refried beans It's tacos. It's simple.

St. Patrick's Day Surprise (Mark's got something up his sleeve for this) -- we also eat out at a local Irish Chippy for their Irish breakfast that they serve on St. Paddy's Day Words can not begin to express the DIVINE taste of this meal. I think I Mmmmmed and Ohhhhhed throughout the entire meal. It was PHENOMENAL. And phenomenal doesn't begin to do it justice. Oh. My. Gosh. So good. So incredibly good.

Hot and Spicy Tofu with rice noodles and salad We LOVE this recipe--BIG hit at our house! Very different, mixes up the mundane nicely, tastes like something out of an Asian restaurant. In a very good way. Yum! And it makes the house smell SO good.

Carne de Porco Alantejano (Portuguese pork cubes with potatoes and little neck clams) with grapefruit-avocado-red onion salad (Mark is the MASTER at this recipe--it's a lot of work and no one can touch what he does with it. It's amazing! He really is the BEST Portuguese cook in the family when it comes to pork). This is Mark's favorite food. We're waiting to do this when Peter comes next week.

Chicken and shrimp kebobs with garlic angel hair, salad, and butternut squash This is the only other meal (along with the one right above this one) that we haven't made yet but it's pretty straight forward. I'm excited to try the garlic angel hair (I love angel hair).

Grilled tips/chicken with baked sweet potato and green beans We're trying to eat sweet potatoes more--I don't know why we haven't been. They're Awesome! Think Outback stuffed. Yum.

I think we might do this again where we post our recipes and links and what we think of them. Yes? What do you think?