Whip It Up Wrap-Up #4

Week 4 of Whip It Up is almost over, and that means we’re just about halfway through the project! We challenged folks to try vegetarian dishes, and many of the 28 recipes from the week produced great results! As of press time, a total of 175 recipes have been tested in less than a month! People, that is crazy talk, but I love it.

Those familiar with my spreadsheet-loving ways know that a midpoint is a handy excuse for me to do some calculations and make a pretty graph, so here are some quick statistics for interested parties:

• WIU participants are having overwhelming success with their experiments, and they have ranked 96% of total recipes as easy to follow; 89% as tasty; and 88% as definite repeat dishes.
• Pasta dishes and desserts are the most prevalent in WIU, and the breakdown of categories is as follows:

Now that we’ve all exceeded our nerd quota for the day, here are today’s announcements:

• The theme for the week of August 3 is fresh produce, so visit your local farmers’ markets! For the week of August 10, try out new recipes for appetizers.
• It’s fine to use recipes that other WIUers have tried, but make it clear in the post so we can track it accordingly.
• Don’t forget to e-mail us with a permalink to your WIU post so we can be sure to include you in the recipe index and weekly wrap-ups! Next Friday, Nic will host the wrap-up, but you have until Saturday for your recipe to count for the week.

Check out all of the great recipes from the past week!

Bread and Breakfast

• Which Box wasn’t completely impressed with Blueberry Cinnamon Muffins, but the batter was delicious.
• Merrick shared her sister’s yummy Granola recipe, after accidentally burning her own batch.
• In Susan’s opinion, the tasty Whole Wheat Pancakes she tried “could not be easier.”

Sandwiches

• Stephanie’s husband loved the taste of her Spicy Meatball Hoagies.
• Jane made a quick, light meal out of Sunflower Chicken Salad on croissants.

Pork

• Bren called Spicy Paprika Dry-Rubbed Pork Chops “the Absolute Best Pork Loin Chops We’ve Ever Eaten.”

Poultry

• Audrey and her salad-loving husband really enjoyed their spicy Chicken Fiesta Salad.
• Janssen thought that Creamy Chicken and Spinach Soup was delicious, but time-consuming.
• Nikki liked, but was not impressed by, Mango Chicken Salad.
• Darcey tweaked Red Chicken Curry so that it was exactly to her liking.

Seafood

• Rhi was really disappointed with Lemon Baked Cod.
• The only thing Emily didn’t like about tasty Seared Scallops with Fresh Linguine and Romano Cheese was the seared-pan clean-up!
• Zandria put together a light and lovely Tuna-Salad Stuffed Pepper.

Pasta

• Jane liked her Easy Meatless Manicotti, and she reports that “it was a lot for 2 1/2 people” — her husband, her baby, and her!
• After a trip to the farmers’ market, Nancy Pearl Wannabe created a Vegetable Lasagna of her own devising, and it came out great!

Vegetarian

• Kim really liked her Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas and pointed out that they would be good for a Lenten meal.
• Julie, a self-proclaimed carnivore, is definitely going to make Eggplant Roll-ups again.
• Noelle had success with her first try at Gazpacho.
• Nic improvised up a Spanish Tortilla and even has a handy tip for avoiding injury while making it. Heh.
• Janet’s meat-lover husband reached for seconds of Spicy Black Bean Cakes!
• Lacey and I were both surprised at how easy and tasty Spinach-Artichoke Stuffed Portobellos were.
• Sarah was not impressed with Tofu Ginger Carrot Stew, saying, “Not every WIU recipe is gonna be a candidate for the ol’ hope chest.”

Side Dishes

• Heather reports that Asparagus Mornay was “a great side dish and made great leftovers.”
• Ross was not kidding around about his Guacamole when he called it “more delicious than ten tiny tin dragon statuettes used for table top gaming. I’m serious here.”
• Jennie made Onion Rings to help use up a bag of Vidalia onions and loved the finished product.
• Kim experimented with Queso Blanco, but with lackluster results.
• Lacey used Israeli olive oil in her tasty Tomato Bread Salad.

Desserts

• Heidikins used her mom’s pie crust recipe to create a beautiful Apple Pie.