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cooking project – weeks 6 & 7

week 6 – potatoes – potato cheese casserole
no pic this week because it wasn’t pretty, haha. it tasted fine although we agreed we’d probably mash the potatoes instead of hash them next time and use less onions than the recipe called for.

week 7 – tomatoes – coconut tomato curry soup
YUM YUM! this recipe was fabulous! i don’t really know why we had it with bruschetta because the flavors clashed a little but i just had tomatoes on the brain i guess 🙂 i wouldn’t change anything about this recipe, it was super low fat and super flavorful. and to do the bruschetta, i just put some french bread on a skillet with garlic olive oil and put the tomatoes straight on the skillet as well, and once they were sufficiently hot and gooey, threw them on the bread and squished them into the bread, then threw on some fresh basil. don’t know if that’s how it’s done but that’s how i did it!

p.s. jared bought me a new cookbook for valentine’s day 🙂 and i’m so excited to try the recipes since most of them use pureed vegetables as one of the ingredients! yippee

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cooking project – week 5

week 5 – parsnip – pureed roasted parsnips
okay, we tried a vegetable this week that neither of us had ever tried, recommended by a friend who grew up in oklahoma and used to grow her own!

yup, related to the carrot apparently but taste nothing like the carrot. in fact they were a big thumbs down for both of us the way i made them anyway. i didn’t take a photo either because they just looked like mashed potatoes, and maybe that’s why we didn’t like them, we kept thinking ‘mashed potatoes…but oh, these don’t taste anything like mashed potatoes!’ i have a few left over so i might try something else with them. but onward to the next vege.

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cooking project – week 4

hey everyone, click here to learn the details of my little cooking project for the year!

week 4 – green beans –vegetable crepes – eatingwell.com (recipe modified)
i didn’t have any zucchini so i used 1 red and 1 green bell pepper instead, i omitted the corn and i also included green onions but i don’t think i would use them next time, otherwise i really liked the mixture we put in there. honestly a few small chopped apples would have been really delicious as well. i used the processor to grate the cheese (which i later realized was unnecessary since the cheese would be melted but oh well) and i used it to chop all the veges which took seconds=awesome. i made the green beans very small so jared wouldn’t notice but he did anyway, i’ll have to learn more disguising techniques as the project moves on. he still liked it though so i still win! also, i realized i am not so great at making food look good so it definitely tasted better than it looked!

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eat things to do

little project for 2011 – weeks 1-3

i’m going to start by saying that i really don’t like cooking. but i want to like cooking. so instead of a new year’s resolution (which i also don’t really like) i’m going to make a goal instead…and blog about the progress!  now, my goal needed to be realistic right? so i’m going to plan/cook one, yes one meal a week this year, have to make it achievable right?

the rules:

1. the meal must use the food processor i got for christmas (for chopping, slicing, mixing, pureeing, etc… – yes it’s cool!)
2. the meal must include a different vegetable or herb each time – are there 52 vegetables?? well if there aren’t then i will be allowed to use a combination when i’ve exhausted them all.
3. i will make one different recipe a week and then blog about it.

what i hope to acquire with this experiment:
1. 52 new recipes that i will know how to make.
2. a love for some new vegetables we’ve never tried or haven’t liked in the past.
3. better habits about cooking so we eat less cereal/oatmeal for dinner (yes, it’s embarrassing).
so, we’ll see how this goes. wish me luck and if you have any ideas for foods i could use, let me know!
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since it’s well into january and have only now gotten to post this first post i’ll post the first 3 weeks now.

week 1 – basil – pesto on pasta with chicken – cuisinart recipe booklet
for the first week i didn’t really know i was going to blog about them yet so i don’t have a picture but i started easy…a recipe right out of the food processor book! oh man it was amazing but now i realize how bad it probably is for you, ha.

week 2 – zucchini – zucchini bread – better homes & gardens cookbook
so this is a dessert, i know i know but didn’t have the rules all figured out until week 3…still used the processor and it shredded that zucchini so fast! i have leftover shredded zucchini so maybe i’ll make something else with it 🙂

week 3 – carrot – carrot dill soup
got to slice and puree with this recipe! and it was yummy, and really healthy actually. this time i have a photo as well! we ate this with grilled cheese.

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eat things to do

Photo Friday #20

So having lived in SE Asia for so long, I got really used to the kinds of desserts they eat…pretty much any kind of fruit on sweetened rice. I even got to the point where I couldn’t eat an entire candy bar because it was just too sweet. Anyway, one of my favorites was mango and sticky rice. When I got back, the hunt was on to find places that sell it here. Most Thai places do when mangoes are in season but it’s actually a pretty expensive dessert…the last time I was craving it I spent $6.50 on it, yikes!!
So I decided, while mangoes are still in season, that I would figure out how to make it myself. Seeing as how mangoes are $0.99, coconut milk and rice are cheap, I can make the same amount of dessert you get in the store for about $2.25 or so. That’s much better 🙂 But of course I do have to make it, oh well.
So here it is! It turned out pretty awesome…and boy approved 🙂
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eat things to do

Pumpkin muffins = delicious

So we used to go to this place Muffin Break quite regularly on Sunday mornings. It was kind of a nice way to start Sundays with something different. They had the absolute BEST pumpkin muffins. As you can see, I keep using past tenses. That’s because we went to Muffin Break a few weeks ago and they were gone! Completely gone. I guess in this economy people really can’t be splurging on muffins.

 

So of course, ever since, I’d been craving pumpkin muffins. I know they don’t sell them in boxes so I found a recipe. It turns out they are super easy and really really good. This was the first time I had ever made muffins from scratch and I have to say, they are much better from scratch than from the box.

So here’s the recipe:

 

RECIPE FOR PUMPKIN MUFFINS
From Gourmet November 2006
Adapted from the American Club
Makes 1 dozen
Active time: 15 min.
Start to finish: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp pumpkin-pie spice (a combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice)
1.25 cups plus 1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Equipment: 12 foil or paper muffin liners; a muffin pan with 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups

DIRECTIONS:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, 1.25 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about 3/4 full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.