Paula Deen Challenge Meals

So all the hoopla with Paula Deen being diabetic and critics upset at her for teaching us to cook unhealthy foods has not stopped my Paula Deen challenge.  Her recipes are delicious so I will continue going through my cookbook.

The book is sectioned off into "Creamy", "Cheesy", "Chocolate" {can't wait to get to that section}, "Crunchy", and "Sweets".  I am making myself go in order page after page, because if I skip something I might be missing something really yummy.  So I'm in the "Creamy" section.

Recipe #1 was Mushroom Risotto.  I thought it was be yucky, but it was YUMMY!  I talked about this in a previous post, so I'll continue on.

Recipe #2 was Sausage and Pepperoni Baked Spaghetti.  Our's was actually baked Thomas the Train noodles instead of spaghetti noodles.  That's what was in my cupboard so that's what I used.  The rest of the ingredients were Italian sausage, onion, pepperoni slices, garlic, marina sauce, alfredo sauce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and mozzarella cheese.  It was good, but it didn't make me want more and more and more, which is how I am with plain ole' spaghetti.  And it made so much that I took some over to my grandma's house to share.

Recipe #3 was Buttermilk Biscuits and Homestyle Cream Gravy.  I used whole wheat flour so the biscuits turned out thick, but edible.  The gravy was edible too, but I don't plan on making it again any time soon.  I've never been able to make good cream gravy even out of a package.  But these biscuits and gravy were a good morning breakfast before we made deer sausage a few weekends ago, and Matt ate them for breakfast for about a week.

Recipe #4 was Chunky, Creamy Guacamole.  Now I'm not a fan of guacamole, but Matt and Brazos really enjoyed it.  I made it during our sausage making day and everyone liked it as a snack during lunch time.  I'll be making this again, maybe when I have to take a dip to a party.  It was simple to make - 2 avocados, 1/3 cup chopped red onion, 2 jalapenos, 2 tablespoons cilantro, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons lime juice.  Also, Paula said that placing an avocado seed in the guacamle can help maintain the bright green color.  My guacamole stayed bright green all day!

Recipe #5 was Loaded Baked Potato Soup.  All I can say is YUMMY!  {But next time I may not mash the potatoes so much and leave it a little chunky.}  Matt liked it, but he made the comment that he would like more meat with his meal.  Next time this will have to be served with something else, not alone as the main meal.

Recipe #6 was German Potato Salad.  The instructions said to cook the bacon and reserve 1 tablespoon of the drippings for the sauce mixture.  Well, I reserved the whole skillet of bacon grease, so my sauce mixture wasn't sticking together and had grease floating all over it.  I scooped off as much as I could and once I mixed everything together it turned out alright.  I'll try this recipe again one day.  I'll just need to make sure I follow directions more carefully.  We ate it hot, but I can also be chilled.  Also, we ate it with broccoli and deer steak....which I didn't realize until I took the picture that we ate the same thing with the mushroom risotto.  Oh well.  We have lots of deer steak so that'll be served with a lot of side dishes.

Recipe #7 was Chicken Alredo with Crispy Bacon.  I heard Matt telling someone, "It was as good as a restaurant meal and it even had bacon!"  It was delicious and the recipe made alot, so we ate it for three meals.  I thought about sharing it with my mom because she loves chicken alfredo from the Olive Garden.  But she is kind of picky and I could already picture and read her facial expression, "It's okay, but not as good as the Olive Garden."  So I kept the rest and had three meals.

So this brings me to last nights meal.  Recipe #8 was Creamy Tomato Soup.  I've tried tomato soup from a can and didn't like it, so I wasn't looking forward to this recipe.  My mother-in-law suggested serving sandwiches with it.  I ended up making grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and cabbage salad with the soup.  The soup wasn't that bad and had a zesty flavor.  We still have two bowl fulls in the fridge and I'm not sure if they will get eaten.  Tomato soup isn't something that you like so much that you eat all the leftovers, so we'll see if it disappaers or not.  Matt made the comment last night that he felt old eating soup and sandwiches for dinner.

I'm going to try to get better at taking pictures of the food, but right now I just take a close up because then you can't see the mess I made in the kitchen.  I would love for the photos to look like they do in the cookbook, but I don't have time to set a gorgeous table especially when a hungry husband is waiting for his food.  

Happy eating, YALL!













My Paula Deen Challenge

For Christmas my mom gave me a Paula Deen stockpot and two Paula Deen magazines with delicious recipes.  After looking through one of the magazines and wanting to eat every picture, I decided to challenge myself.  I thought about doing this challenge last year, but it didn't happen, so this year I'll try.  Remember the movie Julie and Julia?  Julie cooks every recipe in a cookbook written by Julia Childs.  Well, that's my challenge with this Paula Deen magazine.

So tonight I cooked the first recipe {yes, I'm going page by page in the magazine because if I skip around then I'll never make everything}.  I have to admit that the first recipe looked yucky to me but I cooked it anyway.  It was Mushroom Risotto.  I made a few mistakes during the cooking process, such as adding too much rice or letting my butter cook away before I could add the other ingredients, but Paula would say Honey, just through another stick of butter in there!  So I did. :)

The rice didn't cook all the way and I didn't buy enough chicken broth, so the rice turned out a bit on the crunchy side.  My sweet husband told me that it was perfect and he likes his rice crunchy.  Even Brazos ate it by the handfuls!

Here's my first challenge meal:

I served it with boiled broccoli and fried deer steak.  Although I was thinking "yucky", it was delicious.  I guess Paula Deen really does know what she's doing. ;)  If you want the recipe just let me know and I'll share!

 Let's see what tomorrow holds in store for the Supak kitchen!