A Week of 'Pinned' Eats!!

Wow!!  It has been so long since my last post, and yet it seems like just yesterday.  The end of June and into July has been SO busy and crazy for Team Eckhardt!  So many adjustments and just a lot of unknowns.  Looking back it is so good to be able to see God's faithfulness in the midst of it all.  In sum, we found a place to live that is simply amazing and not what we were expecting at all.  We had some crazy financial issues that have been resolved... and more added on.  Michael's been offered his 'dream job,' and my grandmother survived a stroke.  Did I mention it's been crazy??  Ok, ok... more details are on the way, but first I need to back track a bit with some ideas I had intended to blog about, but unfortunately did not have the opportunity to do so in the midst of the craziness.

So, today, I wanted to post about a week in June where I tried a NEW Pinterest recipe each night!  But before I share the recipes I tried, I just wanted to preface a few things.  First of all, by sharing recipes on here I by no means try to take credit for these recipes.  My main purpose for posting them is to remain accountable to that silly list that I created the beginning of this year. You remember... that list that said I was going to try new recipes?  Yep, so that's what I am doing.  I also like to share comments so that friends/family members may want to try some of the recipes I've discovered as well.  This blog is not one where you will find a detailed 'how-to' recipe info but rather shared links to where I found the recipe in the first place. :)   Make sense?  Good.  Glad that's settled.

Day 1: Tuscan Bean Soup with Shrimp

I've already mentioned before that we LOVE shrimp, so this recipe is probably not a surprise :)  The Hubster and I really liked this dish.  It was delicious and 'hearty.' :)  Especially the kale in the soup.  I was not much of a fan of the kale in it, but the Hubster loved it.  Try it & see for yourself.

Here's how ours turned out!

Day 2: Baked BBQ Pork Chops &  Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms, Balsamic, & Parmesan
  
Well the BBQ pork chops are not new for Team Eckhardt, but I wanted to share the link of this easy recipe I use (hint: the names of recipes in orange are the links to the original recipes).  A little secret about the baked BBQ pork chop recipe is that I just used regular BBQ sauce and did not make my own.  Pretty easy, huh!? 

The roasted green beans with mushrooms, balsamic, & parmesan was NEW to the Team Eckhardt household and the Hubster & I loved this dish combined together!  

 Yum!

 Day 3: Lime & Coconut Chicken

I LOVE this dish!  My friend, Tracy, introduced me to this recipe & I love it!  Oh wait... already said that. The marinade is somewhat time consuming to make, but I was able to make it on Day 2 while the pork chops were cookin'.  So if you think you'd like this meal you will need to be ready for a day-before-prep rather than a night-of-prep. Just some little words of advice ;) 

Anyway, I simply added a mexi-corn mix out of a can (I think it was a Green Giant brand), and some brown rice.  Have I mentioned that I love this dish? :)  Thanks, Tracy!

Day 4:  Skinny Crockpot Pizza Casserole

Hip-hip-hooray for crockpots!!!  I love throwing in ingredients at the beginning of the day and then coming home to a meal that's already cooked :)  This recipe in particular was really easy to follow.  I made some minor changes like not having olives or something & it turned out fine.  The thing I would advise is to really only put the amount of water that it calls for.  I kept thinking it wouldn't be enough so I added a little bit more... The noodles were a tad overdone, but other than that the taste was good!

Day 5: Chickpea Salad 

Day 5 happened to be the night of our church's small group and it was our turn to bring a savory snack!  I had been wanting to try this recipe for Chickpea Salad for some time and thought it would be the perfect fun and refreshing snack!  It has so many fresh ingredients like cucumbers, basil, mint, jalapeno, cilantro, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, chickpeas... So many of my favorite things!!  The taste was amazing and I provided crackers for it to be eaten with.  Group members really liked it!

Day 6:  Raspberry Dark Chocolate Banana Bread

 For Day 6, we were ready for something sweet... And the Hubster made a comment that I rarely bake and of course I needed to show my skills in that area ;)  Duh.  For real though, we loved this bread... My favorite was the dark chocolate chunks.  I modified my  recipe to be a little healthier by substituting wheat flour for white and not all of the sugar it called for.  I noticed that the bread was not very 'moist'... (ew... I hate that word!), but it was still good. 











 This last picture is of an awesome Trifle dish that my girl, Kasie, made for small group one night... I don't have the recipe, but it was super delicious!!  Plus I wanted to display her mad strawberry-rose-crafted skills!!!  Yeah girl!

Well, that's all for now!! More updates to come... Plus pics of the new place!! ;)


Rebekah