Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 326
Saturday, August 27, 2011, 04:18 PM
This was our waiting-for-the-power-to-go-out meal. We madeborscht earlier. It was not our best. First of all, we didn't have carrots and the beet greens were not good so we didn't use them. Also, we used way too much potato. Then I added water but let it boil down too much. It was tasty but not incredible like it had been in the past. Especially the last time that was really good.
The hot dogs were intended so that if the power died while we were cooking them, we could eat them no matter what. We just used the griddler on the 97% fat free ones. Note that even the low fat have a huge amount of fat and calories but these have very, very little. They are 40 cal each! As I have noted in the past, I am now against using crappy buns so we used "focaccia rolls" we bought. I put it in quotes since it was really nothing more than ciabatta with seasoning. I was happy with that since it mean less oil.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1364, 2011-08-27_161800
Monday, August 22, 2011, 04:17 PM
I am not over week since updating this so I do not remember any specific details but it was the standard sloppy joes. I think we bought good bread to use for it instead of Arnolds rolls. They sloppy joes were good as usual. Much better than last time when I put way too much tomato in.
We also had (a lot) of steamed asparagus. It was standard but very good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1362, 2011-08-22_161736
Saturday, August 20, 2011, 11:44 AM
First, the vegetables. This was inspired by the Vegetable Torta at Bertuccis. I french cut a few onions and super caramelized them with a lot of whole garlic cloves. This was actually done a few days in advance. Anyway, I cut up a WHOLE LOT of zucchini and yellow squash. Next, I used one graffiti eggplant. I then added a can of (rinsed) artichoke hearts and I bunch of cherry tomatoes which I first cut, and then squeezed over the sink to remove some of the juices. I mixed it all together with some olive oil and seasonings. I used cumin, rosemary (a lot), ground thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic and onion powder. I put them into two dishes and baked / roasted them for an hour at 400. I stirred them every 10-15 minutes. I was happy enough with how they turned out. They were good and flavorful but still not as good as the thing at Bertuccis. I think I used a bit too much zucchini and squash since it drowned out the presence of artichoke hearts. I will have to play a bit more with it. It was still delicious but not there yet. I think the Tian was better.
The falafel were made with the same recipe as last time except doubled since Emily was here. I used fresh cilantro this time. I did not add more red pepper but it still had a nice bite. They didn't come out as crispy this time despite being cooked at a higher temperature (needed for the vegetables). My theory is that with the oven so full, especially due to the vegetables, they steamed a bit more. Don't get me wrong, they were still very good. We served them with tahini and buffalo (as in the buffalo chicken) hummus.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1355, 2011-08-20_114434
Saturday, August 20, 2011, 11:43 AM
Emily was visiting so it had to be vegetarian. I caramelized some onions with a habanero pepper. I then added a bunch of Gimme Lean pieces. I tightly wrapped them in whole wheat tortillas with some low fat cheese. I baked them until they were crispy.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1353, 2011-08-20_114357
Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 11:42 AM
Because we had to go grocery shopping, we were running late and needed a quick and easy meal. This was the result. It was just sautéd onions, peppers (including one habanero). I added a can one black beans towards the end so they got heated but not mushed. We used McCormick Fajita seasonings.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1351, 2011-08-17_114259
Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 11:42 AM
This was really just like the last times except that I seasoned the beef a bit more. I let the onions get very caramelized then I added the beef. Despite being lean beef, there was a lot of liquid so I had to drain it. I then added corn, peas and a mix of seasonings.
Meredith did the topping which was basically healthy mashed potatoes. As usual, we used Yukon Gold.
We made a double portion and took it for lunch the next day too.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1349, 2011-08-16_114201
Thursday, August 11, 2011, 02:44 PM
We made beef koftas based on the recipe below. Basically, we just subbed extra lean ground beef (around 0.75 lbs) for the 1lbs of turkey. We used ground cumin and coriander so we skipped the toasting of the spices. We did use fresh mint but dried dill.Finally, I screwed up and put too much salt into the beef. I didn't read the "divided" part. Thankfully, I thought it was too much so I didn't do all of it. Also, I just used grill-pam with the cast iron pan instead of oil to cook the beef.
They were salty but really good. I do not know if is was the salt but they were surprisingly moist despite using such lean beef. We liked the flavor quite a bit and we will do them again. But, less salt!
Meredith made her own tzatziki but I do not know her recipe. She also added some fresh mint since we had it. I didn't really taste the difference with the mint but Meredith said she liked it less.
Recipe moved to My Recipe Book
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1344, 2011-08-11_144433
Tuesday, August 09, 2011, 05:02 PM
We again made taquitos following the same principle as the past time, and the time before that (linked from the past one). Except this time, they were even more flavorful. I started with onion and a very, very finely chopped habanero (I really like it like this since it only gives it a small kick but a lot of flavor). I let them sauté but I used a bit more oil (still not very much though). I then added some pepper strips, garlic and corn (new addition). Meanwhile, I pressure cooked the chicken with a sodium-free brother and pepper. When that was done, I added the broth to the onions to let them cook down while Meredith was shredding the chicken. I kept adding more as it cooked.
Once I added the chicken, also added a bit of salsa, a tad of hot sauce, and then melted Laughing Cow wedges.
We got new whole wheat tortillas at Costco (100 cal each which is low). The worked fine in the oven except they took a bit longer to crisp. Like the previous times, we cooked them at about 375 then broiled them for a bit more.
The taquitos were extremely flavorful. We thoroughly enjoyed them. Letting it cook with the broth and the bit of extra oil to help really reduce the onions made a big difference.
Oh, we also served them with a Pasta Side. (Note, we had vegetables at lunch so it wasn't a fully vegetable-free day)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1340, 2011-08-09_170205