Friday, April 13, 2012

The Vegetarian Cookbook


As part of my Great Recipe Challenge of 2012, I've so far only blogged about recipes I found online during my search for a potluck contribution. However, what originally got me into the idea of doing a recipe challenge was my friend's suggestion to watch Julie & Julia, a movie about a food blogger who tried every single recipe in Julia Child's first cookbook. My friend suggested I go in a similar vein for my own food blog, since I'm generally pretty sporadic about trying new stuff and posting about it. However, since I'm so picky with my food choices, going through a single cookbook didn't make sense for me, since most things wouldn't fit under my nutritional preferences!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Emma's Salad


I'm not even sure if I should include this "recipe" in my Great Recipe Challenge of 2012! This is a pretty simple salad that my mom calls "Emma's Salad" because my friend Emma brought it to her house once for dinner. It's fairly generic, but I'll give Emma the credit since it is frequently her contribution to dinner parties and potlucks. In any case, I'm blogging about it now, since we brought not one, but two versions of it at Easter this year. My mom couldn't decide if she wanted feta or mozzarella, so we did both and had two separate salads!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Sausage & Summer Vegetable Casserole w/Cheesy Polenta Crust


The next entry in my Great Recipe Challenge of 2012 is another recipe I had considered trying for my potluck the other week (see original version of the recipe here). Even though I didn't end up picking it, I think it actually ended up tasting much better than the recipe I went with! I brought it to my family Easter party this weekend, and received several compliments on the dish! This is definitely a winner, and I have to put a star on this recipe as one that will make it on my rotating list of regular meals.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Black Bean Lasagna


Next up on my Recipe Challenge and Pantry Raid projects is a Black Bean Lasagna I stumbled across while looking for my potluck contribution that originally inspired these challenges! Though this recipe didn't make the original cut for the potluck, I did keep it in the back of my head as something I wanted to try out!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Operation: Pantry Raid


Looking through my cupboards, I decided the Great Recipe Challenge would also be a great time to do a PANTRY RAID project.

Yes. I said Pantry Raid.

The idea here would be empty out my pantry. I'm sure I'm not the only one who happens to collect various items in my pantry that should probably be used as they're only sitting there getting older! Things in my pantry collecting dust include:

Monday, April 2, 2012

Giada's Frittata

Another entry for my Great Recipe Challenge of 2012! This time, as my title alludes, I tried Giada de Laurentiis' Frittata with Asparagus, Tomato, and Fontina recipe.

Mornings are usually pretty hectic for me, especially in the summers when I often do morning workouts. Making an omelet or frittata early in the week and eating the leftovers for a few days is a great way to save time on such occasions. Since I generally make the same omelet all the time, I figured I should try branching out!