Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Miso Chicken over Bok Choy and Miso Soup -- back to top
The Miso chicken was roughly based off of this recipe except that I cooked it in the pan. It marinaded for about 8 hours which was really nice. Because the marinade was so salty, it was like brining the meat so it was also very moist. This was the best part of the meal but it was salty. It was served over garlic bok-choy based off of this. The bok choy was okay. Again, salty.
To add the salt fest that was this meal, we had miso soup. That was based off of this. It wasn't great. We may have used too much dashi or something, but either way, it was very fishy and very salty. I guess the saltiness was to be expected, but it was a bit much. We may try to find better recipes for all of the things in the future (if we decide to try them again).
Points were low (but not healthy with all the salt)
Chicken...4
Tofu in soup...~1
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 696, 2010-11-23_123852
Taco Stew and Brussel Sprouts -- back to top
We made the standard taco stew but I don't think we let it cook long enough. It was a bit watery and less flavorful. So, next time we need to let it cook a bit longer. We also made the standard roasted brussel sprouts. They were also not as good as usual. They were a bit old. Also, I think I overcrowded them on the tray.
So, this meal was good but not as much success as we have had with the same items.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1458, 2011-10-13_125558
Taquitos, Brussel Sprouts and French Onion Soup -- back to top
This meal came about because I had defrosted chicken but not really two servings worth on its own. Also I was craving soup. We didn't do anything special with the soup. It was pretty normal. A lot of onions. I probably should have used a bit more broth base but it was fine.
The taquitos were very similar to the ones I described on 2011-04-27 except without habanero or bell peppers. The real trick I think is to keep adding leftover liquid from pressure cooking the chicken. I add it, let it cook down, and then do it again as needed. They were very good, as usual!
Finally, the brussel sprouts were pretty standard. THey were very large. Also I cooked them at 375 instead of 400 and it was fine. Maybe even a bit better
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1505, 2011-10-31_111320
Lighter Lasagna Soup -- back to top
I came across this recipe for lasagna soup from Paula Deen's son and simply had to make it. Lasagna is the ultimate comfort food in my book, and this sounded like a pretty healthy rendition. It was in fact delicious (though a bit anise-y for my preferences), and I imagine it will go into our regular rotation. I followed the recipe pretty closely, except I like to sneak in extra veggies when I can. So when I remembered we had a block of frozen spinach, I decided to defrost it and throw it in. Also, we topped it with grated Toscano instead of Kraft fake parm, and we substituted whole wheat penne for lasagna noodles.
Lighter Lasagna Soup (from The Deen Brothers)
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2016-05-18 Update: Recipe moved to its own page
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1779, 2012-02-01_211630
Normal taco stew. Nothing special. It was good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1857, 2012-03-08_214639
Black Bean Soup -- back to top
Meredith made black bean soup. I have no idea what she did, but it was good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1860, 2012-03-12_214652
Chicken Enchilada Soup -- back to top
We made the Crock Pot Enchilada soup basically following the recipe. Except, I kind of eye-balled it on the chipotles in adobo and I think I overdid it. The soup had a strong smoky taste and was pretty spicy. Not too much that you couldn't eat it but spicy.
The recipe says to cook on low for 4-6 hours. We let it cook on low for about 6.5, then on warm for about another 6. I checked the temp after being on warm and it was about 160 so I knew it was still safe to eat. I do not know what, if any, the affect of the longer cooking was but it worked out okay.
