Top 10 of 2012

I can’t believe this year is already over! It has been a whirlwind for me with finishing my first year of teaching second grade, to moving while 9 months pregnant, to having a baby a week later, and moving 3 months after that back to where we came from. Wow! And needless to say I have not necessarily been the greatest at being consistent with my cooking blog. But I feel like I have gotten back into the swing of cooking and inventing new recipes and I have a lot of great things planned for 2013 that I am really excited about, and I hope you are too. Thanks so much to those of you that have stuck with me all this time and to any of you who are new I am so glad to have you.
I am very excited about this post!


I have looked back at my most popular posts of this year and I want to share them with you. Just in case you missed them or just want to check out their goodness once more! So without further delay:
The grand prize winner was actually my husbands Blue Velvet Cake recipe. Figures that HE would get the most views on my cooking blog. Maybe I should rename it Marks Cupookies??

Blue Velvet Cake

And now for the runners up in no particular order:

2. Funnel Cakes
Can you say fair food? These are my favorite thing to get at a fair but I’ve been making these with my mom for years at home. We like having them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, midnight snacks etc. Yum!

3. Chicken Fajitas
I love when they bring you fajitas in a restaurant and the pan is sizzling, they warn you it is hot, and you feel like your meal is cooler than everyone else at your table. Well…now you can feel that way at home!

4. Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast
If you can believe it this is actually ANOTHER hubby homemaking post. He made my top 10 list twice! I am worried he is going to try to be the entire top 10 list next year. These were amazing though so I guess he gets some credit for that!

5. Oven Roasted Red Potatoes
We love red potatoes in our house and this is one of the best ways I have ever had them! They have parmesan cheese on the top and you just can’t go wrong with that…sooooo good!

6. Brownie Bites
I think these might be my top favorite thing on this top 10 list. They are so small that you can eat like 20 at a time! haha okay that is probably not a good idea but it is fun to do anyway because it will make you happy in the “short run” and probably make you want to go running later so you can eat more!

7. Quinoa Salad
My neighbor introduced me to Quinoa and I loved it! I guess a lot of other people love it too because this salad made my top 10 list!

8. Toastadas
Mark convinced me to get a toastada when we were at a yummy restaurant in Orem, UT called Mama Chus. I had never had one before and loved it! Then we decided to try to make them at home…one of my FAVORITE dinners ever! I love how you can choose what you put on them and make it your own. Plus Mark makes amazing refried beans!

9. Honey Grilled Red Salmon
Salmon…Grilled…need I say more? I know it is winter but lets break out the grills and have some of the most amazing fish you will ever taste :) Just put on a warm coat!

10. Easy Fruit Tart
I never really thought of making a tart because they “look” so complicated! But it was requested by Mark for his graduation celebration so I decided to try it out. After looking for many recipes and after a lot of trial and error (trust me there was a lot of error and failed tarts) I came up with this delicious tart! It is the best of many tart recipes that I found and we love it. :D

There you have it. The best of  my 2012 cooking blog efforts! I have SO MANY great recipes in store for you for 2013!

If you aren’t on a “new years diet” be sure to check back on Thursday for some death by chocolate brownies. Or if you are dieting you still should check back for when you stop dieting in February…because it never lasts right?

 I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season and have a Happy New Year! Check out our Christmas card this year…

Don’t I have the cutest baby in the world?? :) Pin It