25 Best Recipes I Tried in 2017

For the last few years, I’ve been pinning my favorite recipes I found across the web to my Top Reviewed Recipes Pinterest board.

None of these recipes are mine. Many I found from playing cooking games with friends in our Food Friends & Fun forum. Others I found from searching Pinterest or looking at recipes I’ve saved from across the web.

Here are my Top 25 Recipes I tried in 2017. I hope you find some you want to try too!

BTW…these are in no particular order…other than I only have pictures for some of the recipes and they come first. All pictures (except the one that is credited) are mine.

Click the name of the recipe to go to the original recipe with full instructions.

Warm Turkey Sliders

by Krissy from Self Proclaimed Foodie

Warm Turkey Sliders

My Review:

YUM! These sliders are amazing. I’ve never tried making a baked sandwich before, but I’ll be doing it again. I scaled this back to 2 sandwiches. Both sandwiches had a creamy pesto sauce on the bottom (leftover from a restaurant), then turkey and cheddar (no provolone in the house). On one I also added a little bacon and the other I added some avocado. I liked them both but loved the avocado one. And agree that what takes this over the top is the butter mixture.

Cheese and Bacon Breakfast Strata Cake (Bread Bake)

by Nag from Recipe Tin Eats

Bacon Strata Bake

My Review:

I’ve made this twice now and it is absolutely amazing. The first time I followed the directions almost exactly. This time I changed out the cheese and added a little fresh bail and parsley from the garden mixed into the bread. Both times I used store bought precooked bacon and cut back quite a bit on the bacon. Yum. Definitely a keeper. Looking forward to trying it with the canned crab, mushrooms and green onion in the fridge!

Bacon and Green Onion Egg Salad Sandwich

by Lyuba from Will Cook for Smiles
(photo credit by Lyuba)
Bacon-Green-Onion-Egg-Salad by Will Cook for SmilesBacon-Green-Onion-Egg-Salad by Will Cook for Smiles

My Review:

I love egg salad and never try recipes I find because I like my version…but this one seemed so good I had to give it a try. The bacon and green onion in the egg salad was fabulous. Like always, I put it in a carton and let the flavors meld overnight. Then I made a sandwich with egg salad and bacon on a hamburger bun. Yum!

Barley & Honey Roasted Pumpkin (Squash) Salad

by I’m Pat

Barley & Honey Roasted Pumpkin Salad | Future Expat

My Review:

Wow. This is really fabulous. I wouldn’t change a thing. The goat cheese goes so well with the spinach and cold barley. And the butternut squash roasted in honey, salt & pepper is SO good I could eat that just by itself as a side dish rather than cooling it for this salad. I will definitely make this again and it’s going into my Best of 2017 cookbook! I did cut the recipe in half and it could easily have served 4 as a side or 2 as their entire meal. Looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.

Tuscan Salmon

by Mikekey

Tuscan Salmon | Future ExpatTuscan Salmon | Future Expat

My Review:

This is really fabulous salmon. I used just one filet (no skin) and didn’t have ground fennel so used whole seed fennel. But otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. I broiled the fish in the oven, 3 minutes and then flipped it over and did 3 more minutes. It was a little rare for me in the middle, so I would add a couple of more minutes of cooking (8-10 minutes total). I ate about 2/3 of the filet and saved the most rare sections to flake and eat leftover tomorrow, cold. I love cold cooked salmon too. I did go heavy on the spices on one side…totally personal preference.

Crab Deviled Eggs

by twissis

Crab Deviled Eggs | Future Expat

My Review:

What a wonderful recipe. I really like deviled eggs, but since I like egg salad even more, I almost always opt for egg salad over deviled eggs if I take the time to boil the eggs. But this recipe might have just changed my mind. I followed the recipe exactly other than using regular mustard and leaving out the celery (can’t stand it). I ate a few after chilling for about an hour, and ate 2 more after 24 hours+ in the fridge. Definitely like them better after the flavors get to blend in the fridge overnight. But good enough to bring to a potluck same day (with a sprinkling of paprika to make them prettier). They are also more hearty with the crab. This one’s a keeper.

Baked Cranberry Sauce

In Memorial…Recipe by Sharon123

Baked Cranberry Sauce | Future ExpatBaked Cranberry Sauce | Future Expat

My Review:

5 stars …Very tasty cranberry sauce. And so easy. I’ve never made it from scratch before but was happy with the results once cooled overnight. Wasn’t a fan of it warm. Made for Sharon’s Cook-a-thon.

Caprese Stuffed Avocado

by Annacia

Caprese Stuffed AvocadosCaprese Stuffed Avocados

My Review:

Fabulous salad and so simple. I made a bed of large lettuce leaves, then ripped up the rest and put them around the avocado half. I just used a half avocado and made the balsamic reduction using vanilla fig balsamic. Yum!

