New Foods

This post is all about food: new recipes I’ve made recently, new food items I discovered at the grocery store, and a new restaurant that Craig and I ate at this weekend.

I will be the first to admit I am not very creative and have the hardest time coming up with new recipes on my own. I will occasionally change ingredients to fit what I have on hand, but I prefer finding a recipe and following it rather than reinventing the wheel.

So, here are some new recipes I’ve recently tried that you may be interested in yourself.

Healthy Sweet Potato Skins

This was a great recipe that included a bag of spinach and healthy sweet potatoes. The filling was a mix of sour cream and cream cheese, so with the cheese on the top, it was a little too heavy on the dairy products for me, but my husband loved them.

Protein Bars

I have made these protein bars several times before. They contain soy protein powder, tofu, eggs, and peanut butter as sources of protein. At first I didn’t know how much I liked them, but after trying several other protein bar recipes, these are still one of my favorite recipes.

I attempted to make them in a muffin tin, but I would not recommend it. They really stuck to the pan.

Buffalo Chicken Poppers with Avocado Bleu Cheese Dip

I immediately thought of my husband when I saw this recipe, so I knew I had to make them. I brought these to our Super Bowl party yesterday, and they were definitely a hit.

Spicy—but not too spicy for this “Minnesota-mild” girl and even better with the dip.

I also got a lot of compliments on the Avocado Bleu Cheese dressing, which would be a great with chips.

Tofu Rice Stuffed Peppers

Usually when I go grocery shopping, I already know what I am going to make for the week, but I saw these peppers on sale and thought I should find a recipe to use them in. This made me think that I should base my meals on produce that’s on sale all the time.

Homemade Bread

Finally this weekend, I made a loaf of homemade bread. It kills be when I have to pay $4-5 for a decent loaf of bread at the grocery store.

This was definitely an awesome bread recipe—very moist, almost doughy, but I was hard to add 1/4 cup canola oil and use only all-purpose flour. As much as I liked this recipe, I think I’ll reserve it for rare occasions.

The next 3 items are new products that I’ve recently picked up at the grocery store.

Graham Crackers

I’ve been on the search for a graham cracker that don’t have any artificial ingredients in it, and so when I came across this box at the grocery store, I was excited. What I was not excited about was the price: $6. I decided to give it a try and see how they compared.

I really liked them—they tasted like any other graham cracker I’ve had, but I don’t think I can pay that kind of money for a box of crackers that only lasted me about a week. Um, yeah, I love my crunchy sweet foods.

Hot Chocolate

I do like hot chocolate, but I do not like all the added sugars. This kind still has sugar in it but quite a bit less. I thought it might taste bland, but I was presently surprised: sweet enough without the added sugars.

Chobani

I was super excited to see the three new Chobani flavors at the grocery store this weekend!

– blood orange

– apple cinnamon

– passion fruit

So far I’ve tried the blood orange and apple cinnamon, and I really liked both of them!

Saturday night Craig and I went to Sack’s Cafe and Restaurant for dinner, which is located in downtown Anchorage.

We had never been to the restaurant, but I purchased a Groupon, so why not?

I ordered the house arugula salad. I remember the first time I purchased arugula at the grocery store, and I did not like it. I had no idea how bitter it was. I know it takes the right flavors to make it work and the restaurant did an excellent job.

Craig ordered the duck. I had a bite, and it was very tender but I could tell the fat content was really high.

For dessert, we split the apple spice cake. Craig actually doesn’t like cake—he says it is too dry—but he was willing to try it. I think it helped that there was a caramel sauce to soak it in so the cake wasn’t as dry. I really like it!

That’s a highlight on some of my recent food pickings for the week. Enjoy!