I received the May 2010 Food Network magazine last week and decided to use recipes from its contents to feed our family for the week.  I chose Meaty Quesadillas, Chicken Tandoori, Skillet White Fish With Feta, Green Onion and Basil Salad, Curried Salmon Cakes, Ham-Taleggio Grilled Cheese and Trail Mix with Honey-Oatmeal Clusters.  I also made Italian Sausage Lasagna from my Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook and Strawberry-Banana Milkshakes from a recipe I heard on Nick Jr.

The Food Network magazines have such great articles and recipes, but my favorite feature is the Recipe Index at the front of each issue.  As soon as I get the magazine, I grab a notepad and write down the five or six recipes I am going to make for the week.  I write down the recipe name, the book it comes from and the page it is on.  Doing this helps when I have more than one book I am working out of for that week.  I then go through and read the recipes to see how long they will take so I know when I will need to make them according to our schedule.  I also check to make sure I have the majority of ingredients.  I make my grocery list and try to use substitutes when possible.  I try to pick recipes that have some similar ingredients such as the arugula and feta that I bought for this week’s recipes.  I also dig through my pantry to find the items that have been in there for a while.  I look through the magazine to see if they have any recipes that include these ingredients. 

Most of this weeks meals I made to the recipe, but I did change some of the recipes slightly.  I changed the Curried Salmon Cakes to crab cakes which turned out wonderfully.  I used the Ham-Taleggio Grilled Cheese as a template for my own recipe that I think I’ll call the Chipotle, Ham & Arugula Grilled Cheese.  I would say that the family favorite this week ended up being the trail mix.  I filled a airtight plastic container with homemade trail mix and left it on the table. Everyone has been munching on it all week and I even took a few small containers to my coworkers.  Look for later posts about each of the recipes I chose and what changes, if any, I made to make it my own. Cheers!

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Tags: Food Network, recipes, trail mix