Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2010/10
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Failed Attempt: Coq au Riesling -- back to top
We tried to make it with this recipe but with turkey bacon, chicken tenders and some other modifications, including no mushrooms but using peppers. Also, we were trying to use up some riesling which was extremely sweet even though it called for dry.
Anyway, we left it simmer at too high of a heat and forgot to check it. It was pretty burned on the bottom and most of the onions and mushrooms were gone. It wasn't awful but it was pretty dry. Also, we did not make the sauce so we lost that extra flavor.
I do want to try this, or a recipe like it (maybe croq au vin), again sometime. The idea was to use the riesling. Still, I would give it a shot. I just will not simmer it so high. (I am starting to really dislike electric)
Points were low though. Really only the chicken. Maybe some for the wine but it all cooked off. About 6-7 for the entire chicken portion (two servings)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 502, 2010-10-01_223745
Frittata with Gimme Lean -- back to top
Made a frittata with broccoli, peppers, onions, garlic, etc. I used a lot of adobo powder to give it some more flavor than just egg. After it was almost done, I threw in some well cooked gimme lean chunks. Overall, it was very good.
A nice low point breakfast with the total (2-4 servings) being 4 for gimme lean, 2 for eggs, 1 for cheese.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 507, 2010-10-02_105145
Hot Dogs with Fake Fried Stuff -- back to top
The hot dogs were just 97% lean Hebrew Nations at 1 point per dog + 1 for the first and 2 for each subsequent for the Arnolds hat dog roll.. But fake fried stuff was chips made two different ways and Fiber One Fried dill pickles. The pickles were good as usual. Nothing special but definitely enjoyable. Salty though.
The chips were some experimentation. I realized that maybe the reason I have having baked chips issues was that I always used Yukon Gold when they have a higher water content. So, I tried a regular russet. I did it in the microwave and the over. Sadly, I overcooked the oven ones and undercooked the microwave one. The oven ones were crispy though so maybe that is the answer. We will see.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 509, 2010-10-03_104958
Yogurt Parfait and Home Fries -- back to top
The yogurt parfaits were greek yogurt, pumpkin and cereal. I do not know the details because Meredith engineered them. They were good though. And pretty low in points. The cereals were Banana Raisin Nut (or something like that) and Cracklin' Oat Bran (appropriate.y named Kellogg's Crack)
The homefries were a mix of Yukon gold and sweet potatoes (3:1 ratio). I also put in some garlic and a shallot. I think the garlic and shallots burned on the bottom and didn't contribute much. I need to read a few home fried recipes because I think I need to start cooking the potatoes first. This way they will stick together more, need less time, and burn less on the bottom. They were good though. About 3-4 points each.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 513, 2010-10-03_135245
Grilled Shrimp and Green Beans -- back to top
We were in a hurry and this was fast and easy. The shrimp was pre peeled and devained. We did half with Old Bay and half with Adobo Powder. Both were good and a bit too salty. I do not quite know how I feel about Adobo powder. It is flavorful but also a bit plain in its flavor. (gotta love the MSG).
The green beans were done in the pan with Penzeys Sandwich Sprinkle. (Green Beans a la Dad).
Very low points. Around 4-5 for the shrimp and that is all.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 516, 2010-10-04_100932
Chili -- back to top
We made chili with all of the usual plus some extras. In addition to beans, onions, garlic and pepper (which may or may not be normal), we also used this opportunity to clean the fridge and threw in half a had of cabbage.There were also Serrano peppers.
We used chili seasoning but also threw in extra of everything including some more cumin. Overall, it was spicy but not too spicy. On my bowl, I added Sriracha to kick it up a bit.
Fairly low points too. We used 8 oz lean beef (8 points), 1 can of beans (I think 2-3 points) and FF cheese on top (depends, around 1 point). It made about 4-5 servings (Lunch!) so about 3 per serving!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 522, 2010-10-04_223753
Patatas Bravas, Salmon Burgers and Onion Marmalade -- back to top
The patatas bravas recipe was from this site. It was pretty good. And spicy. We used hot, smoked paprika which really added some spice. It was served over potatoes which was a mix of yukon gold, some purple kind (I forget the name) and some others. We got the mix at TJ's.
