Tomato Basil Pasta
February 8, 2019 7:00 AM
I actually make pasta a lot when I'm on my own, but my sister isn't a huge fan which is why I haven't posted any pasta dishes yet. Pasta is a go to dish for me if I'm feeling lazy.
Which is kind of crazy, because if you think about it, pasta dishes at restaurants will cost close to $20, whereas something like pho costs $7 and pho requires lots of ingredients, and is incredibly time consuming.
Anyway, I decided to make Budget Byte's Fresh Tomato Basil Pasta with Ricotta since I had most of the ingredients on hand already. I really only had to buy pasta and tomatoes. This was a super easy dish to make, so it's good for a quick weeknight meal.
Coffee Ice Cream Taste Test
February 9, 2019 11:28 AM
Remember how I said most of my impulse purchases are seafood? Well the rest of them are ice cream. I'm not a huge dessert person, but I absolutely love ice cream, and I especially love coffee ice cream.
I love it so much that I get super angry at Giant Eagle for having 15 versions of vanilla and barely any coffee.
Now I'm on a mission to find the best coffee ice cream.
We sampled four different brands: Edy's, Trader Joe's, Haagen-Dazs, and Graeter's. Here they are, ranked from worst to first.
4. Graeter's Vienna Coffee
I don't know why, but I had higher hopes for this brand. Out of the four scoops of ice cream, this was definitely the one with the least flavor. It was also incredibly air-y. My sister said it was more like foam than cream. As of right now at Giant Eagle, a pint costs $5.49 (on sale). I don't think I'll ever buy it again.
3. Edy's Slow Churned Coffee
This was the most mainstream of all the ice creams. It was also, by far, the sweetest. This is the brand of ice cream that I've usually gotten, but I wish their coffee had more of a coffee flavor. Good texture though. While I wouldn't go out of my way to get Edy's coffee, if I see a 1.5 quart for $3.50 (on sale), I'll still grab it.
2. Haagen-Dazs Coffee
I've always liked Haagen-Dazs, but rarely bought it because of the price. What I noticed about this scoop was that it had a more subtle flavor, less coffee and more toffee or caramel. It was $3.99 (on sale) for slightly less than a pint. Even though I thought it tasted better than the scoop of Edy's ice cream, I'd probably still buy Edy's over it because of the price.
1. Trader Joe's Coffee Bean Blast
The first time I tried Trader Joe's coffee ice cream, I was really surprised at how good it was. It is the most coffee-y coffee ice cream I've ever had, and the texture is amazing. Incredibly creamy. Compared to the other three brands, it absolutely stands out. I mean it even stands out in the picture because of how much darker it is. One quart is $3.99, and it's the only reason I ever go to Trader Joe's.
I know I ranked them and criticized them, but they're all still coffee ice cream so they're all still delicious. Maybe we'll try some more brands and have another taste test.
Ice cream tub pictures are taken directly from the ice cream manufacturer's websites, since we forgot to actually take pictures of the containers.
Odds 'n Ends
February 10, 2019 8:50 AM
Just another post of three recipes that I'm lumping together for no apparent reason. All of these recipes are from Budget Bytes.
Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
Remember that salad we had a while ago? Well we turned the rest of the cabbage into stir fry.
My mom bought me this huge 6 quart pan years ago, and I finally took it out of the box. Which was a good idea, because the first time I ever stir fried cabbage I spilled it everywhere since it barely fit in the pan.
Fluffy Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes
Well, at least I think that's what recipe my sister used. I was feeling mentally drained after work on Friday, so she cooked this on her own.
Our mashed potatoes weren't really all that fluffy since they were only hand mashed. But I personally like it with chunks. I know my sister deviated from the recipe, but that was mostly because she didn't really measure everything.
Oh, and she added a whole head of roasted garlic.
German Potato Salad
And this is what I used the other half of the potatoes for.
I probably should have cut the potatoes before boiling them because I think they still had a bit of a crunch in the middle. Oh well, I've talked to people that eat potatoes raw so I figured it's okay.
If I make this again, I would cut the potatoes in half before boiling, and also use way more bacon than it calls for. I doubled the bacon, but it still felt like it could have used more.
Drumsticks and Broccoli
February 11, 2019 9:00 AM
Chicken drumsticks were on sale at Aldi for $.69/lb so I wanted to make something using them.
Budget Bytes is always my go to place for recipes, so I looked up ones with drumsticks and I decided to make Cilantro Lime Chicken Drumsticks. We doubled the recipe since I bought a value pack that came with 12 pieces of chicken.
I think the recipe is great, but next time I'll marinate the chicken in a bowl instead of a bag. It's too much of a pain to try and scrape off the marinade inside a plastic bag. I only broiled it for 3 minutes, and next time I'll go with 4. Some of the drumsticks could have used a bit of crisping up on top.
And because I think vegetables are important, I also bought broccoli and roasted it, just like in this Chili Roasted Broccoli recipe. This is my absolute favorite way to prepare broccoli.
To be extra fancy, we added chives to the mashed potatoes.
Honey Walnut Shrimp
February 15, 2019 4:10 PM
Also known as Mayonnaise Shrimp.
I know I've eaten this at Chinese restaurants plenty of times, but I never really got excited for it until my aunt decided to make it for Thanksgiving one year. Ever since then, it's become one of my family's most requested Thanksgiving dishes.
And this year my family had it for Chinese New Year. But my sister and I didn't get to go home so we had to make it for ourselves. Shrimp was on sale this week so I had to buy it!
We used this Walnut Shrimp recipe from The Woks of Life. It was delicious, but I think it could have used more breading though. It also only called for a pound of shrimp and it claimed to make 4 servings, but those must be some tiny servings. We made 1.5 lbs and I think that might have been enough for 3 people.
I'll definitely be making this again.