I also steamed some sugar-snap peas and topped them with spray butter and cheese

I wasn’t really sure how to do the calamari steak but I decided to pat it dry and season it with McCormick Chicken Seasoning, salt and pepper. I then did it on a hot grill pan for a minute per side. A lot of recipes said to score it but it looked like it was already scored with lots of little cuts so I skipped that.

The calamari steak was a bit strange. Surprisingly, I don’t think I overcooked it, but it still had a strange texture. Not like rubber bands, but chewy and springy. Okay, a bit like rubber bands. I would do it again but I want to read up more on how to make it and try something different. The asparagus was very good and I was easily able to eat a whole pound of it!

The fish and the asparagus was the easiest and most regular part of this meal. We roasted asparagus in the oven. I am not sure how long. Meredith did it. And for the fish, we just sprinkled it with Penzy’s Singapore seasoning and microwaved it for 3:30. Of course, the fish popped a bit and made a mess but it was simple enough. Not amazing but we were in a hurry since everything else in the meal took so long.

Meredith did most of the work on this so I do not know all the details. She followed the recipe below but I’ll let her comment on the changes I forget. We improvised a way to steam it with a frying screen. So it was a rather loose seal. And we kept having to refill the water. We used red thai rice. We thought it would be sticky but it wasn’t really. We also strained off a bunch of coconut milk stuff after it was added since it was too much. We used champaign magos which were really good.

Meredith had found this recipe but i was put in charge of making it. I halved the recipe since it seemed like it would just make way too much and that was an insane amount of sugar. We also used grape tomatoes (and more than 24) instead of cherry tomatoes. But, on the note of cherries, we also dipped them in the candy coating.

I followed the (halved) recipe pretty closely but I forgot that the temperature jumps very quickly at the end. I pulled it off the burner around 315 instead of 305. We thought it tasted burned but actually, according to Exploratorium it should have just been into the caramelization. Maybe I used too high of a temp throughout and it got a burned taste from that. Either way, they weren’t incredible. Certainly an interesting idea but once you get past the crunch, it is just tomatoey. It was also stressful as we didn’t realize it was truly candy making until we committed to it. The mess was pretty bad too and I thought there was no way we would ever get that pan clean, but it turns out that soaking candy stuff in hot, soapy water is sufficient

Thai Mango with Coconut Sticky Rice (from The Kitchn)

Ingredients

• 1 cup Thai sweet or sticky rice, available in Asian groceries
• 1 can coconut milk, unshaken
• 3 tablespoons raw or white sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch (or tapioca flour, available in Asian groceries or in gluten-free section)
• 2 ripe mangos
• Toasted sesame seeds and mint, to garnish

Equipment

• Covered saucepan
• Steamer basket
• Small saucepan

Instructions

1. Gather your ingredients. The sticky rice is the most important thing here; you cannot use regular rice. Here’s a photo of the sticky rice I use; it comes in 5-pound bags at the Asian grocery. The grains themselves are small, quite plump, and very white.

2. Soak 1 cup of dry sticky rice in water for about 1 hour. (Some recipes instruct you to soak it overnight, but 1 hour seems sufficient.)

3. Drain the rice and rinse it thoroughly. Then pour about 1 cup of water into a saucepan, and place the rice in a steamer insert inside the saucepan. Cover tightly and steam over low to medium heat for 20 minutes.

4. While the rice is steaming, make the first sauce. You will make two coconut sauces to go on the rice: One thin one to mix into the rice itself, and then a thicker sauce to spoon over top. Start by opening the can of coconut milk and spooning out the thick cream on top.

Place the thicker coconut cream in a small bowl. You should have approximately 1/2 cup, give or take a bit. (All measurements here are approximate, which is completely fine for this recipe.)

5. Pour the thinner, lighter coconut milk left in the can into a small saucepan. (It will be a little over 1 cup.) Stir in 2 tablespoons sugar and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Warm over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Do not let the sauce boil.

6. By now the rice is probably done. The grains should be tender and shiny. Spoon the rice out into a bowl (it will be clumpy).

7. Slowly pour the warm coconut milk over the rice in the bowl, stirring frequently. You want the milk to coat the rice but not leave puddles. Keep stirring, and stop pouring in coconut milk when it looks like the rice is saturated. You may not use all of the milk.

8. Set the rice aside to finish absorbing the coconut milk; after 15 minutes or so it should have soaked up any milk that is still liquid.

9. While the rice is standing, make the coconut topping sauce. Rinse out the coconut milk saucepan, and pour in the coconut cream that you took off the top of the can. Stir in 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together a few teaspoons of water and the cornstarch.

10. Whisk this cornstarch slurry into the coconut cream and cook over low heat for about 3 minutes, or until the mixture thickens considerably. Set aside.

