January 12th: Garlicky Pan-Fried Steaks, Roasted Cauliflower Salad, Cherry Tomato Salad

This is our third time eating this meal, and it is a fan favourite in our household. These days, finding a meal that all four of us will enjoy is particularly challenging, but this one succeeds and so it has become a keeper. From November 2013's Chatelaine: Garlicky Pan-Fried Steaks, Roasted Cauliflower Salad, and Cherry Tomato Salad. For tonight's meal, I added sautéed baby spinach, since we had some wilting in the fridge. The head of cauliflower I had picked up was on the small side, and we all wished I had bought two. Seriously, all four of us mourned the end of the cauliflower. How amazing is that? Roasted cauliflower is awesome all the time, and this mayonnaise-based dressing takes it to the next level. So good. The Cherry Tomato Salad says it serves 4, but I double it to feed my 4, so I've doubled it below. To the recipes! I've listed them in the order you'll want to attack them, from longest to shortest prep and cooking times.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss a medium cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces, with 3 tbsp olive oil and 1/8 tsp salt on a large baking sheet. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Spread cauliflower in a single layer (it's okay if the pieces touch).

Bake in centre of oven until edges are golden, flipping halfway through, about 30 minutes.

Stir 2 tbsp mayonnaise with 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp grainy mustard and 1/2 tsp honey in a small bowl. Drizzle over roasted cauliflower, then sprinkle with 2 tbsp chopped parsley.

Serves 5. (NOT TRUE! Double the recipe to please 5 people.)

Garlicky Pan-Fried Steaks

Stir 6 minced garlic cloves with 3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar, 1/2 tsp cayenne and 1/2 tsp salt. Rub on both sides of 3 strip loin steaks, about 1/2 inch thick.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high. Add 2 tsp canola oil, then steaks. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer steaks to plates and let rest, covered, 5 minutes. Cut into 1/2-inch slices. Drizzle any pan juices over steaks.

Serves 5.

(For us, I use half the rub on 1 strip loin, which we split 4ish ways. I recommend getting the pan juices out of the pan ASAP or else they stick and you can't do the drizzling.)

Cherry Tomato Salad

Whisk 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil with 4 tsp white wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp red hot chili flakes in a medium bowl. Toss with 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes.

Serves 4.

(I gave my girls plain halved tomatoes, in case they found the salad spicy. Sadie kicked up a massive fuss over the tomatoes, didn't want to go near them, eventually had one forced in her mouth, came around to the flavour and ate them all, then demanded more. We gave her some from the salad and she didn't complain about the heat, so.)

A month of skinnytaste

If I remember correctly, I first heard about the blog skinnytaste from my former coworker Brittany, a couple of years ago, although I didn't try any recipes from the the website at that time. I recently came across it again, and in need of kitchen inspiration - and with my trusty new/old iPhone in hand - I spent some time trolling the website and came up with a list of recipes to try out. We've been eating skinnytaste almost exclusively in the month of May; happily, we have had a number of hits and only a few near misses. Super excited to have a new bank of inspiration upon which to draw.

I'm only going to talk about the hits...


May 5th: Cheesy Jalapeño Popper Baked Stuffed Chicken and Fiesta Lime Rice

The title pretty much says it all. Create a stuffing of bacon, cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, jalapeño, and green onion, and roll it into flattened chicken breasts. Bread and bake. Cheesy, spicy, gooey goodness.

We ate this accompanied by Fiesta Lime Rice, a delicious and super healthy side dish of rice, beans, corn, tomatoes and green onions. Greg found it bland, but of course, I made his without cilantro, which added tonnes of flavour. His loss. I loved it. I doubled the corn in my version.

Mmm. I want to go make, and eat, this again right now.

On the left side of the plate are the cheesy bits that melted out of the chicken onto the pan. Mmm.
To the right of the plate is my current reading material.

May 7th: Spicy Black Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayonnaise

Again, with the apt title. Need I say more? Yes. These are probably the best homemade bean burgers I have made to date. The recipe says it makes 4, but I was working with small buns, so I made 6 out of the mixture. I cooked 3: one each for me and Greg, one to split between O and S. I then froze the other 3, and happily ate them in later days as a quick, cook-from-frozen lunch (I found I had to cook them a little longer than suggested). Delicious every time. The burgers are a little spicy, and the mayo is spicier. I left the mayo off O's and S's, and although O said she didn't like the burger, she ate it, which makes me doubt her word. S ate hers; she loves beans.

The recipe calls for 1 jumbo egg; I used 2 large. If you decide to make these, read through all the instructions; there are some good tips there.

May 10th: Broccoli and Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes

Maybe not quite as good as bacon- and cheese-laden baked potatoes, but still good tasting and infinitely better for you. All your veggies in one spot.

May 12th: Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

I left off the part of the title describing these as "insanely good." They were good, but I don't know if they were that good. We did, however, make short order of them in our house; they were gone in 2 days.

