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Thread: Try 20 New Recipes Challenge

  1. #1
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    Try 20 New Recipes Challenge

    I've been trying to learn to cook and have gotten stalled. I really only know how to make about 5 or 6 dishes that I like. So I'm vowing to try 20 new recipes by the end of June. I'm giving myself lots of time because I'm super-busy at work right now. Anybody else want to join in?

  2. #2
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I have been hosting some ladies for lunch this winter. As a solo person, I rarely entertain having conversation over dinner. I wanted to plan a menu and serve it very elegantly so have been trying some new ideas inviting other solo people to share their stories. It has been great with helping others make new friends.

    I start with a fresh salad different every time with homemade vinaigrettes of different types. My favourite is equal parts olive oil and white wine vinegar, fresh ground pepper, salt, tsp of Dijon mustard and stevia. Don't like red wine vinegar at all. Not keen on balsamic either. Gave up onion and garlic powders as well.

    * Mix crumbled feta cheese, some diced crisp bacon and chopped tomatoes with a little olive oil drizzled
    * sweet and sour pork over rice with lots of veggies. Kept the veggies crisp cooked adding at the last minute and very little sugar added. The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of sugar, I added less than a 1/2 cup in a recipe serving 8 people.

    * chicken a la king with egg noodles. This was OK
    * this Monday, I am making a buffet with tortilla lasagna as the main course and sampling local sausages of different flavours. Have not decided on a dessert as yet.

    Homemade desserts, fruit and different cheeses to try. One dessert was a German plum cake with a shortbread base that was just amazing. Another was a simple square of shortcake base, cut into two, covered with whipping cream and sprinkled with fresh raspberries - so simple, pretty and so good.

    I feel as though I have tried about 20 new recipes already. It is fun and I wish you well. Inviting people in to talk is really motivating to recipe experimenting.

    Will take a break for the gardening season and do this again in the cold weather.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

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    I have been for a week now doing a mostly Raw Diet. Too me it is a vegetarian diet with a presentation factor, but I have been making so many new combination dishes. It has been fun actually. Yes we get stuck in a rut of the same old same old foods sometimes.

    I have made two types of raw cookies with dates and nut base. YUM, hubby however said No Bake cookies is all the tasted like. Next I made a Raw Soup with avocado, spinach, apple, garlic, onion, coconut milk. Again YUM though I considered it a smoothie. I am juicing instead of making my assorted kitchen sink type smoothies also, so I have been making some really good juices. Won't do this for a long but it has been yummy and fun so far!

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    Razz and Biking Lady, thanks for sharing your experiences.

    I was highly unambitious with recipe #1 - just made spinach and goat cheese quesadillas, an easy recipe from the New York Times website. But that's what I really need to learn - that it doesn't have to be anything complicated. I am lactose intolerant and also have acid reflux so need recipes which take those two concerns into account, and this one did. These quesadillas were a total success - took less than ten minutes to make and were tasty and healthy. Perfect for a weeknight, though I made them tonight for a friend and me, and we were both happy.

    I also did a grocery shopping and picked up some ingredients for some other fast and healthy recipes I want to try, so that was another step forward.

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    This is not really a food, but a prep of food. I bought a Spiralizer, I was telling myself this was just another wasted kitchen item, foods would not taste any different. I am so pleased with this. I know a cucumber is just a cucumber, but when it is in a pretty super thin spiral pile it takes on a new meaning in my salad!

    I have made some of the wildest looking salads with this new toy. I have told everyone that IF every little child saw how neat looking the different veggies looked and the fun they could have making them, I bet kids would start on the right track of eating fresh veggies. Hey even my husband has been eating salads this past week! Plus I made a "taco meat" out of walnut base meat, sundries tomatoes, chili powder, olive oil to toss on top, YUM

  6. #6
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    BikingLady, that spiralizer sounds fun! My sister got one and has been raving about it.

    I managed recipe #2 last night: spaghetti with spinach and olives, a recipe from the New York Times website. It came out kind of bland. I might go back to the site and look at the comments, see what other cooks did to jazz it up.

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    I "made" spaghetti Sunday and it was even better reheated! Brown meat (if want), take your fav spaghetti sauce, add can of stewed tomatoes (strain juice and re-add if needed), a few seasonings. The added stewed tomatoes made it wonderful. Who knew. I used regular spaghetti noodles but could Spiralize zucchini instead. (I love my Spiralizer too.) Found this in a cookbook mentioned on this site... The Words Worth Eating Cookbook. I am going to try a number of recipes from this book. They are simple, use normal ingredients and are fairly healthy.

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    Spiralizer.....super sharp blades

  9. #9
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    Cashew dip
    1c raw soaked cashews
    2TBS nutritional yeast
    1/4 tsp more or less garlic powder
    1/4 c water
    2 tbs lemon juice
    add other tempting flavors
    all ground up till smooth

    Oh I love this!

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by BikingLady View Post
    Spiralizer.....super sharp blades
    This one is great because you do not have to remove them. There is a knob you turn and it goes to the thickness you want.

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