Lunch today. Spaghetti Squash with homemade pesto, chicken and peas. I added fresh steamed broccoli too!
Crockpot Autumn Chicken & Apple Cider Chili. Yummy!
Found this at:
http://foxeslovelemons.com/autumn-chicken-apple-cider-chili-cooking-with-the-wonderbag-pmedia/
Balsamic glazed pork chop with sautéed sweet potato and brown rice #omnomnomnom
October's Cookbook Review
This month went by so fast I didn't quite get through all of the recipes from Gooseberry Patch Farmers Market Favorites. In fact, there is still one recipe that I still plan to make sometime over the next month.
Productive Weekend
My first weekend off since August, so what did I do with my very cold, windy and rainy Saturday? Cook of course! Bell peppers were on sale all week at the store, so I stocked up on a bunch of them. I've seen so many posts about roasted red pepper sauces and pastas, so I thought that I would give it a try.
I preheated the oven to 350, cut one larger red bell pepper in half, seeded it and removed the membranes and brushed both sides with olive oil before placing them skin side up on a foil lined baking pan. These went in on the top rack of the oven for about 35-40 minutes, or until the skin started to bubble and get charred. The secret to getting the skin off is to throw them in a tupperware container to cool as soon as you pull them out of the over. Once cool, remove the skins and discard. It was so easy!
Started the week off right with breakfast before my parents went back to Ohio. It's been forever since I've had homemade pancakes for breakfast, so I was super excited to have these. They didn't fluff up like most pancakes usually do, but the might be because of the powdered sugar in the batter. At any rate, we topped them with walnuts and fresh raspberries and they were still pretty good.
Soft Pumpkin Cookies! Though they might be more soft than pumpkiney… Oh well... theyre still pretty good. I added chocolate chips to 1/2 of the cookies and they are so good! Next time I might add some pumpkin pie spice just to give them a little something!
Pork Mexicali with black beans, peppers, tomatoes and a side of brown rice.
I don't know why, but I always had this aversion to pork before I started this cookbook club. It always kind of put me off, having it be not really red meat but not really white meat hahaha call me crazy but I think that is weird. Now I am starting to appreciate how delicious it can be. In this recipe it was first browned in a skillet then baked over the vegetables until cooked through. My green pepper and tomatoes came from the farmers market, the rice was courtesy of Uncle Ben's (yea sorry I cheated on that one) but everything was delicious! My roommate even liked it!
There is nothing that this view and beer can't fix...
Mediterranean chicken salad sandwich and minted baby carrots. The recipe called for the chicken salad to be stuffed into a pita, but I chose for a sandwich thin instead. For the record, pita is the way to go with that, everything fell out of the sandwich on first bite. The recipe was quick and easy, but nothing earth shattering. The however, carrots were amazing! Mint, brown sugar and salt and pepper? Never would i have thought to put these together, but they were so good! Normally I am not a fan of carrots and sugar, but it was just the right amount to add a touch of sweetness to blend everything together. Will definitely make again!
Farmers market finds! (at The Virginia Horse Center- ASHAV)
Tomato-Garbanzo Salad
Turning this pasta salad into a spinach salad was actually a great idea. I wanted to try the tomato-garbanzo combo, but wasn't too keen on making a pasta salad the center of my dinner, so I mixed all the other ingredients together, dressed them placed the mixture atop fresh spinach. To add a bit a protein I added some tuna and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.
This was so simple, but so good! The ingredients were all as you would expect, the lemon dressing was light and tangy, the garbanzos brought some heartiness to the dish and the tomatoes were flavorful and fresh. The most surprising addition was the few shakes of cumin in the dressing! It was just the contrast needed that brought everything together.
Red Pepper & Chicken
First recipe from the October cookbook! Red Pepper & Chicken. The recipe called for this to be served on bagels, but I altered it a bit and served it with zucchini noodles for dinner. I also added some fresh tomato and spinach that I had leftover. The balsamic marinade was something I haven't tried before, so I was excited about that. Unfortunately, I think the subtle red pepper flavors were overpowered by the balsamic in the dish. The chicken was tender and juicy thought and the mozzarella cheese melted up so nicely with the other toppings. Light and fresh!
Looking Back On Cooking Light
I had a bit of a late start on the cookbook club for the month of September, but I think I was able to make a pretty good show regardless. The recipes from Cooking Light were easy to follow, had great flavor and definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone both in ingredients and methods of cooking. I loved the variety in the recipes and the extensive list I had to choose from, I never felt like I would get bored working through these!
There were some recipes that I wouldn't make again, and some that I would make again with alterations. My favorite recipes that came from this month were the steak and asparagus stir fry and the cilantro sirloin burgers.
The stir fry was so flavorful and there were plenty of leftovers that I put over both a green salad and zucchini noodles for meals the next day. The burgers were wonderful, simple and something I have never even attempted before.
I will likely attempt the whitefish in coconut curry and the pork posole again, but with my own alterations to the recipe. Overall though, I had a great time working through these recipes, and am proud of the dishes I was able to create. I am already working on compiling my next set of these to try.
Today I realized I am nothing more than a common white girl... the reality of this was just too much and I had to go to Starbucks to cheer myself up... sadly they were all out of pumpkin spice lattes #notevenjoking
For The Month Of October..
Picking out a new cookbook to work through this month was an easy choice. With farmers markets in full swing, I thought this was a perfect choice. The recipes are easy and fresh and remind me so much of home. No the hard part is just going to be picking ones that I can realistically work through in a month.... here we go!
Moroccan Chicken Salad Pitas
Lunch has to be quick and easy, but hearty enough to keep me full until dinner, which doesn't usually come until 7hrs later haha. I made the dressing and chicken the night before so the flavors had time to blend, then stored them separately in the fridge. I'm also big on hearty salads, so I took the "salad" part of this recipe a bit more literally and put the dressing, toppings and chicken over a spinach instead.
I also don't have a food processor, so I just finely chopped all of the ingredients in the "dressing" and mixed everything together. Not too bad! Word to the wise, when toasting the pine nuts, don't walk away from the oven. Those suckers will turn on you faster than you can walk to the mailbox and back!
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/moroccan-chicken-salad-pitas-50400000134703/