When I first spotted this recipe I thought it sounded interesting and a little different, so I decided to try it. Admittedly I tweaked it a bit, like many others. I used only one cup of cooked wild rice, which seemed like plenty to me. I decreased the flour to ¼ cup and increased the broth to 4 cups. I used a generous ½ cup of chopped onion instead of the minced onion, which I presumed meant dried onion. I also used milk for the half-and-half. Unfortunately I wasn’t terribly impressed with the outcome. It was good, but not great. Hubs, however, has already asked to have it again!

I made this almost exactly as written using a 14 oz. bag of coleslaw mix. I did add about 1/2 of a large carrot, shredded. This turned out very well and both Hubs and I enjoyed it. In fact, Hubs had three helpings and almost polished it off! I won't hesitate to make this one again! Thanks for the recipe!

I followed this recipe as written, with one exception, and that was replacing the Swiss chard with fresh spinach. I was intrigued with adding the dry pasta to the sausage mixture, which is why I decided to give this a try. Unfortunately it didn’t work well for me. I was concerned the pasta would absorb a lot of the broth, but I forged ahead anyway. I put this together just a few hours ahead and by the time I re-heated it, yep, nearly all the broth had been absorbed by the pasta. I had used a full four cups of broth, but ended up adding another full 14.5 oz. can while re-heating. The taste was ok, but I preferred it the next day, as the flavors had had more time to develop. My version yielded 4 large portions, not 2. If I make this again, I’ll cook the pasta separately and add it when re-heating.

After reading a number of the reviews for this recipe, I decided to give it a try. Like many others, I changed this up quite a bit. Here’s what I did. I made about half the recipe, using a splash of white wine for the lemon juice, half a can of the mushroom soup, freezing the other half, only ½ t. of Italian seasoning, milk for the half and half, and a 10 oz. box of frozen chopped spinach. I totally skipped the bacon bits, and cut the mozzarella in half. I cooked the spinach according to the package, cooled it, and squeezed out the excess liquid. I put that in the bottom of a 9x9 casserole. I sautéed the mushrooms and put them on top of the spinach. I wanted the chicken to have some color, so I browned one side only and put it on top of the mushrooms. I made the sauce pretty much as written, using the white wine I mentioned, and I put the mozzarella cheese in the sauce instead of on top of the casserole. I spooned the sauce over the chicken, covered and refrigerated this until I was ready to pop it in the oven. I left it covered and baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes. When I was making the sauce I thought it was too thick, but after it baked it seemed fine. We liked this combination very much, but if I make it again, I’d like to try a more flavorful cheese like Swiss.

I had a really hard time finding Italian chicken sausage, so I bought a plain chicken sausage and made this recipe. I didn’t have a yellow squash, so I used a zucchini instead, but otherwise followed the recipe. We liked this, but I have to say, the chicken sausage I used was totally flavorless and I think the soup would have been a lot better had I used sweet or hot Italian sausage. That, of course, is no fault of the recipe. So, if I make this again, I’ll use regular Italian sausage, hot would be my preference, or a hot Italian turkey sausage that we like.

I had high hopes for this, but in the end I was disappointed. I made half of the recipe and I followed it pretty closely. I did sub a can of diced tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes, but that was the only change I made. I was skeptical of the lengthy cooking time, so I checked it frequently. I started at a low simmer, uncovered, but after two hours a lot of the sauce had evaporated away, so I covered it for another half hour. At that point the meat was tender, but everything else was over cooked and practically falling apart. It had good flavor, but it needed more sauce. I should have covered it sooner. If I were to make this again, I would change the process by starting to cook the meat first and adding the vegetables later. I would also start cooking it covered and uncover it later to thicken the sauce.

I made half of this recipe with just a few changes. For the ½ egg I needed, I used 2 T. of beaten egg. I used seasoned bread crumbs in the patties and panko to coat the outside. I also subbed the white and green parts of green onions for the minced onions in the recipe. I thought this really needed some sort of sauce. A garlic aioli might be nice. Also, adding some freshly grated parmesan to the panko I used, might bump up the flavor. These were fun to try, but I wasn’t as impressed as I had hoped I’d be.

I scaled this back to just two servings for Hubs and me. I used one peeled russet potato, butter rather than shortening, one green onion for the chives, and I skipped the bacon. I sprinkled some of the onions over the potatoes and put the rest in the sauce. I also put all the cheese in the sauce and none on top. After baking, I did pop this under the broiler for a minute to give the top some nice color. This was just ok for us. I think there are other twice baked potato casserole recipes that are much better, so I doubt I’ll be making this one again. But it’s always fun to try!

I had previously frozen fresh cranberries, so this recipe caught my eye as a way to use some of them. I made half of the sauce for two large bone-in pork chops. I read quite a few of the reviews and decided to do the following: I used 1 cup of cranberries, about 1/3 cup chopped onions, 4 T. sugar, 4 T. water, and 2 T. orange juice. I sautéed the onions and set them aside. I seasoned the chops and browned them and added the rest of the ingredients. Since my chops were so large, I slowly simmered this for an hour and 15 minutes. I then removed the chops to a warm oven to work on the sauce. There was way too much liquid in my cranberry sauce, so I cranked up the heat to boil off the excess. In a few minutes I had a nice, thick cranberry sauce and had no need to thicken it further. Hubs really liked this, but I wasn’t as impressed. I thought the cranberry sauce needed more depth. The orange juice I added was barely detectable, so if I were to make this again, I might use all orange juice and no water.

I made half of this recipe using hot Italian turkey sausage. I used cottage cheese for the ricotta and I sautéed the onions, garlic and some crushed red pepper flakes with the sausage. I got a bit ahead of myself and dumped all the spaghetti sauce in with the meat and pasta mixture. Oooops! No problem though, I put half of it in an 8x8” baking dish, sprinkled on half the cheese, using a bit more than called for, and repeated the two layers, adding a few tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese to the top. In hindsight, I’m not sure all of the layering indicated in the recipe is necessary , so I may repeat my "mistake" when making it again. I made this ahead of time, covered and refrigerated it until I was ready to bake it. Since mine was refrigerated, I baked it for 25 minutes covered, and another 15 minutes uncovered. And I let it rest about 10 minutes before serving. This made four large servings, or six more modest servings. I froze two nice size servings to enjoy another time (soon), and Hubs ate some for lunch the next day. Nice recipe, and one that will be repeated! Thank you, Ashley!

I made half of this recipe, freezing the other half of the broccoli soup to use in something else later. The only changes I made to the recipe were to add the cheese to the soup/milk mixture, cut back on the butter, and used more panko. I also lowered the oven temp to 350. This had good flavor, but the broccoli really becomes overcooked, so I doubt I’ll make it again.

I had high hopes for this recipe, but was disappointed. I steamed the cauliflower a day ahead of time and stored it in the refrigerator in a bowl layered between paper towels to absorb any additional moisture. Everything looked good when I combined all the ingredients, but after baking, the sauce was very thin and pooling in the bottom of the baking dish, rather than nicely coating the cauliflower. I’m glad I tried it, but won’t be making it again.