Recipe Review

We tried a lot of new recipes over the weekend.

This is one of my goals in life: expand my "go-to" recipe base. Because, you know, meatloaf and Hamburger Helper get old. And what is in Hamburger Helper, anyway?

So anyway, of course I have a list a mile long of all the recipes I want to try, and slowly we are picking away at them. Here's what we tried since last Friday:

Cream Cheese Banana Bread with Sweet Cinnamon Topping
Pretty tasty switch up on the old run-of-the-mill banana bread. Not a lot of banana flavor, but that could be related to the sweet vs. starchy element of bananas used. The cinnamon topping was tasty. I did not like this bread warm, fresh out of the oven, and vowed not to make it again, but when I ate it the next day, cooled, it was much better. Will I make it again? Probably.

Sticky Sesame Chicken
An okay substitute for restaurant Chinese. This recipe was easy enough, but kind of time-consuming, what with the breading and frying of chicken. I used extra chicken, and doubled the sauce recipe, and it was very sweet, even when mixed with rice. One of those things that at first tastes really delicious, and then as you finish makes you feel sick. Kind of like real Chinese. And Mac 'N Cheese. I think next time I would omit some/all of the sugar in the sauce recipe, and probably also have a better chicken-to-rice ratio to cut some of the sweetness. I am also tempted to try it without breading the chicken, as that would be a major time-saver, and since I had too much chicken in my pan and had to stir it around so violently to cook it, the breading ended up mostly falling off, anyway. Will I make it again? Probably, with changes.

Bacon Cheeseburger Wraps
These were good. Of course, anything with bacon is good. Usually. But these we really enjoyed. A little different than a regular old burger, a little more time consuming, as well, but overall they were pretty tasty. I think the only change I would make is to increase the amount of sauce added to the beef. More sauce = more deliciousness. Also, the recipe says it serves four, but I used medium-size tortillas and we got 8 of them. One was plenty for me for dinner; Darren ate two. Will I make it again? Yes.

BBQ Chicken Pasta
Let me preface this by saying that I have a love affair with BBQ sauce. I could easily do without ketchup and eat only BBQ for the rest of my life. Fries, burgers, you name it, I love it with BBQ. Okay, maybe not hot dogs. But with the exception of hot dogs, BBQ rocks my world. I really enjoyed this recipe. It's not like it's a major wow-factor recipe, like something you would want to eat on a weekly basis, but it's a fairly quick and easy weeknight meal (and it's a one skillet meal!), and it gets the job done. I did enjoy it more than Darren. Easton ate it okay, and Natalie wouldn't even try it. It's not as cheap as spaghetti, but it isn't too expensive, either. Will I make it again? Yes.