Olivia and I spent Mother's Day morning making these. We haven't done much baking together recently; it was good to do so again.

My girlies and my Mother's Day flowers:

Must Stop Using IPhone To Take Pictures

May 13th: Chicken and Orecchiette Soup

Delicious warm chicken soup after a couple of cold days. I found these fun-coloured carrots at the grocery store:

...but didn't realize the purple carrot would colour the soup an unappealing grey colour:

Luckily, the taste was good. I couldn't find the cavatelli pasta called for in the recipe, so instead bought orecchiette, which Olivia was excited about, because they stick to the tongue. She and Sadie both ate the soup right up.


Looking for cooking inspiration? Check out skinnytaste. More to come...

February 10th: whole roasted cauliflower

Came across this one on Chatelaine's website and had to give it a go. I love cauliflower, but G&O, not so much. This one, though, they all dug, S too! How to roast a whole cauliflower with 4 ingredients.

January 12th: Roasted Marinated Cauliflower

I was cooking up a vegetarian feast tonight: quinoa & spinach, roasted chickpeas, roasted baby tomatoes, and the only recipe I'm going to talk about: marinated roasted cauliflower. I came across this one on Instructables. You marinate cauliflower overnight in a vinaigrette, then roast and eat. The recipe says the cauliflower can also be eaten raw after marinating, and I think I might try this again in future; the few pieces I munched on before putting the pan in the oven were tasty. As evidenced by the picture, the garlic in my marinade (I used more than called for) burnt in the oven. The roasted cauliflower was good, but I think I preferred it raw.

Also, check out my new pan; I received two for Christmas: Paderno Eco-Green bakeware pans. They clean up like a charm!

January 31st: roasted cauliflower soup, parchment-baked gremolata fish

Two recipes tried out tonight, one winner, one loser. The winner: from Cooking With My Kid: Roasted Cauliflower Soup. This was surprisingly creamy and delicious, considering there are only a couple of ingredients. Roast some cauliflower and garlic, fry some onions, mix them all together and boil them in some broth (I used chicken), purée and voilà: delicious filling soup. I rarely like a soup recipe, so this was a pleasant surprise. I had to add more liquid than the recipe called for to get the right consistency; this may be because I boiled the veggies down in an opened pot rather than covered. Next time I'll try covering. Of course, my cauliflower might just have been too big, who knows.

The loser: From February (I jumped the gun!) 2011's Chatelaine: Parchment-Baked Gremolata Fish (I made cod). I left out the capers, but found it a little dull, even with the lemon, dill and shallots. It's sad, but we really like our fish breaded and served with tartar sauce. I hang my head.

Served with quinoa

November 11th: Risotto cakes, roasted cauliflower + tahini, apricot chicken

Verdict:
Try Again: risotto cakes, roasted cauliflower
Toss: tahini sauce, apricot chicken

Yay! With impeccable timing, I came across a recipe that calls for leftover risotto. Simply take your risotto, mix in some egg, scoop it into a patty, dip in flour and pan-fry. Lovely. This is what Olivia and I had for lunch today, a hearty lunch that was well-appreciated after standing in the cold and crowds that is Remembrance Day in Ottawa. Not complaining, mind you; standing in cold and crowds is much preferable to fighting in a war. Olivia was so great during the ceremony; she was quiet as can be during the moment of silence.

I don't have a pic of the Pan-fried Risotto Cakes, which I found via another blog I am following: in erika's kitchen. I didn't use the suggested bacon; cooking that would have added a step and I wasn't interested in the extra time required. I still have more risotto leftover, so I may make these again over the weekend.

I made a white supper tonight. This happens every once and awhile when I don't think things through and end up cooking all pale foods. In tonight's case, it was potatoes, chicken and cauliflower. White, white and white. The chicken was a re-try from last year: from November 2009's Today's Parent: Apricot Almond Chicken. I completely messed up this recipe, which calls for dredging the chicken in egg and breadcrumbs/almonds prior to frying. I had the chicken in the frying pan for several minutes before I realized I had completely skipped the dredging step. No biggie, thought I, and I poured the egg over top, then sprinkled on the breadcrumbs and almonds, and popped the whole deal into the oven, as per the recipe. Turned out okay, a little eggy around the edges, but whatevs. I'm tossing the recipe, however, because it was a little on the sweet side.

To accompany, I roasted some cauliflower and potatoes and made a tahini sauce to top the cauliflower. The tahini sauce wasn't as good as a cheese sauce, my favourite cauliflower topping, but the roasting was a great way to go. I have a tendency to overcook cauliflower, and roasting solved that problem. I will do that cooking method again, which came from November 2010's Chatelaine: Roasted Cauliflower and Tahini.

Teaching my last BodyFlow class for probably (hopefully only!) 8 weeks or so tomorrow, must go get some rest so I can make it a good one...