You Are What You Eat: June 19 through July 1
Streak of not eating in a restaurant - 476 days and counting.
New Recipes for the Year: 71 (+6)
I made six new recipes in the last thirteen days, four of which we'll likely make again. That's a pretty solid ratio.
The most disappointing recipe from this increment was from the April 2021 Eating Well. I made the Roasted Strawberry Panna Cotta, which was reasonably time consuming. No individual step was hard, but there were enough little fiddly bits and waiting time that it was a day process. The end result of all this work ended up tasting more or less like the strawberry yogurt that M occasionally buys from the grocery store with a little chocolate on top. Since strawberry yogurt only requires opening a container, you can understand the disappointment. Oh well.
The other recipe that wasn't a winner was also from the April 2021 Eating Well. This one was the Spring Salad with Pickled Shallot & Avocado. M liked pickled things and avocado, so was a no brainer for us to try, but the end result wasn't particularly exciting, and certainly wasn't worth the extra effort.
Our next recipe had been cut out of the December 2020 Eating Well and relegated to the red folder. The Pan-Roasted Sesame Salmon came out very well, with a thick delicious sauce on top. M loves sesame flavor, too. The fact that it made a dent in my rarely used hoisin sauce was just a bonus.
The last Eating Well recipe for this increment was from the June 2021 issue. M has previously indicated that she likes quiches, Spanish tortitllas and assorted other baked egg dishes. As such, the Zucchini, Spinach & Gouda Bake was right up her alley and much appreciated. It was also pretty easy to make. I'm sure we could vary the vegetables with similar success.
Because we don't have enough vegetables and eggs in our lives, alongside the aforementioned bake I served the Baby Greens Salad with Eggs and Walnuts from the Weight Watchers Essential Freestyle Cookbook. I made it primarily with arugula, and substituted pear juice for apple juice in the dressing. Neither of these changes harmed the recipe any. We both enjoyed this and it will go into our salad rotation.
The last new recipe was from the Feast cookbook. I made the Egyptian-style variant of the Ful Medammes. The hardest part of this recipe was finding dried fava beans, which were seemingly not in any major grocery store around here despite the extensive Middle Eastern immigrant community. M just ordered them online since she's not yet comfortable with me wandering into random Middle Eastern grocery stores. The second hardest part was apparently suing the Instant Pot. I apparently put in just a little too much water, because even though the texture of the cooked beans was perfect, the water bubbled up enough to start coming through the vents and made an unholy mess in my kitchen. I had to take the pot apart and clean every component, which was not my idea of a good time. On the plus side, the Ful was really good. It's essentially a bean spread that we served with vegetables and pita, and we'll do it again some time.
New Recipes for the Year: 71 (+6)
I made six new recipes in the last thirteen days, four of which we'll likely make again. That's a pretty solid ratio.
The most disappointing recipe from this increment was from the April 2021 Eating Well. I made the Roasted Strawberry Panna Cotta, which was reasonably time consuming. No individual step was hard, but there were enough little fiddly bits and waiting time that it was a day process. The end result of all this work ended up tasting more or less like the strawberry yogurt that M occasionally buys from the grocery store with a little chocolate on top. Since strawberry yogurt only requires opening a container, you can understand the disappointment. Oh well.
The other recipe that wasn't a winner was also from the April 2021 Eating Well. This one was the Spring Salad with Pickled Shallot & Avocado. M liked pickled things and avocado, so was a no brainer for us to try, but the end result wasn't particularly exciting, and certainly wasn't worth the extra effort.
Our next recipe had been cut out of the December 2020 Eating Well and relegated to the red folder. The Pan-Roasted Sesame Salmon came out very well, with a thick delicious sauce on top. M loves sesame flavor, too. The fact that it made a dent in my rarely used hoisin sauce was just a bonus.
The last Eating Well recipe for this increment was from the June 2021 issue. M has previously indicated that she likes quiches, Spanish tortitllas and assorted other baked egg dishes. As such, the Zucchini, Spinach & Gouda Bake was right up her alley and much appreciated. It was also pretty easy to make. I'm sure we could vary the vegetables with similar success.
Because we don't have enough vegetables and eggs in our lives, alongside the aforementioned bake I served the Baby Greens Salad with Eggs and Walnuts from the Weight Watchers Essential Freestyle Cookbook. I made it primarily with arugula, and substituted pear juice for apple juice in the dressing. Neither of these changes harmed the recipe any. We both enjoyed this and it will go into our salad rotation.
The last new recipe was from the Feast cookbook. I made the Egyptian-style variant of the Ful Medammes. The hardest part of this recipe was finding dried fava beans, which were seemingly not in any major grocery store around here despite the extensive Middle Eastern immigrant community. M just ordered them online since she's not yet comfortable with me wandering into random Middle Eastern grocery stores. The second hardest part was apparently suing the Instant Pot. I apparently put in just a little too much water, because even though the texture of the cooked beans was perfect, the water bubbled up enough to start coming through the vents and made an unholy mess in my kitchen. I had to take the pot apart and clean every component, which was not my idea of a good time. On the plus side, the Ful was really good. It's essentially a bean spread that we served with vegetables and pita, and we'll do it again some time.