Chicken & Spinach Casserole, Everyday Food # 76, p 51

TASTE : Yummy!!

PREP:     Fairly Easy

REPEAT:  Yes!

This one is very tasty and great for the family.  Kids didn't mind the spinach this time. For us I would double or triple the batch.

The full recipe is posted on EverydayFoodMag here :
Everyday Food - Chicken & Spinach Casserole

Rotisserie chicken (or leftover turkey!), fresh spinach, milk, onions, bread, lemon juice.

Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo, "The Food You Crave" by Ellie Krieger, p 86

Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo

TASTE: YUM!
PREP: Easy
REPEAT : YES!

The whole family enjoyed this soup. I used one large chicken breast so the soup was also quite economical. I think I only used 2 T of lemon juice because that's what I thought it called for but it should have been 3. Three would have provided a little more tang which I would have liked a little better, but everyone in the family really like the soup. I've been wanting to make more varieties of soups for some time and to get to the point that the soup would be something I might order at a nice restaurant. This was one of them! I used WW Orzo and homemade chicken broth that I had in the freezer.

Ingredients : Whole Wheat Orzo, chicken broth, carrots, celery, onions, thyme, chicken, eggs, lemon

Cheesy Black Bean Quesadilla Rolls - Morningstar Farms Chipotle Black Bean Burgers

PREP : Easy / TASTE: Great! / REPEAT : YES!!!

This recipe was on the box of Morningstar Chipotle Black Bean burgers that I bought at Costco. LOVED this!  It was easy to make and great tasting.  One thing I did differently was with regards to rolling it up. They suggested cutting a tortilla into a triangle and wrapping the ends over the middle. I thought that was a waste of tortilla, it increased the cost by utilizing more tortillas than necessary and they wouldn't be all that great to eat that way. So, I rolled the mixture in the tortillas and then sliced in the center diagonally.  I also took some Homemade Gourmet Chipotle seasoning I had and mixed it with Litehouse Homestyle Ranch (love this stuff!). I also only had cheddar cheese so that is what I used. I'm sure it will be even better with a mix of cheeses. The salsa is homemade. 

RECIPE:
2 Morningstar Farms Chipotle Black Bean Burgers, thawed and cut into 1/4" pieces
1/2 c salsa
1/2 c shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 c shredded Pepper Jack cheese
2 t Southwest or Mexican seasoning (I used chipotle from Homemade Gourmet because it is what I had)
10 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 T butter, melted
2 1/2 " cups shredded lettuce (optional)
2 T finely chopped red or green bell pepper (optional) (I didn't cut mine enough)

1. In medium bowl toss together burgers, salsa, cheese and seasoning. (NOTE: the burgers do crumble when cut into small pieces but it really doesn't matter)
2. Place 2 TB (appx, maybe more since I changed how I rolled these up) of the mixture in a tortilla. 
3. Roll up and cut diagonally in half.   Place a toothpick diagonally through top fold and bottom to hold in place and place pieces on a baking sheet pan.
4. Melt butter and spread over top roll ups.
5. Bake at 375 degrees 9-12 minutes.

Serves 5 (according to recipe). I did 1 and 1/2 times the recipe for our family and used two half-size baking sheet pans to bake them.

Chicken Curry - The Food of India : Authentic Recipes from the Spicy Subcontinent

PREP : OK
TASTE : Very Good
REPEAT : Probably yes. 
Though I want to try various curry recipes and find out which one we like the best.

This was a great recipe to begin my forray into Indian cooking.  Our family loves Indian food and my husband has particularly requested that I learn to make Indian food.  This is a task that I would love to take on and do well with. Indian food has such a wonderful depth of flavor and there are few, if any, Indian dishes that we have tried and did not care for.  Anything with turmeric is especially of interest to me due to the benefits of using turmeric. For information on this I defer to Shoshonna Perl of Bulk Herb Store, http://www.bulkherbstore.com/TRP?s=turmeric

While working through this recipe I gave my first attempt to document the steps I took in pictures. Please bear with me as this is new to me and it will take me awhile to get the hang of quality pictures while trying to cook or bake at the same time!

So, first step.  I missed it. Sorry!  I should have shown you what the amount of onions looked like in the pot prior to browning them.  The longer onions cook, the more they reduce and carmelize; well, that is if you cook them over the right level of heat.  If you have the heat up too high they will burn and then who cares what size they are! OK - so here is a picture of the onions after the "turned brown", which is what the cookbook stated for the recipe.  I'm not a chef so I don't know if this is technically as far as they should have gone or if I should have browned them further.  I was concerned with the pot getting too dry and starting to burn rather than caramelize the onions so I stopped at this point.

Here I added seeded and chopped tomatoes from my garden. The recipe called for two medium sized tomatoes so I just guessed as to how many of my smaller Juliet tomatoes to use and it seemed fine. You could probably scrape it all out and put it into a blender but since I have an immersion blender I chose to use it. It was a little clumpy and took some patience but I eventually ended up with a nicely pureed product.

