Pinterest Dinner Ideas Winners and Losers Vol.1

My family has had to endure my recent dinner trails.
Some, they are fond of, and some won’t be coming back to the table.

All of the dishes below, came from Pinterest and were posted by other bloggers/foodies.

The only credit I take is for trying them out and testing them on my family. I have opted not to tell my family what ingredients I use, besides the main item (chicken, beef, pork). This way, they can try something new and not complain, especially if they loved the dish.

WINNERS

Cheesy Lasagna Roll Ups

Pasta is something my family eats often, so this was just a new way to feed it to them. I typically do not use Ricotta in my recipes, but I followed the recipe to a tee and every plate was wipes clean with the bread. This dish was been requested back at the table.

This was an unexpected win. My kids usually aren’t a fan of creamy cheeses, so I’ll take to ricotta and run with it !

Easy Crispy Mongolian Beef

I love Steak ! That is the 1 meat I could probably eat every day and never get tired of. So I am always trying to find new ways to change up my favorite meat. This recipe called for ingredients I had never used, such as Hoisin Sauce and Rice Wine vinegar (It’s okay, I’m in shock too).
I think this is the one dinner idea that hubby was most looking forward to as well. We both love Asian Cuisine, though our kids are not fans.
My steak was not crispy for 2 reasons: I didn’t have enough cornstarch, and I really didn’t want to immerse the steak into a fully fried dish.

I also made egg noodles in addition to the rice, since my youngest is not a rice fan.

This is another dinner dish that has been given thumbs up from all of the family, and will find its way back into the dinner rotation.

LOSERS

Spinach Chicken Casserole with Cream Cheese and Mozzarella

I wouldn’t call this an “All Out Losing“ dish. But as a full recipe, it was not a huge winner. The cream cheese did not spread out easily for me and honestly, everyone took as much of it off, as they could. The flavors were they and I will admit, the cream cheese was definitely different. Hubby requests that I try it with ricotta if I plan on making it again. The dish itself is super easy to make and I wish the flavors would have meshed better for our palates.

But I can’t win em’ all….

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Now, I have made Stroganoff before, just never with ground beef. Again, this was not an “All Out Losing“ dish. While my family ate it, and liked how it tasted, they said it smelled weird. I don’t quite understand that. This is an easy recipe to make and I like the Stroganoff sauce itself. It reminded me of a fancier, less salty hamburger helper.

The kids basically picked out the meat and ate the noodles.

My hubby LOVES hamburger helper and even he wasn’t a huge fan of this dish!

I’ll need to revisit it later.