The Salmon burgers were the normal with Trader Joes 21 Seasoning Salute (like Mrs Dash). I didn't want a salty seasoning so that sounded good. And, I made onion marmalade to put on top. I caramelized 1.5 onions and added a packet of splenda. I then used balsamic vinegar and Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar from Trader Joe's (a lot of TJ's in this meal). It was really good. I ate the leftover with a fork (and hopefully, I will not smell too much later)
The potatoes were about 4 each, and each salmon was 4 each. Two burgers was more than enough for 1 person (for future reference).
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 525, 2010-10-05_221507
Carne Asada Fajitas -- back to top
I made the carne asada marinade roughly following this recipe including the kiwi. I did not have cilantro and I used lime juice. I also used splenda. I added too much lime and it was noticable but not too bad. I forget the cut of meat, but it was very lean. One nice thing is that it marinated for over 24 hours so it did have the flavor (even if it was too much lime). I cooked it on the griddler with the thermometer method (so easy!)
The pepper are red bell and poblanos. Poblanos are more flavorful and spicier than green bell peppers. The onion was a vidalia onion. I mixed in a bit of fajita seasoning to give it all flavor.
The steak was 10 for the meat and probably some for whatever oil stayed from the marinade. The wraps were 1 each (La Tortilla Factory).
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 529, 2010-10-06_223128
Lentil Soup and Roasted Root Vegetables -- back to top
This meal was a "meat-free" meal. But, it wasn't really because we used chicken bouillon. But, it could have been! And there was no meat dish.
The soup was incredible! I roughly followed this but I ended up adding water to thicken. I also immersion blended some of it as per Alton Brown's suggestion. I do not totally understand their calorie count but I did not use oil so that would reduce it. See below for points. Also, we used frozen spinach mixed in at the beginning. It was fine. And we threw some parsnips in too.
The root vegetables were potatoes (same mix as the other day), carrots, parsnips, and turnips. I think they were under seasoned a bit and needed salt but they were still good. The purple potatoes really added to the color of the dish.
The calories in the soup were almost entirely from the lentils. We used about 2.25 cups and it is 160/0/6 for each 1/4 cup. So, total it had 1440/0/54. That is a lot but we made 10 cups. It was at least 6-8 servings so each serving was 240/0/9 or 4 points/servings.
Veggies are harder to count but figure they are all as bad as potato (they aren't) so even it out to 6 points/pound. It was probably 3 pounds which made 4-6 servings so 3/serving
Lentil Soup (from AllRecipes)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 532, 2010-10-07_214821
Chicken Cordon Bleu with leftover lentil soup and moussaka -- back to top
The chicken was the same basic recipe as last time except we used lite jarlsberg. It was much easier with that but I didn't like it as much. First of all, it leaked more and second of all, it congealed in it. Also, 2 of them were with Canadian bacon and not prosciutto because we ran out.
We also had the leftover moussaka from a while ago and leftover lentil soup from yesterday (it was so good).
See all referenced links for points (this meal had 2 leftovers and a repeat)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 537, 2010-10-09_124110
Brunch: Breakfast Pockets and Pumpkin Pie Pockets -- back to top
The dough was the same as we used in the empanadas. For the filling, I started with turkey bacon and peppers. Once it was pretty cooked I added pieces of canadian bacon. Finally, I scrambled an egg into it. I also used a touch of adobo for some flavor. I was sure to let it knead for about 10 minutes. I used white whole wheat and bread flour.
We filled the dough and did everything else just like the empanadas for the first four. There was leftover filling which I put in a ramekin, sprinkled with cheese and baked (see center).
