Goal #4: Make a new recipe 1 time a week for 8 weeks.

Here we are with another food goal accomplished. Below is a list of the 8 recipes that I have tried out over the last 8 weeks. My reasoning for this goal was that I wanted to simply try something new. Profound, huh?! It's easy to make what I already know how to make and I tend to be a from the box kind of gal, so this broadened my horizons and made me make, and try, new things! At the very end of the post you can find all of the recipes, or you can click on the links from each week.

Week 1: I kicked off this goal the week that I made my ten freezer meals, so there's no need to pick just one recipe, since I made 6 new ones that day! I tried the following new recipes: Chicken Roll-ups, "Chicken" Parmesan Meatloaf, BBQ Chicken Pasta, Chicken Spaghetti, Meatballs, and Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas! [You can go to the ten freezer meals post if you are interested in any of those recipes.]

Week 2: Buffalo Chicken Dip I overpurchased when it came to the amount of chicken that I thought it would take to make all the recipes for my freezer meals. As a result, I used some of that chicken to make Buffalo Chicken Dip. This ended up being a freezer item as well because the evening that I decided to make it, Chris was going out to eat with a friend and I was attending a girls' night. I did try a bite of it though and it tasted like I've had at a friend's before, so I'd say success. I am not a fan of Frank's Red Hot mainly because of the taste, not really the spice, but if you like Frank's, this is a good/easy recipe to make!

Week 3: Chicken Salad After attending a baby shower and enjoying some delicious chicken salad, I quickly requested the recipe. Using the last chicken breast I had, I made this refreshing summer sandwich! I'll post the recipe at the very end of this post, but I'll also tell you want I did differently. :) First off, it was for Chris and I for lunch, so I didn't quite  need 15-20 servings so I approximated all the ingredients by 1/3. I had one chicken breast and a few free tuna pouches [thank you couponing] so after shredding up the chicken, I added 3 of the pouches. Chicken of the Land? Chicken of the Sea? What's the diff?! I also didn't use any celery. Overall it didn't turn out quite as well as Kathy's but food cooked by other's is always better! ;)

Chicken Salad on Hawaiian Rolls
And some fresh fruit for the summer day!

Week 4: Frozen Yogurt Bars I thought that this would be a healthier alternative to ice cream, but after pouring in the can of sweetened condensed milk, I'm not so sure. I made some adaptations to this recipe as well. Unbeknownst to me, Chris had finished off the blueberry yogurt the morning I was going to make these, so I actually just used vanilla yogurt for both layers. [I dyed the one layer blue just for fun.] Also instead of using Trix cereal, I used fresh blueberries. [That's the healthier alternative right?!] End result: Chris liked them, I did not. He can eat the rest, I'll stick to my ice cream! :)

Week 5: For this week's recipe, I gained inspiration from a friend's blog. You see, she had this post and they looked scrumptious! After inviting my parents over after their Wednesday night church service to help eat the rest of the peach pie I made, and then discovering that the peach pie was beginning to go bad, I had to come up with an alternative dessert! So I resorted to Sara's ice cream sandwich suggestion. I mean I had all but the ice cream in a prism so it was like it was meant to be! Anyways, it's a good thing that I didn't say that I would successfully make a new recipe every week for 8 weeks because this wasn't successful. After 2 batches of ginormous and flat cookies, I realized that I was melting the butter and not just softening it! Who knew there was a difference?! Not me until after I consulted my good ol' Betty Crocker cookbook!

It was a little late to "Learn with Betty"!

After throwing Batch #2 away and borrowing an egg from a neighbor friend, I resorted to a box of good ol' brownie mix that I made into cookies! It worked and tasted good, so I was glad! I also used Neapolitan [which I just learned last year wasn't "Napoleon"] ice cream so we had a variety of vanilla/strawberry and vanilla/chocolate sandwiches. So despite the awful looking homemade cookies, this worked out well and is a yummy cool treat!  

An intentionally huge cookie for Chris!
The only one with strawberry, vanilla and chocolate
ice cream!

Week 6: Cinnamon Pita Chips with Apple Salsa
This week I just needed something to make. It was the end of the week and with only 2 weeks remaining for this goal, I didn't want to have to start over! Although I have thoroughly enjoyed making, and enjoying, various desserts recently, I really didn't want another dessert sitting around the house to indulge in and result in it sitting on my hips for the next 5 years! So I was on a mission to find something very easy recipe and if I would've made true apple/fruit salsa, it would've been a pretty healthy snack as well! :)

Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips with
non-homemade Apple Salsa

Week 7: No-Bake Chewy Granola Bars
Again not wanting a typical dessert sitting around and after Chris' suggestion of making granola bars last week, I decided that's what I'd do this week. I recognize that granola bars aren't the healthiest as it's some sort of sugary goodness that holds all the healthiness together, but when I eat them, I think that I'm eating healthy. It's the thought that counts anyways right?! This was a super easy recipe that I will be making again soon! [Likely before this post is even published!!] The adaptations that I made was that I used oats instead of granola and instead of using rice cereal, I used a combination of soy nuts, flax seed, and sunflower seeds. Oh yeah, and a added a big ol' dollop of peanut butter! I have read elsewhere that as long as you keep the proportion of dry ingredients to wet ingredients the same as the recipe calls for, you can do some swapping out!