We also had bread since I needed carbs for the next day.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1886, 2012-03-31_113938
We made gumbo using the same recipe as last time but this times used mix seafood. I do not know what we changed, but it wasn't as good. Especially when I used added water to the leftovers
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1932, 2012-05-04_081222
This was supposed to be the standard Posole, but we did a lot differently. First of all, we forgot to buy peppers. So, the only peppers in here were a bunch of pickled jalapeños. We _didn't _use chipotles so there was no smokiness (A good thing, I think). Also we used canned tomatillos. And, since I didn't want to only use half of a can, We had more than double the amount. We used fresh cilantro but dried parsley. I also added all kinds of spices including some hot (not smoked) paprika and some crushed red pepper
I do not recall what. if any, other changes I made, but it was very good as usual. Maybe even better. A bit spicy.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1950, 2012-05-11_122903
This was the standard taco stew. I kept it pretty darn close to the recipe. I think the only thing was I just put the whole seasoning packet in for extra flavor and ease.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2130, 2012-07-23_151807
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
--------------------
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
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
I bought a pumpkin that was supposed to be more sweet and flavorful than the bigger ones (see the bad experience on 2010-10-26). It was not easy to do, but I cut the pumpkin into small pieces, boiled it for a while in broth, then immersion blended it. I added lots of seasonings focussing on garlic powder (lots of it) and pumpkin pie spice. I also needed to add some splenda, but not too much. Finally, I added a tiny bit of Dave's Insanity to kick it up a bit. Well, that stuff is truly insane. It was so hot! tolerable, but very hot. Overall, I liked it quite a bit but would not use hot sauce again.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2255, 2012-09-20_115710
Pozole and Zucchini Chips -- back to top
I made Pozole with the normal recipe (which I am finally just including pictures of it below). I basically followed it but used canned peppers instead of the serrano. I also, as usual roasted the tomatillos in the broiler along with the poblano. I used fresh cilantro but dried parsley and skipped the spinach. Also, because I was out of regular Better than bouillon I had to use Osem, so this ended up being truly vegetarian. Also, I put everything in the pot except the beans and hominy then used the immersion blender. It made life much easier. (this is what I think we have always done). The final result was very good. I saved a big portion for lunch, but then ate way too much that night. I should have saved some more for another time. Also, after my too-hot experience with the pumpkin soup the other day, I resisted the urge to add Dave's Insanity.
I also made zucchini chips. I was intrigued since the premise of these were low heat for a long time instead of high heat for a little. I sliced them to the smallest setting on the mandoline. I think I will try the next one up next time. Anyway, I baked them based on the recipe below. I think I let them cook a bit too long since they were kind of browned, but still very good. When I use thicker slices, the time may be okay. We will see. They were good.
Pozole (From The HomeSick Texan)
Local Copy-- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Oven Dried Zucchini (from The Tasty Bits)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2263, 2012-09-24_134853
Italian Wedding Soup -- back to top
I made italian wedding soup. I looked at a bunch of recipes and basically just made some meatballs with bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper and other seasonings. I read a bunch of different recipes; some suggested cooking the meatballs first while others said to cook in the soup. I decided to cook it in the soup. It was hot enough and I let it boil for a while to make sure that not only the meatballs were well cooked, but the soup was well boiled.
I used chicken broth (better than bouillon) and carrots. When it was almost done, I put a whole bag of spinach in the soup. For the pasta, I smacked a bunch of rotini and used that.
The soup was okay, but definitely not as good as others I have had. It just didn't have that much flavor. I do not know what other recipes do, but I will read more recipes before I try again.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2297, 2012-10-07_094534
I made taco stew. It seemed too thick so I added more water. That may have been a mistake as it was then very watery and more like taco soup than stew. Oh well. It made a lot but still not too bad calorically
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2307, 2012-10-09_210050
Extra Spicy Pozole -- back to top
This was a long time ago so I do not remember everything. I think it was the regular pozole but with lots more tomatillos. I think I also used a Bhut Jolokia pepper so it was HOT!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2834, 2012-11-14_204707
Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup -- back to top
Again, no photo since I ended up putting it in the fridge and ate it the next day. I basically put butternut squash and carrots in the pressure cooker with water, soup base, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice. I did it in the pressure cooker to speed it up. It was pretty good. A bit spicy but good
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2920, 2012-12-22_124130
French Onion Soup and Moussaka -- back to top
My mom was visiting and we decided to cook. We started with french onion soup. We used the cast iron dutch oven and really, really caramelized the onions. I do not know what else we did differently, but it was probably the best french onion soup I have done before. About half and half chicken and beef base (maybe 6-8 cups) and a cup of white wine. We put slices of bread in and melted the provolone in the broiler.
The moussaka was the standard. It took a long time to cook down, but I am not sure it was more or less than the usual. I think I overcooked the béchamel since it was too thick. Based on my mom's comments, I should try to see if there are alternative more flavorful, yet healthy, ways to do the béchamel. It isn't a crucial part of the recipe, but I want it to be better.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2930, 2012-12-25_220844
Oysters, Tuna Tataki and Broccoli soup -- back to top
This was Meredith and my 4 year anniversary dinner. We had a big lunch, so we wanted something fancy but light. We started with some North Carolina Oysters. They were very good, or as good as oysters ever are. (I think I like the high-scale and fancy nature of them more than the oysters themselves). It was easier to open them than I remember.