Then, for the other 2, we took some leftover canned pumpkin, added a touch of half and half, then cinnamon, splenda ginger and nutmeg until it tasted right. We filled the dough and sprinkled it with sugar. They were mini hand pies. With the leftover of that, I added a bit of egg beaters and put it in a ramekin and topped with Craklin Oat bran. The pumpkin pies are below
The whole wheat flour has 4 grams of fiber per serving and we used 2 servings. So, with the regular flour and the butter, it was about 5 for all the dough (that may be an over estimate). Then the pumkin filling was really low, say 1/person. The egg and meat filling was about 3 total so say 2 per person to be safe.
Therefore, for 2 breakfast pockets, the pie pocket and 1/2 the two mini casseroles there was 5+1+3=9 points. Not bad at all for this much.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 541, 2010-10-09_143828
Vegetable Pizza Pies and Pizza -- back to top
'We ate at Bertucci's the night before and Meredith ordered something like this. They called it a torta, but I do not think that is the correct name for it. It was very good and conceivably pretty healthy so we wanted to try to make it ourselves. We used the normal pizza dough recipe (1/2). We grilled graffiti eggplant and zucchini. We sautéed onions and red pepper. And finally, we salted some fresh garlic cloves, wrapped it in an aluminum foil pocket, and toasted it for a while. We also made our own sauce (without oil).
After rolling dough as flat as possible, we put all of the toppings in the center and out to the edge leaving a larger than normal crust. We then folded the extra dough over and pinched it closed.
It was pretty good though not as good as what Meredith had for dinner. We need to use a higher heat to get the dough to be more authentic. Also, we need to season the veggies more. Maybe roast them next time.
We made two of them and with the leftover dough, we made small pizzas (below). The one on the left is Meredith's. She coated the outside edge with laughing cow and then folded it over making a stuffed crust. We topped it with sauce, skim ricotta and FF cheddar and Mozz mix. On mine, I just used sauce, ricotta, pieces of provolone and lean ham. I then also used FF cheddar and mozz (4 cheese)
The points for the main thing were not bad at all. Doing a rough estimate, each 1/4 cup of flour has 2 points minus one for using half whole wheat. There are 6 of them. Plus a bit of olive oil. So, figure 12-13 for the whole crust. Previously, I said it was 5 for the large and 3 for the small. I am thinking it may be a bit less.
Anyway, the vegetable were basically all crust plus 0.5 for the FF cheese we lightly put under it.
The small pizzas are more because they have toppings. Probably 2-3 for the dough plus 2-3 for the cheese. 0.5 for the ham on mine and about the same for the laughing cow on Meredith's
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 545, 2010-10-10_235217
Lunch: Stir Fry -- back to top
I was partially trying to clean out the fridge and I also just wanted to try something new and quick so I made a stir fry. It had some Trader Joes fake beef (seitan) and a leftover extra lean hot-dog (strange, I know). I added onions, pepper and peas. I made the brown rice with beef bouillon to add some flavor. Once I mixed it all, I added low sodium soy sauce, a tad of sesame oil and peanut oil, some fish sauce, freshly grated ginger, sriracha, and worcestershire. I may have added other stuff but I do not remember.
It was pretty good. I will look into some more stir fry recipes in the future.
The whole thing was two servings with:
rice...6
"beef"...5
Hot dog...1
peas...0.5
oils and other misc...1.5
-----------------------------
14==> 7/person.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 552, 2010-10-11_155508
Swiss Chard, French Onion Soup, Chicken and Steak -- back to top
In an effort to not leave the apartment all day, this is the dinner we ended up with. We had one frozen potion of steak and one frozen portion of chicken. So, we made them and split it. They were both lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. The chicken also had some italian herbs. The chicken was sautéed and the steak was grilled the usual way.
The swiss chard was sautéed with pre-roasted garlic. It was pretty good. I do not think I have had swiss chard in a while so it was a nice change of pace. Wegmans was selling a HUGE bunch for very little. We made about half of it.
The french onion soup was pretty good too. We did not have vadalia onions so we used yellow. Interestingly though, it was a very sweet soup and we didn't add any sugar. It was 6 cups water and 1 cup white wine. We used 3 of both chicken and beef cubes plus a Tbsp of sodium free chicken and a packet of sodium free beef. This gave it extra flavor without too much salt. The soup was still salty but not too bad. Also, when making the onions, I added a Tbsp of Smart Balance. It adds a point but really made them cook nicely.
