Insert Clever Math Pun Here

Inspired by Math by the Mountain’s weekly meal prep posts, I’m sharing some yummy recipes today. Now, I consider myself a pretty good baker, but (cue Richard Nixon voice) I am not a cook. I’m a math gal; I need specific rules to follow, none of this “a dash” “10 – 50 minutes, depending” or “to taste.” So if I can make these recipes, I bet you can as well.

Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta
Recipe from Genius Kitchen

Mr. Craig gets the credit for finding this recipe. I’m not a big pasta eater, but I usually clean my plate on this one. And now that we’ve made it about once a week for the last six months, we have it down to a science and can get it on the table in 15 minutes. After cooking it that many times, I’ve tweaked the recipe by (1) cutting out the tomatoes, green onions, and Parmesan cheese (but that’s just weird pickiness and laziness of not wanting to chop things) (2) increasing the cream to ¾ cup because more cream is never wrong, and (3) using the Buitoni refrigerated linguine-it just seems a bit tastier than boxed.

Yoste Roast
Recipe from Today Show

I made this from the What Can I Bring? cookbook and Mr Craig could not stop raving about how yummy it was! It’s even better the next day(s) on sandwiches. Even though a roast that big is kind of pricey, we got 4 days worth of dinner out of it. And those meals were darn good. Serving as sandwiches would also be a great party dish. Now a bit of truth in advertising: my roast turned out like a pot roast, delicious, tender, and fall-apart, not like the lovely strips in the picture. I just wanted you to be prepared in case you had this big, elegant, Pinterest display planned, as I’m sure you normally do for dinner.

Sheet Pan Chicken
Recipe from Barefeet in the Kitchen

Spoiler: if you come over to my house for dinner, you’ll probably be getting this meal. It is so easy, yet looks impressive when you plate it. Plus you put it in the oven 50 minutes before dinner and then you’re done. Be careful not to overcrowd your sheet pan or you won’t get the perfect crispiness on the potatoes or green beans (and I think the crispy green beans are my favorite part!). Also, maybe I’m just a meatasaur, but one chicken thigh is not enough for me. When I’m serving 4 people, I keep the potatoes and green beans the same, but buy another pack of chicken thighs, mix everything up in the biggest bowl I have, and split the recipe across two sheet pans.

The Sugar Cookies that Will Change the Way You Think about Sugar Cookies

We have a local German bakery that has the best sugar cookies that I have been trying to duplicate forever. These do not duplicate them, but they are even better. Now the problem I have is that nobody “wants” sugar cookies. I get requests for chocolate chip, chocolate crinkles, peanut butter…, but sad ol’ sugar cookie never gets invited. But I bring them anyway because people don’t know what they really want until I tell them and, what do you know, these cookies become the life of the party and always get invited back. Seriously, I found the recipe in October and I think I’ve made them seven times already (and I haven’t baked at all in January!).

I used a google hack of adding “best” when I searched “sugar cookie recipe,” and read a few of top hits, then modified this one from A Spicy Perspective  by (1) cutting the recipe in half [pro-tip: WRITE all the half amounts on a post-it so you don’t accidently put in the wrong amount when you’re glancing at the recipe] (2) adding ¼ teaspoon of almond extract (3) using the smallest OXO cookie scoop and baking for about 8 minutes.

Man, just typing about them makes me want to break my no-baking-in-January pledge! Enjoy! 🙂