Pinterest Tested – September Week 1

In June, I did a “Pinterest Tested Challenge” post series. I tested several popular recipes that were pinned on Pinterest and did a side by side comparison. While that was fun, it sort of got a little boring eating the same thing twice. Not to mention, not all of the recipes were keepers.

This month, I wanted to try something different. Instead of trying out similar recipes, I’m going to test out random recipes from Pinterest and the Merry Monday Link Parties! After all, I did name this blog “My Pinterventures – Daily Adeventures Inspired by Pinterest”:-)

Here are the Pinterest Tested recipes that I’ve tried so far this week:

Pesto Ranch Dipping Sauce @ Gingerly Made (site no longer running)

Ginger at Gingerly Made makes her pesto ranch dipping sauce with her homemade pesto, but I used premade store-bought pesto (Three Bridges, needs to be refrigerated) and it was FABULOUS! I’ve never seen the kids gobble up baby carrots so fast. Plus, my oldest daughter actually asked for raw broccoli to dip! Say whaaaat?! Actually, my kids are veggie eaters, but if your kids aren’t, give this dip a try to see if it converts them.

Braided Pizza Calzones @ The Mamas Girls

Seriously, how can this not be good? I mean, look at that picture…yum! I know it looks time-consuming and complicated, but it really isn’t. I’ve already made this several times and the kids L-O-V-E it. I use the exact recipe on the site for the super quick dough and the butter garlic glaze (don’t skip this).

The recipe states to place your pizza on parchment paper, but I used a silpat mat. This prevents the pizza dough and any of the toppings that oozes out from sticking to your pan.

The dough bakes to a nice crisp outside, but is soft and chewy on the inside. Your filling will depend on what your family likes. We fill ours with leftover mushroom pasta sauce, pepperoni, spinach, onions, bell pepper, and cheese. It even tastes great with minimal ingredients of just pasta sauce, pepperoni, and cheese.

Soy Sauce Butter Pasta with Shrimp and Shiitakes @The Woks of Life

This recipe has everything that I love: pasta, shrimp, and shiitake mushrooms. Unfortunately, our family of six was split on this one. The boys didn’t care for this dish very much. My oldest son hated it (he used the word disgusting), my youngest son was indifferent, and my hubby wasn’t thrilled. The girls and myself liked this dish and I would make this again for myself 🙂

In the recipe’s defense, my two boys aren’t mushroom lovers and that’s probably the reason they weren’t thrilled with this dish. Also, the butter does give the noodles a slightly greasy feel to them. I plan on making this dish again, but I will use regular mushrooms, which are milder than shiitakes and add some baby bok choi for greens.

Garden Fresh Zucchini Fritters @Pure Grace Farms (site no longer running)

Since my kids are veggie eaters, I’ve made several veggie patty recipes over the years and decided to give Grace’s recipe a try too. I skipped the goat cheese topping and the jalapeno because two of my kids aren’t spicy food eaters. I also substituted one zucchini for a yellow squash and cut the cumin to only 1/8 tsp.

Feedback from the kids for this recipe was mostly positive. Overall they liked this recipe, but requested that I totally omit the cumin and sun-dried tomatoes. While I agree with the kids on the cumin, I actually liked the sun-dried tomatoes in the fritters. If I make this again, I plan on cutting back on the sun-dried tomatoes for the kids and will be making the goat cheese topping without the cumin.

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Those were some of the recipes we tried out this week. I plan on trying out an eggplant pizza next week and hopefully some fall desserts 🙂

What recipes from Pinterest will you be trying?