So we’re really getting down to the wire here. Last time I checked in, we were left with these eight recipes:
Soups
Chicken
Meaty
5. beef gyros
Other
Certainly not the recipes that I thought would make it this far! But that’s the beauty of letting others pick and score. It’s not just about me.
Here’s how this round went down:
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| Cordon Bleu Soup |
|
Recipe:
|
Prep time/ease of
ingredients (10 points) |
Likeliness of
making it again (30 points) |
Overall flavor (50
points) |
Value $ (10 points)
|
|
9
|
27
|
50
|
8
|
|
|
8
|
20
|
35
|
7
|
|
|
Recipe 1 notes and
review:
This soup is
awesome! The hardest part is making the roux, and that is extremely easy! My husband said “I’d buy it”. Great praise from him. The soup is very tasty and easy. Definitely going into our meal repertoire. Goes together very fast (just dump everything in the crockpot). Can’t get much easier than that. |
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Recipe 2 notes and
review:
This is a good
soup, but it has a different taste (which I attribute to the red wine vinegar). Easy to make. Prep was fairly easy since I have a veggie chopper. Without one, you would probably spend a little time dicing the onion, celery, etc. In any event, a good soup and worth the time. |
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Final Score:
Cordon Bleu Soup: 94
Beef and Barley Soup: 70
Review by Lynda
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| Hawaiian Chicken |
|
Recipe:
|
Prep time/ease of ingredients (10 points)
|
Likeliness of making it again (30 points)
|
Overall flavor (50 points)
|
Value $ (10 points)
|
| Hawaiian Chicken | 10 |
25
|
45 | 10 |
| Massaman Curry | 10 |
24
|
45 | 9 |
|
Recipe 1 notes and review:
Yet another close game this week! So close it was parents against kids. And because there are more kids at our house their vote tipped the scales to a very close win.
This game was so close we had such a hard time finding a winner. As a matter a fact we got into a voting war at the dinner table! My oldest son should go into debate. When he really believes strongly enough in something, he can give a very convincing argument. If it were up to me we would have had a tie. Is that even possible? Both dishes were just so GOOD! Both recipes were just dump and go. And they did not need to cook all day to turn out great in the evening. Don’t get me wrong I like that feature some days, but so many times I get busy in the mornings. The next thing I know it is noon, and I still have to cook dinner for 8 hours! It was nice to have a cook time of 4-6 hours!
The flavor of the Hawaiian chicken was much easier for my children to handle. The sweet and tangy sauce with the pineapple, soy sauce, brown sugar, and vinegar was so good! Who could go wrong with those ingredients. Everyone cleaned their plates! That is what a mom likes to see. I had to police the crockpot so I would have leftovers for lunch the next day. I also liked that I had all ingredients in the pantry. I love that on my budget. I will definitely make this again. |
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Recipe 2 notes and review:
My husband and I LOVED the Massaman Curry. I was surprised at the depth of flavor and creamy goodness. After sampling the curry I thought for sure my children would love it also. Who wouldn’t like peanut butter chicken? They each tried it, and most of them even took more than one bite, but not one of my children finished their plates. I did have to buy coconut milk which can get pricy on a budget. So a few points were taken of for value. Although my children did not enjoy this as much as I did, I will be making this for us again. It would freeze well and I can have this on mac & cheese nights. {I’m not really a fan of mac & cheese…SORRY}
|
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Final Score:
Hawaiian Chicken: 90
Massaman Curry: 88
Review by Jody
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| Cafe Rio Beef (photo by Jessie from http://borntocrock.blogspot.com/) |
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| Beef Gyros (photo by Jessie from http://borntocrock.blogspot.com/) |
|
Recipe:
|
Prep time/ease of ingredients (10 points)
|
Likeliness of making it again (30 points)
|
Overall flavor (50 points)
|
Value $ (10 points)
|
| Cafe Rio | 10 | 30 | 50 | 10 |
| Beef Gyros | 9 | 15 | 25 | 10 |
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Recipe 1 notes and review:
This recipe was a repeat for me. I made it way back in round two when my husband was out of town. I KNEW he’d love it just as much as I did, so I had no problems crocking it again. I could eat this every day and be happy. Turns out, my husband could, too! We’re both big fans of crocked beef, so this bracket was super fun our taste buds!
