Pinterest Tested #16

Here’s the first Pinterest Tested for March! Now, if you follow me on Pinterest, you know I have thousands of pins. So it’s only right that I test a few out, right? Well today, I’m sharing two pinned recipes and a popular stove cleaning technique.

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 Chicken Parmesan Bake @The Seasoned Mom

Blair’s blog, The Seasoned Mom, is one of my “go to” blogs to get quick and easy recipes. This time I decided to try out her Chicken Parmesan Bake that’s been pinned almost 700 times. For this recipe, I cut up my chicken because I was in a rush when I made this dish, so it may have altered the outcome of the dish.

My results & tips:

1. My bake didn’t come out as visually pretty as Blair’s bake because I cut the chicken into pieces to facilitate quicker cooking. If you’re planning on serving this dish to a dinner party, do not cut the chicken.
2. If you cut the chicken into pieces, increase the marinara sauce by at least 1 cup or more. The added chicken surface area made the baked dish a little dry.

I’m planning on making this dish again when I have the time to prepare it the way Blair’s recipe is written. I think slicing the chicken into strips caused the casserole to become a little dry, but the overall flavor was nice. If you plan on giving this recipe a try, stick to the original recipe and leave the chicken breast whole.

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 Pesto Alfredo Tortellini with Smoked Sausage @Belle of the Kitchen

I also tried the Pesto Alfredo Tortellini with Smoked Sausage from Belle of the Kitchen. This has been pinned almost 5,ooo times! Since we eat pasta at least once a week, this was a must try for me.

My results & tips:

1. I couldn’t find the same sausage that Ashlyn used in her dish, so I used Al Fresco chicken sausage.
2. The original recipe uses slices of sausage, but I removed the meat from the casing and cooked it like ground meat.

Overall, the kids really liked this dish and said it was a keeper. For me, I would like to add a bit more alfredo sauce to the mix because the leftovers tend to dry out a bit. Otherwise, I like how easy this dish is to prepare and will make this again with a little more sauce.

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Cleaning Grates on your Gas Stove @Pinching Your Pennies

Since the official first day of spring is tomorrow, it’s only fitting that I test a cleaning pin. I’ve actually tried this before and was totally amazed at how well this cleaning technique works.

All you need to clean your stove grates is ammonia, a plastic bag, and a soft scrub sponge!

Tips:

1. Use a good quality zipper sealed bag
2. Place the grate and sealed bag in the sink or a glass container as some of the ammonia will seep out
3. I increased the ammonia to 1/2 c. to cover more of the grate and let it sit overnight. This worked better than the 2-3 tablespoons in the original instructions.
4. I used a soft scrub sponge to help remove any stubborn spots
5. Make sure the windows are open or have a running fan on when you open the bag. The fumes are extremely strong and can burn your eyes and nose.

The proof is in the gross before pics and the nice and clean after pics…wow! The ammonia softens any caked on gunk and any remaining spots can be easily cleaned with a soft scrub sponge.

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