The first row has raisins [for Chris] & chocolate
but the others just have chocolate [for me!].

Week 8: Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
For my final recipe try out to accomplish this goal, I decided to go with Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread [which is so much easier to spell than to write. Seriously, who made up the spelling for zucchini?!] Last night when Mister went out to tend to the garden, he returned with two big ol' zucchini, and a few tomatoes, but I didn't think Tomato Zucchini Bread sounded too good! Just recently I saw a recipe on my college roommate's blog for this and her's looked delicious so I figured it was worth a shot! So following the directions on her blog--except I used all wheat flour instead of part all-purpose, part whole wheat because wheat is all we had--and considering half a loaf is gone and it was baked less than 24 hours ago, I'd say it was a success. What wasn't a success is that I finished off the milk that evening for supper!

At this point I was a little nervous.
The liquid mixture looked a little too much
like The Hulk's snot...

But it turned out beautifully!
Served up on my grandma's dish!

There you have it, my attempt at a new recipe each week for 8 weeks!

Recipes:
[Sorry about some of the formatting, I just did some copying and pasting and aren't savvy enough to figure out all the glitches!]
Buffalo Chicken Dip

2-10 oz cans chunk chicken, drained
2-8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Ranch dressing
3/4 cup red hot sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Heat chicken and red hot until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and Ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half the cheddar cheese and transfer mixture to a slow cooker.Sprinkle of the remaining cheese over top, cover, and cook on low setting until hot and bubbly. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

Chicken Salad Recipe:
3 lb. cooked chicken salad
1 lb. seedless grapes
1 c. pecans, halved
1 c. diced celery
1 c. fresh dill
1 1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/2 c. mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper

Mix all ingredients together and chill.
Makes about 15-20 servings.

Frozen Yogurt Bars

1 can (14 oz sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
2 containers (6 oz each) Yoplait Key Lime Pie yogurt
2 containers (6 oz. each0 Yoplait Strawberry yogurt
1 cup Trix cereal

Line 8x4-inch loaf pan with foil, leaving edges of foil hanging over sides of pan. Divide condensed milk evenly between 2 medium bowls. Stir Key lime pie yogurt into 1 bowl. Stir strawberry yogurt into remaining bowl.

Spread Key lime pie mixture into foil-lined loaf pan. Sprinkle with cereal. Gently spoon and spread strawberry mixture on top. Freeze at least 8 hours until firm.

To serve, use foil to lift frozen loaf from pan. Pull back foil and remove. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes to soften slightly. Cut into eight 1-inch slices. Serve immediately.

Pita Chips
Ingredients
3 large pita pockets
3 T. brown sugar
3 T. melted vegan butter such as Earth Balance (or regular butter if you prefer)
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Grease foil with a light coating of olive oil.

Cut pita pockets into triangles and then separate them where they are still connected to the other half.
Place triangles on cookie sheet (what used to be the inside of the pita should be facing up).
Using a brush, coat each triangle with the melted butter.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over triangles. (You can also mix the sugar and cinnamon into the butter and brush it all on together if you like.)
Place in oven and bake for 6-8 minutes depending on thickness of pita bread. You might want to do a couple of test triangles first to see what the right length of time is for your bread and oven. Going one minute too long will cause them to burn.
Let cool and enjoy!


Chewy No Bake Granola Bars
Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

2 cups granola, such as Back to Nature brand

1 cup rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup thin pretzel sticks

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar with the honey and butter. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Add the granola, rice cereal, raisins and pretzels to the saucepan and fold the ingredients to evenly coat with the sauce. Transfer the granola mixture to a 9-by-13-inch ungreased baking pan and press firmly to evenly fill. Gently press the chocolate chips onto the top of the granola. Let the granola mixture set in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes, then cut into 2 1/4-by 3-inch bars.


Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

-3 eggs
-1 cup vegetable Oil
-2 cupsGranulated Sugar
-1 TablespoonVanilla
-2 cups Shredded Zucchini
-1 ½ cups All-purpose Flour
-1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
-½ cupBaking Cocoa
-1 teaspoon Salt
-1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
-¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
-1 teaspoon Baking Soda
-1 cup Chocolate Chips

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Stir in zucchini. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and add it to the zucchini/egg mixture. Mix well. Pour into 2 well-greased loaf pans. Bake at 350F for 1 hour or until bread tests done.