Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2012/08
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Zucchini and Wheat berry mix -- back to top
This idea was inspired by something Meredith made and a few recipes, including this one. Basically, I started with a bit less than a cup of dry wheat berries. Supposedly, you are supposed to soak them overnight, but I googled how to cook them without soaking. Maybe they would have been less chewy had I soaked them, but I like the chewiness. Then, I used the mandoline to finely slice two zucchinis. I was supposed to salt and drain them but I forgot. I then mixed the wheat berries and zucchini. I added a bit of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. I mixed a bit of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and a really small amount of olive oil with some more seasonings. I mixed them up and added it. After that was all mixed, I added 4 oz of TJ's light feta crumbled.
It came out really, really good! I wish I knew exactly how much of everything I added so I could do it exactly again! There was a nice chewiness with good texture. Maybe a bit too wet from not draining the zucchini but not too bad. And pretty low points.
Points Plus
~1 cup dry wheat berries...16
4 oz feta...4
2 tsp olive oil...2
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22 for 2 meals.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2164, 2012-08-01_140756
"Fried" Pickles and Hummus, Cucumber and Pepper sandwich -- back to top
I wasn't looking for a huge meal so I made this. I was at Whole Foods where they were sampling fried pickles. They used a special breading mix and didn't use an egg wash. Instead, they relied on the water of the pickles. I decided to try this but with regular bread crumbs. I dried the pickles first so they weren't soaked and that may have been the problem. Not a huge amount of bread crumbs stayed on (except the one in the forefront of the picture). The good thing is that it saved calories, but more would have been better. I liked the ease of no egg wash, but next time, I will not try to get off as much water. They were still very good but tasted more of hot pickles than hot "fried" pickles. I baked them at 450 for 10 minutes, flipped them and then another 5.
I also made an open-faced hummus, cucumber and pepper sandwich. I toasted a whole wheat roll, and put down half a Laughing cow. Then I put on sliced cucumber, then low point horseradish hummus (2 tbsp for one point, from Trader Joes), then sliced sweet peppers. The sandwich was pretty good, but I should have not done open-face. It would have been easier to eat and I think I would have liked it more.
A lot of cucumbers in this meal, but it was good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2170, 2012-08-02_114641
Spaghetti Squash and sauce -- back to top
I made spaghetti squash with tomato sauce. I wanted something pretty easy and really low in points. I made a tomato sauce the pretty normal way with onions and a bunch of seasonings, just like last time. The only thing I did differently was no oil and I put a can of chick peas giving the only real points in the meal at around 10. Maybe add 2 for whatever incidentals.
I thought I took a photo but I couldn't find it.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2175, 2012-08-05_202952
Taco Stew and Butternut Squash -- back to top
I made the pretty standard taco stew. Really nothing notable at this point. I made it so many times in the past. I also made butter nut squash. I cooked it at 425 for 20 minutes, flipped it and then for another 15-20 minutes.
The points are
Beef...11
Corn...4
Beef...8.5
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Assume the whole thing was 24. There was about 2.5 servings.
So say 15 for tonight and 10 for lunch.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2178, 2012-08-06_203329
Roasted Vegetables and Chicken Sausage -- back to top
I made the roasted veggie and chicken sausage thing with italian chicken sausage. It was pretty good though I went light on the potatoes to save some calories. I liked it a lot but I think I preferred it with other types of sausage. I used artichokes, onions,potatoes and a bit of sweet potatoes.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2187, 2012-08-08_194100
Oysters on the Half Shell and Grilled Hotdogs and Zucchini -- back to top
Meredith was here so we tried a bunch of new things for dinner. It was the first time I have ever grilled with charcoal (and I have barely grilled before) and it was my first time shucking oysters.
We bought chesapeake oysters at Whole Foods. We watched a few different videos on how to shuck them. We had a bit of trouble but for the most part, we were able to open them without spilling too much liquid and/or getting too many shells and sand in them. We served them on ice (or sorts) and with cocktail sauce and lemon. We ate them raw and survived to tell the tale. Pictured are only 6 but we bought 12.
And then there was the grilling! I have read a few things on how to work with charcoal but we decided to play it safe and cook hotdogs since they are safe and already cooked.
Well, the grill started out well. It lite like I had expected though I guess it took a bit long. I dumped the coal and started cooking. When I flipped them, they were cooked but the grill felt kind of cool. Everything was cooked well, but the next batch of hot dogs didn't work too well. I had to cook them on the grill pan. I do not know why it went out so quickly but again, thankfully they were precooked so there was no real risk.
As you can see from the picture, we also tried spiral cutting them. See this video for more info on them. However, the hotdogs were really thin since they were the really low fat. I used a steeper angle to not go as deep.
Oh, as we split a french baguette lengthwise to have good bread with them.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2191, 2012-08-10_194356
Grilled Dijon Chicken and Graffiti Eggplant -- back to top
Grilling FAILURE. I tried to grill again. It didn't go as well as last time, which says a lot since it didn't go very well then either. It took three tries to get the light I think I needed to pack it tighter. I also used more coals to get it to be hotter and hopefully stay lit longer.
