Recipe Roundup – What I Made This Week 1.31.23

This week’s recipe roundup is all over the place – we have pizza, we have seafood, we have tuna poke, we have a sweet breakfast, we have…a Macaroni Grill throwback? Sometimes the cravings come out of nowhere. And that was this week. Enjoy!

1. Margherita Pizza – Santa Barbara Baker

9/10
Continuing my Ooni pizza oven obsession with a classic margherita pizza recipe! I originally found this recipe on YouTube and think the host is funny 🙂 I made the recommended homemade sauce (World’s Best Tomato Sauce Recipe) – which is simply two ingredients and something I will always make now! I think making this in the Ooni made it taste even more authentic/close to our favorite Centro restaurant pizza. Fresh mozzarella and fresh basil…you can’t go wrong!

2. Copycat Fleming’s Ahi Tuna Poke Stack – improvised by yours truly

9/10
Jon and I are obsessed with the ahi tuna poke appetizer at Fleming’s, so I set out to try and recreate it! I simply mandolin sliced a cucumber, laid 2 pieces each inside the rim of a 1 cup measuring cup, filled with the diced tuna, and topped with diced avocado (then when you flip it upside down to plate it, the avocado is on the bottom…hence why you can’t see it in the picture!). For the chips, I used HyVee’s fresh made wonton chips. Garnished with cilantro and sesame seeds.

I took a stab at the sauce by combining:

• 3 tbsp sriracha mayo
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp pickled ginger brine (this was the KEY – my previous attempts were definitely missing this!)
• 1-2ish tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp sugar

Super simple, yet looks more impressive than it is – and pretty darn close to the original Fleming’s recipe. The hardest part of this recipe was finding sushi-grade tuna in the midwest on a Sunday (wouldn’t recommend).

3. Skinnytaste Blender Crepes + Homemade Whipped Cream

10/10

I’ve made these so many times! I love how versatile and quick they come together. Some other crepe recipes require chilling or making in advance…this one you can make and use right away. I put strawberries, raspberries and blueberries in these, but if you’re not trying to be healthy…do Nutella with strawberry or banana. We didn’t have whipped cream on hand so I whipped this recipe up and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to homemade whipped cream. Have extra crepes? I used to freeze/meal prep these – turn out great reheated!

4. Pasta Milano – Macaroni Grill Copycat

9/10

I used to LOVE Macaroni Grill growing up. Truly thought it was a 5-star restaurant. My dad used to always get the Pasta Milano, which I randomly had a nostalgic craving for and found this Pasta Milano Copycat Macaroni Grill recipe after Googling all the ingredients I could remember. It was super good (went full heavy cream vs. half and half like the recipe calls for) – I plan on doing a Macaroni Grill themed dinner party for my parents soon and this will be making an appearance (along with writing my name upside down on the table and having an Italian pronunciation soundtrack playing in the bathroom – IYKYK).

Better fresh vs. leftovers.

5. Chinese Style Oven Baked Fish with Bok Choy

7/10

The baked fish was good but not my absolute favorite, but I couldn’t find a few of the ingredients so that might be on me for not following the recipe to a T. I would bake the fish in the wrapped parchment method again – the texture was great.

The real star of the show however was this bok choy. It was SO SO GOOD. Jon had never had bok choy before and absolutely loved it! We will keep this in our rotation for asian-inspired sides for sure. A good mix from our usual spicy broccoli.

And that fancy rice? 1 minute rice cup.

Nothing trip your trigger? Last week’s roundup was full of winners!

Favorite WINE GLASSES + dishes