cooking

skinnytaste Week 21 and 22

mildlygranola, 6 Comments

I was out of town most of last week, so I never made a skinnytaste recipe. I made up for it this week by making two.

First up, I made Spiralized Lemon-Basil Zucchini Mason Jar Salads. I loved these salads, which is weird because there is arugula in the salads. It was my first time trying a mason jar salad, and it won’t be the last. I usually feel like salads other people make are better than salads I have to make myself. Because I assembled these salads ahead of time it feels like someone else made the salad, so it was a treat to have these for lunch.

The next thing I tried was Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps (full disclosure, I had this as a salad instead of a wrap. I also left out the cumin because even though cumin is one of our favorite spices I keep forgetting to buy it at the grocery store and we have none in our house. It is a sad situation.). These were good, especially with hot sauce on top. Is it my favorite taco? No. Is it a perfectly acceptable taco? Yes.

Did you try any new recipes this week?

skinnytaste Week 2

mildlygranola, , 6 Comments

This week I tried Cheesy Turkey Taco Chili Mac from skinnytaste. This came together fairly quickly in my Dutch oven. I liked how you use a cup of refried beans in the sauce – the texture and flavor were great. This dinner received high praise: Elliot actually ate it. John and I both like it enough to make again. The leftovers were great the next day, but went downhill quickly after that.

I was also feeling like soup this week, so I made some Chicken Tortilla Soup from the skinnytaste One And Done cookbook. This one was not as well received. The chicken was a little tough (my multicooker seems to cook hotter than an Instant Pot, so I am going to try adjusting cooking times). I am the only one who will eat this soup. Elliot made himself throw up to avoid taking a second bite. I would not recommend this soup.

I bought a multicooker after finding the Cooks Illustrated best buy on sale the day after Christmas. I’ve heard so many things about the Instant Pot I decided to give this multicooker thing a try. Four recipes in the only thing I think it is good for is making hard-boiled eggs that are easy to peel. If you have a multicooker/electronic pressure cooker recipe you love please send it my way. I have buyers remorse, and I would like that to change.

skinnytaste Week 1

mildlygranola3 Comments

This week I tried two new to us skinnytaste recipes. Most weeks it will be hard to try one new recipe, but I have two new cookbooks and it’s the first week of the year, so I’m all sorts of motivated.

The first recipe we tried was Giant Turkey Meatball Parmesan. This recipe is available on her website or her skinnytaste One & Done cookbook. This was a huge hit in our house. Everyone ate it, even Elliot. He rarely tries new food and often goes to bed hungry because he refuses to eat what we are having (we used to make him try everything, but stopped when he started making himself throw up when he didn’t want to try it). We will be making this one again, probably regularly.

The second recipe I tried was Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken. I wanted this to be as good as jalapeno poppers. It was not. That could be because I skipped the bacon. I never have poppers with bacon in them, so I thought it wasn’t necessary. I think it needed the saltiness of the bacon to cut through the cream cheese. If I make them again I’ll add the bacon.

This week I’m going to try one of her Instant Pot recipes. I haven’t decided which one yet. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way.

Welcome to Souptember

mildlygranola, , 8 Comments

Welcome to September. It doesn’t feel like fall yet, but after all of the running around we did this summer I’m ready to settle back into a routine. Being busy all summer and not wanting to cook in the heat has led to an unused kitchen and a vegetable deficient diet. I want to get back to cooking and eating healthy again. I’ve decided that September will be Souptember in our house. I’m committed to making soup at least once a week. I love soup. No one else in my family does. At the end of this month they will either be converted or I will have had soup for lunch every day. I’m OK with either outcome.

I made one of my favorite soups today: Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup. This spicy soup is filling and reheats well. It does not look pretty, but it tastes pretty great.20180902_1658435685430293364624463.jpg

The recipe is from Rachel Ray’s Veggie Meals. It takes less than a half hour to put together, which means I can throw it together even when I’m in a time crunch.

Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup

1 T vegetable oil

1 T butter

1 chopped onion

1 can vegetable broth

1 can diced tomatoes (undrained)

1 can black beans

1 can pumpkin puree

1/2 c heavy cream (I use half and half)

1 1/2 t curry powder

2 t ground cumin

pinch of cayenne pepper

Melt butter into oil over medium heat. Sautee onion until soft. Add broth, black beans, tomatoes, and pumpkin. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add cream and spices. Simmer 5 minutes, or until you can convince your kids to come to the table.

I hope you had a Souper Sunday.

Dude Dinner

mildlygranola, , Leave a comment

Once a month we have my friend Tim over for dinner. Tim is really easy to cook for. He doesn’t cook, so everything I make impresses him. He is recently divorced and his wife didn’t cook either. I once made crock pot white chicken chili for him and he was impressed (the hardest thing about making that dish is chopping the onion). I love that the bar is low.

Today I decided to really wow him. I made Cook’s Illustrated’s version of Juicy Lucys. A juicy lucy is a cheeseburger with the cheese on the inside. You bite into the burger and cheese oozes out. It’s delicious. It’s also something so bad for us that I only make it once or twice a summer.

At 5 o’clock, as I was getting the kids their dinner I realized I had been so excited about the burgers I didn’t think about the sides. I had nothing planned. I was worried I was going to have to pull a vegetable out of the freezer and pretend it worked with burgers.

Amazingly, my refrigerator provided me with two sides! I had a salad in a bag forgotten in a drawer that somehow wasn’t spoiled (I buy a bagged salad almost every week, I also throw out a spoiled bagged salad almost every week. Will I ever learn?). 20180719_191313421691303129252299.jpg

I decided to throw together some Baja bean and cilantro salad. I have been living off of this all summer. In a shocking turn of events I had cilantro in my produce drawer. I also had 1/4 of a red onion in my fridge, the perfect amount for the salad (also the first time I’ve ever used all of a leftover onion instead of throwing it away a week later). 20180719_1913166680663210320592023.jpg

This salad is easy to throw together, and a great side to bring to a pot luck. It couldn’t be easier to make:

1 can chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
1 can red beans (rinsed and drained)
1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
1/4 chopped red onion
2 T chopped pickled jalapeno peppers
1/4 c chopped cilantro
Mix that stuff all up. In a measuring cup mix together 1/3 c red wine vinegar and 3 T sugar. Pour it all over the salad. Put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to meld.
It is good for a week.

The sides were well received by Tim and John, but if I was really being honest I think they would have been fine with a big burger and a few glasses of wine.

Do you ever get so excited about a main dish you forget about the rest of the dinner?

Pudding Pops

mildlygranola, , , , , 2 Comments

I’m kind of a food snob. I think it’s because John and I spent so many years in our 30s with good jobs before kids. We went out to eat a lot. When I cooked I had the luxury of quality (expensive) ingredients and time. The things I loved as a kid I no longer like. Things like cool whip and boxed pudding don’t appeal to me at all.

I believe pudding should be homemade. It should involve egg yolks, whole milk, half and half, sugar, and corn starch. It should be a project. I also believe in having the kids help me in the kitchen (well, mostly Audrey because Elliot can be a challenge in the kitchen). Fancy shmancy pudding and kids don’t mix, so for the sake of kitchen help I occasionally reach for things I don’t particularly like. Like boxed pudding.

Do you remember back when Bill Cosby wasn’t a sexual predator? I do. We watched him every week on the Cosby show and we ate pudding pops. They were delicious. They still are, and they are also really easy to make (Step 1: make pudding. Step 2: freeze it).

Audrey helped me pour the milk and stir. She took the job very seriously. At one point she stopped stirring because she forgot to put her apron on.20180713_1618042333065902660222817.jpgElliot taste tested the pudding. He took his job seriously too.20180713_162242826647738028744168.jpg

I poured the pudding into the molds. I think I waited too long, as the pudding had started to set up and it was a very gloppy job.20180713_1625457881662914017156109.jpg

When we were done we ran to the store. Audrey was so excited about cooking she wanted to wear her apron. She was very proud of herself.20180713_170709(0)-12986365372933638748.jpg

I hope that having the kids involved in cooking now will keep them interested in cooking. Elliot really wants to help, but he destroys so many things. I need to find something easier than pudding for him to help with. Do you have any ideas?