Cooking Hits & Misses

In the past few months I have attempted la few new recipes. Some have been big hits and quickly added to my cooking repertoire and others have been fatal misses that will never be tried again.

The Hits:

• Skinny Taste Chicken Parmesan - This chicken parmesan recipe from Skinny Taste is so good and so easy to make. You most likely have most of the ingredients already on hand. I use a thin slice of fresh mozzarella instead of the shredded mozzarella that the recipe calls for and it is sooo good. The leftovers are just as good!
• Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe & Spicy Sausage - There are a couple of different versions of this recipe but this Shape recipe is my favorite. It isn't the quickest meal to prepare but it's so worth it. I love the kick that a spicy turkey sausage gives and the nutrients that the broccoli rabe adds. I think this would also be good with bigger pieces of onion and red peppers.

The Misses:

• Mozzarella and Cherry Tomato Salad - this should have been fool proof. I bought fresh mini mozzarella balls that had been marinated in olive oil and various herbs and planned to mix in some cherry tomatoes for a quick and easy version of a Caprese salad. I don't know if it was the herb mixture the mozzarella had been marinating in or the fact that the cherry tomatoes weren't quite ripe, but something about this tasted off. Next time I will stick to a traditional Caprese salad.
• Buffalo Chicken Pizza - I had such high hopes for this pizza recipe that I saw on Pinterest. It seemed so simple: blue cheese dressing, buffalo sauce, chicken, and mozzarella cheese. The first noticeable problem with this pizza was that the layer of blue cheese dressing combined with chicken that had been marinated in buffalo sauce was just way too runny. The dressing kept running off the sides of the crust before I even moved the baking sheet to the oven. The second major problem was that the mozzarella cheese just wouldn't melt. I have used reduced fat cheese before on pizzas and never had any issues until this time. I kept it in the oven for 7 minutes longer than the recipe called for and eventually gave up trying to melt the cheese so the crust wouldn't burn. P and I didn't even eat half of the pizza before we decided it was just no good.

It looks deceivingly good

Despite a couple of misses, I am still determined to keep building my list of go-to recipes and experimenting in the kitchen.