Thursday, October 31, 2013

Today is the greatest day I've never known...

(See what I did there?  It's Halloween AND I'm reviewing a recipe for Pumpkin & Butternut Squash soup, so I made the title a Smashing Pumpkins song.  Get it?!  And, scene.  Moving on.)

A couple of times a month, I will be sharing new recipes I have tried as part of our meal plan.  Yet again, we have had another month full of successful new recipes (several we will be repeating on future meal plans).  I'll be posting our November meal plan on Monday, so check back to find out what other new yummy things we'll be trying next month as well as what old favorites we are bringing back for a second round.  (Spoiler alert: Spicy Sausage Pasta.) Remember, I also repin the pins for all of the recipes I try through Pinterest on my board "I Made This" so make sure you are following!

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A picture of my mise en place for the soup.
Because I forgot to take a picture of the final product.  Whoops.

Pumpkin & Butternut Squash Soup - My first piece of advice for anyone hoping to make this recipe is for you to  make sure you have a big stock pot.  I have one, but I didn't think I would need it. I was wrong.  The second piece of advice is to invite guests.  In other words?  This makes a whole lot of food.  However - it's also DELICIOUS.  It's just the right amount of savory and rich and it literally tastes like fall in a bowl.  A chef friend of mine told me that the proper consistency is less like baby food, more like heavy cream.  I don't own an immersion blender, so I had to rely on the power of my food processor.  The result was definitely more like baby food than cream, but we were kind of okay with that.  Definitely worth a repeat sometime this fall...

Parmesan Panko Italian Chicken - Sorry there's no link there, but this was actually a recipe on the back of a box of Progresso Italian Style Panko.  And...WOW.  So easy.  So cheap.  And SO delicious.  I served it with a salad and some roasted carrots on the side.  We marveled at how delicious this was.  I feel this panko could also easily be substituted for Italian bread crumbs in my Chicken Parimigiana recipe.  Pick up a box of this stuff immediately.  You will NOT be disappointed to have this recipe in your arsenal of easy weeknight meals.

Moist Lemon Chicken with Herbs - GAH.  I forgot about Book Club.  (We're discussing Divergent so I'm not even sorry.)  But, it looks like this month we're going to have to push this one off.


Spicy Thai Noodles - My sister-in-law suggested this recipe to us and it looked amazing.  I was a little intimidated by the spice, but knew my husband would probably love it.  It turned out great (and I was right, my husband LOVED it.)  As suggested by the blogger sharing the recipe, I cut the red pepper flakes down to a little less than 1 tbsp.  This gave it just the right amount of kick.  The only thing I did different (read: wrong) was that these noodles were actually meant to be served cold (YUM), but I served them warm.  If you've never had spicy cold noodles before, you are missing out.  Definitely try it that way.  We will for sure make this again and serve them cold.


Mongolian Beef - We served this alongside the Spicy Thai Noodles.  I absolutely loved the flavor in this recipe.  I'm actually not a big ginger fan myself, so I wonder what it would be like if I used less (or left it out all together), but my husband loves it and loved it in this recipe.  Making both this and the noodles was a little labor intensive, but it was definitely a change from our usual repertoire and totally tasty.  Maybe next time I'll just do each recipe on separate nights.

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So, there you have it! Anyone try anything delicious this month that I should definitely have on my menu for November?  Let me know!  It's not too late!  Happy Halloween, everyone :)

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