Maple Balsamic Roasted Root Vegetables

by Cookgirl

Maple Balsamic Roast Root Vegetable

My Review:

I love roasted vegetables, but it was the sauce that really made this recipe shine. That balsamic maple butter mixture took it over the top. I’ve never tasted rutabaga before, and it was surprisingly good. And I love beets, but never have used yellow beets before. They were my favorite in this dish and will definitely use them in the future as they didn’t stain my hand, cutting board or turn everything in the dish red.

Kalmata Olive and Garlic Butter

by Annacia

Kalmata butter

My Review:

Wow! This is amazing. I intended to cut the recipe in half, cutting the butter in half. Then I ended up using a single large garlic clove because I love garlic bread, and ended up upping the olives and parsley a bit too. Threw everything into a mini-chopper and pulsed it until the olives were well chopped. OMG…SO good. Followed the recipe of letting it sit room temp for a few hours before using it to make some garlic bread. I started the bread on the grill but since it wasn’t all melted when the steak was done, I finished it up under the oven broiler for a minute or so. This is company worthy butter. Would also be great on a steak or pasta. Can’t wait to try it that way too.

Sour Cream Pie

In Memorial – Recipe by Susie D

Sour Cream Pie

My Review:

This pie is really fabulous. And so easy too. I decided to use dried figs instead of craisons, and so glad I did. Wow. I also added a little nutmeg (I planned to use cinnamon but realized I was out). I did use a store bought crust, and let is defrost a bit from the freezer while I was making up the filling. Love that it didn’t have to be pre-baked. The only change I would make would be to make 1.5 times the filling as it wasn’t quite full enough for my tastes.

Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich

by breezermom

Turkey Avocado Bacon Sandwich

My Review:

What a fabulous sandwich. The flavors are great. Toasted white bread (I used English Muffin Bread), mayo, avocado, bacon, turkey, cheese. I didn’t have provolone so I used mozzarella, and I didn’t have lettuce so I left it out. Used deli roasted turkey done in house at a small independent grocery and pre-cooked bacon warmed up in the microwave. Yum!

Herb Roasted Sweet Potato Skins

In Memorial – Recipe by Sharon 123

Sweet Potato Skins

My Review:

Really enjoyed these sweet potatoes. They were really easy too. I scaled it down to one potato and am looking forward to using the pulp of the potatoes for something else. I’ll be making these again when my fresh herbs are in season next summer.

Mexican Cheesecake Squares

by ForeverMama

Mexican cheesecake squares

My Review:

Absolutely loved this dessert (and I’m picky about desserts!). This reminds me of a cheese stolen, but better. My only issue is that the crescent dough on the top puffed up so much in spots that the butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture pooled thickly into areas and had almost none in others. I think pricking the top dough with a fork before dotting it with the butter mixture would solve that problem. Will definitely be making this again.

German Noodle Bake (Gemutlichkeit)

by Daily Inspiration

German noodle bake

My Review:

I absolutely LOVED this dish. What wonderful flavor. It’s similar to Jewish noodle kugel with the sour cream and cottage cheese and eggs, but the onion and caraway seed really makes this dish shine. Do not leave out the these ingredients…they totally make the dish. I don’t like celery, so I left it out and doubled the onion. I also think there weren’t quite enough noodles…I had a hard time covering the dish in each layer. Next time I would go with 12 oz of noodles. And I would keep an eye on it…mine was done about 10 minutes early and the noodles were crisping up and the cheese was browning, so I went ahead and pulled it out. Definitely an all star…going in my Best of 2017 file!

Chocolate Banana Bread

by Bluenoser

Chocolate banana bread

My Review:

This really fabulous. I used regular cocoa so it has a light chocolate taste, but not so much you can’t have this as a breakfast treat. I ran out of butter so I used 1/2 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of solidified coconut oil. I cut back the sugar by about 2 tbsp and used whole wheat flour. Baked for 55 minutes in a loaf pan and it is fabulous warm. Can’t wait to try it tomorrow as other reviewers say it gets even more moist overnight.

Lemon Carrot Barley

by Mikekey

Lemon Carrot Barley

My Review:

I really loved this recipe. I’m a fan of barley as a side dish and the mix of barley, carrots and lemon juice was fabulous. I had to use dried thyme but you can bet I’ll try this next summer when I’ve got a crop of thyme in the garden. Going into my Best of 2017 collection.

More Favorites from 2017:

Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan, Panko & Pecans by Samantha with Five Heart Home
Oven Roasted Cauliflower by Mary with OnePerfectBite
Honey Lemon Salmon by Averie with Averie Cooks
Garlic Crusted Cod by LifeIsGood
Garlic Rice by Baby Kato
Salmon Ball by Daily Inspiration