The other part was tuna tataki. We used the recipe that Meredith had used in the past (it is below). We had a big piece of tuna and cut it, though we cut it wrong. We should have cut against the grain so that we could more easily slice it along the grain later. Anyway, it was very good. Meredith said it was on par with Wegmans which is a compliment (though she said it wasn't as good as last time she made it). It is certainly very easy. the sauce (which was very good) was more work than the tuna itself. Just goes to show how super simple it was.
We also made roasted broccoli soup like last time. I used homemade broth from a while ago (but I cannot seem to find the post). I needed to add salt to it,but I added too much. It wasn't so salty you couldn't eat it, but still too much. Luckily, it was really thick so I can add more water later.
(2014-01-07 Note. This was added to My Recipe Book)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 3140, 2013-02-08_180553
MYO Pizza and Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Soup -- back to top
We had a bunch of friends over and did make your own pizza. Not much to tell here. The usual toppings including:
We used TJ's dough balls. Note to self, when quick-defrosting a dough ball, put it in a bag. The included bag did not suffice and we had a few wet dough balls.
We also made our Roasted Broccoli Cheddar soup. We followed the basic recipe except roughly 1.5-2.0x it. And we used real onion in addition to scallions. Finally, we used Osem to keep it meat-free. A minor change we did was to cube the cheese instead of shredding. This to make it easier (no need to clean the food processor) and we figured it would cook fine. However, it seems to have burned a bit on the bottom. We need to be more careful of that.
Oh, we also added some crushed red pepper to the soup and some garlic powder to the roasting broccoli.
No picture.....
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6745, 2013-10-12_175500
Cilantro Egg-Drop Soup -- back to top
NOTE: The dip part of this is now in My Recipe Book
Meredith has been talking about this soup for a while so I finally decided to give it a try. First of all, I am not totally sure what it is supposed to be called so I'll stick with my boring name (but it will always be Meredith's Soup in my book).
Anyway, I followed the recipe below with the following general changes:
As far as following recipes goes, I guess I was pretty close (I even used real garlic when called and actually grated it as best I could)
The soup was incredibly good. Lots of flavor and complexity. It was also pretty hearty as a meal given the egg and the beef. It would actually probably be fine with ground beef in the future and maybe (just maybe!) lentils (not really sure)
I was debating trying to lower the olive oil and I still may try to do so but honestly, I didn't think that 1/8 cups == 2 Tbsp (plus whatever else from the rest) was really_that_ bad.
I would definitely do it again. And I imagine soon enough, I will be adding it to my recipe book once I tweak it to be where I want it.
2014-03-12 Update: A few notes having eaten this for lunch two days later. The first is that I shouldn't have added the croutons for lunch until I was about to eat. They just disintegrated. The second is that it was a bit....for lack of a better word... udgy cold. Too much oil and a strange texture. I'll heat it up next time.
Photos:
The West Lake Hybrid (from Lady and Pups)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7590, 2014-03-10_202529
Broiled Trout and Roasted Broccoli-Arugula Soup -- back to top
Meredith and I made a quick meal of roasted broccoli (and arugula) soup with trout.
Meredith had read about a broccoli-arugula soup and we decided to do something similar but with roasting it (as we did for this recipe). We really didn't follow any recipe and just winged it. We roasted a good amount of broccoli on 400 for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, we sautéd an onion, added some garlic and then added the broccoli and water. We used about a gallon of water and used Better Than Bouillon to taste (a good amount).
It still needed some flavor so we added a good bit of smoked paprika, garlic powder, and pepper. Finally, we decided to add some smoked salt but accidentally poured a whole bunch in. Thankfully, we were able to skim a lot off before it mixed and the end product wasn't too salty.
Right before blending it, we added a large bunch of arugula. I am not convinced I could really taste the arugula but it adds nutrients. The dominant flavor was the broccoli with an accent of smokiness.
The trout was a pretty simple affair. We got two fish's worth (about 1 lbs) and broiled it butterflied with the skin on the bottom and some lemon and fresh thyme (from Meredith;s garden) on top. We broiled it for about 5+ minutes but should have stopped it at 5 minutes. It was a bit overcooked but not too bad. (this was also for dinner the next day).
We topped it with some fried capers using the method from Smitten Kitchen in this post. (I am not copying it below since it was pretty simple). Basically, drain and dry the capers then fry them for 5 minutes or so.
