Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 358
Thursday, August 19, 2010, 09:06 PM
Today's meal was (unintentionally) comfort food. First the soup: The french onion soup was fairly simple. First I sautéed a lot of onions (french cut) with just pam. Then I added about 3 cups of water and a cup of white wine (thanks Alton Brown for that tip). Then added 4 beef bouillon cubes and a packet of no sodium chicken. I eventually added some more water. After the first taste, I thought the wine was too pronounced so I added another cube. A few notes for the future. First, a bit less wine. It was too strong. Second, I need to get some sodium free bouillon to cut some of the salt.
For the croutons, we toasted a (pam) buttered english muffin and cut that. The cheese was low fat provolone. Since my bowls are (probably) not safe for the oven, let alone the broiler, I used the creme brulee torch to brown and burn the cheese.
The shepherd's pie, pictured cut below, was just onions, ground beef (lean) and some frozen corn and peas. After sautéing the onions and vegetables and browning the beef, we lined the bottom of the pan with it (very bottom photo). The potatoes were a pound of yukon gold potatoes which we boiled for about 20 minutes. I do not know the details because Meredith did it, but the smashed potatoes (we kept the skin on) were made with some greek yogurt (less than 1/2 cup), Molly McButter, butter spray, garlic and onion powder, salt, pepper and a tad of 1/2 and 1/2 to make it creamy. After mixing the two, we baked on 400 for about 20 minutes then broiled for 2 to brown the top. We ended up with too much potato for the beef but it was still good. (The original plan was to use a smaller dish but it grew). The recipe was loosely based on this recipe
Shepherd's Pie (2 dinner/2 lunch)
meat:
8 oz 92/8 ground beef...8
1/2 cup corn + 1/2 cup peas...1.5
Potato
1 lb Yukon Potato...6.5
4 oz ff greek yogurt...2
! Tbsp 1/2+1/2..0.5
Assorted Pam, onions, etc...0.5
Whole pie had 19. Made two dinners and two lunch portions (around 6 and 3 or 4 respectively)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
French Onion Soup (made 2 servings)
1 cup white wine...2
2 slices LF cheese...2
1 Fiber One English muffin...1
Assorted Pam, etc...1
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 238, 2010-08-19_210600
Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 08:12 PM
Wanted a pretty fast and simple meal so I sautéed up some spinach that did not have much lifetime left and made a tomato sauce. The sauce was diced tomatoes, with some mini-sweet peppers and cayenne. Both of the peppers also were on their last legs. So, it was a fast meal that also used up expiring produce. The pasta is just Barilla whole wheat rottini.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 229, 2010-08-18_201234
Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 09:38 PM
We made sushi because we needed to eat the avocado before it went bad. We used brown rice, imitation crab, mini bell pepper slices and carrot slices. It was a mixed success. It looks okay but far from great. We will see how it tastes.
The picture below is the prep stuff (neatly put together)
Points: (for 2)
1 cup brown rice...6
Imitation Crab...2
avocado...1 (I think)
I do not know about the nori but I do not imagine it is much.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 214, 2010-08-17_213839
Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 09:37 PM
The chicken vindaloo comes from this recipe (epicurious). I followed some of the commenters and sautéed the onions first. I also did not have cayenne pepper so I used sriracha sauce. Also, I initially measured out the said amount of seasonings and then I just added more. Not very specific but it did not have enough flavor. Finally, I sautéed the chicken a bit first to make sure it was fully cooked.
The samosas were highly successful. See the post with the recipe. It makes 6 but only 4 are shown. Meredith experimented with a different folding on one.
~8 oz boneless skinless chicken...6
4 oz potatoes...3
other assorted...1
Dough
1 cup whole wheat flour...440/2/16
Greek Yogurt...133/0/0
Filling
1/4 lb potato...3 points
1/2 cup peas...1 point
So, the crust has 570 cal with 2 grams of fat and 16 grams of fiber. You split it into 6 so that is one point per serving.
The filling is 4 points and you split it into 6 so just say one point each to account for anything else.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 211, 2010-08-17_213700
Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 06:44 PM
The recipe from here is below. Note that I needed to add a bit more water to the dough. I also used non-fat greek yogurt. I also used pam instead of oil.
Because I halved it, I had to initially mix the dough by hand (literally, used my hands). Then I used the dough hook to knead it. The hook did not go deep enough to mix it. Also, I needed to thread the hook a bit to get it to grab.
Also, for half the recipe, here is the points
Dough
1 cup whole wheat flour...440/2/16 (cal/fat/fiber)
Greek Yogurt...133/0/0
Filling
1/4 lb potato...3 points
1/2 cup peas...1 point
So, the crust has 570 cal with 2 grams of fat and 16 grams of fiber. You split it into 6 so that is one point per serving.
The filling is 4 points and you split it into 6 so just say one point each to account for anything else.
Baked Whole-Wheat Samosas (from Heart and Stroke Foundation)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 215, 2010-08-17_184456
Monday, August 16, 2010, 06:48 PM
We made grilled cheese with low fat provolone and or lite Jarlsberg. We each had one with a mix and half of one that was all one type of another. It was "gourmet" with the addition of banana peppers and tomato. Using the butter spray and butter pam on the griddler allowed us to do it without any butter. Also, the lines from the griddler makes it even more "organic" feeling
The tomato soup was canned tomatoes, chicken base (water+ regular and sodium-free bouillon) an onion and a lot of seasonings. I then used the immersion blender. It was okay but tasted a bit like tomato sauce. Well, that is not really a bad thing but still. We garnished it with some fresh basil.
(approx) point values:
Grilled Cheese (we each had two)
Tomato Soup...~1 just to account for any oil and other.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 207, 2010-08-16_184823
Friday, August 13, 2010, 10:01 PM
First of all, I do understand that they do not really all go together but we wanted to eat the squash before it went bad.
The turkey burgers were made with all sorts of seasonings including a bit of sesame seed oil, worcestershire sauce and tabasco sauce. The chips were the usual. More ground black pepper than usual giving it a bite.
The soup was more interesting. I originally used too much cinnamon but added extra bouillon base to even that out. I also used nutmeg and ginger. Finally, I put some Splenda in to give it an extra sweetness lacking in it.
(Approx.) Point Values:
Turkey Burgers...~1 point per oz (93% lean). Each [small] burger was 2 oz
Arnolds Rolls...1 for 1. 3 for 2
LF prov. Cheese (1/2 slice per burger)...1/slice
Potato "chips". Around 4 total. Maybe 5
Butternut squash is harder to figure out for sure. I am guessing about 2 per bowl.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 204, 2010-08-13_220117
Thursday, August 12, 2010, 07:22 PM
We used this recipe for the black bean stuffed poblanos (we halved it). The stuffing was good but the tomato sauce inundated the flavor. We cooked the extra stuffing in a separate dish and that was great. The peppers themselves would have been better with less sauce. Maybe next time we will use salsa. Also, we drained and rinsed the beans to cut some salt
The salsa verde was too watery because we ran out of tomatillos. We used non fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. The chicken which was just sautéed with taco seasoning was good but was also exactly what you would expect.
So, notes for next time are salsa instead if sauce (and less if it) and thicker salsa Verde.
Also, I tried using the cast iron for the chicken. It was really nice but you couldn't cover it. Not really an issue for tenders which cook quickly but if I were using whole breasts, I would want the lid.
Approximate points:
Peppers
Beans...3
LF cheese...3
Corn meal...2
Chicken...~1.5 (or less) per oz
Salsa Verde... (not much and as barely ate it)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 201, 2010-08-12_192236