Lisa's "Corned" Beef Cabbage

So after looking at Judy and Kathleen's corned beef, I was wondering why their beef looked pinkish. Then when I saw my "corned" beef, I realized why theirs were pink and mine was NOT. They actually got corned beef, whereas I just got beef brisket.

I also did not follow the recipe AT ALL. I did not use dry mustard, thyme, or parsley. I was way too cheap to buy a whole thing of mustard or fresh thyme. But it still turned out pretty good. But it just didn't taste like corned beef because it wasn't corned! I guess I'll have to try this again. I do like this recipe because you just put everything together and forget about it.

Cost breakdown:

Onions $1.00
Carrots $0.17
Cabbage $1.68
Beef about $8

Bread $3.19

Total: $14.04

Judy's Corned Beef and Cabbage

The Mister asked "Since when did we become Irish?" I replied, "Since I joined the Best Supper Club!" :p I cooked the corned beef and cabbage exactly as the recipe instructed to do so and used the entire seasoning pack that it came with. Like Kathleen, I also made Pioneer Woman's crash hot potatoes. In addition, I made Guinness Brownies for dessert and the Mister had a cold Guinness with his meal. The verdict, I know it's suppose to be salty, but the meal was way too salty for my liking (and I like salty!) I think to even out the saltiness, you need bread or drink a lot of Guinness to wash it down. When I asked my toughest critic, he replied "It tastes like Irish pub food." Meh, we both agreed the corned beef and cabbage was something we would have once a year. However, the crash hot potatoes was a HUGE hit. So I definitely plan on cooking that again when we have steak. The Guinness brownies were very rich and were hardly sweet at all. I will probably stick to regular brownies! Here is our St. Patty's Day Feast:

(Like Lisa, I don't have food photog skills like Kathleen!) With the leftover corned beef, I will be making reuben sandwiches as well :)

Kathleen's Corned Beef and Cabbage

I made this on Sunday and was very pleased with the results. I got my corned beef at Costco several weeks ago and was crazy surprised when I found a thick layer of fat on the underside of it. Did any of you guys get that too? I've never used brisket before so I don't know if that comes standard or what but I ended up trimming it all off (most of it anyway). I pretty much followed the recipe exactly except I added about half of the seasoning packet that came with the corned beef (after reading reviews). I wasn't sure what to do with the onions so I cut them in half. I love corned beef (looking forward to ruebens later this week!) so I really liked this recipe.

I served the corned beef and cabbage with the Pioneer Woman's crash hot potatoes. I made them at night which is why picture is so crappy. They aren't exactly "floury" potatoes but they are potatoes nonetheless!

Judy's Chicken Spaghetti

This was my first Pioneer Woman recipe! I thought the dish was good and so did the Mister although I had two fails.
Fail #1 I didn't used the cream of mushroom (because the last time I used it with the pork chops, I didn't like it too much) and so I went with the alternative Kathleen found instead. However, I realized that I did not have chicken bouillon like I originally thought I did, so I substituted the water with chicken broth. For some reason when I mixed everything up, the cornstarch didn't break down or thicken or do whatever it's suppose to do. It wasn't creamy and instead settled on the bottom of the casserole and turned kind of gooey during the bake.
Fail #2 With PW's wonderful step by step pictured directions, I somehow missed that you were suppose to put the last half of the cheddar cheese on top after the casserole baked not before, therefore I ended up with a melted cheesy mac and cheese type layer on top.
I used only thigh meat and two cups of cheese.
I will attempt to make this again, but I plan on using canned cream of broccoli (I like broccoli) and a different type of cheese. The sharp cheddar was, well, too sharp for my taste! I do look forward to making more PW recipes :)

Jennifer's Chicken Spaghetti

I made the chicken spaghetti for dinner tonight for my family. Overall, it was a success. I did make a few small changes. I used linguine instead of spaghetti and did not break apart the linguine into 2 inch pieces. I also did not have Lawry's seasoned salt so used Cajun seasoning instead - they have similar contents so it worked out fine. I added red pepper flakes for a spicier taste and used chicken breast. Next time, I'd try using a different kind of cheese and cook it in the oven for less than 45 minutes. This was so easy to make. I'd definitely make this again!

Lisa's Chicken Spaghetti

So I just finished making the chicken spaghetti...and i just tasted it...i think overall, it's pretty good but a little too cheesy for me...it's not that i hate cheese but not a huge fan...i can definitely live without cheese in my life.

the pioneer woman went easy on the cayenne pepper, and i think i went a little overboard with that and the black pepper...it has a nice kick for me, but for roger, i think it might be too much of a kick for him.

i pretty much followed all the directions and recipes...i used 2 legs and 2 thighs for my chicken and it was a perfect 2 cup! grated my own cheese because it was cheaper to get the block of cheese. only used 1 cup of chicken broth because i liked how the PW warned to not make it soupy, only wet enough to stir.

overall, i'd make it again!! especially because i can freeze and then just pop it in the oven!

Kathleen's Chicken Spaghetti

Pioneer Woman is the bomb! My chicken spaghetti was much more successful than my soup last week. Instead of using a whole fryer, I used two boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I only had half a box of (whole wheat) pasta and when I broke it up, it only ended up being 2 cups, but my pieces were smaller than PW's. I reserved chicken water, but didn't end up using it. And instead of the cream of mushroom soup, I used this cream of chicken soup mix with 2 1/2 cups of water. I also used a Mexican cheese blend (from Costco) instead of all cheddar and tried to cut back a little. I think I ended up using about one cup in the casserole and one cup on top. Lastly, I prepared this in two separate Pyrex dishes. I cooked one, and stuck the other in the freezer. Hopefully it will cook up nicely some day in the future. It tasted great! The only thing I would change is I would cut the onion into smaller pieces. Since it is only cooked in the oven, it was still a tiny bit raw, which I liked, but other people might not. Oh, that reminds me, I only used half an onion. But that's because I had an enormous one. I think half of it counted as one medium onion. I'm going to save it for next week's onion heavy corned beef recipe!