Now that I’m not in finals mayhem anymore, I’ve been doing a lot more cooking and baking and a little bit less persuading Brandon to go out to tacos every night. It’s been a while since I really had time to try out new recipes beyond our go-to meat and veggies combo (usually steak, shredded beef from the crock pot, or salmon, plus broccoli or green beans, and maybe also rice or taters), and it’s been a REALLY long time since I baked anything for some reason, even though I really kind of love to bake. So here we are. And here are the recipes I’ve been trying lately.

Peanut Butter Brownies from Smitten Kitchen

These were pretty easy to make, and though I may have added a little extra salt, everything about them was very tasty and a lot milder than we were expecting. As in, easier to eat the whole pan in one setting. So there’s that.

Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Smitten Kitchen

These turned out pretty good, and the dough was a-MAY-zing, but to be honest I didn’t feel like these really brought anything new to the chocolate chip cookie table, except maybe ginormous chunks of chocolate in the dough, which was great.

Lemony Chicken Spring Veggie Soup from The Little Apron

We used potatoes instead of quinoa here, and used a rotisserie chicken instead of cooking our own chicken breasts. We also added kale and ended up using onion instead of leeks because they didn’t have leeks at the store. So what I’m basically saying is, I made my normal chicken soup recipe but added herbs de provence and some lemon, and it was delish.

The best part might have been our homemade bone broth, and you can find my favorite easy-peasy bone broth recipe here. To make chicken broth, just use chicken bones or a chicken carcass left over from a rotisserie chicken instead of beef bones. Bonus points if you use chicken feet too (mmm, collagen!)

Sweet Potato Quinoa Tacos from Half Baked Harvest

To be honest, this recipe isn’t as much “new” as it is rediscovered. We made these last winter when we did a hut trip with a vegetarian, two people who couldn’t eat gluten, one who couldn’t eat dairy, and one who couldn’t eat eggs. But it turned out AMAZING and has become a go-to for nights when we’re really hungry but don’t necessarily want meat. It makes great leftovers and is also great for potlucks or for meals for friends who are recovering from illness/just had a baby/just moved, etc. Also, we have never actually made the pomegranate-cranberry salsa because it just seems like a ridiculous amount of work, so we usually buy pineapple or mango salsa and, as long as it’s a little bit sweet, I think it has the same delicious effect.