Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
Sitemap ·
Our Recipe Book ·
Steven's Recipe Book ·
Ann's Recipe Book ·
Meal Ideas ·
Copied Recipes
Random ·
Random Links
posts/2011/03
All sub pages for /posts/2011/03
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (with Shirataki) and Steamed Asparagus -- back to top
I was really excited about making this but it was disappointing. I basically followed the recipe below but without pine nuts and I replaced the half and half with non-fat evaporated milk and some whole wheat flour to thicken it. Also, we added Thai basil (we didn't have regular basil)
To roast the peppers, rather than just put them under the broiler, I slided them in half first. This was great because I did not have to rotate them and it was easy to later peel them.
Anyway, the peppers were good (I had a taste) but the whole sauce did not have much flavor. I do not know if it was the milk or not but the only real flavor was the Thai basil. Also, of note is that Thai basil does taste different.
In the future, if I am replacing cream or milk, I am going to use almond milk. The evaporated milk just isn't as good. Also, I may have used a bit too much flour because it was really thick.
Also, we had it with Shirataki noodles instead of pasta.
With the noodles, this meal was very low in points. And we had steamed asparagus on the side.
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (From The Pioneer Woman)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1040, 2011-03-01_175617
Empanadas and Brussel Sprouts -- back to top
We made empanadas pretty similarly to the way we have in the past. The filling is a mix of black and red beans. We also put in onions, garlic and a lot of seasonings. A lot of flavor came from the Chipotles in Adobo sauce and the Habanero tobacco sauce.
They were really good but I think I liked the filling more last time (when Meredith made it). Also, some of them (the ones I folded) did not look as good as the others.
We also had brussel sprouts.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1044, 2011-03-03_172620
This was based on a recipe Meredith and I made a lot last year. It seemed to be missing a bit of flavor but it wasn't bad. Also, the roasted poblanos did not come out very good. I forgot the cranberries/raisins.
I feel like it used to have a lot more flavor but I may be remembering it differently. It does not have a huge amount of different seasonings.
I do not know what exactly when wrong with the peppers. I think I may have roasted them for too long and possibly, I let them steam for too long.
Also, it is supposed to be served in the peppers but that has never worked before so we didn't even try. Also, the "cream" sauce was made with fat free greek yogurt. We did have some leftover pecans but not much.
Oh, also we used extra lean beef instead of lamb.
Chile Relleno with Pecan Cream Sauce (from Thekitchn)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1048, 2011-03-04_075528
Pizza -- back to top
We tried making pizza again but in an attempt to finally get it right, we used a different pizza recipe with all white flour. The dough stuck to the hook so I kneaded it by hand. Either way, it was much nicer dough but we still had problems. We tried to just stretch it and not use a rolling pin but both of outstretched un-evenly and we had a hole.
We both ended up using the rolling pin which was hard because the dough was very springy and kept springing back. Also, the shape of my pizza came out really bad.Because I was doing it on the back of a cast iron pan, the strange shape made it fall over on the edges. Oh well.
We used low fat mozzarella cheese. They were out of the fat free cheese but the low fat wasn't awful nutritionally and it was really good. I also made the pizza sauce. It was canned tomato which I immersion blended mostly. I then added some tomato paste, and a bunch of dried oregano and basil. I also added garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.
Meredith's pizza was just cheese, sauce and arugula. We first cooked the pizza then added the arugula and threw it back in the oven for a minute. My pizza was cheese, sauce, brussel sprouts, sliced tomato, and lean ham.
The toppings on mine were good but I was not happy that so much slid off. Meredith's pizza was also good. The arugula adds a nice and unique flavor.
The dough recipe is below.
Pizza Dough (from AllRecipes)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1051, 2011-03-06_075549
Chicken Korma and Chick Pea Thing -- back to top
We made chicken korma off the recipe below but with a bunch of changes. They included
The Korma good, not great. It had some flavor but also a strange texture. Possibly caused by the yogurt (which may have curdled)
We also made the chick pea thing but didn't really follow any specific recipe. it was just chickpeas with some tomatoes and a bunch of spices. I also put some Sriracha in which made it very spicy. This was pretty good but not incredible.
Chicken Korma (from Serious Eats)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1061, 2011-03-07_091622
We made shrimp gumbo in honor of Mardi Gras. We used the recipe below as a base only. A lot of the comments suggested adding different things so we followed some of them. We also used less shrimp (because there were only two of us). We also added the shrimp at the very end giving it just enough time to cook. When we added the shrimp, we also added some brown rice.
Some of the other additions include some chili powder (as per a review), crushed red pepper,cayenne powder, garlic and onion powders. I didn't think of it until I was eating a lot of it, but I added some Emril Essence. That was a nice flavor addition.
We let it simmer for a while. It was really good. I do not know what the dominant flavor came from but my guess is the okra. I was a bit surprised that it smelled so much like gumbo I remembered. Either way, it was very good and there was a lot for leftovers. My biggest complaint would be that it is salty. Healthy, but salty.
I did something really interesting. I made the roux with olivio instead of oil. Even if we used olive oil, this cut the fat by about 18 grams (14/tablespoon of olive oil vs 5 and it calls for 2 Tbsp).
Shrimp Gumbo (From AllRecipies)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1065, 2011-03-09_090255
Taco Stew and Potatoes -- back to top
This was unintentionally the exact combination as last time. Like last time, we made the same modifications with the recipe including the garlic, pepper and beef. We also used a bit extra taco seasoning.
This recipe is very flavorful and rather easy. My one complaint is that I do not like to use the premade taco seasonings. I want to start making my own to use in the recipe.
