Pioneer Woman Extravaganza (aka You’re Going to Need a Gallon of Heavy Whipping Cream)

This week I decided to try out a bunch of delicious looking recipes I’ve seen on the Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen blog. They’re definitely not as healthy as the recipes I usually make, but some of them are worth an extra run around the block.

Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen Recipes

Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. Groan.– OK, if you’re going to use the word “groan” as part of your recipe name, it better be damn good. And this was just average. I mean it was good, but didn’t warrant the “groan.” Maybe it was a case of my expectations being too high? All I know is, I’m glad I bought the pre-roasted (cheaper) red peppers instead of doing all the work and paying the extra money to do it myself.

The Mushroom Soup– Of all the new Pioneer Woman recipes I made this week, this was by far my favorite. Very quick and easy to make and it was delicious! Nice mushroom flavor and the other ingredients complimented it nicely, especially the Parmesan.

Butter Chicken– This recipe had the most rave reviews from all the PW recipes I tried, but to me it was just so-so. Nothing special. Maybe it’d be better the next day, or maybe the sauce and such would go better on pasta than on rice. All I know is, I had a butt load of sauce leftover and I didn’t save it for later.

Jaden’s Beef with Broccoli– This turned out pretty good. I think I should’ve thickened the sauce up more after adding the broccoli, but I was too hungry to bother. This was a fast dinner, but it didn’t have quite as much flavor as I’d thought there’d be from the marinade and sauce. This was good, but forgettable. On a positive note, I tried basmati rice for the first time with this meal and it turned out awesome!

EatingWell.com Recipe Intermission

 

Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes– New Recipe. This was EatingWell’s version of healthy-ish Chicken Fried Steak so I was more than a bit skeptical as to how it would taste. I thought this was awesome and turned out great, even though I completely forgot to add the cornstarch to the breading mixture. It was just as good the next day as leftovers. Mmmm.

Chili-Rubbed Tilapia with Asparagus and Lemon-New Recipe. I thought this tilapia turned out really well  although I think I went a little heavy on the spice layer (I scraped a bit off). The asparagus was good, but the lemon was a bit overwhelming. I’d cut back on the lemon juice next time.

Pioneer Woman Dessert Bonus

Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes for Two– I wanted to make a dessert using the fresh pineapple I bought and found this on the PW website. It was very easy and turned out really good. Mine doesn’t look as pretty as the one on the recipe because my pineapple slices were bigger and I didn’t have any pecans. Not bad for an impulse dessert though.