The recipe didn't clarify whether or not the chicken was supposed to cook separately or in the mixture. I decided to cut it into chunks and season with salt, pepper and turmeric and saute it prior to adding to the pot.  This worked out fine. The first picture shows the chicken added and the second is after the addition of water and a couple tablespoons of cream. Which, by the way, I tend to use Fat Free Evaporated Milk instead of cream in dishes like this. One reason is the calorie and fat reduction and another is because it is stable and I don't have to worry about it breaking, becoming clumpy, in the dish.

All in all, YUM!  Not too spicy and quite delish!

Terriyaki Chicken - Healthy Meals for Less by Jonni McCoy

PREP: Easy / TASTE : Good / REPEAT : Probably

Though this dish doesn't look that great in the crockpot it actually had some great flavor and paired nicely with couscous, which is how we ate it. Not all the family thought it was great, but it was easy to make. Daimeian noted that he prefers couscous over rice. Because I intend to make a crockpot dish once a week I will probably do this again.

NOTE : This picture shows the full breasts I used just starting to get shredded. I later fully shredded the chicken. In the future I might add just a little more liquid to cook the chicken with. This is just because I like the extra liquid to mop up with or drizzle onto the couscous or rice.  The batch pictured is a double batch from the original recipe.

Basic Basil Pesto - Joy of Cooking

TASTE : Great
PREP : Super easy
REPEAT : Again and again

No pics this time as I did this one in a rush. My friend took the batch home to try on salmon for dinner.  I plan to make more and may try the sun-dried tomato version also in Joy of Cooking. When I have a chance, I'm hoping to compare basic basil pesto recipes from Joy of Cooking and other cookbooks that I've seen it in. It's so basic, how much can it change unless you are purposefully adding flair to it?  However, I recently saw a recipe in my Cooking Light magazine that I want to try. It has a pesto of sorts without basil, but it's origin is not Italian.  Will share more when I try it.

Lentil Soup - Moosewood Cookbook, p 25

TASTE : Good
PREP : Easy
REPEAT : probably not

I modified this simple soup with bits of ham from the spiral sliced ham we cooked the night before. The drizzle of red wine vinegar was great and melted cheese on top was a nice personal touch. Okay, I know Moosewood recipes are for vegetarians and/or vegans, but I am not either one of these and don't care to be.  However, my family does not care for lentils so they did not eat much of the soup which leaves me to eat up a large batch of the soup with the roasted veggies I prepared at the same time.  Feta on top of the veggies  nice and hot...mmmmm...

Hollandaise, Blender Version - Mastering the Art of French Cooking V. 1

My foray into Julia Child's acclaimed kitchen wisdom and the infamous Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a simple sauce, Hollandaise made in the blender.  For the sake of time and because I have never tried this type of emulsion by hand before, i went with the blender version. It was VERY VERY easy and VERY VERY good!  Ok, so my children have yet to mature their taste buds to fabulous rich sauces such as this, but my palette was in over drive.  Could I quote from the movie "Julie and Julia"?  "It's eggs and butter that have been whipped into submission. Yum!"  Oh yes, YUM!

Just a side note, the timing worked out great. I needed egg whites for the frosting a day and a half ago and had yolks needing to be used so they were perfect to go with eggs and bagels this morning. I know the picture isn't great, but I took a bite before remembering to take a picture so I had to improvise.

Seven Minute Frosting - Martha Stewart Cupcakes

PREP : Fair
TASTE: YUCK! - personal reflection, some liked it
REPEAT : probably not

This is a frosting recipe that calls for whipped egg whites and a heated sugar drizzled into the egg whites. I've made this before, maybe similar, maybe just about the same, with a recipe from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I couldn't stand it then and I can't stand it now.  To me it's very greasy tasting. It's stable but gross.  Tyler liked it plain, Liana liked it on the cupcakes.  I thought it was awful.  However, I should state that it did have a marshmallow flavor to it.  Perhaps it might be a good basis for a recipe needing some sort of a marshmallow cream to it.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes - Martha Stewart Cupcakes

TASTE: Good
PREP : Fair
REPEAT : Yes

The family really liked these cupcakes.  I thought they were good fresh but not in my top list of cupcakes to indulge on.  For this batch I did them as the recipe called for ingredients, including all-purpose flour (though I used organic non-bleached which supposedly can affect the crumb texture) and cake flour.  I intend on trying this again with some substitutes. I'm thinking that if I sift my fresh ground soft white wheat flour than I will reduce the bran in the muffin. This will give me a more cake flour texture and still mostly unadulterated content.  I'll post the results in comparison when I get to it. I must note that the original recipe did result in a very fine and soft cupcake crumb.

