Laura Vegas

At the start of 2018, I decided to challenge myself to work at least 2-3 new recipes into our meals each week. I decided to also share those new recipes here on my blog every Monday. The following recipes made their way into our meals last week.

Instant Pot Beef Pot Roast | The Novice Chef

Thoughts: You guys, this was amazing!!! I made this last night, and it was so good. This is an Instant Pot recipe, but it can also be made in the crock pot. And after reading on the blog post that some people had issues with it burning in the Instant Pot, and reading that one might want to just make it in the crock pot instead, I decided to go that route. I was making this on a Sunday, so for me, I wasn't in a rush or anything. I don't drink wine, so I had to borrow some tiny bottles that my brother had laying around. And I totally forgot that it called for a cup of brewed coffee, so I had to send Joe out to get me a jug of Starbucks coffee (the kind that I used to make my homemade frapps). Usually, when I make a roast in the crock pot (or stew), I always have to make a batch of gravy on the stove top. But this recipe made the best brown gravy, that was the perfect consistency and thickness. I didn't use any carrots or mushrooms, since we don't eat those. I made mashed potatoes to go with this, and the entire meal was delicious. I will definitely be making this again!

Egg & Cheese Hash Brown Waffles | Yellow Bliss Road

Thoughts: True confession. I have never made waffles. I also asked for a waffle maker over a year ago, for my birthday or something, and have never used it. I actually wanted it for things like this. For making hashbrowns as waffles. I was making some sausages for dinner a few nights ago, and decided to give this a go. I didn't actually eat these, so I can't give my own thoughts on this. But I do think that I added a little too much of the egg/milk mixture, as I don't think I had the same amount of hash browns that the recipe called for. They didn't crisp up like I thought they would in the waffle maker. But again, this was my first time ever using it as well. Joe and Sarah ate them, and didn't complain. But I think next time I'll just do the hash browns on their own, without adding any egg or cheese to them.