The Salad Blues

I go to Panera Bread every Wednesday to meet up with my knitting group, and if I eat dinner while there, I usually order the Asian Sesame Chicken Salad.  It's been my favorite for a long time.  Sure, I eat other things there, but keep going back to the salad.

Well.  Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago that the salad, a long-time menu item, has been discontinued!  I ate my last Asian Sesame Chicken Salad and I didn't know it.  The restaurant has switched over to "all-natural" ingredients in everything and apparently, there's something in the salad that doesn't make the cut.  (My friend Rayna is bummed about no more pepperoncini in her Greek salad, apparently they didn't make the cut either.)

I'm bummed.  I get the desire for natural ingredients but sheesh!  Let people decide for themselves.  Although, I guess they ARE letting people decide, in terms of deciding to eat at Panera or not.  Since it's still a super-convenient place to hold knit night and was tough to find a new location in the first place, we'll be staying.  And most nights, eating.

So to satisfy that craving, I vowed to make an Asian Sesame Chicken salad myself.  Sauteed chicken breast, greens, cucumber, cilantro and toasted almonds, topped with a little homemade Carrot-Ginger dressing.  (Recipe courtesy of America's Test Kitchen's "Light Cooking" cookbook.)  It wasn't the same.  However, it was still very good.  All of those flavors worked well together and made for a filling, healthy lunch.  And homemade dressing always beats the pants off of bottled store-bought, in terms of flavor, fat AND calories.

Hmmmm.   Maybe if it had tortilla strips next time, it'll be a closer match.  Probably not, but I'll keep trying.

My New Favorite

I made this for a Friday night dinner and it was awesome!  Not surprisingly, the recipe was from America's Test Kitchen.

Pork chops breaded with panko and shredded parmesan cheese.  To die for...and certainly something I'd serve again.  Since we're trying to eat light (ish) I served them with roasted butternut squash and an arugula salad.  Delish!

In the Name of Healthy Eating

The last few months have been about establishing healthier eating habits.  I haven't shared a lot because healthier sometimes is a bit dull.  I will say that we've been more adventurous in our eating, such as willingness to try things like tempeh. Yesterday it was roast chicken enchiladas from ATK ' S Healthy Eating cookbook, last week it was mixing spaghetti squash with pasta.

Tonight was something new that I'd never think that Brian would suggest:  portobello mushroom burgers.  Yep....a big grilled mushroom cap on a whole wheat bun.  I thought that it was so-so, but he really liked them. 

I'm willing to try anything once, and this healthier game is no exception.

Orange is the New Ingredient

In the "something different"dept, chicken with orange and feta.  Served with couscous.  It was a nice, light meal from an America's Test Kitchen book that I brought home from the library.  It's all about healthier fare, which is the opposite of what ATK usually focuses on.  I'd definitely make this again.

Coconut Curry In A Hurry

New to us on the home front:  shrimp coconut curry!  The sauce was easy enough to put together...only coconut milk, fish sauce,  red curry paste, a little brown sugar and cornstarch.   Shrimp with fresh veggies (bean sprout, red pepper and snow peas.)

  Brian and I agreed it could have even had a little crushed red to make it spicier.  It came together quickly for a Monday Night supper and is definitely a keeper.

First Meals of 2015

The holidays have passed, and now we're happy to get back to a routine.  And also, cook some healthier, less rich food.  Not that we don't love the rich stuff, because we do.

Brian got a new 30-minute meal cookbook for Christmas put out by America's Test Kitchen.  So far we've had three recipes from it and have plans for more.  Like most things ATK puts out, everything has been good so far.

First dinner:  Salmon with lime and spice, with rice and broccoli.  Nothing too fancy...

Saturday night: white chicken chili.  This was definitely more than 30 minutes, more like 45.  It probably has more to do with the fact that dried hominy was used instead of the canned hominy that the recipe listed...but oh well. Hominy was a new ingredient to us, and took a little getting used to.   Leftovers yesterday weren't quite as chewy, and the flavor was really good.  It's weird eating chili with no tomatoes or beans, I definitely prefer the other way better.

I roasted a chicken on Sunday, and we had baked potatoes and roast carrots and parsnips.  The whole dinner in the oven, yeah!  Roast parsnips are so delicious and sweet.

last night:  meatless Monday!  Tortellini with asparagus and peas, in a tarragon cream sauce.  Yeah, I said healthier and less rich.  Total lie tonight, but no meat, so it's a trade?

Tonight's dinner is scallop risotto with tomatoes.  I'm dying to see if the "thirty minute recipe" is the real deal or full of lies.  We shall see.

Chowdah!

I'm finally getting back to my long-neglected Day Zero List, and it was time to make a fourth soup that I've never made.  Clam Chowder!  That's New England Style....not Manhattan.  I'm a lifelong New Englandah and we make it with cream, not tomatoes.  I've had the Manhattan style and it was ok but not great like cream-based.

