Pinned/Did/Done 6/28

Balsamic Roasted Potatoes. The recipe also calls for asparagus but I didn't have any. These were good. Since there were leftovers, I heated them up the next day and they had lost the balsamic taste completely. You might need to add more if that's the case. But it's a good alternative to just olive oil or garlic, if you're looking for a new flavor for potatoes.

Vegan Banana Bread. I made this in muffin tins and froze them. It makes about 18 muffins and bakes at the same temperature for about 15 minutes. THEY WERE FANTASTIC. This will be a go-to recipe for me.

Lactation cookies. I made the dough, scooped it onto trays, froze it, and then put them into ziploc bags for later. I'll bake them when I need them. It seems promising. I also made a double batch of my favorite oatmeal cookies, froze the dough, and will bake them at some point. I plan to keep Scott away from the lactation cookies by telling him they have twice as many calories as regular cookies (which, they likely do).

Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Gnocchi. I like quick gnocchi dinners that I can just make on the stove in the summer, so roasting the vegetables kind of ruined that part. This was good, though. I prefer my eggplant breaded, in a parmesan-style, but it did the job and didn't take long to make.

Steel Cut Oats in the Instant Pot. Confession: we have a knock-off Instant Pot. Scott bought it to cook different meats and whatnot for himself while he was in charge of his own meal-planning this past winter in Wyoming. So the instructions on a lot of Instant Pot recipes don't always correspond to ours (It's a Farberware one). For this one, I followed the ingredient directions and just put it on for 30 minutes. It worked beautifully and I didn't seal in the steam to release it at the end. The oats just absorbed all the water, a lot like how a rice cooker would. My favorite part was that steel cut oats also take about 30 minutes on the stove, but they ALWAYS stick to the pan and make a mess. These came right out with no clean-up time.

Chicken Fried Rice in the Instant Pot. This came together really easily and I liked that you didn't have to use leftover rice. I will say that it needed more seasoning/soy sauce, so if you have go-to cocktail of seasoning for Asian food, use it. The method works really well if you like chicken fried rice. I left out the egg because I always pick it out anyway.

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal Muffin Cups.
These were really good as well.  I have a thing for oatmeal, I know. Reheating with some maple syrup makes a great snack or breakfast. I froze a few ziploc bags of these so we'll see how they hold up.

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Speaking of things you see on Pinterest, but would hopefully never try yourself...this is the most awful thing I've seen in awhile.

I was actually kind of horrified by it. 

What have you pinned and tried out lately? 

I'm trying to make good use of meal-planning again, so hopefully I'll have more to report on in the second half of 2018.