Creamy Butternut Squash & Chipotle Soup (vegetarian) - p284

Review: Wow was this spicy. Yummy, but spicy. I would definitely cut back on the chipotle peppers next time I make it. And this recipe might break the streak of soup recipes I won't make myself. I really liked that I got to cook the butternut squash before cutting it so it was SOOOOO much easier to cut. The flavor was amazing. Before the spice sets in. And it's pretty filling!

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 12/25/09

Slammin' Slimmed-Down Strawberry Daquiri (vegetarian) - p252

Review: Holy smokes was this drink AMAZING. I am in absolute LOVE. I could have this drink ANY time of day. It could be a morning smoothie! Lunch, dinner, nightcap - every meal! Count me in!

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 12/31/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=1530

Mojito Madness (vegetarian) - p250

Review: I did not like this at all. I've never been a fan of mojitos but this did not work out for me. My attempt to "muddle aka pulverize" the mint/lime juice did not work. And then everyone had big chunks of mint in their drinks but there wasn't any straining of the drinks. It definitely seemed to slow everyone down for the night. So sad.

Score: 1/5
Prepared: 12/31/09

Kickin' Cranberry Cosmo (vegetarian) - p249

Review: This drink was great if you like cranberry juice. It was definitely strong though. The bite of the cranberry juice does not conceal the bite of the liquor. I'd try it again sometime though.

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 12/31/09

3-for-1 Special Cherry Vodkatini

Review: This drink was ok. The artificial cherry was a strange flavor. I'm not quite sure what it was. It tasted stronger, for sure. For the same amount of points, I'd rather have one of the the other drinks.

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 12/31/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=1113

Pina Colada Freeze (vegetarian) - p246

Review: Wow, this drink was really good. It was definitely sweet but SOOO good. I couldn't even taste the alcohol in it and all of the recipes call for 1.5 oz. It was definitely a fun night! I will make this again. And again. And again!

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 12/31/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=1150

Chilly Chocolate Mudslide (vegetarian) - p245

Review: Oops! Looks like one got away from me! So I made this for my husband since he enjoys mudslides. I guess in the end if was like a chocolate milkshake. He said he could definitely tell there wasn't any Kalua or Bailey's in it which I guess in his opinion MAKES a mudslide. But it seemed to make a good vodka milkshake to me!

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 1/3/2010

http://food.yahoo.com/blog/hungrygirl/10895/freeze-it-s-hg-s-guide-to-chilly-cocktails

Magical Low-Calorie Margarita (vegetarian) - p244

Review: Dang this drink tasted for real. I'm not a huge margarita fan and it was definitely strong. But yowser, it was so real. And look how much 1 serving gives you! This drink even made me want to drink margarita's! Happy New Year!

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 1/1/10

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=869

Cheery Cherry Cobbler (vegetarian) - p200

Review: I can't believe I didn't make this sooner. Of course the hold up was that I couldn't find cherries. I missed fresh cherry season and finding frozen ones can be difficult. At first glance, I thought this would be disgusting. The cherries don't look appetizing at all. But it was REALLY good. The crumble is amazing though I recommend completing the last step in the food processor in batches or you'll get one big glob of crumbles. Definitely will make this one again!

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 12/27/09

Party Poppin' Trail Mix (vegetarian) - p150

Review: This recipe called for freeze-dried fruit so I used blueberries. Not sure if that was the greatest idea. Plus I dumped the whole bag in it which transferred all the blueberry dust which is very messy. The blueberry flavor kind of takes over. But I was super excited to find chocolate-covered soynuts. It took a while to find them but I did at Harmony Farms. It's my closest organic store but that was the first time I've ever been. And chocolate soynuts taste yummy! This recipe did grow on me but I recommend something other than blueberries. I turned blue the first time I ate it and have since taken to eating it with a spoon!

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 12/25/09

Snack-tastic Holiday Mix (vegetarian) - p144

Review: I really liked this recipe - I may even make it a holiday favorite. It wasn't difficult to mix and it tasted really good. I used freeze-dried cinnamon apples. It was so fun and crunchy!

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 12/24/09

V10 Soup (vegetarian) - p54

Review: This soup has like 2000 ingredients. They are surprisingly cost effective, easy to find and easy to prepare. I threw everything in a food processor and was done. It was SUPER exciting. When I saw the list of ingredients I was like, "ugh, this is going to take me all night!" but then I was done. I'm still not sure about HG's cooking times. This recipe called for the soup to simmer for like 20 minutes. I think I went with 40 or so and even then the celery was still really crunchy.

