Violet Sky

New Recipes

Zucchini pasta – We couldn’t find basil for this recipe, and thus it was kind of a bust. Not the worst thing to eat, but nobody particularly loved it. I’m keeping it around for summer, when I’ll be growing both basil and zucchini.

Mongolian beef ramen noodles – I have a bad habit of buying petite sirloin steak at Winco, and then being disappointed when this cheap cut of meat is not great in whatever steak-focused dish we’re supposed to be having. I decided to look for a recipe that specifically asked for petite sirloin, and this is what I found. I think I would do less sauce, next time, because this was way saucey in a way that became a little unpleasant. But otherwise, good flavors.

Ham and potato soup – We’ve been trying to save money on our groceries so obviously taking a spin through Budget Bytes was one of our first steps. This was … okay. It was probably not that much cheaper than the potato soup recipe I prefer to make, and nobody really liked it enough to have leftovers.

Chicken Caesar salad – What an absolutely killer recipe. I’ve made different chicken Caesar salad recipes before, but the dressing on this one is particularly good and of course I am always excited to find a recipe to use up some of the slightly old sourdough we always tend to have laying around.

Pasta with bacon and peas – Another Budget Bytes attempt, this one turned out better. I would have preferred it with pancetta (which would make it less budget, to be fair) because the sweetness from the bacon, compounded with the sweetness from the peas, made it a lot sweeter than I prefer for pasta.

Revisited Recipes

Thai basil chicken – I love making this recipe with ground chicken, as it takes almost all of the prep work out of the dish. I also finally remembered to use a mortar and pestle to grind up the chilies and garlic, though I didn’t notice an enormous difference in the end result.

Korean beef bowls – Another easy ground meat recipe made in the interest of keeping costs low. This is not the most authentic dish in the world, but it’s tasty and easy and reheats well as leftovers.