Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 343
Sunday, December 12, 2010, 10:23 PM
The chicken was from the recipe below. We had made it a while ago and it was good but this time, the chicken was kind of flavorless. I think it had to do with doing a quick defrost. Also, we may have over cooked it. We will try it again because we know it has been good in the past.
The cauliflower was...different. I steamed cauliflower and garlic for a long time and then, on the suggestion of a bunch of sites, used the food processor to puree it with some seasonings. I added Molly McButter, cheddar powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, etc. It was okay tasting but using the food processor was a mistake. It over puréed it. Next time, we will just mash it with a fork like we do for potatoes. It was like eating baby food. Still, I liked that it was essentially zero points. (some for the cheese I put in it as well)
Recipe and Points after break.
Points plus:
Chicken...3
cheese...2
Cauliflower...0
Cheese...1
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Smothered Green Chile Pepper Chicken (from CookingLight)
The mild spiciness of canned green chiles marries well with the creaminess of the melted mozzarella cheese. Fresh lime juice adds a bright note. Serve with Corn-Filled Mini-Muffins (a start-with-a-mix recipe) for an easy weeknight meal.
Skinless, boneless chicken thighs (8)
Fresh lime juice
Taco seasoning (reduced-sodium)
Canned whole green chiles (2 to 3 cans)
Shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Prep: 4 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
[My Note: It doesn't really say what to do but we sprinkle lime juice and taco seasoning, Then lay the pepper over it and sprinkle with cheese. Cover and bake.]
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 767, 2010-12-12_222336
Wednesday, December 08, 2010, 09:25 PM
This was a very good meal. Sadly, we assumed it would not be as bad as the points ended up being but it is hard to say because the vodka in the sauce cooks down a lot. Oh well, it was worth it.
We made pasta from the recipe below (halved. I think we used that recipe before. As before, it needed more water but I was careful with how much I put it in. I gave it a good amount of time kneading in the mixer and the resting helped. I also made sure everything was very, very well floured when it came to rolling and waiting to go into the water. The pasta came out very good. It had a nice texture, consistency and flavor. I also added some garlic powder and pepper (but very little of both) to the dough. It made two very big servings. The pasta was 9 points Plus per person. A lot but worth it. Also, we had some chicken on it for protein.
The sauce recipe is also pictured below. Meredith had handwritten it a long time ago so I took a photo. The major changes here were we used fat free evaporated milk instead of cream and used smart balance instead of butter and only used half of what it called for. It was very good and didn't really taste fat free.
Finally, we made a stuffed zucchini thing. I cannot post the recipe because it was from Meredith's Italian book...in Italian. It had feta (we used lite), mozzarella (we used fat free), garlic, onions, dill and some other stuff. The recipe called for nuts which we skipped. Meredith may bullet point the recipe. In that case, I will include it later.
Points+Recipes after the break...
Points Plus:
Pasta:
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour...8
3/4 cup regular flour...8
egg...0.6
olive oil...~1
-------------------------
~9 per serving+2 for chicken.
Sauce:
Skim Evaporated Milk...8*0.62=~5
1.5 Tbsp Smart Balance=1.5*1.29=~2
Vodka...~8 (who knows because a lot does cook out)
---------------------------------
figure 7 each because who knows about with the vodka
Zucchini:
2 oz lite feta...4
Mozz...1
bread crumbs...1
----------------------
3 each
Okay, this meal was a lot but it was very good and worth it every once in a while.
Meredith's Vodka Sauce
In a large frying pan over medium heat, melt the butter with the cream. In a small bowl, dissolve the tomato paste in the vodka. Stir into cream mixture and add basil plus crushed red pepper. Season with 1 tsp salt. Cook until most of the alcohol has evaporated and the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon; about 5 minutes
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 762, 2010-12-08_212506
Wednesday, December 08, 2010, 09:28 AM
The picture did not come out well. Anyway, continuing Meredith's scone craving, we made green tea (Matcha) scones. We actually made two batches because I screwed up the first. We followed the same recipe with the same changes as last time from the recipe below. We halved it and added a tsp of matcha. It was a bit clumpy but it eventually mixed. The problem was I forgot to put in the smart balance. Well, apparently that makes a big difference. The dough seemed really dry and small. We baked it because we had nothing to lose and made another batch.
