Tried in One Five

I'd bookmarked this a long time ago but never made it. I had some tofu so decided to make this. Was going to do it as the recipe called for but started reading the reviews and decided to just make the marinade instead. I love recipes where I already have the stuff on hand!

I ended up marinating tofu and mushrooms in double the marinade, per some of the comments. First I stir fried broccoli, bell peppers, and zucchini. Then I added the tofu and mushrooms and cooked those. Then I added in cooked, chilled jasmine rice and did it like fried rice.

I love Skinnytaste and follow it through my blog reader. When this recipe came through, I was in. We have a lot of these ingredients on hand most of the time, and this is the kind of protein- and veggie-rich dish that goes over well with my athelete daughter.

I've seen Marry Me Chicken and other dishes, so when I saw this recipe on a favorite blog, I figured I had to bookmark it to make in the future. With today being the 4th of July, I thought it might be a nice alternative to baked beans (which I love but I don't know that anyone else does). So I gave them a try.

I wanted them to be less liquidy, because I wasn't serving them on top of anything, so I only used 1/2 cup broth. That still ended up being too much; when I added the cream, they were very saucy.

Today's the 4th of July and we'll be having traditional picnic-style foods (well, and scalloped potatoes bcause Michaela insisted we do that rather than potato salad). I decided to do some coleslaw. I was all set to buy my own cabbage and carrots, but they had bags on sale at the grocery store, so I did that instead. That meant all I had to do was make the dressing.

As written, the dressing really is just like KFC's. It's VERY sweet. This recipe calls for 1/3 cup sugar. I decided I'd start with half that and add more if needed, but honestly, it didn't need it.

(Also, I didn't make it vegan. I used regular milk and mayo.)

Lately Michaela's been into Joan's Broccoli Madness, a Souplantation (RIP) salad. So when I saw this recipe that involved raw broccoli and cranberries, I thought, maybe she'll like this! It turns out, I don't think she did. But I did and that matters, too.

I feel like there are a million recipes out there (not not recipes -- just throw some things in a bowl) for this type of salad. But we were having BLTs and I wanted to do some sort of side salad that wasn't just lettuce and thought this would be a good one. And you know what? It was.

I used the juice of 3 limes. And was maybe a little light on tomatoes because I didn't have as many on hand as I thought I did. But everyone loved it.

I'm old. I'm not on TikTok. But even I hear about viral food things sometimes. (Thanks, Instagram Reels! ha ha)

Anyway, I read a blog post that referenced the viral TJ dumpling bake and it sent me looking for a recipe. That's how I found this. I made it and I gotta say, it was pretty delicious!

Sure, it's putting together a bunch of stuff that's packaged, so this isn't the most healthy thing. But I appreciated how easy it was and that M and M both enjoyed it.

I was craving Chipotle for dinner Halloween night, but couldn't make the time work (Mike was driving Michaela's rowing carpool, I was passing out candy). I decided I'd do something at home. I've been trying to eat more fiber so this had the extra benefit of being veggie-packed.

I used two smaller zucchini but otherwise stuck with the recipe as written for the tacos. Next time, I'd maybe not do tacos and use this as stuffing for quesadillas with flour tortillas. Frying the tacos was a pain in the butt and didn't provide a particularly large payoff.

The other thing I'd do differently is only use one teaspoon of honeyin the avocado sauce. I felt like the sauce was too sweet.

Our street hosts a chili cookoff each year. It's lovely! But this year -- after coming in second for three years -- I decided we'd skip making chili and do a dessert instead. An autumnal dessert. I was thinking I'd do cookies or something cinnamon-y, but then Michaela suggested a cobbler. There's nothing easier than that, so I was in!

When I looked at cobbler recipes, I decided to keep it even simpler and do a crisp. I haven't used this recipe before but gave it a spin.

Mike has been out of town and I was looking for some easy dinner options. I have been following this Instagrammer who does meals with Trader Joe's ingredients and decided to give a couple of their things a try.

I know I shouldn't be surprised that things like nicer online and in fancy pictures than in real life, but I am. When I made this, it ended up looking very... beige? It was easy, though, I'll give it that.

The seasoning packet for the pilaf was very salty and tasted very processed (duh, of course it did). If I were to make this again, I would only use half.

This is described as "an easy one-pan fall dinner." I can confirm that's accurate! And my family really liked it, too. A win-win!

After making a sheet pan meal a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded how totally easy they are to get a well-rounded meal on the table, which is extra important on a weeknight when Michaela's coming from rowing, tired and hungry. That's how I ended up at the store last night, thinking, "well, I know we have potatoes at home, so I just need some other veggie and some sausages to throw on a pan to cook."

Michaela likes broccoli so I decided to get that. I saw some chopped butternut squash and grabbed that, too. Then I worked backwards, searching for a recipe for doing roasted potatoes and broccoli. That's where I found this.

I love couscous. It's just so darn delicious. So I've had this recipe bookmarked for a while.

I was at the store recently and they had couscous on sale, so I decided to get some and give this a try. I knew we had frozen meantballs at home and thought this would be a great after-rowing meal because of its carbs and protein (when I added the meatballs), not to mention that it's pretty easy to make.

I didn't use poblano because they didn't have any at my store; I used an extra bell pepper. I also used a whole red onion. I cooked the veggies under the broiler, not on the grill, and I drizzled with olive oil instead of spraying; it maybe took 12 minutes?

The sauce was really tasty. I might just start making it as a salad dressing.

This is going on my list of things to make when I'm having people over for dinner. It was crazy easy and really yummy!

I don't usually like chicken thighs, but didn't mind them at all here.

I don't make a lot of sheetpan meals, but this left me thinking I should do it more often. It was so easy!

I expanded the recipe, which was built around 4 servings, to be 6. That made some of the measurements weird (like, 2.25 teaspoons) so I mostly eyeballed the spice mix. But basically, I cut everything up, dumped the spices on top, tossed, roasted, and voila.

I topped it with feta and served this with quinoa and pita bread. Mike and I made it as a bowl; Michaela stuffed her pita with everything.

This was so good!

It's hot and I thought my family would want something light for dinner, so I decided to give this a spin.

I read the comments on the recipe before I made it and the general consensus was, add more herbs and spices (which tracks with how I find Skinnytaste recipes in general), but also to add in some other veggies in addition to the spinach.

I doubled or triped the fresh herbs -- parsley and dill -- and also added chopped red onion and chopped tomatoes. I also added a little extra Parm in the liquid mix because, duh.

BAked it for 33 minutes and it came out brown and beautiful on top. I served it with sliced French bread and watermelon; honestly, it would work for a brunch that way just as easily as dinner.