Five for Friday: New Recipes

Happy Friday! We working stiffs made it through another week.

I love trying new recipes, and generally work in two or three new dishes every week. Today I’m sharing five that have been outstanding.

1. Orzo with Gruyere and Garden Vegetables, by BevCooks

This vegetarian dish is perfect for the end of summer – it’s reasonably quick, uses fresh summer vegetables, but the gruyere makes it taste slightly fall-ish. The mix of fresh cherry tomatoes and canned fire-roasted tomatoes is nice, too.

2. Grilled Maple Dijon Salmon, by How Sweet Eats

Jason is kind of a freak for salmon, so I’m always looking for slightly new ways to cook it. This was a winner – the dijon mustard glaze was simple and tasty, and adding bacon is always a victory in my book.

3. Chickpea Curry with Coconut Rice, by How Sweet Eats

(Yes, I love How Sweet Eats. Possibly too much.) This is another meat-free recipe featuring leeks, which I adore. I didn’t have the fortitude to make the coconut rice, so we had regular rice. I think it would have also been tasty with rice noodles. I doubled this recipe and the leftovers held up well.

4. Caramelized Onion, Gruyere & Pepper Bacon Pizza, by How Sweet Eats

And here is where the virtuous eating ends. This pizza is amazing, and I’ll be making it over and over this fall. I make my own crust, but use the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. (Special note for Tallahassee folks: If I don’t have time to make pizza dough, I’ll buy dough from Momo’s Pizza.)

5. Roasted Summer Vegetable Mac & Cheese, by (no surprise here) How Sweet Eats

You roast a pan of vegetables, then you make some mac & cheese. Why have I not thought of this before??? At first, I was a little leery of putting roasted corn into mac & cheese, but it works. If this seems similar to Recipe #1 above…. it kind of is. Oops. Good thing I can never get enough carbs + cheese.

School starts in Leon County on Monday, and already the dread is infecting the house. Well, the children’s dread, anyway. I’m too busy dusting off my pom-poms for football season.