Category: things to do

since jared bought me a new book, doubly delicious, to cook from, i’ve been trying new recipes! all the recipes below used vegetable puree as one or more of the ingredients!

week 8 – cauliflower – cauliflower au gratin

this was superb! neither of us are really partial to cauliflower but the cheesy sauce (mixed with carrot puree) made it yummy, plus i learned how to blanch for this recipe, go me!

week 9 – sweet potato – chicken enchiladas

finally a photo for this one! these were amazing. super healthy and filling and good as leftovers as well. i made these for jared’s bday using sweet potato and spinach puree – yum yum.

week 10 – yellow squash – peanut butter chocolate pie

another win (taste wise) but something went wrong with the setting of the pie so i was forced to turn it into pudding but it tasted like a melted reeses pb cup. so the taste plus yellow squash in the recipe = win! better luck next time setting the pie 🙂

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

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.

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!

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.