Saturday, May 03, 2003
Friday night we had tv dinners. Leah had to go to her sleep test at 6:45 and I had a party to go to at 7, so we didn't have time to make dinner. Luckily, we knew ahead of time that we weren't going to want to make dinner and bought frozen meals Thursday night. I had Lean Cuisine Baked Chicken w/ Mashed Potatoes and Stuffing. Leah had Lean Cuisine Chicken Carbonara. Tonight we are going out for seafood, but tomorrow I want to make mexican food for Cinco de Mayo since I will be in class on Monday night. I have a great book called "Mexican Light" that has good recipes. Also, this month's Cooking Light has a bunch of recipes too.
Friday, May 02, 2003
Where did we end up going for dinner? Torero's Mexican Restaurant at the Third Place Commons. That's what Pop wanted, so that's where we went. It ended up being a good choice since Leah and I could go look at books while Pop finished his dinner and beer. She and I both got Pollo Asada, which is just like Carne Asada, except with chicken instead of steak. It came with salsa, lettuce, tomato, avocado slices and tortillas. On a GIANT plate. It was really good and it's something I think we could make easily at home. Just pound the chicken really thin, marinate it in whatever you make asada with and grill it.
I found this recipe and it seems like a good marinade for the pollo asada:
3/4 cup apple juice
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 serrano or jalapeno chili, minced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
6 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
Thursday, May 01, 2003
Wednesday night I had class again, so Leah and Pop had leftover pastitsio and I made myself a roast beef, tomato and spinach sandwich for dinner. I guess Pop wanted to go out, but Leah didn't want to go sit with him while he takes an hour to eat and I don't blame her at all. So, she promised him we'd go out tonight. I wonder where? Probably somewhere that has good seafood and steaks, since Leah has said she's craving some mussells cooked in wine and Pop has been dreaming about Steak w/ Bearnaise sauce since he left Bellingham (apparently Leah's sister "used to make it for him all the time"). Friday night will probably be another make-it-yourself dinner since Leah has to go in for a second sleep test and I'm going to the monthly get-together at an ex-coworker's house.
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Well, the pasticio (or pastitsio or pasticcio...you get the idea) was not exactly a success. Well, I didn't like it, anyways. Leah and Pop said they did, but they haven't really had the real thing before so they didn't know what they were missing. First of all, the recipe was already altered so that it was lower in fat, but Leah was worried that it would still be too fatty for her gallbladder, so we substituted ground turkey breast for the beef. Mistake number one. Then, since I was trying to remember the recipe from memory while I was getting supplies at the store, I forgot that it needed white wine and regular tomato sauce and I didn't get any wine and got some pasta sauce instead. Mistake number two. Then the store didn't have the right kind of pasta (buccatini) and I made a snap-decision substitution and got penne rigate (with the ridges) instead of ziti or mostaccioli (smooth). Here's a good site that has all of the differences. That pasta soaked up too much of the sauce, I think. It also had the wrong texture. Mistake number three. To make matters worse, I didn't have nutmeg and added cinnamon instead (which wasn't so bad, since they are similar and I've seen plenty of recipes that call for cinnamon) and Leah suggested that I add the 1/4 cup of red wine we had leftover from Beef Burgandy to the meat in place of the white wine. Mistake number four. And in the bechamel, we used Eggbeaters instead of the egg whites it called for. Mistake number five.
The rest of the recipe we didn't mess with...what's left to touch, you may be asking? Well, I used the kasseri cheese it called for, which I didn't like because it has too strong of a taste (think really sharp white cheddar) and I layered the casserole the way it asked, which was a little meat mixture, then some pasta, then the rest of the meat and then the rest of the pasta on top, then pour on the white sauce and sprinkle on some cheese, which promptly sank to the bottom of the dish and left the top pasta to get crunchy and overcooked. The result was....bleh. The turkey didn't have much flavor and the white sauce was not fluffy and good, but kind of mixed in with the meat so that every once in a while I could get a taste of what it was supposed to taste like. The red wine was not a good flavor and the pasta was, like I said, kind of overcooked on the top.
I have some definite ideas for how to improve it next time without adding fat. For one thing, I'd at least get the right pasta and tomato sauce and wine. Then I'd either get ground sirloin or mix half turkey and half 4% lean ground beef, to add some flavor. I'd also use cornstarch instead of flour in the bechamel so it thickens up more. Finally, I would layer it with all the pasta on the bottom, then all the meat mixture on top of the pasta, then the white sauce. Most of the sauce would stay on top and wouldn't sink to the bottom to be soaked up by the pasta.
Better luck next time, as they say.
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Monday night I had class....midterms, no less, so I didn't get home until 8:30 pm. I found a plate of food waiting for me, which was great because I was starving! Leah made some grilled chicken, couscous and steamed broccoli . I think the chicken was just seasoned with some "chicken rub" and maybe a little chili powder, then grilled on the George Foreman, or maybe on the stove, I'm not sure. The couscous was from a box, but still good. And the broccoli was just steamed with some lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. OH, and there was even dessert, which I totally did not expect but very much appreciated. Leah heated up some frozen mixed berries on the stove (maybe with some Grand Marnier or something, otherwise I think she would have just used the microwave) and served them over pieces of angel food cake with a tiny scoop of nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt. It was delish!
I think tonight I am going to try to make a pasticio recipe I saw in Cooking Light magazine.
Monday, April 28, 2003
Sunday night's dinner was probably my favorite so far in our "new diet" phase. We had Chicken Tikka Masala, Green Beans w/ Black Mustard Seeds, and Daal (lentil soup) w/ chard. For dessert I made Sticky Sesame Bananas w/ frozen yogurt. I'll have to get the recipes for the dinner, but the dessert was super-easy to make, low fat and tasted great.
First, I cut up some bananas into two-inch pieces (3 large bananas makes about 15 pieces), poured a little lemon juice on them and then placed them on some parchment on a cookie sheet. Then I made up a little caramel sauce with 4.5 oz superfine sugar and 4 tablespoons of water. I added just a tablespoon of half & half at the end, hoping that it wouldn't get so rock hard when it cooled, but it didn't work. Oh well. Meanwhile, Leah toasted some sesame seeds. I had to drizzle the caramel onto the banana pieces before the caramel totally hardened (it happens FAST, so watch out!) and then sprinked on the sesame seeds. I served it by arranging 5 banana pieces around a scoop of non-fat vanilla frozen yogurt in each bowl, Yummy! The toasted sesame seeds were great with the caramel, which was was kind of like peanut brittle, and the frozen yogurt tasted just as good as ice-cream.
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