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Recipe 2 notes and review:
We were both REALLY looking forward to this recipe because we love gyros. We had 4 friends over for dinner the night I crocked this. Luckily, it made enough food for all of us! Our friends thought this was pretty
awesome, but my husband and I weren’t all that impressed. The meat was drier than we’re used to and the pitas I found (the only ones the store had…and that’s after I had a nice sales clerk if they were hiding them
somewhere) were dry and crumbly. I’d attempt to make this again, but after I made some changes and found better pitas. The faux tzatziki sauce was delicious.
|
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Final Score:
Cafe Rio Beef: 100
Beef Gyros: 59
Review by Jessie
I had so many people that wanted to help out with this last round so I let 2 different people review the lasagna versus the salsa rice bake. They both came up with a different winner so I averaged the scores and the lasagna came out as winner.
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| Turkey Lasagna |
Here is Amelia’s Review of the 2 recipes:
Total prep time was about 25 minutes, but could have been a breeze if I
already had left-over rice or ground sausage ready to go. Very easy to put together and the ingredients
were easy to find.
already had left-over rice or ground sausage ready to go. Very easy to put together and the ingredients
were easy to find.
The flavor of the recipe was strong and delicious. I don’t normally use sausage or brown rice in
recipes (because of my kids), but I loved it! My husband and I really enjoyed
it, but felt that something was missing or that there could have been something
else in it.
recipes (because of my kids), but I loved it! My husband and I really enjoyed
it, but felt that something was missing or that there could have been something
else in it.
I felt it was a very affordable meal as there are only a few
ingredients – most of which you probably already have. It would even be good as a side at a family
Mexican night.
ingredients – most of which you probably already have. It would even be good as a side at a family
Mexican night.
I only spent 15 minutes getting my Lasagna ready and assembled into the
crock pot. It was my first time ever
making lasagna and found it to be very easy and quick to throw together. My husband loved this Lasagna and even had
3rds. My kids weren’t as thrilled but
they are very picky eaters. We would
definitely make this again in future. The flavor was delicious. At the store, I could only find an Italian
Turkey sausage and figured that would work for the lasagna and it really amped
the flavor. Adding the mozzarella
cheese, the ricotta cheese and the sausage, I wouldn’t say it’s a very cheap
meal but still on the affordable side as it goes a long way. Based solely on taste, we would definitely
pick the Turkey Lasagna to win.
crock pot. It was my first time ever
making lasagna and found it to be very easy and quick to throw together. My husband loved this Lasagna and even had
3rds. My kids weren’t as thrilled but
they are very picky eaters. We would
definitely make this again in future. The flavor was delicious. At the store, I could only find an Italian
Turkey sausage and figured that would work for the lasagna and it really amped
the flavor. Adding the mozzarella
cheese, the ricotta cheese and the sausage, I wouldn’t say it’s a very cheap
meal but still on the affordable side as it goes a long way. Based solely on taste, we would definitely
pick the Turkey Lasagna to win.
Here is Mindy’s Review:
I pretty much loved this dish. First let me just say that Jimmy Dean pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbles may be my best friend. I have an unhealthy fear of raw meat so this made the meal so doable for me 🙂 Since I didn’t have to cook or season the turkey sausage the prep work was super easy. I made the rice in my rice cooker, and when it was done I mixed everything together in the crockpot. No hard to find ingredients here. I sort of loved it. May have had 3 helpings. I loved the way the flavors blended together and the sour cream was super tasty with it. I was worried that it wouldn’t be very filling but the brown rice and sausage made it hearty. My 7 year old picky eater loved it and my 5 year old who eats everything snubbed it. Go figure. This meal is pretty budget friendly (thought if you get the lazy person sausage like I did it costs a bit more). Yum. Too bad all the leftovers are gone…
Gotta say I was pretty excited to learn that I could make lasagna in the crockpot! It was also quite nice to not have to deal with layering cooked noodles. This meal was fairly easy to prep (especially since I used my pre-cooked sausage crumbles again). There was a little bit of veggie chopping (though I just couldn’t bring myself to use the peppers or mushrooms, so I used zucchini and I highly recommend it!) Then just mix and layer-awesome! I only have a 4-qt soup pot style crockpot so I was worried about not being able to fit enough noodles in. I ended up only using 6, but it turned out just fine. We will totally make this again-the kids loved it and I didn’t even hear a complaint about the zucchini :). It tasted great but I did notice that the noodles were a little bit mushy. The meal was also pretty affordable.
So the final four recipes are: Cordon Bleu Soup, Hawaiian Chicken, Cafe Rio Beef and Turkey Lasagna…more results soon!
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