Points:
Chard...0 or maybe 1
Soup...1 for cheese, almost zero for soup
Steak...4/piece as cut (small and very lean)
Chicken...2 or 3
--------------------------
8 point meal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 556, 2010-10-12_092342
Beef & Turkey Burgers and Brussel Sprouts -- back to top
The burgers were a mix of turkey and beef (both very lean) mixed together. I added a bunch of seasonings including onion powder, garlic powder, etc. It was very wet but that was probably due to the meat being frozen and defrosted. Still, it was good. Still a bit like meat loaf but good.
The brussel sprouts were very good. All I did was quarter them, spray it with pam and then salt and pepper. Cooked it for about 25 min at 400 for about 25 min. My plan (well, my dad's suggestion) was to then broil it for a bit but it was unnecessary.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 559, 2010-10-12_204736
Chicken and Vegetables -- back to top
I sautéed onions, garlic and peppers then broiled zucchini and eggplant. Then, I added sautéed chicken and turkey bacon. After it was all ready, I added a mix of chicken broth and white wine and let it cook down a lot.
It looked a lot nicer before it all cooked down for about 45 minutes but it was really good. There was certainly enough vegetables and all but they were really good so I should have done more.
Points were low. Around 5 for the chicken plus 1 whatever else just to be sure.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 565, 2010-10-17_220059
Mozzarella Sticks, Swiss Chard and Pork Chop -- back to top
It was quite a varied meal. The swiss chard was just sautéed with garlic. The mozzarella sticks were inspired by the Hungry Girl recipe . I used Weight Watcher's brand string cheese which was smaller but lower points. So, for 6 pieces, it was only 3 points! They were good but you could tell it was low fat cheese. It was not a gooey
The pork chops were okay. I trimmed all the fat before cooking which lowered the points but it was not as good. I sprinkled them with Montreal Chicken Seasoning.
Points:
Pork Chop...6
Mozz Sticks...3
Swiss Chard...0
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 578, 2010-10-18_225047
Tuna with a Yogurt Orange Curry Sauce over Kale and Roasted Potatoes -- back to top
The tuna with the yogurt orange curry sauce was from the tuna package. I modified it a little bit. It is about a cup of fat free greek yogurt, a dollop of sugar free orange preserves and a bunch of curry powder. It was not great at first, but after sitting for a while it was pretty good. I then broiled the tuna and flipped it about 2/3 of the way through. The big piece was cooked perfectly but the small one was just slightly over cooked
The kale was also very good with a lot of garlic and onions. It cooked down less than I expected so there was a lot of kale. But it was good so that was fine.
The potatoes were roasted for a while with salt, pepper and a tad of cayenne. It was really good. They got a bit crispy. Also, they were a quarter sweet potato so that added to it.
The points:
Tuna...3-4
Curry Sauce...<1
Potatoes...4
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 582, 2010-10-19_212303
Asian Lettuce Wraps and "Fried" Zucchini -- back to top
Meredith had found the recipe for the wraps a while ago but I was able to find it again here. They were good though we didn't look at the recipe before making it and thought it said 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. Knowing that would be a lot of calories, we used only one. It turns out it was 2 teaspoons. Oh well, that would have only been one less point in the whole thing.
The wraps were really good and really easy. The noodles (we used Chinese Vermicelli, which are the same thing) were kind of cool. I liked the spice from the sriracha. The points were a bit high because of the oil and everything else. See below
The zucchini was the normal but I do not think we cooked them long enough. Also, we sliced them pretty thin (second thinnest on my mandolin). Even though I like them thin, I think we will do thicker next time. Less breading time and maybe a bit more substantial. They were still good though.
Points:
Lettuce Wraps (served two):
noodles...4
Chicken...8-9
sesame oil...4
------------------
~8/person. A bit high
Zucchini is about 1 per person.
Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps (from My Recipes)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 588, 2010-10-20_223550
Sea Scallops alla Caprese and Purple Smashed Potatoes -- back to top
This was a very good meal. Meredith found the scallops recipe a while ago and we just tried it. You use scallops instead of cheese. We used regular tomatoes and didn't use as much oil in searing the scallops. We also used yellow onions cooked on the pan but without pam. They were good but I am not sure if it really burned the pan. Also, instead of lemon, we used Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar which also makes more sense because it is caprese.
The potatoes were a mix of Yukon gold, red bliss and purple majesty. We boiled them and then mashed with Greek yogurt, Smart Balance butter(ish). We also roasted garlic in the toaster and used garlic and onion powder. With a bit of salt and pepper, they were very good.
Points (per person):
Scallops (1/2 lb)...4
Potatoes+Stuff...5
Pretty low and a lot of food!
Sea Scallops alla Caprese (from Serious Eats)
Local Copy-- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 592, 2010-10-21_205010
Salmon Burgers and Brussel Sprouts -- back to top
We wanted something fast and low in points so we roasted some brussel sprouts and salmon burgers. To speed up making the brussel sprouts, I halved them instead of quartering them. I like it quartered more but this was much faster.
Just like last time when we made these burgers, we also made onion marmalade. That was also good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 596, 2010-10-24_073612
This was very good. We made it with this recipe with a few modification. We used coconut Da Vinci syrup, and we used skim evaporated milk. Also we used less oil. It was also not flavorful so we added more seasonings and then red curry paste. Overall it was very good. We let it boil too much and the milk curdled which was more of a texture and appearance issue than anything else. It was very flavorful even though the pumpkin was not overly flavorful.
The points were mediocre.
Chicken...8
Evaporated Milk...5
oils...1
pumpkin...3 (it is really low).
Not bad for two people.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 599, 2010-10-25_223129
Pumpkin Soup and Spicy Pork Chops -- back to top
The soup was largely flavorless. I ended up throwing out most of it away. I really think the larger pumpkin has so much less flavor. Also, I was trying to go lower on the salt which shouldn't have mattered too much for a pureed soup but it was not very good.
I was earlier watching a thing on spicy foods and peppers and I wanted to make something fast so I put some sriracha garlic spread on pork chops and grilled them with a thermometer. The sriracha stuff tastes just like the bottled squirt stuff but has some more chuncks.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 602, 2010-10-26_214837
Beef Enchilada Casserole -- back to top
The recipe basically came from Hungry Girl's "Chicken Enchilada Casserole" on page 66 of _Hungry Girl 1-2-3. _We used 8 oz extra lean ground beef instead. Also, instead of corn tortillas, we used one La Tortilla Factory tortilla with 13 grams on fiber. The use of 98% fat free cream of celery condensed soup was interesting. We used that but I think we could have also used the 98% FF cream of chicken instead. We also added our own seasonings and some peas and corn.
It was very good. A bit salty but good. We put too much cheese on top and because it is fat free, it hardened. We used a knife to cut it but after that is was good. It also made more than enough for two [large] dinners and two [medium/small] lunches.
She gets about 4 servings at 5/serving. I get lower largely due (I think) to using one flour tortilla with all that fibers (becomes free if split) over her six small corn tortillas.
Total points for 2 x 1/3 portions (dinner) and 2 x 1/6 (lunch):
beef...8
Tortilla...0 (when split later)
Soup...3
cheese...3 (and could have been less in the future)
Misc veggies...1
----------------------------------
=15. So dinner was ONLY five each. Lunch is 2.5
2013-12-05 Note: Added to "My Recipe Book"
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 605, 2010-10-27_222456
Recipe: Moussaka -- back to top
Originally from here but we made some changes.
Changes
Points (from 2010-09-10): 30 for the entire thing!
_2010-12-17 note: _We more than doubled the seasonings and it needed it!
2011-10-10 note: Updated the changes to most recent. See the post for 2011-10-10
(This recipe is now in my Recipe Book)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 607, 2010-10-28_211943
We made Moussaka from the same recipe (copied into KitchenKatalog) and with similar modifications as last time. When I created the recipe page, I included the changes as well (including extra seasoning).
