Cooking Challenge: Week 2 Review & Week 3 Recipes

As a reminder, I look at a couple of factors when deterimining whether or not to keep a recipe:
* is it really good? (ok doesn't make the cut)
* was it worth the time and effort of cooking it?
* is it healthy enough that I can serve it without feeling like I need to warn people about an imminent heart attack?
* were any of the ingredients cost prohibitive?
You may have noticed that most of the recipes I've stockpiled over the years are from Cooking Light- I find that they generally do a good job of balancing these concerns and producing tasty meals.

Recipe 1: Szechuan Pork, from Cooking Light June 2008
This was tasty, and filling. It was a little finicky with cooking the pasta separately, but not horribly so. I would definitely recommend cutting the pork thinly if you do this- I ended up having to cooking things quite a bit longer than it called for, although it was still ready in less than an hour (including prep time).

Recipe 2: Grilled Zucchini with Sea Salt, from Cooking Light September 2011
This was a very simple, very tasty recipe. Honestly, you don't really need a recipe for this- slice your zucchini, cook it in a hot pan with some oil, and put salt & pepper on. I will absolutely be making this again, but I doubt I'll refer to the recipe to do it.

Recipe 3: Cheesy Meatloaf Minis, from Cooking Light November 2012
This was my first foray into meatloaf, and I was pretty impressed. It did involve pre-cooking some onion and garlic, and there were a decent number of mix-ins, but nothing too unusual (we had everything except the cheese and ground beef in our cupboards already). I would recommend using a milder cheddar- we used a sharp one and it got a little strong in the bites with cheese. But this is absolutely a keeper.

Week 3 Recipes:

Recipe 1: Simple Clam Chowder, from Cooking Light January 2008
Recipe 2: Chicken Cacciatore, from Cooking Light October 2009
Recipe 3: Roasted Butternut Squash and Shallot Soup, from Cooking Light November 2008