For my first shot at it, it came out pretty well.  I did NOT want to shuck clams, so we got the frozen ones and drained the juice from 'em.  The recipe came out of Cook's County Cookbook from America's Test Kitchen and I was very surprised with how quickly it comes together.  I've always thought of making clam chowder as a day-long process, but am happily to report that I was wrong.  And the simplicity of ingredients was nice too:  bacon, onion, potatoes, clams, cream, salt, pepper and herbs.  Done!  I will admit that it was thinner than I thought it would be, but that's something that I can work on over time.  It was delicious for lunch on a Sunday, and I'm thrilled that it all worked out.

Next thing on the DZ-List....fresh, homemade cinnamon rolls, next weekend!

Something Different

Three "Different" dinners had in this house in the past week.  Because the "same old, same old" gets well....old!

 Fried Chicken isn't new.....but this was a cornmeal fried chicken instead of breaded.  Still was good, but I like breading better.  The batter got Hubby thinking about corn dogs.

 Flank steak with a chipotle aioli.  Delicious!  Flank steak is my new favorite cut of beef.  On the side is saffron rice and peas.

Tonight:  what I refer to as "Chinese Spaghetti."  It's kind of like a pork lo mein, but unfortunately we put too much rice noodle in it.  Still had great flavor though.

First Dinner Post of 2014

First Dinner post of the year!  

 Apple Cider chicken with rice and broccoli.  We've had variations of this before, but this version from America's Test Kitchen was by far the best.  I loved sopping up the gravy with that rice.

Parmesan-Breaded Pork Chops with couscous and green beans.  We've made this recipe many times as well but usually serve over thin spaghetti.  This one dinner has made me decide that I like it over couscous better.  And the leftovers the next day are even better.     I can't believe I used to hate couscous!

Christmas Week Dinners

Two dinners worth commenting on this week:  Cheesy Southwest Meatloaf and Barbecue Chicken Pizza.  Both recipes are from our standby favorite that we just call "Simple," by America's Test Kitchen.  I say "simple" because it's in the title, I'm drawing a blank on the rest of it.

First, the meatloaf:

served with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies

Lots of good flavor!  Definitely some kick, which is fine with us.  I also liked how there were individual "patties" instead of one big loaf.  Plus the recipe had a great tip for canned chipotle en adobo.  Usually Brian doesn't like to buy cans of this because it's wasteful.  But the freezer tip of putting them in individual cups and freezing, then stacking individually in a bag for future use:  genius!  

Barbecue Chicken Pizza:

complete with lime-cilantro sour cream

This was OK.  Not terrible, because there was a lot of good flavors happening here.  The problem was the dough.  Who knew that pizza dough fresh as the grocery store is precious and tough to find two days before Christmas??  Brian had to settle on whole wheat, which baked up kind of like a cracker.  Won't stop us from trying again sometime.  

Un-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This is a beauty from America's Test Kitchen.  And by "beauty" I mean that it was so good and I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow!  Ham, swiss cheese, crushed Ritz crackers, some heavy cream.....all wonderful things went into this dish.  :)

Evolution of Taste

I've always said that I like most food, that there is a very short list of things that I won't eat.  A few of those things that have made the list:  chickpeas, olives, lima beans, mint, lamb, conch fish, venison, beer and cilantro.

As I grow older, things change.  For example, I may not like chickpeas whole, but if it's garlic or red pepper hummus, I dip chips and veggies like there's no tomorrow.  It turns out that I don't care for dried cilantro, but fresh is delicious in a homemade salsa.  And I even appreciate a cold beer on occasion.

I can stand the occasional black olive in a salad or on a pizza.  Not much else though, I adore Greek salads on Wednesday nights at knit night at the local Panera but I always pick out the olives.  (Because I never, ever remember that I can order the salad without them!)  Last month however, Brian made a chicken dish from "50 Shades of Chicken that featured garlic and kalamata olives.  I thought I'd hate it, but I didn't.  Turns out I like the FLAVOR of olives, but not whole and the having to pit them.  And if they're canned.....blech.  As a side note, the "50 Shades of Chicken" is a parody cookbook of the E.L. James "50 Shades of Grey" book series.  I don't believe that it was well-received, as Brian found it on the bargain bookshelf at Barnes and Noble when it first came out.  Which is a travesty....every recipe in there is a hit so far!

Even Brian has to admit that his tastes have changed.  The man that insists that he hates Mexican food suggested making enchiladas this past weekend.  Enchiladas!  I love Mexican food, so this sounded great to me!  A friend of ours used to make them but they were vegetarian, using refried beans as the protein source.  No wonder Brian didn't like them....but I thought they were OK.  Anyway....his enchiladas came out fantastically on Sunday night!  He took a recipe from ATK's "Simple Dishes" cookbook that called for ground turkey and subbed ground beef and mushrooms.  Not only were they delectable, they made scads of leftovers for this week.  It also turns out that, like lasagna, the leftovers taste even better!