Other than that, we also had roasted potatoes. They were mostly the purple ones with a white one thrown in for contrast.
We will definitely be making the taco stew again. See the post from 2011-01-03 for the recipe.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1068, 2011-03-11_152843
We wanted something really fast and easy because we had a lot of stuff to do. Sloppy Joes fit the bill really nicely. I basically used the same recipe as last time with some more peppers. The other main addition was that we put arugula on them, which was a really nice addition.
I want to start looking for recipes that use less ketchup and maybe more tomatoes to cut the sugar from the ketchup.
This is such a quick and easy recipe though.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1071, 2011-03-14_222011
Prosciutto wrapped Chicken -- back to top
I do not really know what to call this but it is something Meredith used to make. We basically take chicken, put some basil on it, wrap it in prosciutto and then bake it. I cut out the giant chunks of fat out of the prosciutto to cut some calories.
We had to use Thai basil because that is all we had which added a slightly strange flavor to it but not really bad. I want to use real basil next time. Also, I am not sure how much I like prosciutto. It is really salty. I want to explore wrapping this with other things.
I liked that this was an easy meal. We also served it with frozen vegetables and salsa
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1075, 2011-03-17_090109
Beef Enchilada Casserole and Swiss Chard -- back to top
This was pretty standard. We made the casserole with the same recipe from Hungry Girl noted on 2010-12-12. The swiss chard was just sautéd with garlic
The casserole is nice because it is pretty tasty and really rather easy to do. My only complaint is the saltiness of it. I wonder if there is a 98% fat free low sodium soup we could use instead.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1081, 2011-03-17_143146
Red Velvet Pancakes, Home Fries and Gimme Lean (Breakfast for dinner) -- back to top
This was the day we adopted our Boston Terrier
We made breakfast for dinner. There were a bunch of components. First the pancakes. We followed a recipe for red-velvet pancakes with a bunch of changes including egg-whites, Smart Balance for butter, splenda for sugar and almond milk+1 Tbsp lemon juice for buttermilk. The pancakes were somewhat flavorless but then again, how flavorful do pancakes tend to be anyway. I will copy or link to the recipe when I get it from Meredith.
I totally made up the cream cheese icing as I went. I basically used a whisk on fat free cream cheese and added some almond milk and splenda until it was good. I started it in the stand mixer but the quantity was too small so once it was more smooth, I finished it by hand. You could tell it was made with fat free cream cheese but it fulfilled its purpose. Maybe next time I will actually look at some recipes to adapt. I think I should have added some corn starch to make up for not using powdered sugar.
The potatoes were pretty much my standard home fries. I microwave the small potatoes cubes for about two minutes then I add them to the pan. I toss very frequently. When I am making them just for myself, I use a frying pan so I can toss really easily.Because this was a bigger batch, I used the sauce pan (I think thats the one) and was not able to toss as well. I do not know if it is related or not, but they were a bit mushier than usually. I usually let them get pretty crispy. Towards the end, I add salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme.
We did not make very much gimme lean because we had a lot of food but we wanted some protein. We just did that on the stove.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1084, 2011-03-22_143538
Tacos -- back to top
We needed a really quick meal so we made tacos. All we did was use taco seasoning with some tomato, jalapeno pepper and a few other seasonings. It was a quick and easy meal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1087, 2011-03-24_091308
Vegetable Lasagna with Butternut Béchamel (homemade pasta). Plus potatoes. -- back to top
This is the same recipe as last time, but this time, we use spinach. Again, we didn't have swiss chard so we had to use something else. Spinach fit the bill.
The biggest difference was that I made the pasta myself. I followed the recipe at the bottom of this post but we used 1/3 of the recipe. It was really good using my own pasta. It took a long time but it was nice and easier to use? It was also more flavorful and it cut nicely. That may also be because we used low-fat cheese instead of fat free. It also came out nicer because we used the pan lid instead of aluminum foil.
We also had roasted potatoes.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1089, 2011-03-24_091339
Tuna -- back to top
We had bought fresh tuna and then we marinated it for a very long time. I really just threw the marinade together. I used soy sauce, vinegar, balsamic vinaigrette, garlic, fish sauce, and a bunch of other stuff.
It was fine but not incredible. We may have let it marinade for too long or cooked it on too hot of a temperature.
I think she should have done a butterfly cut on the tuna first.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1091, 2011-03-27_091402
Ground beef thing (picadillo???) -- back to top
This wasn't really interesting. We had ground beef but didn't really know what we wanted to do with it. So, we made a picadillo type thing with a zucchini that was about to go bad.
It wasn't very flavorful because we went really light on the salt too. We need to have more ideas of what to do with ground beef when we have it.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1098, 2011-03-29_154512
Chicken Cacciatore -- back to top
We made it from the same recipe as last time (see that post for recipe). The biggest addition we made was that we added broccoli. We also tripled the celery and doubled the carrots. Broccoli in a tomato sauce is so good.
We may have let it simmer for a bit too long because it was all very mushy but it wasn't bad. Just more cooked
We also used chicken thighs for the first time. I trimmed off as much fat as possible first (and it was a gross amount). The chicken was a lot more tender but I am not sure if I liked the flavor more or not. It definitely tasted like cheaper chicken. Also, Thighs do not look as nice but when we cut it into little pieces, it is fine. I liked the price more though! I think the answer is that when we are cutting the chicken into pieces to mix into something, then thighs may be the better option. When the main thing is chicken, then breasts are better.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1100, 2011-03-30_154532