Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 287
Wednesday, June 26, 2013, 07:56 PM
I made taco cupcakes doing the pretty standard mixture. I used 2/3 lbs lean beef and a whole zucchini julienned. I also added beans (which I don't usually do but I have done in the past). I added salsa (which I do not recall if I usually do) and corn. In the taco seasoning, I also added garlic powder, onion powder,cayenne, 21 seasoning salute, and a few other things. The salsa gave it a bit more heat than usual but I really liked it.
I again didn't use cheese on the bottom layer but I did use low-fat mexican cheese on the top. I was a bit worried since the shells were past the expiration but they seemed okay.
I also made oven-fried zucchini with the extra zucchini but this time I actually used the right temperature (475). They actually were a bit over-cooked. I'll be more careful next time
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6215, 2013-06-26_195627
Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 07:54 PM
I made a pretty simple meal. I baked (defrosted) cod topped with hot salsa for 20-25 minutes at 350. And, I also made green beans with blackened Penzeys sandwich sprinkle.
After my failure last time with the cod, I didn't want to microwave it so I baked it. I actually bought it this time at Target and I was pretty happy with it. I got the baking time and temp from their recipe. It was very good though a bit overcooked. I didn't mind that too much since the salsa gives it a lot of flavor and sufficient liquid.
The green beans were pretty standard. I gave them more time in the pan at a lower temp so that I didn't have to add water and steam them at all. I think that made a big difference. That was made easier by the fact that I didn't make my usual gross amount of them. The spices got nicely blackened on them
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6208, 2013-06-25_195401
Monday, June 24, 2013, 06:41 PM
I again tried to make a balsamic broccoli (last time) concoction. I made a sauce with the base being fat free balsamic dressing. I used the Trader Joes one since it is not chemicals. It is basically different vinegars and some other stuff but all pretty basic.
I used the following ingredients. However, when it was all cooking, even as it cooked down, there was not enough liquid. I had to add more dressing (1/4 cup).
Sauce:
I mixed it all and let it sit for 2 hours. At the end, I added 1 tsp crushed red pepper (I would have added it sooner, but I didn't think of it). And then, as I note above, 1/4 cup additional dressing while it cooked.
The mustard was there to help make the emulsion.
Other Ingredients:
I added the sausage and pepper, then the steamed broccoli once it was cooking. I then added the sauce, and a bit later, the extra dressing.
Overall, this was really good and I think it was closer to what I have been looking for. I would do it again pretty much the same way except I'd add more dressing (and more liquid all together). Plus, probably some more corn starch to match the additional liquid. Maybe an additional red pepper and/or some cherry peppers.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6204, 2013-06-24_184139
Thursday, June 20, 2013, 09:56 PM
My obsession with broccoli continues. I tried to make a broccoli slaw pasta-ish dish. I steamed broccoli slaw for about 4 minutes. While that was happening, I half an onion and half a pepper. I then added a box of cubed seitan. I added the slaw and a whole bottle of Trader Joes Red Curry sauce (12 points in the whole thing). I mixed it all and let it cook down.
I like the idea of trying broccoli slaw as pasta, but I definitely need to steam it longer. It was still crunchy and after a while, I felt like I was just eating straw. I should also continue to explore other sauces. This one was pretty good but was too rich by the end.
Still, this was relatively low point (only other source of points was the seitan) and quick meal. I will try to expand on it in the future
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6201, 2013-06-20_215634
Monday, June 17, 2013, 09:54 PM
I made a vegetarian (and extremely almost vegan) Broccoli "Beef".I replaced the beef with seitan strips (and I did still marinate it in the marinade). I bought 2x 8oz boxes (the WestSoy red boxes)
Replacing the oyster sauce was harder. I made a vegetarian (and almost vegan) oyster sauce from the recipe below. Instead of mushroom bouillon cubes, I used Better Than Bullion mushroom base. It has milk derivatives which is why this whole meal wasn't vegan. I used a garlic and black bean sauce instead of just black-bean. And finally, I used turbinado sugar instead of brown. I may have let it cook down a bit too much since it was rather thick but it was enough for what I needed.
Other than that, I followed the recipe pretty closely except doubled. I also used the mushroom base instead of chicken broth. I steamed the broccoli in the microwave. Alton Brown had mentioned that the microwave ruins the nutrients but based on the comments in this The Kitchn article and the linked NYtimes article, I decided it was probably still fine. (and considering I made over two pounds, it was really the only way)
Overall, I liked it very much. The seitan did perfectly well in place of the beef. I cannot say the sauce tasted identical, but it was either pretty close and/or perfectly good on its own.
The whole meal was pretty low point-wise. There were two boxes of seitan as the main points contributor. It made 2 Justin-size meals or one Justin size and two Meredith size (she had leftovers for lunch -- It wasn't that it was_that _much food, it's just that not everyone can eat a pound of broccoli). I would definitely do it vegan (or vegetarian) again.
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Vegan Oyster Sauce (from Food.com)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6194, 2013-06-17_215418
Thursday, June 13, 2013, 11:46 PM
I made falafel following the regular recipe doubled. Except the parsley and cilantro. For them, I was just more careful to get more of the leaves. The only other difference in the ingredients was that I used some chopped hyssop instead of za'atar (but that's a major ingredient).
However, it all came together pretty differently than usual. I was at my moms and used her food processor. Not only is her food processor smaller than mine, but I also doubled the ingredients. The net affect was that I had to really blend it more than chop it. So, it was a very wet dough. Basically, as you can see, they really flattened out. I also had to use non-stick Reynolds Wrap instead of a silpat.
Meredith also made tzatziki with fat free greek yogurt. I do not know her recipe but I know the cucumber was much bigger than usual and drained less. Still, it was very good; just wetter than usual. I'll let her comment or edit this with her recipe if she wants.
We also served it with warmed mini-pitas and garlic Sabra hummus
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6188, 2013-06-13_234659
Thursday, June 13, 2013, 10:45 AM
I made Zucchini fritters at my moms. I tried to basically follow the recipe but I messed it up a bit. Most of the issues I had were that I didn't add enough salt at first, thought it was too dry, added an extra (real) egg, and then the salt. The extra salt_then_ pulled out the moisture. I ended up having to add lots of extra zucchini and flour.
I also cooked them in a convection oven. One tray seemed normal while the other seemed floppy and not quite cooked. However, after I flipped them, I separated the trays more in the oven and they all seemed to cook nicely enough.
Other than that, they were pretty good. I think I may have used either too much and/or too potent of black pepper as that flavor was strong.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6186, 2013-06-13_104534
Sunday, June 09, 2013, 10:30 AM
This was again making Soy Chorizo cauliflower like we did on 2013-03-18. We sprinkled the cauliflower with salt, pepper and paprika and roasted it for a bit. We didn't time it but took it out when it looked done. It has some crispiness to it, but I think in retrospect, we should have roasted it longer and hotter. Also, we had some extra broccoli stems in it from the night before.
After it was done, we sautéd up a small onion and about 2/3 of a thing of Trader Joes Soy Chorizo. That stuff is very, very flavorful. While it was sautéing, we added a bunch of capers plus their brine and mixed in all of the cauliflower. There may have been something else, but I do not remember what it is at the moment. Note that last time we used the whole chorizo. We were fine with the smaller portion today
Note that the entire thing of the chorizo is just under 5 servings at 4 points each. So, our entire (2-3 servings) dish was about 13 points. Plus a few here and there for oil, etc.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6182, 2013-06-09_103029