I forgot the green beans but I don't think it matters. All I can really taste is the broth and the celery. But the soup is hearty and it's freaking ONE POINT. How awesome is that??? PRETTY FREAKING AWESOME.

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 12/29/09

Southwestern Surprise - p65

(No Photo)
Review: Wow this recipe is GOOD. It shouldn't even be in the soup section of the cookbook - it's really more like a chili to me! It's super chunky with beans and diced tomatoes. You add Ranch dressing dry mix which I was super excited about but you can't taste it. I'd definitely like to make this again. And it doubles well. One serving is 3 points and 2 servings is 6 points. Awesome!

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 12/27/09

Kazu's Special Eggplant & Shrimp Soup - p64

Review: I am not a fan. Sorry, Kazu. It's not you, it's me. I don't do fish. I can take the shrimp in this soup and strangely the udon soup broth concentrate that is made from bonito, also does not bother me (though it was difficult to find!). For some reason, the eggplant soaked up ALL the fishy flavor inherent in the udon soup broth so the eggplant pieces were disgusting to eat. The broth was good to drink. Except the recipe also called for anaheim peppers and the grocery store had them mislabeled and I ended up with jalapeno. So, it was a little spicy. I finished my first bowl but that was all I could take.

Score: 2/5
Prepared: 12/29/09

Hot & Sour Soup - p62

Review: Wow this soup was yummy. I wasn't sure about it because I basically just cut the tofu into large logs which seemed wrong but then they broke up while cooking. It has a lot of flavor to it. I did use red curry paste instead of hot paste but I don't think it did much harm. It wasn't as spicy but that's probably a good thing for me! The recipe called for chicken broth but it could be easily transformed into a vegetarian dish with some veggie broth. Check this one out!

Score: 4.5/5
Prepared: 12/30/09

Rockin' Roasted Shrimp & Asparagus Corn Chowder - p60

Review: The concept of this recipe was awesome. But there were a couple thins off. I think the cayenne was a little much. HG likes stuff SPICY! Wow. I liked the shrimp in this recipe because I couldn't taste them but they snuck in as a protein source. I'm not sure that roasting the shrimp and asparagus does much for the recipe though. I actually used precooked shrimp and canned asparagus.

Also, the cooking time seems off. I cut my potato chunks smaller than 1" cubed and after 15 minutes of simmering, there was no way in hell that was going to mush up the potato. It was still good - just a little hard. And spicy. And surprisingly potato-y. There isn't much potato in this recipe but it seems to STRETCH out. Weird.

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 12/28/09

Peaches 'n Cream Pie - p216

Review: So, this recipe wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. By no means was it good but that might be more user-error than anything else. #1 - I totally thought the sound of peach Jello was disgusting. #2 - I'm not a fan of fiber one crusts. Plus my pie pan is deceiving and I always think I've pushed the crust far enough up the sides and I never do. So, what happens is that I end up with a REALLY thick crust on the bottom and not enough up the sides. And then I can't use all the pie filling. I only used about half.

Then I was really amazed when I cut the pie and everything held together! But then my slice was like 90% fiber one and 10% peach jello. It was pretty sad. Maybe I won't totally write-off Fiber One crusts. Oh and before you get all grossed out by the ingredients, think about it - it's not much different from eating a bowl of cereal with peaches. Kind of.

Score: 2/5
Prepared: 12/24/09

Mug O Pumpkin Creme (vegetarian) - p274

Review: This recipe was ok. It seemed like it could be awesome but left me wanting something. I dunno. I've been on a hot chocolate kit so maybe it just didn't meet my needs at the time? No idea. But I'm tired of buying soymilk so I'm going to look at 200 Under 200 and see what uses soymilk so I can use it up and be done with soymilk recipes. Anyway, the recipe was creamy and pumpkiny but I think the pumpkin pie spice makes it seem more artificial. I used 2 sweetener packets and it was sweet.