11. To cut up the mango, first cut off the bottom so it can stand upright.

12. Slice away the skin in thin strips, until the mango is completely peeled.

13. Cut off the flesh in slices, starting with the broad cheeks on each side, then the thinner strips that will come off either side.

14. To serve, place about 1/3 cup cooked sticky rice on each plate, and arrange mango slices around it. Drizzle with the coconut topping sauce, and sprinkle with a few toasted sesame seeds. Garnish with a mint sprig, and eat while still warm.

Candied Tomatoes (from Serious Eats)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup white and black sesame seeds, toasted (about 2 tablespoons each)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 24 firm ripe cherry tomatoes, stems removed

Procedures

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Put the sesame seeds and salt in a small bowl, mix, and set aside.

2. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of a deep 3- to 4-quart saucepan. Combine the sugar and balsamic vinegar in the pan and boil over medium-high heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the corn syrup.\

3. Continue to cook, brushing down the sides of the pan with a moistened pastry brush to prevent crystallization and adjusting the heat as needed so the syrup doesn’t boil over, until the syrup registers 305 degrees (hard-crack stage) on the thermometer. Remove from the heat.

4. Put a toothpick into the stem end of a tomato, then dip the tomato into the syrup, allowing the syrup to go a little over halfway up the tomato. Twirl gently and carefully over the pan to let the excess drip off, then immediately dip the bottom half of the tomato into the sesame seeds and stand, seed end down, on the lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes, reheating the sugar syrup over low heat as needed to restore fluidity

5. Let cool for 10 minutes at room temperature before serving.

The zucchini worked pretty well and I would definitely do it again. The pepper was okay. I want to look into other batter recipes that may work better.

I also had miso-soy cod from Trader Joes. It was very good and easy enough to make in the microwave.

Another copy of the first time. It may be a copy, but it is also becoming one of my favorite meals. It is really easy and rather healthy. I would be interested in making a vegan version sometime with seitan and vegan oyster sauce

It came out very good. Much more bulk than just the pasta and a good amount of flavor. I liked it very much and I would definitely do it again. I may also find a way to get more of the carrot out of it. I still had a good amount of carrot left. Using thicker carrots would work much better but they didn’t have them at the supermarket.

I also made zucchini fritters with with no major changes. I did let them cook a bit more to crisp them up.

They were extremely good as always these days. Nice crisp to them with lots of flavor. I liked them served this like too. I think I would use tzatziki instead of za’atar dip in the future if I didn’t have to make it myself. Either way, I would also add a thin slice of cucumber.

Point-wise, it came out the same as just eating the whole thing but this is more interesting and makes more.

Made two servings. Here is the points for one (4 open-face things)
2x Multi-grain low fat english muffins…5.8
1/2 can chick peas…4.8
1/8 cup flour…1.4
1/2 tsp olive oil…0.6
4oz (1/2 serving) FF Greek Yogurt…1.6
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14.2 or 14

While they were grilling, I thickly sliced two graffiti eggplans, pammed them and then sprinkled them with salt (key ingredient with eggplants; though better if you can let it sit for a bit). I then broiled them for 5-6 minutes/side.

I used a bit of low sugar ketchup and some hoagie spread, then I put the seasoned burgers on top.

They came out very good though extra messy. I assume the liquid coming off of them was the eggplant since I used such lean beef and the patties dried out a bit. Still, I liked how fast and easy the meal was. It was also very healthy at just 5 or 6 points for the beef (1/3 lbs extra lean) and maybe one for the pam + low sugar ketchup.

• Big head (crown?) of broccoli
• Half an onion
• Half a shallot
• Two sliced jalapeños (with the seeds)
• Half a bell pepper
• Big thing of mushrooms
• celery
• 1 28 oz can and 1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
• Lots of seasoning

I did the onions and shallots first, then added the peppers, then the rest. I let it cook for about 30 minutes or more and then poached eggs inside of it. I topped it with grated parm cheese. It came out very good. Lots of flavor. And the broccoli was nice and covered with the tomatoes. I probably could have cooked it a bit longer, but it was fine. It did have a nice spice to it, my guess is it was the jalapeño seeds.

I also tried to make something with the rest of the broccoli. I had the dipping sauce from tuna tataki (from 2013-05-02). I strained it to remove any chunks of stuff, including some old tuna that was there. I added some (actually, too much) corn starch. I then steamed broccoli a bit then added the sauce. As I said, it was too much corn stach and the whole thing thickened too much. That wasn’t so bad, except that the sauce was extremely salt and way too lemony. It may work well for a tuna dipping but it pretty much failed for coating/stir-frying broccoli. I ate a few pieces and threw out the rest.

I also made za’atar-garlic dip. I just mixed a lot of za’atar and garlic powder in fat free greek yoghurt. It gave the meal some more protein and it tasted pretty good!