Recipe Round-Up

I haven't posted any recipes for a while, but I have made several new things in the past few months. I put a new tab at the top of this page to keep all the recipes in one place, and for most, there is a link to the recipe if you want to try it. I will try to note as well which ones are decent or not! Here are a few quick notes on a dozen recipes I have tried recently:

1) Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars- I didn't have high expectations since I am the type of person who feels like a dessert is a waste if it doesn't have chocolate in it. But, these are really good. Totally worth the effort. A lot better cold than warm, though.

2) Panko-Crusted Fish Sticks with Herb Dipping Sauce- Actually, Ben made these. Good but nothing outstanding. Loved the dipping sauce, though.

3) Buckeye Bars- Very good! These are easy to make because you start with a brownie mix. Once again, much better room temperature or cold than warm.

4) Key Lime Coconut Snowballs- I attempted to make these as part of my Christmas baking. FAIL! They tasted good but had the consistency of raw cookie dough. Would not make again.

5) Reese's Stuffed Oreos- Yes, they are as good as they sound. I made them for Bennett's birthday and could.not.stop. eating them. Mine did not turn out as nice-looking as the picture on this blog, but let's be honest, who cares. I am drooling right now just thinking about them.

6) Apple Oatmeal Cookies- These were decent. Again, no chocolate. I left out the raisins.

7) Avocado Chicken Salad- I'm disappointed in you, Paula Deen. This recipe seemed so promising, but was just kind of blah. It didn't help that I couldn't find any good avocados at the time I made it. I would take plain ol' chicken salad any day over this.

8) Overnight Caramel French Toast- I made this for Courtney the weekend she came to visit. Total fail! It tasted fine but was so, so soggy. Maybe it would be better if you used a really thick bread. Would not make again.

9) Caramel Cereal Treats- Yes, I'm realizing there's a theme here, and it's that most of the new recipes I've tried have been unhealthy desserts. I'm breastfeeding, and I'm hungry all the time. Sue me. Courtney & I made these together and they turned out good. Again, not my favorite thing because of the overall lack of chocolate, but Ben took them to work and got good reviews. The recipe calls for Sugar Smacks cereal, which I could not find. Do they even make that anymore? I also had trouble getting the chocolate chips melted to the right consistency in the microwave. We kept adding something to them to make them more pourable, but I can't remember what. Butter or sweetened condensed milk, I think. Either way, super healthy.

10) Quinoa Salad- This was my first experience at cooking quinoa, and it went well. I really enjoyed this salad, because I love all the flavors that are in it- cilantro, lime, cumin, etc. And I love black beans. It was great with tortilla chips, therefore making it a lot less healthy. What can I say- it's my special gift.

11) Fluffy French Toast- Really good mix. We use this every time we make French toast now.

12) Pretzel Hugs- I wanted to make these because they were so simple and it was a project that Bennett could help with. If unwrapping about five Hershey's hugs in under three minutes and shoving them in your mouth is helpful, then she was a huge help. Unwrapping all the Hugs can be a pain, but it is worth the effort. These treats are the perfect combination of salty and sweet. I sped up the hardening process by popping them in the fridge- they are just too good to wait for!