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 12/25/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=988

Sweet Cheese n Peach Cinnamon Raisin Kugel (vegetarian) - p263

Review: I was actually really surprised by this recipe. NOTHING about combining tofu shirataki noodles, cottage cheese, peaches and raisins (among other things) sounds good. But IT WAS GOOD. A little chewy but still really good. Yummy sweet. Now I just need to find someone to share it with. :)

The prep time wasn't bad. I didn't get to just nuke my tofu shirataki this time but had to COOK it in the pan. That was new. The part that took the longest was trying to wait for the cream cheese to soften. Eventually I gave up on that and put it in the microwave. There's a 30 minute bake time so don't sit down to make this if you're already hungry.

Score: 4.5/5
Prepared: 12/23/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=896

Spicy Tomato Soup (vegetarian) - p53

Review: This tomato soup definitely has a new combination of flavor. The Frank's and powdered creamer definitely bring their own spin to this traditional soup. It's not quite as creamy as I would have hoped but it's pretty good. It's not too spicy either. I substituted canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh so I probably could have skipped the first steps of cooking and cooling the tomatoes and gone straight to the blender. Or just bought pureed tomatoes. I'll have to consider that next time.

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 12/23/09

Noodlicious Veggie Crabcakes - p266

Review: This maybe my favorite tofu shirataki recipe. I substituted angel hair shirataki for spaghetti and assumed that these pancakes would cook up crappy like the zucchini or other pancake-like recipes but this one actually worked out pretty well. In fact, my husband tried one and said, "wow, this actually taste like crabcakes." If that's not a testimony, I don't know what is. Even with all the other random non-crabcake-like-stuff in them, the flavor is really good. Just a little more work than I like to put into my dinner.

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 12/22/09

Perfect Plum Tomato Cabbage Soup (vegetarian) - p49

Review: For anyone who has done the cabbage-soup-diet, this soup is not for you. It totally gave me flashbacks. I was super excited by how easy it was - literally the soup can cook in like 10 minutes. But I felt that that actually wasn't long enough - my cabbage was way too hard. Also seemed like a waste of time and money to buy fresh tomatoes when I could just use diced canned tomatoes. Best part about this soup? It was warm when I was cold.

Score: 2/5
Prepared: 12/22/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=976

Kickin' Chicken Tortilla Soup - p58

Review: This "soup" was more like a stew and it was super meaty. It was great. Thick and hearty for the cold weather. Yummy flavor. I like when I can just boil some chicken for soup. No thawing necessary. Though I think this recipe specifically called for "uncooked chicken" just to turn around and have you boil it so I had to thaw mine anyway. YUM.

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 12/2/09

Raspberry Mocha Madness Swappuccino (200 Under 200)

Review: I was eager to try out my raspberry syrup so I whipped this up without the coffee granules. There was no way my husband was going to try the coffee version for me. It had a decent flavor of chocolate and raspberry but not amazing. I'd rather stick to chocolate-dipped fruit or just keeping them separated. Finished it but won't be making it again.

Score: 2/5
Prepared: 11/23/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=1168

Rockin' Tuna Noodle Casserole - p258

Review: Pretty much, I wasn't a tuna noodle casserole person before this recipe and I'm still not. Once I got past the initial fishy-ness of it, the recipe was REALLY filling because it made huge portions that were low in points so I just ate more of it. I wouldn't make it again BUT I was able to finish it.

Score: 2/5
Prepared: 11/23/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=873

Groovy Grilled Fruit Fondue (vegetarian) - p194

Review: I took this to a party and it was a success. The dip was SUPER yummy. The recipe called for nectarines but I couldn't find any in November, so I opted for Mango. The recipe wanted the fruit grilled/pan seared. I did that to the apples, bananas and pineapple. I think it just made the banana look gross. One person commented that the apple tasted extra yummy so maybe the quick pan searing released some of it's flavor? No idea. Too much trouble to pan-sear. I'd just make the dip next time. Oh and this dip is different than most fruit fluff dips. It has a cinnamon flavor to it. SUPER YUMMY.

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 11/21/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=917

Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich - p114

Review: Ok, I totally cheated on this one. This was supposed to be 3 oz but I put a whole chicken breast. No idea how many ounces that was. But I think it was its saving grace. Usually when I faux-fry with Fiber One it just tastes like Fiber One to me. I think that this recipe was meaty and juicy enough that I didn't notice the Fiber One so much. Chances are, that wouldn't happen with the appropriate amount of chicken.

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 11/20/09

Berry-licious Cupcake (vegetarian) - p228

Review: Woah, I thought I was all caught up before the holiday season hit. I guess I'll give the short and sweet review of the next few recipes. Almost done with my cookbook challenge - I think I'll start on 200 Under 200 next and see if I can't get it done before her next book comes out in March!

