You Are What You Eat: March 10 through March 23
Streak of not eating inside a restaurant - 742 days and counting (+14)
My new Recipes for the Year: 41 (+6)
M's new Recipes for the Year 4 (+3)
You'll note that I've added a new stat line to break out the recipes that M is trying out now that she's cooking one night a week. Let's start with those.
- M is a big fan of a website called Rabbit & Wolves that does vegan recipes. She started out with Vegan Chili Garlic Sesame Air Fried Tofu. The sauce from this recipe was the big win. It tasted very much like standard American Chinese General Tso's sauce.
- The next time around M found recipes to create two dishes from Northstar Cafe in Columbus. I've only eaten there a few times and can't do a comparison myself, but she report that the Crunchy Cabbage & Peanut Slaw, which she made with Savoy Cabbage and some fresh mint, is very close to Northstar's version. I personally found it to be delicious. We'll have this again.
- The second recipe was billed as a copycat of the Northstar beet burger. While it made a fine meal and we enjoyed it, we've definitely had better beet burgers, and more to the point M said it wasn't really that much like Northstar's at all.
- My first recipe of the fortnight was not as good as any of M's. The Crispy Portobellos with Marsala Sauce from the March 2022 Eating Well ended up being overly complicated to make, the sauce wasn't great and generally I wasn't happy with how they turned out. Oh well.
- The Chicken Puttanesca from the January 2022 Eating Well went better, but I think my decision to leave the anchovies out of the sauce in deference to my wife's taste took away the most interesting part of the meal, and it ended up being another weak sauce recipe, literally.
- A much more successful outcome came from another recipe from the Kroger magazines my mother-in-law brought me over the holidays. The Spinach, Strawberry and Chicken Salad was fast and tasty. Admittedly, it doesn't hurt when a recipe has chicken strips out of the air fryer, fresh strawberries and pecans.
- Our CSF sent us the recipe for the Pan-roasted salmon with lime salsa. It's hard to get pan-seared salmon wrong, but the salsa was an interesting and tasty touch. I may take their suggestion to try making the salsa with other citrus fruits.
- Moosewood Favorites continues to pull up good meals from the rapidly shrinking number of recipes that aren't already marked with post-it notes. This time around it was the Mushroom Mapo Tofu. M and I both really liked this. The sauce has an excellent taste that was great on rice, and it wasn't overly complicated. Winner!
- My cookbook inventory reminded me to flip through the Weight Watchers Essential Freestyle Cookbook. I made the Spinach & Apple Salad, which is very similar to this recipe from the WW website. I didn't add the almonds, because almonds don't do much for me. Otherwise, this was nice and easy, had lots of flavors we enjoy and was filling.
My new Recipes for the Year: 41 (+6)
M's new Recipes for the Year 4 (+3)
You'll note that I've added a new stat line to break out the recipes that M is trying out now that she's cooking one night a week. Let's start with those.
- M is a big fan of a website called Rabbit & Wolves that does vegan recipes. She started out with Vegan Chili Garlic Sesame Air Fried Tofu. The sauce from this recipe was the big win. It tasted very much like standard American Chinese General Tso's sauce.
- The next time around M found recipes to create two dishes from Northstar Cafe in Columbus. I've only eaten there a few times and can't do a comparison myself, but she report that the Crunchy Cabbage & Peanut Slaw, which she made with Savoy Cabbage and some fresh mint, is very close to Northstar's version. I personally found it to be delicious. We'll have this again.
- The second recipe was billed as a copycat of the Northstar beet burger. While it made a fine meal and we enjoyed it, we've definitely had better beet burgers, and more to the point M said it wasn't really that much like Northstar's at all.
- My first recipe of the fortnight was not as good as any of M's. The Crispy Portobellos with Marsala Sauce from the March 2022 Eating Well ended up being overly complicated to make, the sauce wasn't great and generally I wasn't happy with how they turned out. Oh well.
- The Chicken Puttanesca from the January 2022 Eating Well went better, but I think my decision to leave the anchovies out of the sauce in deference to my wife's taste took away the most interesting part of the meal, and it ended up being another weak sauce recipe, literally.
- A much more successful outcome came from another recipe from the Kroger magazines my mother-in-law brought me over the holidays. The Spinach, Strawberry and Chicken Salad was fast and tasty. Admittedly, it doesn't hurt when a recipe has chicken strips out of the air fryer, fresh strawberries and pecans.
- Our CSF sent us the recipe for the Pan-roasted salmon with lime salsa. It's hard to get pan-seared salmon wrong, but the salsa was an interesting and tasty touch. I may take their suggestion to try making the salsa with other citrus fruits.
- Moosewood Favorites continues to pull up good meals from the rapidly shrinking number of recipes that aren't already marked with post-it notes. This time around it was the Mushroom Mapo Tofu. M and I both really liked this. The sauce has an excellent taste that was great on rice, and it wasn't overly complicated. Winner!
- My cookbook inventory reminded me to flip through the Weight Watchers Essential Freestyle Cookbook. I made the Spinach & Apple Salad, which is very similar to this recipe from the WW website. I didn't add the almonds, because almonds don't do much for me. Otherwise, this was nice and easy, had lots of flavors we enjoy and was filling.