Perfect Piccata

Dude.  I had no idea that piccata went well with something besides chicken.  

It is INCREDIBLE on pork!  Lemon, capers, garlic.....absolutely delicious!

Another ATK 'Simple" recipe.  We've yet to make a bad recipe out of this book.

Pork n Pears

Another great recipe from America's Test Kitchen in their cookbook "Simply the Best." Yep....that's the spotlight cookbook this week. This is a great cookbook for weeknight cooking: nothing too complicated and not a ton of ingredients. This recipe features boneless chops, pears, balsamic, a little sugar, blue cheese crumbles, butter.....a delightful combination if you ask me.

I'm trying to get better at starting to cook when I get home from work, so we're not eating dinner at 8pm. :) Today I was successful, but man is it hard to follow directions and cook, as well as pour drinks for the kids and answer for the second time today why we're not going to "that frozen yogurt place that I really love.. (Because we went twice in a span of two days, kiddos. And although it's delicious, it gets expensive quickly and will feel less like a treat if we go every day!)

So only Brian and I partook in the pork chops and pears. And as great as they were, it was only until we were finished eating that I realized that the blue cheese was still in the fridge. Yep, the very same blue cheese that took me forever to find at the market the other day. Ah well, looks like blue cheese is on the menu somewhere next week. Great, because I love the stuff!

Tex-Mex Tonight

We found ourselves with a plethora of fresh cilantro after a party on Friday....so tex-mex on Sunday!  Had a great recipe for pork tacos with fresh mango salsa out of an America's Test Kitchen cookbook.   It used ground pork instead of tenderloin, and canned Chipotle in adobo sauce.   Rounded out with rice and beans, fresh guacamole ( that I "wing" instead of using a recipe now) and you've gor a great meal.  And plenty of leftovers, whixh is always my favorite.

ATK and Shepherd's Pie

Some nights there just isn't anything on television.  Last night that happened, and we did the unthinkable....we turned it off and went to bed.  Most nights though, we find something palatable and stay up anyway.

On one of those "nothing good on TV nights" Brian found "America's Test Kitchen" on PBS.  (I know!  PBS has good kids' stuff and the occasional concert or documentary, but other stuff too!)  This is a show where they put recipes to the test, making them many times to decide the "best" way.  They also have segments on testing out kitchen gadgets too.  And it's produced and filmed in Boston, so there's the local flair of it too.  Brian's put a bunch of them on our DVR and we've found some delicious things. 

The first one?  Shepherd's Pie.  I've been making it for years, using the recipe in the cookbook from the campground that Brian's family has been going to since he was a kid.  It's good....but nothing dynamite.  Ground beef sauteed with onion, add a can of drained corn, some flour to thicken it up, then put in an oven-safe pan and cover with mashed potatoes.  To make it more flavorful we added a layer of shredded cheddar between the potatoes and meat, and like it with steak sauce dolloped on top of the individual servings.

Yep.....ATK found a way to improve all of that.  Last night's shepherd's pie omitted the corn and added mushrooms, peas and carrots.  They used baking soda as a tenderizer for the meat, and the potatoes got "chived."  The whole thing was cooked in a cast iron skillet (ease from stovetop to oven) so it was truly a one-pan recipe.  And the scalloped top of the casserole with the potatoes perfectly browned?  I bow down to you, America's Test Kitchen.  This was a delightful Sunday dinner. 

The only problem is, theirs takes like two hours to prepare.  So obviously, this is NOT a weeknight dinner for sure.  But it makes a ton of leftovers, so I know what's for lunch almost every day this week.  No steak sauce required.  :)

Company's Coming

...or maybe that should be company came, but whatever.

I had a few of my knitting group friends over for dinner the other night.  Brian offered to cook us dinner instead of ordering out, and I gladly took him up on it.  He asked a friend at work, "What do you cook four women?"  His friend replied "I'm sure they'll appreciate whatever you make, because they didn't have to cook it!"

Roasted cranberry chicken, lemon and thyme quinoa, sauteed green beans.  Damn!  Brian even did the "Iron Chef" description of what he did as we started to eat, but I'm not sure anyone but me heard him.  We were already busily scarfing down the deliciousness.  Lots of leftovers too.  Oh, and I haven't been a big believer in quinoa in the past, but this recipe from America's Test Kitchen has made me a raving fan.  Into the notebook it goes!

The next day, we roasted a turkey.  One of my tenants asked if I'd like to have a frozen turkey that she wasn't going to use so of course I said yes.  We had my brother and SIL over, and it was a fun night.  lots of leftovers from that too, despite sending them home with some.

  And then last night, my next door neighbor brought over a baked ziti casserole as a thank you for helping clear her driveway last week during Snowpocalpyse '13.  Had that for dinner the past two nights, and there's STILL three helpings left for lunch(es).  Talk about a very good weekend!