#9 Cook 30 new recipes

You all know by now that I LOVE FOOD. Love.  So #9 Cook 30 New Recipes has been an absolute pleasure!

You see, I have this giant black 3 ring binder.  Every time I see a recipe online or in a magazine, I print or tear it out, use my three-hole puncher (which I purchased just because I have this recipe book), and add it to my three ring binder.  So you can bet your life that I end up collecting more recipes than I've been able to cook... this binder is THICK.

So for this challenge, I decided to take a look at some of the recipes I had been holding on to for a while, but had not had a special occasion or reason to make.  And... I had to balance this out with the need to be healthy (see #20 Be Healthy), so I cooked a few healthy recipes as well.

Over the course of the past 13 weeks, here's the rundown of what I cooked, accompanied by a few pictures... ENJOY!!!


1. Lemon tarragon chicken (YUMMY!)

Lemon tarragon chicken!

2. Parsley shrimp (ok)
3. Rosemary rubbed pork loin  (AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!)
4. Curried Indian meatballs (YUMMY!)

Not the best picture, but these Indian meatballs are the bomb.

5. Balsamic and rosemary rubbed steak loin (SO GOOD SO GOOD!)
6. Shrimp Fra Diavlo over whole wheat pasta (OH HECK YES!)

7. Apricot and cheese strudel (INTERESTING!)

8. Mahi mahi tacos (eh)
9. Shrimp and chocolate tortilla soup (eh)

10. Julia Child's Boeuf Borginon (WOW)
11. Julia Child's Mushrooms (WOW)
12. Julia Child's Onions (WOW)

13. Raspberry mojito

14. Plaintain meatball soup (WOW!)

15. Tomato, kale and feta baked eggs (YUM!)
16. Baked salmon with a dijon garlic dill sauce (GOOD!)

17. Shrimp tacos with a cilantro chile lime sauce (eh)

18. Poached eggs!! (YUM!)

19. Triple Berry Sangria (SO GOOD SO GOOD!)
20. Pink grapefruit, strawberry and champagne granita (OMG!)

Strawberry grapefruit champagne granita - frozen!

21. Spinach and goat cheese tartlets (YUMMY!!!)

22. General Tsos chicken (DELISH)
23. Shrimp and avocado summer rolls with spicy dipping sauce (SO GOOD AND perfect for the summer!)

24. Red, white and blue sangria (my friends loved it, and so did I!)

 25. Flag cupcakes (SUPER CUTE)

26. Shrimp bisque (such an amazing flavor!)
27. "Blue ocean" cocktail (eh)

28. Curry lobster roll (OMG SO AMAZING)

29. Salsa verde turkey burgers (DELICIOUS!!)

 
30. Slow cooker honey sesame chicken (YUM!!!)

Now, were all these dishes healthy?  Umm, no.  But... I did finally make a few recipes that I'd held on to for a while... like the Curry lobster rolls, Julia Child's Boeuf Bourginon, and the Pink grapefruit, strawberry and champagne granita... and now I feel accomplished!  Plus... I have a couple of new favorites that I can add in to my regular rotation!

Put a fork in me, I'm done!  At least, with this challenge... :)