Chicken Almondine & Roasted Rainbow Tomato Salad

Chicken Almondine with Lemon Green Beans
& Roasted Rainbow Tomato Salad - June 16th, 2012

I was supposed to have made these two recipes on Friday, but we went to over to friends of ours instead. I made these for our supper yesterday.

Chicken Almondine with Lemon Green Beans - page 69

"Quick and simple, our Chicken Almondine is perfect to whip up on a frenzied weekenight yet elegant enough to serve your company. With savory, nutty almonds accentuating the natural sweetness of the chicken, this versatile dish could easily become a favorite in your household."

Roasted Rainbow Tomato Salad - page 41

"A simple Caprese salad is a quintessential summer dish and ours is a show-stopper addition to any table with its gorgeous rainbow of tomatoes."


I'm glad that I decided to pair up these two recipes. They went very well together. The timing on both worked well as the tomatoes had to roast for 20-25 min, so that gave me plenty of time to prepare the chicken.

I did run into another issue for not owning a food processor though. After toasting the almonds I did not have a food processor to then grind them. I had to put my knife work to use and chop/dice/mince those bad boys into submission. I managed to get them down to basically a fine bread crumb style. The kitchen took on a very almond-y scent (which isn't a bad thing).

The flavour of the tomatoes was soooo good. I WILL make this again. You could taste a backdrop of the balsamic vinegar and olive oil in the juices of the tomatoes. The fresh mozzarella melted on top with fresh basil...Mmmmmmm.

The chicken remained juicy and you still got little crunches from the toasted almonds sprinkled on top. I really enjoyed this dish. Just a simple dredging in the almond, flour and paprika mixture resulted in a really tasty meal.

The acidity on the green beans from the lemon juice & zest was a good contrast although the beans specifically needed to be blanched for longer than a minute as the recipe called for. They still had a bit too much of a "raw" crunch for my likes.


On Friday evening we did draw the next set of recipes for this week. They are as follows:

• Healthy Corn on the Cob - page 245
• Turkey Jacket Potatoes - page 102
• Roasted Salmon - page 107
• Suddenly St. Tropez Salad - page 171
  

There was a fifth recipe "Hidden Gem Cupcakes", but I'm holding it off till next week as I have another 'dessert' to make this week. We are having a Bake Sale at work on Wednesday to raise money for our "Christmas Family". I will be baking Icebox Cookies from 'Bake with Anna Olson' (My favourite baking show on the Food Network). I'll post photos of the cookies on here Tuesday night. I've never made Pate Sable dough before, but I'm going to give it a go.

With this blog, I want to also include other recipes I make and even creations of my own. Of course the main theme will continue to be my challenge of cooking through "The Best of Clean Eating", but I think it will be interesting to also keep a record of 'tales' from my kitchen. Please post your creations as well as I'd love to hear from you!!

In addition to my original challenge there is another mini one that I want to take on. I just discovered this one yesterday. Anna Olson has created a monthly baking challenge called "Anna's Bake Off". This month the recipe is Earl Grey Chiffon Cake with Maple Meringue. Not sure when, but before the end of the month I will bake this and post my results. Sure sounds yummy though!

5 DOWN, 196 TO GO

Curried Egg White Sandwich with Apricots

I don't normally do sandwiches for supper, actually I can't remember if and when I ever have.
But as we had last night's leftovers for lunch, this recipe landed on the menu tonight.

Curried Egg White Sandwich with Apricots - page 182

"Traditional egg salad recipes call for excessive amounts of mayo and egg yolks. Skipping the mayo entirely and sticking to just the whites doesn't mean less flavor: curry, apricots and lemon keep things interesting, while water chestnuts add crunch and texture."

Curried Egg White Sandwich with Apricots - June 11th, 2012

Was so looking forward to this sandwich. So was Niall (my husband) as he loves all things curry. I even bought "hot" curry powder for this.

I wish I had boiled the eggs ahead of time (perhaps last night) so there was one less thing to have on the go.

I found this recipe to be a little more complicated than a sandwich should be. Not that any one thing was difficult, but all together there were too many things on the go.

While the cauliflower was an interesting element, I don't think it was entirely necessary. And I sadly discoloured one of my produce containers that was in the sink when I poured the cauliflower into the colander. It now has a yellow-ish tint thanks to the Turmeric in the boiling water.

When I mixed the dressing together I took a little taste. Mmmmm, it was yummy. Curry, ginger, lemon, yogurt, and more. This was going to be good...

Added everything together and piled everything onto the toasted multi-grain bread to create a very nice looking sandwich.

I called Niall to the table, and we both sat down excited to bite into our sandwiches.
We each took a bite...and big let down.
While it wasn't bad, there was no 'kick in the mouth' or 'punch'.

You could barely taste the dressing at all. There were so many ingredients in the egg mixture that the flavour of the dressing was completely loss. It was hiding WAAAY in the background. No heat from the curry.

So disappointing!! :(

If I were ever to make this again, the recipe for the dressing would most definitely have to be doubled.

Niall found that he missed the egg yolks. I have to admit, I kinda missed them too. The sandwich had so much in it, and yet was missing a lot. I think it may have had too much of non-vital things, and not enough of what it needed.

So in addition to needing to double the dressing, I would use more curry powder, chop the water chestnuts more coarsely as if too small you lose the crunch effect, and cut-out the cauliflower.

I wish I could say this was a Home-run, but it's more like it was stopped at Second.
Although, I am curious to maybe try it again in the future with the above modifications.