It was very good as expected. With the extra red sauce, I just ate some and it was incredible. A nice but simple spice combination.
See last time for point tally, but around 30 for the entire thing. We made two dinner servings and two lunches and still have about 2/5 leftover.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 610, 2010-10-28_222750
Vertical Pear Salad, Chicken Saltimbocca, Quinoa Genovese, Orange Brownies, etc (Entertaining) -- back to top
My grandparents were in town and offered to take us out to dinner. Well, we decided to cook instead. The menus we printed and put at each seat is above. It is probably easier to go course by course.
This was the first thing we planned too. We got the idea a while ago from here (local) but we did it with spinach, grated cheese and toasted pine nuts. Meredith made a really nice vinaigrette with the orange juice leftover from dessert (below). We also used the orange juice to stop the pear from turning brown.
First I sliced a small bit off the bottom to get it to be flat, then we sliced it into three slices. I cut the core out of the middles ones and then we assembled the salad. We used a toothpick between the layers to hold it together. We were sure to tell our guests to expect two toothpicks so they do not get it by accident.
It was good but you didn't get much salad. Still, you had a whole pear. The pears were locally grown and had been sitting in a brown bag for a week. They were perfect!
Vertical Pear Salad (from The Novice Chef)
Local Copy (U: guest, P: name of my dog, lower case)
The chicken saltimbocca (done previously) was very good. It was just flattened tenders, with a slice of prosciutto and then some sage leaved. After folding (not rolling), we dipped it in just flour and sautéed it. For this, we prepped it fully and then I excused myself during the appetizer and sautéed it. They were good.
The quinoa was very good. Meredith just kind of came up with it. It was quinoa, some chicken stock and then a lot of basil (the Genovese region of Italy is known for basil and pesto). Then she added some steamed broccoli and grape tomato halves. Plus a bit of pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan. It was very good.
The Brussels sprout were pretty good but a bit overdone. We had to push dinner back a bit so they got a tad crispy but not too bad.
We also served a rye gruyere bread from Trader Joes.
We had seen something about cooking cake in an orange on The Kitchn recently and liked the idea but wanted to change it to brownies. Then, I googled it and found a Today Show thing on it. Well, their thing had the author of Cooking for Geeks telling them about this. I own his book and found it as well.
I cut off a medium slice from the top to get a nice opening. I then used a paring knife and cut around the opening. After that, I used a spoon to hollow it out a lot. Note that I didn't cut the bottoms because I didn't want it to leak. This led some to fall over but that looked even cooler (see photo below).
We used this recipe without walnuts. Also, we added a good amount of orange rind (from the slices) and some orange juice to the batter. It was low in points (see below) and okay. Honestly, it still tasted a bit fake but that is to be expected. I, wanting to have my brownie and eat it too (hahaha), want to find a recipe with similar points that taste better. We also served decaf coffee with dessert.
The pear salad was 1 for the pear and next to nothing for the very little bit of dressing. There was cheese and pine nuts but not much. I am not really sure about the nuts but lets just say 3 total to be safe.
Dinner: The chicken was 6 per person (calculated previously). The quinoa was 1 cup dry total. That is four servings for four people. And we had a good amount leftover. Forget the leftover and say 3 per person, plus one for the other stuff. The Brussels sprouts were zero. If I recall correctly, the bread was 3/serving and 7 total servings. So that depends (but still not bad).
The brownies are below: (cal/fat/fiber)
- 3/4 cup flour ... 300/0/0
- cocoa...40/2/8
- Margarine ... 200/20/0
- egg beaters... (1 point)
- 1/2 cup apple sauce 50/0/2
- chips 140/8/0
----------------------
total 730/30/10 + 1
Since we can assume there will be more than 3 servings, we can count all the fiber
20 points for the whole thing.
We made five oranges and didn't eat the orange itself so say 4 points each.
The whole meal, with 5 points of bread, is therefore 3+6+4+5 (bread) + 4=20. A lot but not bad for such a nice big meal with company!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 618, 2010-10-29_224055