Favorite Recipes of 2014

Considering the amount of cooking I've been doing and since I am not an original cook at all, I've decided to post some of my favorite recipes I've cooked the past year. :) It wasn't a full year of cooking, but it was pretty darn close!

In a 7-day week, we do leftovers 2-3 times a week. I was on vacation 3 times this past year for about a week each time when I was regularly cooking. I've repeated a dozen to a dozen-and-a-half recipes at least twice, if not more. I cooked regularly in 2014 for about 44 weeks. So, yeah, it's been a LOT of recipes!

The list is going to seem rather long, but I estimate I've made something like 150-200 recipes this past year for dinner alone. I also baked pretty heavily off-and-on throughout the year too, but I'm not going to post those recipes.

Guess this makes my top 10% of recipes from 2014... :P They are in no particular order. You'll see I went through a quinoa, enchilada, and one pan/pot phases. :) Links to the recipes are there so you can also enjoy these!

Quick & Healthy Meal in Under 30 - Sausage & Veggies - Such an easy recipe and it's really good. I tend to pepper it pretty heavily and I used hot links to add some spice into it, but I like it and the boys do too. The pepper in it are amazing. We serve it as is with nothing else. Though, cornbread or dinner rolls wouldn't be bad to serve with it.

One pan Mexican quinoa - You start to really like some food bloggers and I like this blogger, but this meal is excellent. It's pretty quick and it's healthy. I add ground turkey to it, but it can be left as is for something vegetarian.

Italian sausage stew - One recipe I've made several times this past year. It's become my go-to easy recipe to freeze ahead when I go away and I cook the week's meals after I return the week before I leave. It's really easy to make and it's tasty. The thing I've changed, though, is I use hot links in it rather than sausage out of a casing. The hot links make it spicier and more flavorful. I quarter the hot link slices, though, and I do "brown" it. The quartering of the hot link makes it smaller pieces, which I liked more than just slicing it or slicing it into two pieces. Sausage out of a casing wasn't the same either...I also serve this with bread.

Skillet steak, onions, and mushrooms - Chris loves mushrooms and steak so when I found this recipe, it was perfect! It's really good. I pepper the heck out of it and add a fair amount of garlic powder, but the juices from everything at the bottom of the dish goes amazingly well over garlic mashed potatoes (I've learned for garlic mashed potatoes, you boil the garlic with your potatoes and then mash the garlic into the potatoes - so simple and so tasty!). We use it a like a gravy and none of the juices go to waste.

Chicken meatball and orzo soup - Oh man this was good. I made it the first time and immediately started thinking about making it again. The only thing you need to be careful about is how much orzo you put in and how "soup-y" you want it. I wanted mine more soup-y so I added more chicken broth at the end, but having it thicker is fine too. The orzo is small after all. :) I would definitely "taste test" this AFTER everything has simmered together. I tried immediately after I put everything in and I was disappointed by the flavor. I let it all sit and the flavors came out by the end and it was amazing. I used ground turkey instead of ground chicken and it was fine.

Slow cooker chili verde - This is so tasty, a co-worker of mine requested this at our potluck after I had let her try it the first time I made it. It's really easy to make and the slow cooker is important to meld and bring out all the flavors. With that said, the food on the stove top is pretty good right afterwards too! I use ground turkey instead of pork and I tend to add more chili powder in it to increase the spice level (I use mild salsa verde). Having it sit in the slow cooker means the chili powder gets amplified more than when you taste it on the stove top. I also don't prefer the strong taste of parsley so I kind of add however much looks good. You need the parsley in it (or something leafy, maybe cilantro next time), but too much parsley I don't enjoy.

Chicken enchilada quinoa - Basically, if it's Mexican food, I'm most likely going to like it. :) This was tasty, but the chili sauce always helps in that regard! I liked the texture the quinoa gave. This is a lot like having a healthier version of enchiladas.

Green chili enchilada soup - Tasty and easy to put together. I love enchilada soups so I was happy when I found this one! The salsa verde you use or the canned chilies do make a taste difference, though. The first time I made this, it had a slightly weird after taste. It wasn't bad, but it was interesting. The next time, I didn't have the problem. So I'm not sure.

