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Home > 310
KitchenKatalog: Blog 310
Thursday, June 14, 2012, 03:13 PM
This was my first meal I cooked in my new apartment. I also got to use two new kitchen toys. FIrst, I made the hamburgers with lots of seasonings including a tiny bit of nutmeg, some garlic powder, minced onion, and others. Then I used my new cast iron grill pan. It worked pretty well! I decided to have them open face (each patty was about 3 oz)
I cut the fries with my new mandoline. It was so easy! Much better than the old one or doing it by hand. I sprinkled them with olive oil, then salt+pepper and baked them at 400 for 35 min. Despite rotating the trays halfway through cooking, one set got more cooked than the other. Oh well.
I made two servings of both potatoes and burgers and took the second for lunch.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2008, 2012-06-14_151356
Wednesday, May 30, 2012, 07:16 AM
I attempted to make the pretty standard taquitos included shredded chicken. About the only other change was that I accidentally added way too much salsa. Plus, it was medium instead of hot salsa. It added a good amount of tomatoes which was nice. In addition to onion, I used a red pepper, some chopped mushrooms, and carrot slices (hey, why not add nutrients). We didn't have enough tortillas so I put the remaining filling into the glass bowls, topped them with cheese, and baked them too.
I think it has been better before, but this was still pretty good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1999, 2012-05-30_071609
Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 07:15 AM
We were going to order in, but decided to save the time, money, and calories. Plus, this got rid of more stuff in the pantry. I basically cooked whole wheat shells (about6 oz or three servings). Then I added a can of 97% fat free condensed chicken soup, a can of black beans, a can of tuna, and some steamed broccoli. Then I added a bunch of spices, some grated low fat cheese and salt. Stirred it up and made this. It was alright. A bit strange I guess and not overly flavorful but it got the job done.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1996, 2012-05-29_071541
Monday, May 28, 2012, 12:06 AM
I had to use some frozen calamari I bought a while ago. The calamari was pretty gross. It was the whole tubes and the tentacles. I persevered and made a nice stir fry. I used scissors (my meat cutting tool of choice) to cut the tubes into rings and I kept the tentacles as is. Then I sautéd onions and peppers. I added the calamari and a bunch of garlic. I let it cook just until it seemed that they were all cooked. I wanted to avoid making them too rubbery. I then added rice (see 2012-05-01 for pressure cooking instructions). Then, I went a bit crazy with liquids. I added soy sauce, oyster sauce, a bunch of different hot sauces, sesame oil, rice vinegar and fish sauce.
Overall, it was actually pretty good. The tentacles still managed to give me the heebbie Jeebies, but I ate them anyway.
I also made rosted broccoli similar to here. It could have been cooked a bit more. I also made too much at 1.5 lbs. That is a lot of broccoli to eat all alone in one sitting.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1993, 2012-05-28_000645
Saturday, May 26, 2012, 10:18 AM
I was originally going to make taquitos, but I decided to "cupcake" them instead. Basically, it was all the usual. To make the cupcakes, I put down a layer of wonton wrappers, added some cheese, then another layer of wonton wrapper, then more filling (much less than first layer) and then a bit more cheese.
The filling was pretty standard. I sautéd onions (with too much oil, see note below on points), Then I added about half a cup of frozen corn. I added about half a cup of hot salsa. I also used some soy sauce instead of salt and some hot sauce. I made the shredded chicken using my standard technique. That is, about 1/8-1/4 inch of water with seasoning in the pressure cooker then cook on high for about 10 minutes. Then, shred with the mixer. After it was all mixed, I kept adding some of the pressure cooker "broth" to moisten it and let it cook down. Finally, I added 2 softened laughing cow cheese wedges
I also had steamed edamame
Wonton Wrappers (24)...8
9 oz chicken...9
1/2 cup corn...2
~2 tbsp olive oil...7
2 laughing cow...2
Cheese...4
------------------------------
=32 ---> 16/serving
It came out a bit high, but I used too much olive oil. I will go lighter on it next time to save a good number of points.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1987, 2012-05-26_101831
Sunday, May 20, 2012, 07:15 AM
This was not a very successful meal. My goal was to make a good (but small) steak and some roasted beets. I let the beets roast for a while, maybe 40 minutes at 450. That may have been too much, but was going well. Then I tried to cook the steak like I did before. I bought a small (8 oz) NY strip steak. I put it on a really, really, really hot cast iron pan. It started pumping the apartment with smoke, but I kept going. Then, I threw it into the oven after the flip. This pumped the oven full of smoke, but also added a lot of heat to the oven, and being that the pan was very hot, it probably added a lot of radiant heat.
Well, in the time it was in the oven, the steak got a bit overcooked, but the beets BURNED. They tasted awful. Even the ones that were less burned tasted like smoke, The steak was okay, but a bit overcooked and not all that good (even though I let it sit to reabsorb juices, etc). Also, the apartment had a 4 foot visibility from the smoke. Once it started smoking, I took off the fire alarm so that was one less thing to worry about.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1982, 2012-05-20_071530
Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 07:09 AM
The meatballs were very good and very tasty. The sauce may have cooked down a bit too much to the point that is was really just goop. But, it was still rather good.
I tried something slightly different with the zucchini. Before I grated them, I grated half an onion. Well, that made onion mush with LOTS OF WATER. I had to drain it as best I could and I still struggled to get all the water out. This may also be why I had so much trouble pressing the water out of the zucchini. Despite spending a day in the fridge with lots of weight on the pans, I had to put in new towels and stand on the pans to really get the water out. I may try my Dad's suggestion next time which is to use dried, minced onions. THey will absorb the water!
I made the meatballs based on the recipe below. The major changes I made was to use extra lean beef (and less, 2/3 lbs), egg beaters, no garlic and finally to bake the meatballs (375 for 25 min). For the sauce, the only change I made was less oil and I replaced half of the brown sugar with Splenda. That saved about 8 points plus. I realized as I was making this that the points would climb so I actually calculated them. The entire meal (half of what I made) was 17 points plus. I guess that isn't awful compared to what I would get if I ate out, but it was a bit more than I think I want (not that I have been budgeting).
Meatballs:
Beef...10.5
Bread crumbs ...2
Egg Beater...0.5
Brown Sugar (halved)...8
Ketchup...7
Fritters
Egg...1
Flour...6
So, the entire meal was 34 but I made dinner and lunch so 17
Sweet and Sour Meatballs (From Food.com)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1973, 2012-05-16_070920
Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 09:40 PM
This is based on the recipe below. I pressure cooked some chicken breasts and shredded it instead of using rotisserie (obviously, much less chicken). Also, since I pressure cooked it, I used the broth from that instead of chicken broth (well, this is more real chicken broth). I skipped the olive and the lemon juice. Instead of couscous, I used quinoa (and again, less of it). I cooked the quinoa with chicken broth (not from the pressure cooker). I used the orange juice in the quinoa but skipped the lemon in the chicken.
Overall, I liked the meal a lot but there wasn't really any new flavors. It kind of reminded me of most other tomato-like meals. Though, I let it cook to be pretty dry which was different. Again, like yesterday, it had chickpeas which I am getting kind of tired of it now. So, good, but nothing too special.
Mediterranean Chicken Stew with Cinnamon Couscous (from The Kitchn)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1968, 2012-05-15_214008