Well, it started off really hot. I let the grill get a bit warmer, cleaned it, then put the chicken and eggplant on it. I used chicken thighs since it is hard to overcook them. Well, five minutes later, they were barely cooked. The grill went out again. I had the lower vent open so that wasn't the issue.
Anyway, I had to go to plan B. I fired up the broiler for the eggplant and the grill pan for the chicken. I am glad I used thighs since they should have been overcooked by this point but they held up well. Even though I thoroughly trimmed the fat off. I guess the meat itself is fattier.
I had marinated them in a Red Wine Dijon marinate I bought premade.
They turned out fine as did the eggplant, but no thanks to the grill. I guess I need to learn more about how to use a charcoal grill. I just am not getting it so far.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2196, 2012-08-12_203820
Salsa Tilapia and Roasted Broccoli -- back to top
As I have done a few times before, I baked some frozen tilapia and frozen shrimp with salsa on top. Despite doing the same amount of time as before (350 for 30), the tilapia wasn't fully cooked. So, I microwaved it for a bit and it exploded everywhere. Oh well, it was still pretty good.
I used a really, really, really hot salsa from the farmers market. OUCH! It was intense
I also roasted broccoli. Nothing special but it was very good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2201, 2012-08-13_220936
Hamburgers and Edamame -- back to top
I made hamburgers with a bunch of different seasonings. I do not even remember what I used but I know there was rosemary, onion powder, garlic powder, some Montreal Chicken Seasoning and probably some salt. They came out a bit dry but that is not too surprising since a) I tend to overcook hamburgers no matter what and b) I used extra lean beef. I need to work on making them bigger and thinner but it is hard to form them that way. I'll look into it.
I also had edamame.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2204, 2012-08-14_114009
Ratatouille Tacos -- back to top
I tried to make these based on the recipe below. I more or less followed the recipe except I used one regular eggplant and I didn't have chipotles in adobo so I added a tiny bit of Dave's Insanity hot sauce. I also added a habanero and some hot paprika. So, as you can imagine, it was pretty spicy in the end! Overall it was kind of okay. Nothing amazing but extremely low in points. I did use too much oil for the zucchini so I have to be more careful next time. I made the tortilla taco shells as I have in the past. It made a lot!
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Ratatouille Tacos (from Serious Eats)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2209, 2012-08-16_100534
Pasta All'Ubriaco and Broiled Zucchini with Yogurt-Dill Sauce -- back to top
First the pasta: I was inspired by this recipe on Serious Eats, but it is basically making pasta with half of the water as red wine. I did that and tossed it in an olive oil, garlic and dried parsley mix. I heated some olive oil with chopped garlic. As it started to sizzle, I added parsley. I eventually added the pasta when it was al dente and a bit of water. I topped it with grated (micro planned) Ricotta Salata since that is all I had. It was very, very good though I honestly do not know if the wine contributed anything but color. Maybe a little bit. I used two (three?) Buck Chuck shiraz so I didn't mind that I poured most of it.
I also made broiled zucchini and broccoli with a yogurt dill sauce from the recipe below. I basically followed it for the zucchini except I got the pan hot before going into the broiler to try to get some more color. I also sprinkled dried dill on it since that appears to be what they did in the picture. I used broccoli too since I didn't have much zucchini. I made the sauce with the ingredients listed (but with fat free greek yogurt) though I kind of just winged it on the amounts of everything. And again, dried dill.
It came out pretty good. Strangely sweet but that wasn't bad. I would definitely make it again. And I had leftover sauce which was good when I dipped it with cucumber.
Broiled Zucchini with Yogurt-Dill Sauce (from The Kitchn)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2212, 2012-08-17_222115
Spicy Falafel and roasted broccoli -- back to top
I made the falafel using the recipe from here. I did this because I had bought parsley but didn't remember what for. I added one tiny ground up bhut jolokia, and that made this super, super spicy. I was almost not able to eat it. I liked making this just for me since it isn't too bad (only points come from chick peas) and ends up beginning a lot of food.
I also made roasted broccoli. I cut it up and tossed it with some oil and lots of rosemary, plus some other seasonings. I roasted them on an aluminum covered pan for 20-25 min at 435. They got nice and crispy, and very, very good! I love eating broccoli like this
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1977, 2012-08-18_153109
Spicy Hominy and Kale -- back to top
I followed the recipe below. I did not make many changes except I used serrano peppers (I think) and I used 4 or 5 of them. It didn't make it too spicy but it has a nice kick. I also no oil (or pam) and less cheese. Finally, I used fat free greek yogurt instead of sour cream. That had a large affect on the final product. Lower fat the milk, the more easily it curdles. So, this curdles quite a bit from the yogurt. It didn't affect the taste, but gave it a gritty and strange texture. I would make it again and I guess I would have to accept the curdled yogurt because that is the only way to keep the points down. (I didn't calculate them but they were not too bad. Something like 14 for the hominy plus everything else)
I also sautéed kale.
Spicy Hominy (from Dutch Oven Net)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2218, 2012-08-20_222422
Chicken and beets -- back to top
I used the cast iron grill pan on flattened chicken breast. I think I used McCormick's chicken seasoning but I don't remember. I also made roasted beets
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2222, 2012-08-27_093951
I think I just followed the recipe as normal. I do not recall any changes
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2225, 2012-08-29_093043