We did the second batch the same way except I remembered the smart balance (used two knives to cut it and mix it well). Also, since I had issues with the matcha clumping, I used a bit more and sifted it. That wastes some and matcha isn't cheap, except that our is (and doesn't taste as good). Still, it was worth it. This batch came out much better!
They were okay. Still a bit dry but you could taste the matcha! See the previous time for points.
Low Fat Pomegranate Scones (From Gina's Skinny Taste)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 753, 2010-12-08_092830
Wednesday, December 08, 2010, 09:23 AM
First the steak. I do not know much about buying steak so I just looked for a really lean looking cut that was not extremely expensive (tenderloin). Well, it was not good! It was very chewy and overcooked. To sum up Meredith's view, "it tasted too much like steak." On the bright side, it was lean and we had small portions.
The Celeriac Smashed Potatoes were much more interesting. Celeriac is celery root. We cut it up and boiled it along with the potatoes (though we put it in first because it needs more time). After everything was soft, we smashed them and added a bunch of seasonings, a bit of smart balance, etc to make it close to mashed potatoes, but healthier. I do not know the exact points but it was around a pound of potatoes and not much other stuff.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 750, 2010-12-08_092331
Monday, December 06, 2010, 05:50 PM
We roughly made the chicken from the recipe below. When we cooked it though, we did not need to let it simmer as long. After it simmered for a bit, I took the chicken out, turned up the heat, added some corn starch and reduced the sauce.
Overall, it was pretty good. The soy sauce was the main flavor making it not too different from other recipes. Most notably, it was a bit like teriyaki. Still, we enjoyed it. We also had leftover soup and some frozen vegetables
Points: Chicken...3
-----------------------------
Filipino Adobo Chicken (from Gina's)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 746, 2010-12-06_175001
Sunday, December 05, 2010, 08:36 PM
This was a very good meal. Meredith made Tzatziki. I do not know the exact recipe but she spooned out the seeds and went to great lenths to dry the cucumber. This helped a lot! Also, instead of lemon juice, she used white vinegar
The soup was based off of the recipe below. It was strange. I used egg beaters instead of egg. I may have beaten it a bit too much because we had a lot of egg foam that I skimmed off to get to the soup. I also went a bit (but not much) light on the lemon juice. Also, I used Israeli couscous instead of orzo and I used much less.
Finally, the chicken had lemon juice sprinkled on it with some sage, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper and garlic powder. It was good and fit the theme.
The whole wheat pita was from Wegmans.
2010-12-27 update: Changed to say "sage", not "sake". Fixed thyme.
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I am trying something new. I will copy/paste in the recipes as well as linking to them this way if the site goes now, I will still have it.
Avgolemono (from Martha Stewart)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 742, 2010-12-05_203620
Sunday, December 05, 2010, 12:23 PM
We made the pancakes from this recipe that we had used before. The difference is that we halved the recipe except we kept the spices all the same. That is, we basically doubled the spices. In addition, instead of cloves, we used pumpkin pie spice. It was really good. Not only was it better than last time, but it was just down right good. Also, no walnuts and apple sauce instead of oil
The turkey bacon was pretty straight forward.
Points for the pancakes:
Whole Wheat Flour...2.7
Reg Flour...2.7
3/8 cup buttermilk=3/8*2.4==0.9
egg beaters...0.3
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6.6. This made four large, thick pancakes for two servings. that is, 3.3 per serving
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 740, 2010-12-05_122324
Saturday, December 04, 2010, 09:52 PM
This was our first attempt with the crock pot. Honestly, it wasn't very good. I basically just mixed chicken, tomato, garlic, seasonings with onion, celery, carrots, parsnips and peppers. It cooked for about 9 hours. I thought the chicken was a bit overdone and it just wasn't that good. Meredith and I made chicken cacciatore a long time ago and it was really good. I would rather do that next time.
Points were low because it was just the chicken that had points.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 735, 2010-12-04_215207