Spicy Sriracha chicken and quinoa bowl - The cilantro on top is a must! With that said, be careful how much sriracha you put in this...LoL I wasn't paying attention and put the half cup and almost died. It was wayyyyy too spicy for me and I can tolerate pretty spicy things. The boys ate it better than I did. With that said, the quinoa on the bottom helps mute the spiciness, but be careful with the spice level!

Spicy orange tofu and peppers (caveat) - Honestly, I didn't like the tofu in this. I think it was because I used extra firm tofu and I should know better from previous experience. Extra firm tofu is disgusting! It's especially gross when you fry it. :P I got it, though, because it was already diced for me. Next time, I'd stick with firm tofu. With that said, the boys loved it and I gave my portion to Chris (he ate it happily) and Rob wanted seconds, but the recipe only made 3 portions for us (if I had read recipe, I'd have seen it said "serves 2"). The reason I'm posting this, though, is the spicy orange sauce was amazing. I would make the spicy orange sauce for something else like chicken or beef. It was really, really good. Good enough that I'm willing to try this again with firm tofu!

Easy one pan fettuccine alfredo - A really easy fettuccine alfredo to make and it was really tasty. Anytime I want fettucine alfredo, I go for this recipe. The ease of it would make it close to the top, but it's also tasty too!

Parmesan turkey meatloaf - I went through a meatloaf phase (just like the quinoa or enchilada phase) and I liked this one. It's pretty similar to any other meatloaf, but has the addition of marinara sauce and cheese. Honestly, anything "parmesan" I love too...LoL

One pot pasta: tomato, basil - Kind of like a pomodoro pasta, to be honest. I added chicken at the end and it was tasty and light! Really easy to make as it all cooks in the same pot at the same time.

Slow cooker Italian Meatballs or Baked meatball parmigiana - I went through a meatball phase too...LoL These were both good and similar. I'm telling you, if it has marinara sauce and cheese on it, I'm good to go!
 
One pan enchilada pasta - I've made this several times and I enjoy it. I probably put too much cheese into it too, but...it's tasty! Again, chili sauce makes things taste good. I add the olives on top too. I've learned to like them on my enchiladas, but I add the sliced ones and not whole ones.

Jalapeno popper chicken chili - One of the first recipes I made more than once. I haven't had this in a long time, but it's good. It is one you need to play with the spices to get it the way you like it. It was part of the reason I've made this twice. :)

Stuffed french bread pizza - This is really easy to adapt to whatever you want to put into yours, but I will make the stuffing ahead of time, freeze it, and then defrost it when I'm ready to make it. It makes for tasty food that's freezable. I've used different breads too. I don't prefer the ricotta cheese as much, so I cut back on the ricotta cheese in the recipe and I get everything "light." The breakfast sausage is a must, though! I use the spicier one.

One pan chicken Parmesan - The panko bread crumbs on top make this dish! This is easy to make, but I tend to make it in a big pot and then pour it into a baking dish at the end. So...mine is more like 2-pan chicken parmesan.

Fasolada -This is a Greek bean soup and I made it on a whim. The first day it was okay, but the next day it was super good. I loved this soup and it was great to be paired with the mozzarella, avocado, and bacon grilled sandwiches I made.

So, there you have it! My top recipes of the year. Not all of them are healthy and some of them are healthy. Regardless, I enjoy cooking new things so I don't tend to repeat too often. I've made SEVERAL different type of hamburger recipes (at least 5) too. I can't say anything stuck out as my favorites, but I've learned you can put just about anything into hamburger (beef or turkey) meat. I also baked a lot from cookies (like laceys and gingersnaps) to bread (like sourdough and peasant bread) to snacks (like bagels and pretzels). I also got into blended fruit drinks and green smoothies.

To say the least, I think I've tripled my food knowledge this past year, which isn't saying much since I didn't know a lot in the beginning past the basics. On the other hand, I think ANYONE can cook if they can follow a recipe. From there, it's simply trial and error to learn new techniques (Googling is my friend both in learning new terminology AND finding new recipes (Pinterest is great for recipes too)), your tastes, and being able to manipulate recipes. I still can't really manipulate recipes and don't really have the desire to, but cooking is kind of like a science experiment and that I can handle!