Chicken Pot Pie (Sue Gregg, "Meals in Minutes", p 43)

PREP: Easy
TASTE: Good
REPEAT: Yes

Overall the family apparently enjoyed this dish. I wasn't home when they ate it.  Plan ahead to prepare the topping to allow for the two-stage nutrition process with the grains.  I substituted zucchini and garlic for the carrots and celery because I had it on hand. Then, instead of frozen peas I used frozen mixed vegetable medley from Costco which was all organic veggies.  Would repeat this one.  Reminder to myself, yes the chicken goes in the sauce mixture raw and cooks in the oven. :)
 

UPDATE July 28th, 2009

Made two batches yesterday. One for our family and one to bring as a meal for someone at church.  I might go lighter on the Thyme next time, or at least measure it accurately.  Too much and it has a weird taste for me.  However, the dish overall was really good and quite easy to make. Another thing I need to do is to make sure that mixture is thickened prior to putting in the last veggies and chicken and putting it into the oven. This time the dish came out of the oven a little watery.  Given some time to sit it will still set nicely.

Sloppy Joes (Ellie Krieger, "The Food You Crave" p 91)

PREP: Easy
TASTE : OK
REPEAT : Maybe with modifications

This version of sloppy joes utilizes extra veggies that some in my family don't care for, like the bell peppers, but I enjoy having veggies in the sandwich.  However, it was a bit too soupy and that may be do to the amount of tomato sauce.  Reheating the filling for sandwiches seemed to be OK.  It is highly rated on the Food Network site (recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/sloppy-joes-recipe/index.html) but we didn't care of it so much.  However, I may try with some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce as one review suggested.

INGREDIENTS : ground beef, onion, garlic, jalepeno, red pepper, pinto beans or red beans, tomato sauce, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire, mustard

Whole Wheat Speghetti with Swiss Chard and Pecorina Cheese - Giada's Family Dinners, Giada DeLaurentis, pg 148

TASTE: very good
REPEAT: yes
PREP : Average to easy

I didn't have pecorino for this so I had to substitute with the cheap Parmesan in a bottle. It is actually a recipe that calls for whole wheat spaghetti so the amount of liquid was already correct.  I liked the saltiness of the kalamata olives and the taste combination with extra cheese and pine nuts so I topped the serving off with more than what was called for.  Daimeian really enjoyed it and didn't seem to miss the meat.  Wish I had taken a picture.

Lemon-Pepper Pasta w/ Chicken - Better Homes & Garden Diabetic Cookbook p 53

PREP: Easy
TASTE : OK
REPEAT : Perhaps, with modifications

I don't remember the specifics on this one and only have a few scribbled notes from trying it some time ago. I think I didn't have the lemon-pepper pasta called for and used plain, probably whole wheat, pasta.  My notes stated that it needed more flavor. I suppose that if I used lemon-pepper pasta it would have tasted better.

Basically, cook flavored pasta, drain and toss with EVOO.  Cook chicken, red pepper wedges or thin strips, dried marjoram and garlice until chicken is cooked through.  Stir in 1 T lemon juice and scrape up brown bits. Toss in pasta and 1 c. thawed frozen peas.

Cinnamon Sopapilla Cheesecake - modified and lightened

The base recipe for this dessert can be found all over the internet.  When I made it I substituted Sucanat for refined white sugar.  When you substitute with Sucanat the molasses turns things darker. In this case it is a cream cheese filling that turns brown.  It will still taste great, but it changes the color and may not be as appetizing to some people.  Because this batch was made for a Christmas Party, I only substituted half of the sugar. 

My modifications include fat-free and reduced fat cream cheese in place of full fat and half the butter most recipes call for. Most recipes call for a full 1/2 cup of melted butter to pour over the top.  That's a full stick!  In this batch I used half of that, only a quarter, and felt like I could have used even less, perhaps only 3 tablespoons.  In the batch pictured above I melted 1/4 cup (4 T) and found there to be a lot of butter puddles over the crescent rolls half way through the process.  So, I stopped putting it on one half of the batch and added the rest to the other half to give it the equivalency to using just over half the recommended butter. I wanted to see how much difference it made. In the picture the half with more butter on top is the lower half from left to right.  Finally, I don't use as much sugar as is called for on the top.  You just don't need it.

The recipe below is my modified version. I haven't tried it with reduced-fat crescent rolls because I haven't seen them in the stores lately. Hand mixing is probably the standard method for the the cream cheese, butter and vanilla mixture. Whipping the cream cheese in a stand mixer will fluff it up and make the filling thicker.

2 8 count packages of crescent rolls
1 8 oz package, fat-free cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz package, reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar (or Sucanat or blend)
1 t vanilla
3-4 T butter, melted
2-3 T sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

DIRECTIONS :
1. Lay out one can of crescent rolls at the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

2. In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, mix both packages of cream cheese and sugar.  Add vanilla and mix until well blended.  Spread mixture over crescent rolls in the pan.

3. Lay second can of crescent rolls carefully over cream cheese mixture. 

4. Spread melted butter evenly over top of rolls.

5. Stir together 2-3 T sugar and cinnamon (amount listed is appx). Sprinkle over top.

In the future I will be attempting a slight reduction in the sugar for the cream cheese mixture. Perhaps even a sugar and stevia combination to reduce the overall sugar content further.