This page was converted from Wordpress with a custom script by Justin Winokur. Most links and images should still work. However, if any links are broken, see the HTML (or Markdown) source to try to deduce the intended destination.
Original WP Post ID: 8871
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-09-24_214032
Smokey Tortilla Soup and Roasted Delicata Squash -- back to top
[Written later after the fact]. I made the Smokey Tortilla Soup
originally from 2014-11-22. We didn't have fire roasted tomatoes so I just regular canned ones. I think I may have added a tiny bit of liquid smoke. I also didn't have ground clove so I omitted it. I use some leftover tortilla chips in making it and on presentation.
I also started to make a squash dish with feta from How Sweet Eats. I ended up skipping everything but the squash prep so I'll just include that here.
I heated
I though the sugar would melt into the oil but it didn't (Is sugar lipophobic?). I then poured this (homogeneous) mixture onto de-seeded and sliced delicata squash. Baked at 375 for 40 minutes, flipped half way.
They cam out really, really good. Thankfully a lot of oil was left behind too, but I am sure it got a good number of extra points from the addition of the oil and sugar, but oh well.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9404, 2015-01-01_162518
I made quick(er) pho! It was inspired by Serious Eats Kenji's recipe here. Basically, I used his idea to do the onions and ginger in the pan (they really smoked) and used the pressure cooker.
Other than that, I halved my quick Pho and did the pressure cooker for 30 minutes. After straining, I heated a pack (6 points) of fake chicken. I served it over zucchini noodles (not pre heated like rutabaga).
Doing the onions in the pan was nice but super smoky. The whole apartment filled with smoke and the oil was so burned that I had to clean out the pan! Other than that, the only real issue is that this was a ton of soup to eat alone! 1/2 gallon for lunch!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9445, 2015-01-08_134032
Potsticker Meatball Soup -- back to top
We made Potsticker Meatball Soup from I Breathe...I'm Hungry. We basically followed their recipe for the meatballs (with turkey) and with regular flour. We also made their broth.
The biggest difference was that we used zucchini noodles instead of shirataki. And a ton of cabbage and other veggies.
The meatballs were ok. A bit dry but reminiscent of potstickers. The broth was also pretty good. Not amazing; but good. We did use too much crushed red pepper.
The real problem was that we had too many veggies and not enough broth. It became like eating nearly-raw veggies. If we make this again, we'll fix the proportions.
Photos:
Recipe
Potsticker Meatball Soup (from I Breathe...I'm Hungry)
Local Copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9450, 2015-01-08_204020
Roasted Broccoli Soup with Waffled Parsnip and Waffled Brownies -- back to top
We had friends over and they bought us a waffle iron so we made two things waffled plus soup.
The soup was really, really good. We made it based on past soup recipes and I then wrote it up into its own recipe on my recipe book. We used Sargento Parmentino which is about 3.75 oz which is pretty low for the amount of soup.
There was not a lot of other flavors but it was still really flavorful. It needed the lime juice to brighten the flavors.
For the main meal, we made parsnip waffles. We had done them before but pancaked it. Now that we had the waffle iron, we used that. Meredith made it but I think she followed the recipe pretty well. It didn't pancake super well. I think we liked it more as a waffle. It had a nice flavor but wasn't anything out of this world. Also parsnips are really hard to waffle since they have such a thin tip.
Finally, we made brownies in the waffle iron. We used Ghirardelli dark Chocolate Mix with White Chocolate Chips. We tried doing smaller bunches but what worked best was to use a lot of batter and fill the iron. They needed 7 minutes. Also, they seemed to be very soft but they hardened at the end after they were out of the iron. And they were so good! Biggest issue was that we ate too many of them! But we will do this again.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9612, 2015-02-17_201529
Grilled Pimento Cheese and Tomato Soup -- back to top
Meredith's parents were in town and we had been telling them about this meal so we decided to try to make it again. It was a group effort with the Huffsmith family helping.
We followed the same recipe as last time except that we halved it. There is a good bit of just playing involved and tasting the different things. We made the same changes as last time (including tabasco, smoked paprika, etc) but also subbed green onions for the cilantro/parsley since the store was out of it. We also again used a mix of actual pimentos and roasted peppers.
Meredith made the grilled cheese (pictured below) on sour dough (and each person got half a sandwich).
