Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2015/05
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Vitamix Tortilla Soup -- back to top
This was out first time "cooking" in the new kitchen... if you would call this cooking. We wanted to play with the new Vitamix and decided to try the tortilla soup. We used their recipe but went very heavy on the veggies and used baby kale instead of cabbage. Also, at the end, we added some corn and a can of beans plus some older tortilla chips.
Well, maybe it was the extra veggies, the kale, or something but it tasted like warm veggie baby food. Too strong of a vegetable flavor and the kale reminded us of our smoothies.
I do want to make this again but I will be nearly exact on the recipe since this just wasn't very good. I was impressed with heating in the Vitamix. That's pretty cool!
Vitamix Tortilla Soup (from Vitamix)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9908, 2015-05-17_221058
Chicken Sausage, Artichokes, Eggs, and Kale -- back to top
This was a pretty simple and thrown together meal. Not too much cooking. We used the grill pan on chicken sauce with eggs and toast. And Meredith sautéed baby kale with cherry tomatoes and some adobo seasoning. We also had boiled artichokes and a dip made by combing some Trader Joes eggplant spread and greek yogurt.
Everything was very good. It was a nice weeknight meal with the only real time intensive prep being the artichokes. The dip was good but oily. I would have it again but not often.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9917, 2015-05-18_223026
Corn, and Crab salad and Creamy Broccoli Salad -- back to top
We made crab, corn and tomato salad (recipe) using the same basic changes (not much). Basically just mixed it all and didn't plate it like the recipe called for. And we used extra tomatoes. We served it on baby kale and "power mix"
We also had a broccoli salad that Meredith made from the below recipe. I really liked it and it is pretty healthy.
Creamy Broccoli Salad (from Our Lady of Second Helpings)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9921, 2015-05-19_223529
Spring Roll Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing -- back to top
Meredith made this Spring Roll Salad off of the below recipe but with a few different changes. For the shrimp, we found pretty nice sized shrimp frozen at Trader Joes. We steamed 8oz from frozen for about 4 min, 30 seconds and it was pretty nicely cooked. We tossed them with curry powder.
The Spring Roll salad had some of the following changes:
For the dressing, we used the thin almond milk instead of the thick coconut milk. We also replaced half of the peanut butter with PB2 (powdered peanut butter). We also didn't thin the dressing. Actually, we added some Xanthan gum to thicken it. Added a very small drop of coconut extract to get some of that flavor back.
We also ended up making a second batch of dressing since we had tons of salad and the dressing wasn't too many points.
Spring Roll Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing (from A Beautiful Mess)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9929, 2015-05-21_221515
Green Eggs and Lobster Tail on homemade Corn Tortillas -- back to top
We made Green Eggs and Lobster again (as we've done before). We made the paste from the Cilantro Soup recipe but used jalapeños for the peppers.
We again started the lobster tails by butterflying them and cooking on the grill pan in the shell. After about 7 minutes, we took it out of the shell and finished them right on the pan (I think the shell adds flavor but who knows)
The real difference is that we made corn tortillas. We used the linked recipe from The Santa Fe School of Cooking book. I followed the recipe pretty exactly. I thought that using wax paper would be better than plastic bags but it didn't work as well. Also, the food processor really didn't make anything easier when it came to combining. I think I may have cooked the tortillas a little bit longer since they were thicker but other than that, there isn't too much to change anyway.
The tortillas came out ok. I think she should have been thinner and with more salt. Also, more round would have helped.
Also, we fried the eggs instead of poaching since it was faster. And had lightly roasted asparagus with smoked salt.
Corn Tortillas (from Santa Fe School of Cooking: Celebrating the Foods of New Mexico [book] )
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9937, 2015-05-23_223017
Cauliflower Rice Jambalaya -- back to top
I had this idea when we were in New Orleans. I made Jambalaya with cauliflower rice. I based it on Emril's recipe (linked below) but made a few changes. First of all, I didn't make my own seasoning and just used the premade version of his. The biggest change is that I used less shrimp, skipped the chicken, used chicken Andouille sausage (Trader Joes), and finally, the cauliflower rice.
I initially planned to cut the broth since I wasn't using rice but there was way too much cauliflower rice that I had to add the liquid (and let it all steam to cook the shrimp).
I also adjusted the seasonings to taste. It all ended up pretty good. Meredith didn't like the sausage but I thought it was fine. The whole thing was probably not as good as the real thing with real rice, but it wasn't too bad. And pretty low in points (the sausage was the worst). We would do it again with a different type of sausage.
It made 4 servings.
Cajun Jambalaya (from Food Network/Emril Lagasse)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9944, 2015-05-26_233022
Baby Kale Rotisserie Chicken Salad with Low Fat Caesar -- back to top
This was a very nice but simple dinner. We made a baby kale caesar salad. We used the Skinny Taste caesar dressing (but with anchovy paste instead of fillets). Then we cut up slices of toasted jalapeño cheddar bread (only 2 pp/slice !!!) for croutons. And we had chopped rotisserie chicken breasts for protein. In mine, I also added some chopped red onion and shaved ricotta salata. The greens were the Costco Power Mix which is mostly baby kale.It was pretty good. The dressing was passable as caesar. Maybe too much lemon and anchovy but not bad. And the meal was nice and light. A hard-boiled egg would have been a nice touch. Next time
The above picture is it pre-mixed (done in a big metal bowl) and the below is it served
Creamy Caesar Dressing (from Skinny Taste)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9953, 2015-05-29_234009
I don't have a picture but I tried to make vanilla Atole, a mexican corn (masa) beverage. We had the chocolate kind (champurrado) at a latina market and it was so good. I actually made it twice. Once on Monday and then again today. Both recipes are below with the top being the newer one.
It was pretty good. Nowhere near as good as the super market one but really not bad. And pretty easy. I think this would make a great snow-day drink. And while it's not exactly low in points, it's not too high either. I estimate the recent to be about 5 PP.
I think the cinnamon should be reduced though.
Newer Version
Combine all ingredients in a Vitamix and run on high for 5-6 minutes to friction heat.
Original Version
Combine all ingredients in a Vitamix and run on high for 5-6 minutes to friction heat.
This one was less thick and didn't have the corn flavor as developed. The vanilla bean was probably more work than it was worth
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9961, 2015-05-29_235756
New Mexican Green Chili Breakfast Tacos -- back to top
I made a New Mexican breakfast. It was actually pretty simple. It was just scrambled eggs with some leftover rotisserie chicken and some roasted New Mexican green chili. I served it on pan-toasted tortillas and topped it with some grated ricotta salata.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9964, 2015-05-30_114012
BLT Corn Lettuce Wraps and Prickly-Chayote "Calabacitas". -- back to top
Meredith and I made BLT Corn-Lettuce wraps [recipe] and prickly-chayote "calabacitas". Calabacitas (literally translate to zucchini, is essentially sautéd squash, onions, and pepper. I peeled the chayote (not easy to do and hurt) then cut it up (and removed the strange looking middle). I first sautéd onions and a jalapeño in butter, then added garlic, and finally the chopped squash. It was actually really good, though I probably used a bit too much butter.
For the lettuce wraps, we used "Little Gem" lettuce. We also skipped the olive oil and sour cream and served the avocado on the side. And we used 6 slices of thin center-cut bacon.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9967, 2015-05-31_004047