Which came first, the smoothie obsession or the new blender? It’s a new take on an ancient question.

When my old blender failed to crush the ice for the smoothies I decided to become obsessed with, I jumped on the opportunity to replace it with this beauty. (But I need it to make recovery shakes. It’s for my health.)

After a few days of berry-licious concoctions, I got a few smoothie books from the library. My adventuresome favorite so far is the pumpkin pie smoothie.

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato - microwave, allow to cool, scoop flesh into blender (note: prick holes in the skin with a fork first - trust me)
1/2 cup nonfat, plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
spices to taste (chives, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg)
1 tbl ground flax seed
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder

Mix it all together and, presto - second breakfast. I used way too much nutmeg, but the potential is there.

Nutrition info: Calories 273, Fat 3.6g, Carbohydrates 44g, Fiber 7g, Protein 18g

I love chili.

I got the base of this fantastic recipe years ago and have stuck with it through a variety of changes - substituting lentils for the meat works well, using ketchup instead of tomato sauce does not. (It was late at night, in Bellingham. I couldn’t get to the store.) The original recipe calls for equal parts ground beef and ground sausage, I made it this time with turkey.

It’s good. It’s good for you. It’s major comfort food that really works.

Check out My Favorite Chili!

Okay, so I haven’t been trying a new recipe every week - or every month for that matter.

A girl can only do so much, and cooking new things is not high on my list right now.

However, I did a little renovation to an old favorite recently. This recipe makes a ridiculous number of muffins and each one is guaranteed to make your taste buds smile.

Behold, Banana Bran Muffins.

The recipe this week was Spicy Mexican Skillet Chicken. I usually concoct an elaborate marinade for chicken to use in fajitas, but the simplicity of the seasonings in this recipe allowed the good chicken taste to come through and still had enough of a kick to be interesting. High approval ratings all around!

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and I tried a new recipe. Normally I would eschew this sort of risky behavior, but I guess I was feeling reckless. The risk paid off though, big time. This was the best new recipe by far! Tender and tasty, easy and full of things that I already had on hand. I served it with a green salad and fresh baked baguette, the cookbook suggests serving it with Roma Tomatoes, fresh basil and Italian dressing - which I’m sure would also be great (although not nearly as popular with my meat and carbohydrate crowd).

Golden Potato Coated Baked Chicken - try it soon, you won’t regret it!

My recipe this week was for Dijon Pork Chops.

This was another one from Frozen Assets Lite and Easy: Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month by Deborah Taylor Hough. I failed to cook the pork all the way through before I froze it (because the breading was starting to burn) and I assumed I could thaw it and finish the cooking as I heated it up. This was not the case. I think, if there is a next time, I will make sure the chops are cut fairly thin and are more uniform in size. We ended up eating the small chops last night (as they were the only ones that were cooked) and the taste was good, but quite salty.

All in all, not one of my best efforts.

My recipe for this week was Marinated Lime Chicken. An asterisk may need to be added to this entry, as I have made this recipe before so it is not entirely new. However, when I made it last year I followed the guidelines in the recipe very loosely and was not pleased with the result. This time I followed to recipe exactly and the final product met with high reviews all around. I didn’t make margaritas with it this time, but it would be really good with a margarita on a hot day.

This is why I love being a mom:

If you’re interested, the recipe for these yummy cookies is here, but I’m not counting it as my recipe for the week.

Oh. My. Lord.

This was really, really good. I screwed it up (see notes on the bottom of the recipe), and it was still really, really good.

I am totally making this on Thanksgiving.

Hamilton Squash

Enjoy!

My new recipe this week was Potato Crusted Salmon.

I followed the instructions exactly and ended up burning the potato side of the fish. It still tasted good, the potential is certainly there for a winner, but I will need to mess around with the temperature and cooking time.

The moral of the story? Know your stove, my friend, know your stove.

The recipe this week was Crunchy Garlic Chicken.

This was a winner all around - easy to make, high approval ratings from both boys in the house and tasty, tasty, tasty!

Next week I’m going to try some breaded salmon. Now I’m going to close my laptop and enjoy my Wednesday.

I was inspired by the recipe exchange that Jen hosted recently, or maybe it was the cooler weather forcing me out of my grilling rut. (Query: Is there such thing as a grilling rut? I think not.) Either way, I have been cooking more lately.

For a fan of the homemaking arts, I don’t cook much. I bake. I marinate. Justin grills. We have 456 uses for grilled chicken. But very few of them involve cookbooks or new recipes or me standing by the stove. I employ a number of excuses for my lack of culinary adventure (see: picky eaters, The Witching Hour, picky eaters and picky eaters) but, when I stop playing the victim, I see that much of my reticence in this area is laziness on my part. I know how to modify recipes to appease the picky eaters. I know how to prepare things in advance so that The Witching Hour passes relatively uneventfully. I can read and follow a recipe. I have enough cookbooks to eat something new on a daily basis for years to come.

So, really, all I need to do is cook.

I have a goal to try a new recipe every week this winter. To help keep me honest, I will post that recipe with a short review or any notes in a new category called Boiling Over.

Feel free to share any of your favorite recipes in the comments.

Like Leah, I also missed the recipe exchange at the House of Jen last week. (The hows and whys of my missing are a different story, one that I apparently can’t write about right now - damn writers block.) But thanks to the world of blog, I can share my recipe too.

I tried this one a few weeks ago and, while it doesn’t pass the easy-to-cook-with-a-toddler-climbing-your-leg test, it does pass the relatively-healthy-hot-dish-incredibly-picky-husband-will-still-eat test. So I’m keeping it in the rotation.

Mostaccioli and Beef - try it, it’s good.