Back to the recipe at hand. The cupcake was very yummy. Moist and flavorful. My picky girls' night girls even liked it. I thought it was best without the icing but the icing made it look pretty. I would make these again to take somewhere but in my own house, I'd probably just stick to No Pudge.

Score: 4.5/5
Prepared: 11/19/09

Dan Good Chili (vegetarian) - p122

Review: I love this recipe. The only thing I don't love is that it has to stew for a couple hours. I was so hungry. But it has SO many veggies in it that it SO thick and yummy. It makes like a billion servings which is nice. Take a little prep time but not as much as you would expect. Check it out!

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 11/16/09

Egg Flower Power Soup (vegetarian) - p50

Review: I had never heard of Flower Soup before. It was pretty good. I'm just not a make-soup kind of person. It's so cheap to buy. I'd rather buy it. And it took me forever to eat all this soup. The recipe made a lot of soup.

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 11/15/09

Tremendous Tiramisu (vegetarian) - p211

Review: My husband reviewed this one. He really liked it. Couldn't taste the ricotta but his only complaint I think was user-error. He felt that the top layer of ladyfingers was not saturated enough and the bottom may have been too saturated. I guess I should have poured the coffee in a different bowl and transferred it but I was afraid that it would fall apart. Oh, finding the ladyfingers was pretty difficult. I checked Lowe's Food, Food Lion and Harris Teeter in the cookie section and the bakery. Finally got lucky at my 2nd Harris Teeter try.

Score: 4.5/5
Prepared: 11/15/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=926

Bacon-Bundled BBQ Shrimp (200 Under 200 Cookbook)

Review: This could be the BEST recipe in this whole cookbook. It is freaking awesome. Even my husband asks for it. To be fair, I use lowfat bacon instead of turkey bacon but the points were the same when I put them in so I think it's fair game. And tastey. You should try this.

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 11/15/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/girls/biteoutdetails.php?isid=1279

Upside-down Pumpkin Cheesecake (vegetarian) - p272

Review: I'm not sure what happened here. Again, something with cream cheese was sour. But I checked the cream cheese before I used it and it tasted fine. I don't know. The initial taste was promising but that after taste was sour. Very strange. I WANTED to eat this, I just couldn't. :(

Score: 2/5
Prepared: 11/15/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=780

Creamy Banana Pumpkin Pie Pancakes (vegetarian) - p270

Review: These were just messy. Definitely did not form cute little pancakes which I was so looking forward to. Hard to get them to cook through too. So basically, they were like banana-flavored mush. I mean, they tasted good. But HG said that they would take 3 min/each side to cook and they were not ready. I'll stick to my traditional pancakes, thanks.

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 11/14/09

Citrus-y Stir-fry Shrimp - p90

Review: This recipe made a huge serving...of snow peas mostly. The suggested cooking time was a little short for stir-frying the snow peas and too much for the mushrooms. LOL, cooking the shrimp was like a magic trick. And I was mad about it. I had written down the ingredients without reading the recipe (like any normal person) and ended up buying frozen raw shrimp that I thawed to make this recipe. JUST to boil before putting in the stir-fry. Definitely would have splurged for already cooked shrimp for this one! But, the magic trick was that HG said it would only take 30 second to cook the shrimp, but literally, they hit the water and turned pink. I've never seen that before!

Anyway, to the recipe. It was pretty bland overall. Maybe it needed some sauce to go over it after the stir-fry or something added to the stir-fry. Technically, I forgot the water chestnuts but they don't really add flavor anyway, just crunch. My husband added more soy sauce to his dish and said it helped but I wasn't up for adding more of that, so I just don't know. It was a good portion but the flavor was missing something...

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 11/13/09

Layered Berry Custard Crostata (vegetarian) - 196

Review: I'm not sure if I'm big on phyllo but these were delish! Technically, this was supposed to be 2 servings but I had points to spare so I gobbled it up. Not sure I could have stopped myself otherwise. They are a little bit troublesome, in that you have to bake the phyllo but not too much. I definitely would make these fancy looking things for a Girls' Night. FYI - this recipe makes two 2pt treats or one 5pt treat!