I again made the tomato soup in the Vitamix using the friction heating. We did not have leftover cobbler filling so I caramelized 1.5 onions and a shallot to then add. Again, a lot of it was to taste, but the ingredients were:
I think that was it though I may have missed something. Anyway, we heated it in the Vitamix and got a very light, airy soup. I think the heavy cream got so beaten in this one which is why it was lighter feeling than last time. Still, very good!
Quick Miso Ramen with Soft-Boiled Eggs -- back to top
Meredith and I made quick ramen like last time. Again, we basically just winged it with some chicken broth, miso (mixed into a small thing of warm broth then added), soy sauce, plus some tahini. We also topped it with green onions and some toasted sesame oil.
The real change this time was that we used zucchini noodles (raw). They were fine. Certainly nowhere near as good as real ramen noodles but much healthier!
Sadly, the broth this time was really just not as good. I do not know what was different this time. It wasn't bad per se, but certainly lacked the flavor and mouthfeel. Also, I we do not know if it was the green onion or the sesame oil (or all the veggies) but it reminded us more of wontons soup than ramen.
While the soup wasn't as good, the eggs were more of a mixed bag. Texture wise, they were almost dead on. I am still figuring out the times for Albuquerque (~6000 ft in elevation) but 9 minutes steaming then into cold(ish) water did the trick. They were a nice texture and held together.
Rather than go with the Serious Eats ramen egg suggestions, I just did 2 Tbsp mirin, 2 Tbsp (low sodium) soy, and 1 Tbsp sugar.
You can see the marinating below. They were fine with this but could have used much more time marinating.
Light Lasagna Soup and Roasted Squash -- back to top
We wanted something relatively easy so we made the Lighter Lasagna Soup. We made a few changes to the recipe to match what we had and out mood. They were
Overall, we were really happy with it. It is relatively healthy and pretty easy. The only thing is we kind of bulked this up a bunch but didn’t adjust the liquids so it was very thick (but I liked it that way still).
As using the vodka sauce was pretty good. We would use that again
I also roasted half a kabocha squash (30 min at 400°F, flipped half way) as a side for me. Meredith didn't want any but it is one of my favorites and I was more hungry.
2016-05-18 Update: Recipe moved to its own page
Vodka sauce is Meredith's favorite kind but tends to be rather unhealthy. However, we found the one pictured below at only 50 cal a serving (10 fewer than the lightest of the regular ones)
Roasted Broccoli Soup and Grilled Sandwiches -- back to top
Meredith and I made roasted broccoli soup and grilled sandwiches for dinner
We followed the basic recipe for our Roasted Broccoli Soup. We went with the general idea and adjusted to taste (It needed more salt so I used some soy sauce for salt+glutamates). We did it in the immersion blender it batches which made it super smooth. Like, more smooth than I've ever had it!
We used a Parmesan Gouda for the cheese and while I think I used around the amount in the recipe, it was almost too creamy and thick (though we probably should have just added water)1. Overall, it was ok. Not the best showing of this recipe but not bad either
Meredith and I each made our own sandwiches but I used a very special technique to grill them: let Meredith do it! (I tend to go too hot and burn it). She grilled them with butter (but tried not to use an excessive amount)
I made a one and a half reubens. Pretty standard. I used Boars Head Corned beef (~1/4 lbs total for all) and a lite swiss. It was not lite Jarlsberg though I would have preferred that.
Also, since the supermarket didn't have any good Thousand Island Dressing options (full fat or some strange zero calorie), I made this one halved with the following changes
My sandwiches were ok. The dressing is not dead and was a bit strange but the flavors were all there. Also, the insides were not as warm as I would have liked
Meredith made a strange kind of grilled cheese. I say strange because seeded rye is not usually the first choice bread. But anyway, she used brie (of sorts), sliced (extra ripe) pear and Tabasco Hot Chile Jam. I think she liked it.
Though it could also be the blender ↩
Not much to say here. It was the standard taco stew. I used extra zucchini and just about 3/4 lbs of beef, but that was about it. Everything else was standard.
Oh, and we had white beans instead of black since that is all we had.
Thrown Together Vegetable Egg-Drop Soup -- back to top
This was a very thrown together meal. Meredith hadn't been feeling great so I threw together some soup. Our dog sitter left us a vegetable tray. I used the carrots and celery from that. I then used better than bouillon. I also added some garlic powder and soy sauce. The broth actually came out pretty good.
However, I then added some asian noodles (I forget which kind) and then, at the end, I did the egg-drop thing. I think it was all too much as it kind of turned ot mush. Oh well, it still tasted pretty good. Or at least acceptable.
