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Fall Recipe Reviews
The fall just flew by. Between the girls starting school, some weekend getaways, and Hurricane Harvey, we certainly kept busy. But I was cooking a decent amount along the way. Most of the recipes were from a recent Wildtree Freezer Meal Workshop or were Instant Pot meals. Or both! Here are some of my favorite Wildtree and Instant Pot Meals for Fall, along with my ratings and thoughts.
As with every month, I will give the following information:
Description: A quick description of the recipe.
My Story: How and when I cooked it; any interesting tidbits.
Easy to Hard Scale: 1 is super easy. 10 is super hard. Thinking about the amount of dishes it takes, how many cooking methods and appliances. How fast it is to pull together.
Unhealthy to Healthy Scale: 1 is super unhealthy with no redeeming ingredients. 10 is super healthy. I am considering whole foods, fruits, vegetables, proteins to be the most healthy. Any straight white carbs would be the least healthy.
Would I Make it Again? Is this recipe worth adding to the rotation? How often would I make it? Would I recommend it to a friend?
Lasagna Skillet Meal
Description: This is an easy meal from Wildtree. You buy a little box that contains all of the spices (all Organic) and then follow the recipe on the box.
My Story: I bought a bundle of skillet meals a few months ago. They are really convenient if I have some staples in my pantry and ground beef or chicken. This one follows the recipe exactly, although I made another one just last night where I used rotini noodles and some petite diced tomatoes in addition to tomato sauce. (The above picture uses crushed tomatoes.)
Easy to Hard Scale: 2 Very Simple – one dish. Dump and cook. It takes about 25 minutes probably from start to finish.
Unhealthy to Healthy Scale: 5. Medium. It does use pasta, which isn’t my favorite healthy thing. But add some veggies and it can be a very well rounded meal!
Would I Make it Again? Yes! I already did.
Instant Pot Chicken Pot Pie
Description: A pressure cooker version of pot pie using canned biscuits.
My Story: I wanted to try out more Instant Pot recipes, but I also wanted to incorporate some more vegetables. So I searched out recipes and found this one from This Ole Gal. I had seen her name in the Instant Pot Facebook Group many many times and I had even followed her group and Facebook page.
I did make a few changes to this. She calls for biscuits in the Instant Pot so they turn out doughy instead of biscuity (and in fact she calls it dumplings in the title of the recipe). But I wanted that real biscuit feel, so I baked them in the oven while the rest of the recipe was in the Instant Pot. Then I served the chicken mixture over and open biscuit.
Mine also turned out rather watery and I think that might be because I used frozen vegetables that had some frost on them. Next time I try this I might go for a little less liquid and thaw the veggies first.
Easy to Hard Scale: 4. Easy to follow instructions., but there are a few steps. Only three dishes used: Instant Pot, Tray for the biscuits, and bowl to mix the sauce.
Unhealthy to Healthy Scale: 5. Yay for veggies but the biscuits aren’t the best (but so yummy!!) or the cream soup
Would I Make it Again? Yes! This was a big hit and made a ton. I was able to bring some extra to a friend who just had a baby. It is nice to have some tried and true Instant Pot Meals for Fall. This is an especially easy comfort meal. I’m sure we will have it again.
Baked Cajun Fish
Description: Cod baked with Cajun spices
My Story: I heard that a neighbor was having a Wildtree Freezer Meal Workshop. I had been wanted to go to one of these so I joined. I chose the Simply Wholesome plan which follows the rules of Whole-30. The workshop has you buy the groceries in advance and do some assembly and do the rest the night of the party when you get your box full of spices, sauces, etc. There were 10 recipes but I was able to split more than half of those in two so I ended up with probably 16 meals. (FYI If you want to check out some of the Wildtree workshop kits or other products, you can check out my consultant’s facebook group here and her shopping website here.)
This fish dish is simple yet flavorful.
Easy to Hard Scale: Super super easy … 2.
Unhealthy to Healthy Scale: 9. Very healthy! The recipe has you add cauliflower when you cook the fish. We usually add a salad to make this a super healthy meal.
Would I Make it Again? Yes. Especially since I have the other half of the meal in the freezer! And I think I would like to try this again with shrimp or salmon.
One Pan Steak and Vegetables
Description: A steak cooked with carrots, onions, and mushrooms.
My Story: This was another Wildtree Freezer Meal Simply Wholesome meal. I split this one in two also, so we have had it twice by now. Very yummy both times! I found it was essential to not overcook the steak. I did a better job with that the second time. You can always cook it more, but you can’t go back and cook it less.
Easy to Hard Scale: 2 very simple. And only uses one pan!
Unhealthy to Healthy Scale: 6 Depending on how healthy you consider steak. I don’t eat red meat that often so this was a nice treat and has veggies on the side.
Would I Make it Again? Yes. I can see this one becoming a regular.
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That’s it! Some recipes I’ve cooked in the last few months. Hope this inspires you to cook at home more and try new things.
To see other recipe roundups, check out the July Post and the original post here.
Be sure to check out my Pinterest board Yummies I’ve tried for links to all of the online recipes I have made. Or come and join the conversation in Alicia’s Organic VIPs! I usually talk about meal planning on Mondays and I’d love to hear about your recipes!
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