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 11/13/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=917

Sweetie-Fry Bananas with Cream Cheese Frosting (vegetarian) - p198

Review: These were pretty yummy and a nice new way to eat bananas. Plus cinnamon and "sugar" make everything better, right? I thought it was going to take a while to cook but it didn't which was nice!

Score: 4.5/5
Prepared: 11/13/09

Noodled-up Zucchini Pancakes (vegetarian) - p260

Review: I'm not exactly sure how I feel about these. They weren't bad but I'm just not a big fan of non-traditional pancakes. Plus, they make 12, so after about 9, I got lazy and threw all the rest of the batter together on the pan - in essence, trying to make one mammoth pancake. Didn't actually work. Ended up taking twice as long and halfway through I had to break it up into 3 pancakes anyway. Not to mention that each full pan (3 pancakes) took 6 minutes each x 4 = way too long. Plus the first set of pancakes would be cold.

For those who don't like tofu shirataki, this is a good application of it. Filling but not contributing to flavor. Overall, too much trouble.

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 11/9/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=621

Coconut Patty Pudding (vegetarian) - p218

Review: Conceptually, this pudding was good. But I don't understand why I had to make the pudding from scratch? Why couldn't I just mix the coconut syrup with chocolate pudding? As a result, I had little chunks of cornstarch in my pudding which it pretty disgusting. Totally user-error but I still think it could be done with chocolate pudding. Anyway, the flavor was good.

Score: 2/5
Prepared: 11/9/09

Peanut Butter Cup Milkshake (vegetarian) - p

Review: The flavor was good but using ice cubes was kind of weird. I thought it had an overall creaminess to it but I would get little ice shivers which would be really watery and that would be kind of gross feeling. I probably wouldn't make this again - I'd just get a kid's size Frosty at Wendy's. Oh yeah, that's the other thing, this shake was like 4 points. That's a big investment! I can get my PB fix with the fudge!

Score: 3/5
Prepared: 11/8/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/thursdaypreview.php?newsletterid=948

Dreamy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge (vegetarian) - p171

Review: OMG this stuff is great. I mean it. Great. I wouldn't really call it fudge but it's still GREAT. It's more like a brownie. And the best part is if you can get some of that peanut butter in your bite. Some of the women at work and I were vying for those pieces since I didn't get the peanut butter spread evenly. Definitely worth every teeny tiny bite though (makes 36 pieces in an 8" pan).

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 11/9/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=978

Oatstanding Veggie Patties (vegetarian) - p72

Review: I was impressed by how much this recipe made - 5 large patties that are only 1 point a piece and they never go up! Eat 3 patties, just 3 points. Amazing. Of course it's almost all veggies. They were very moist and grilling them like this, only firmed up the outsides. The inside was still raw and kept oozing out. I threw it on an Arnold's Sandwich Thins with some Fat Free Singles and it was yummy but oozy.

The second cooking, I smushed them a bit flatter and got the pan hotter so they browned but it was still pretty moist. I even added a paper towel to the plate in the fridge to try to soak up some of the moisture. They were good and I was amazed by their points values and I could even overlook their ooziness but they took 10 minutes each to cook and I made 3. I was starved by the time they were ready. And I was afraid to put more than one on a pan because they hold together too well. And I was determined not to wash multiple pans. Live and learn.

Score: 4/5
Prepared: 11/7/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=1030

Sweet 'n Cinn-ful Pretzel (vegetarian) - p226

Review: This recipe was definitely good and my husband was as happy as a little boy when I made these. I'm only sad I couldn't get more of the cinnamon and sweetener to stay on the pretzel. Maybe next time I put it in a ziploc bag. It was so sweet and the salt was just right. When I bought the Super Pretzels, the cashier asked me if they were any good and told me that he wished they sold them in cinnamon and sugar. I told him that I was making them into cinnamon and sugar and he asked me to come back and tell him how it turns out. Well, it turned out GREAT.

Score: 5/5
Prepared: 11/4/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=1070

Crab-ulous Smothered Burrito - p318

Review: I did not dig this recipe at all. My husband and I both stopped eating it. I'm not sure if it was the crab or the lemon-pepper seasoning but something was not tasty AT ALL. The concept sounded pretty good and after I made it through the crab-stuffed mushrooms, I thought I'd be ok with this recipe. Alas, I was not. I ate 3 bites and said I wasn't wasting my points on the rest.

Score: 1/5
Prepared: 11/4/09

http://www.hungry-girl.com/girls/biteoutdetails.php?isid=1049