Grilled Pimento Cheese and Roasted Broccoli, (light-on-the) Cheddar Soup -- back to top
We again did what we like to do with leftover pimento cheese (from here), we made grilled cheese. The pan was a bit too hot so it blacked a bit but didn't taste burned at all and was still really good. The pimento cheese was a bit smokier than when we made it other times, but it worked well with the grilled cheese.
We also made Roasted Broccoli Soup. We approximately 1.25x to 1.5x the recipe. Except we forgot the lemon (which we often do).
We used the Vitamix to blend it all (in batches) so it was super smooth. Also, despite increasing the recipe, we only used about 3 oz of cheddar (added grated to the Vitamix to really blend). This worked well enough. We also topped it with cheddar. Also, I added some garlic powder to the broth and, as the recipe suggests, went heavy on the bouillon.
Actually, we made the soup the night before, refrigerated it, and reheated it today. As always, it was incredibly good. I think the broccoli just brings out so much flavor. And it is a pretty easy soup to make which is nice.
Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla less Tortilla Soup -- back to top
Meredith and I made "tortilla" (without any tortilla) soup since we wanted to keep using the rotisserie chicken. We decided to follow Aaron Sanchez' (Local).
With the additional spices, I think it came out pretty good. It still needed more salt though. While we did like it, I still think it kind of lacked flavor. I wouldn't say this is "our recipe" but may be a good jumping off point in the future.
We also made a (1.5-2x) batch of Spicy Spiralized Shoe String Jicama Fries. We probably went heavy on the seasonings. Also, since they were so wet and we had the space, we used two trays to allow them to crisp more. They were really good.
Tortilla Soup (from Aaron Sanchez via The Examiner)
Local Copy (U: guest, P: name of my dog, all lower case)
We made our now-regular lasagna soup. We again used the low-cal vodka sauce from Delallo first used 2015-10-09.
We also tried to make it even lighter by using
The potatoes worked really well. It saved us a good amount of points, required less processed food, and was just all-together good.
I still wish that we had a good way to make the sauce ourselves. This vodka sauce is really good and low points. I wonder if we could recreate it acceptably?
We also just had roasted eggplant.
2016-05-18 Update: Recipe moved to its own page
Lasagna Soup and Jackfruit Stuff -- back to top
We made Lighter Lasagna Soup again with Vodka sauce noted on 2015-10-09. We added an extra pepper and skipped all forms of a starch. We also only used 1/2 lbs of chicken sausage.
The soup came out pretty good as usual. Maybe a bit thin this time. But still good. And so easy! We also finished up the mozzarella was bought for Valentines' Day.
In addition, we tried out this new "meat" dish made with jackfruit and pictured below. We just heated it and served it taco style. I could kind of see the utility of Jackfruit-as-a-meat but the sauce was really pretty awful. I guess I would try their other flavors but with extreme trepidation
2016-05-18 Update: Recipe moved to its own page
Lunches: Lentil Salad and Broccoli Soup -- back to top
This was a lunch meal we planned and packed a few times this week. We made this Smitten Kitchen recipe (local). We followed it pretty closely except we used onions instead of shallots.
It came out pretty good. Very briny pretty flavorful. It wasn't very good by the last day, but for the most part, it was pretty good. It was actually a good bit more work than expected....
We also made the regular Roasted Broccoli Soup with just 3 oz of cheese. As usual, this came out really good, low in points, and pretty easy. It was super blended from the Vitamix but still good.
(forgot the photo...)
We made our regular lasagna soup and used the sauce as noted here.
As we usually do, we used less chicken sausage and skipped the carbs. But this time, we also used a ton of vegetables. First, we added mushrooms which were really good and we'll do again. We also used 1.5 onions and 3 bell peppers (two red, one green). The extra vegetables really bulked it up as we like.
Certainly something we will consider next time too.
2016-05-18 Update: Recipe moved to its own page
We made our regular Lasagna Soup (which I finally made into its own recipe page). There wasn't much to it. We followed the general recipe. The only thing we did was to also throw in some tortellini Meredith had left over from when I was out of town.
It was great as usual. So easy and really good!
We wanted a light meal so we made our Roasted Broccoli Soup. We made a very large batch. We also added some Worcestershire and soy sauce to add some umami.
