New Recipes for a New Year! 2014!

Hey Friends,

I am attempting to do one of my first cooking blog posts. I got 2 new cook books for Christmas this year and I want to try out some new recipes this year. I am bored of making the same things over and over. I would love to expand my cooking abilities and add variety in my cooking. I have made a list of new recipes to try that I currently have all of the ingredients for...to make it easy. Now, unfortunately, I have already tried a few new recipes since Christmas that we LOVED, but I didn't have the time to post about it. I'll just do a brief overview of the recipes I've already done and what we thought of them.

First was Pan Seared Salmon. It was SO YUMMY! I bought some frozen salmon fillets at the grocery store and thawed them all day so they were ready to cook. At the last minute, we had company, so I just grabbed a third fillet and held it (still in the packaging) under hot running water for a few minutes to thaw. I whisked up one egg in the shallow bowl and in another bowl, I mixed 2 parts corn meal and one part flour (along with some spices like dill, parsley, etc). I dipped each fillet in the egg and then into the corn meal mixture and then put it in a frying pan with a little oil in it. I seared the fillets until they were crunchy on the outside but still moist and delicious on the outside...maybe about 7 minutes give or take a couple...lol. Long story short: DELICIOUS. I didn't follow a recipe (sorry), but it was pretty simple to make up on the spot.

 Next, I made Turkey Chili with Cornmeal Crust (in the crockpot!) I brought it over to my in-laws' house for dinner...and everyone loved it...even the kids! I was nervous at first because the cornmeal wasn't enough to cover the entire thing and it didn't spread as easily as I was expecting it to, but it spread out just fine as it cooked...and was PERFECT! 

 Quick Chicken and Corn Chowder. When I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for the meals I wanted to make, I bought an entire package of fresh chicken breasts and cooked them all that night. After they were cooked, I cut all of them into cubes and filled about four Ziploc bags and put them in the fridge. That way, all of the chicken was cooked and ready to go for the recipes that I had to make. It really was a super quick and easy way to get the prepping done. I also cut up the celery that I needed for the Chicken and Corn Chowder and at the same time, cut up the rest of the stalk of celery into approximately 2" pieces so that later I could smother them in peanut butter and have a great snack. Anyways, back to the Chowder. This was the first time I had made a chowder, so I did not deviate from the recipe at all (I usually find some way to make the recipe my own, but I did not want to risk the whole chowder, so i didn't.) It was SO easy to make and tasted like it took hours to cook. We had rolls (store bought to make things even simpler) and we dipped them in the chowder. It was perfect. My brother-in-law was over for dinner that night, so the recipe made just enough for my husband, myself, our 2 1/2 year old son, and my brother-in-law...and we all ate until we were full. This quick easy chowder was definitely a success!

 My husband LOVES Mexican food, so this next recipe was a perfect new thing to try. It is called Mexicali Chicken Stack-ups. That chicken that i cooked and cut up the day before was used in this recipe as well. I did not have a round casserole dish, so I used a 9x9 square casserole dish and it worked just fine...the edges of the tortillas just stuck up...so if that will bug you, get a round one...I did not care, so it was just fine. My husband loved the Mexican flavors used in the different way. It was like Mexican Tortilla Lasagna...essentially. haha. SO good and Cory says he would love for me to make it again sometime! SUCCESS!

 The rest of the cooked chicken that I had fed my toddler for a couple lunches. He really likes cold chicken cut into the perfect sized pieces for his little mouth, so it worked out great! None of it went to waste! However, if you had more cooked chicken than you could use before it went bad, I think freezing it would be a perfectly viable option. 

 Well, that is the summary of the meals I have made thus far! I'll post about the other new recipes I try when I can! 

xoxo Katie

 Next up: MEATBALL STUFFED SHELLS!