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.