The only real change with this one was that we added a tiny bit of half-and-half. As usual, this soup was really good. And so easy. Plus, the only real unhealthy things are the cheese and the half-and-half.
African Peanut Soup w/ Eggs -- back to top
We made African Peanut Soup yesterday and reheated it for dinner today. I used the regular recipe except I went heavy on the vegetables (extra jalapeño and red pepper, plus others) so I also went heavy on the broth.
I also used the powdered ginger, cumin, and cayenne from the recipe. Though I used 1 tsp of cayenne (since adjusted down on the recipe). Anyway, when we tasted it, it was (a) spicy and (b) kind of flavorless.
We played around a bit and added worcestershire, soy sauce, and a bit more Better than Bouillon. That actually worked really well so I added it as an option to the recipe.
It was still too spicy so I added a tsp of sugar when blending some to try to cut it a bit. That worked well enough. We forgot to serve with any greens but that worked ok.
Anyway, we served it today with some scrambled eggs (with a bit of sour cream -- worked okay). I also had two soft-"boiled" (steamed) eggs done for 8.5 minutes which worked perfectly.
I updated the recipe for some of these changes.
I made our pretty typical lasagna soup. We made a few small changes but overall, it was the regular. We didn't have bell peppers so we used some roasted New Mexico Green Chile and I also added some carrots and zucchini to bulk it up. We also used extra mushrooms.
The other twist was that we used four cheese tortellini and skipped the mozzarella cheese. I think this worked pretty well, though it does add some calories.
It made a enough for dinner and lunch so that was nice.
Beer House Clams and Broccoli Soup -- back to top
Meredith and I made Beer house clams like we did before. We had to use frozen clams because its Albuquerque. We've used them before for mussels and they were fine, but these weren't as good. Some didn't open, some were sandy, some were fishy, but most were fine. I would (hesitantly) try the clams again. We steamed them a bit just to heat them up from frozen. This way we could still use the liquid later in the recipe.
We followed the general idea of the recipe except we didn't have green onions. We used a quarter of an onion for the white parts and some chopped up chives for the greens. And the Thai Basil was 100% home-grown (from seed). And we skipped the garlic. And we used serrano peppers (which filled the room with cough-inducing smoke).
The soup was the standard Roasted Broccoli Soup. There was a lot of broccoli so I used a lot of water...maybe too much. We again added a bit of soy sauce and worcestershire. I kept adding some more seasonings, but it was just a bit bland today, though a little bit of salt when we served it, it was fine.
Roasted Carrot Soup -- back to top
(see the food picture below)
Meredith and I made carrot soup from our home-grown carrots! We had a ton of them as you can see in the photos. Our original plan was to not roast them but we changed our minds since they were a bit bitter. We chopped them up and roasted them at 400°F (+ convection) for 45 minutes or so. We then boiled them with an onion, Better Than Bouillon, and some salt.
After blending them all, we thought it was lacking in flavor still. We added:
At first, Meredith thought we went too heavy on the apple cider vinegar (though I liked it still) but after it sat for two days, the flavors really mellowed.
We served it with some toast and leftover Armadillo Eggs and topped it with Sriracha and Diablo sauce. I wouldn't say it was the best carrot soup ever, but it was still really good. It really tasted like carrots! And we grew them!
We made our standard Lasagna Soup again with the sauce mentioned on that post. I do not think we really did many other changes. We didn't end up using any kind of starch such as pasta or potatoes. We also just used some sliced mozzarella cheese and no parmesan
It was, as usual, pretty simple and flavorful!
French Onion Soup with Sous Vide Chicken -- back to top
I had planned to make French Onion Soup a few days ago but didn't get to it until now. I caramelized onions a the night before I was supposed to make it but they ended up sitting in the fridge for a bit.
I heated them up but decided not to do the flour. I did however save the liquid from the 72-hour brisket. I used this as my beef broth, though it was less. The rest was chicken broth plus the wine.
And I let it simmer for about an hour and a half since the chicken was going.
On the chicken, I followed 2016-06-28 and did the chicken with a bit of butter, garlic, salt, pepper, roasted garlic powder, and Mural of Flavor. I let that sous-vide for 90ish minutes (probably more). I finally seared it on the pan for about 60 seconds per side.
I then made a bit of a pan-sauce from the liquid in the sous-vide bags. I liked the chicken a lot. A nice amount of flavor and (obviously) not overcooked.
The soup was fine. I thought it was maybe a bit too salty but that is pretty typical of soups.