3 DOWN, 198 TO GO...

Whole-Wheat Oricchiette with Steak & Vegetables

Now for the second recipe of the week:

Whole-Wheat Oricchiette with Steak & Vegetables - page 74

"Sometimes we crave comfort even when the temperature is high. But steer clear of comfort fare that overheats your kitchen. Our steak and pasta dish is the perfect answer: Lean steak and tasty summer squash and zucchini are accented by fresh basil and tomatoes."

"Whole-Wheat Oricchiette" with Steak & Vegetables - June 10, 2012

Two little 'hiccups' regarding the ingredients for this recipe.

We were not able to find "Whole-Wheat Oricchiette" at Sobeys or the Superstore. Infact, we could not find "Oricchiette" at all. A quick search on google said that 'small shell pasta' was a close substitute. Unfortunately, neither grocery store carries the whole-wheat variety of shells. Ergo, regular small shell pasta is what we left the store with.

The second issue, and this one is completely my fault, was the 'summer squash'. Somehow, my eyes skipped that line of the ingredients when I did my shopping list. So when I was ready to begin cooking this evening...no summer squash. I opted for yellow bell peppers instead which went perfectly well with the dish.

The steaks seared beautifully.
After letting them rest for 10 minutes, when I sliced them they were at the perfect done-ness.

The flavours of this meal worked really well together. The fresh basil (Thanks Craig!!) really came through, and a light sprinkle of fresh Parmesan added that little extra.

I would definitely make this dish again...and again.
Next time, I would definitely like to try it with the Summer Squash too.

Also, talk about left-overs!! It says it makes 6 servings, but I think we may have more than that. There will certainly be enough for our lunches over the next two days. Fantastic!

Fish & Chips

Fish & Chips - June 9th, 2012

For supper last name I made the first recipe of this challenge:

Yes, I know. This post should have taken place last night as well, but as I still hadn't written the introduction I postponed the process. So I will have three posts in total today. The Intro, this one, and what I made for supper tonight.

Back to the recap...

Now, as this is the first recipe re-creation post, I'm winging it.
Still trying to decide on the style I would like these posts to take on.

I think I would like to include the little write-ups from the book that accompany each recipe.

Fish & Chips - page 69

"Our healthy, whole-grain breaded fish and baked chips are so crunchy and delicious that you won't want to return to your previous greasy fish-frying ways. Plus, at under $2 and just 300 calories per serving, these fish and chips beat out any famous fast-food variety."

First off, I love Sweet Potato Fries! Love them! Actually, there is very little you can do with a sweet potato that  I don't find delicious. But despite all my previous efforts of making S.P. Fries at home, I have yet for them to turn out 'crunchy'. Aside from deep frying (which I absolutely avoid in homemade cuisine) I've tried several different methods each claiming 'the secret' to creating crunch. Not successful.

Now I thought it might work with this recipe as it was for 'chips' and not 'fries'. They recommend  using a mandolin to slice the sweet potatoes into paper-thin slices. I unfortunately do not have one, so my attempt was using a sharp knife. I got them as thin as I could, but apparently not thin enough. While yummy, and a few did have a little crunch around the edges, but the majority were little tender sweet potato discs (They still dunked nicely into ketchup).

I have since suggested to my husband that a proper slicing mandolin would make an excellent gift in the future...

This recipe also calls for homemade breadcrumbs.
I may not have been completely prepared for this recipe.
My kitchen is tiny. Due to a lack of space, I do not own a food processor either. I used to use a blender for this type of thing...but as I had been using my sister's blender for the past 3 years and finally returned it to her a couple weeks ago...that was a no-go as well.

Fail.

So, of course, I had to make it as difficult of a process as possible for myself.
I toasted those multi-grain bread cubes in the oven and let them cool. Then using some ingenuity I put the now toasted cubes in a large freezer bag, covered with a tea towel, and crushed those babies by rolling over them with a marble rolling pin (which is graciously on loan from my friend Tracy). This caused one problem that I did not foresee: Apparently, so of the cubes had not completely toasted all the way through, so their insides simply were flattened and not 'crumbed'. What I was left with was a bag of crumbs that were mixed with little flattened pieces of dry bread. Perfect...

Let's see how many more steps I can make for myself here.

I got my colander out of the cupboard and emptied the contents of the freezer bag and began sifting. As this was once multi-grain bread there were many little seeds and grains that needed to be pushed through with the crumbs. Eventually I got everything through that was going to go. Voila! Breadcrumbs...the hard way.

Everything else in the recipe went easily. Coating the fish (I used haddock that I just got from the grocery store that day) was the easiest bit.

I will forever thank Chef Michael Smith for his clever tip on coating food: Assign a 'wet' hand and a 'dry' hand. With your 'wet' hand pick up a piece of fish and dip it in the egg whites, using the same hand place the fish in your crumbs. Use your 'dry' hand the move the crumbs over the fish to coat. Use that same hand to transfer the now coated fish to the baking sheet. That way your hands don't get all gunky. Simple, yet clever.

The fish baked beautifully. A bit of crisp from the crumbs, and all flaky goodness inside. A squeeze of lemon juice, some homemade tartar sauce...and delicious!! I also prepared green beans to accompany the fish & chips. My only complaint was that I could not get the chips to truly crisp, but they most likely would have if a mandolin had been used.

Overall, a great first recipe.
Familiar flavours, tested and true.
Next time, I'll try for better equipment though.

Welcome and here's the goal...

Welcome to my Dill Pickle Kitchen!

I admit it.
I am guilty of having a Cookbook Addiction.
Now, it's not at a 'Hoarders' level or anything, there aren't STACKS of book all over the place...
But you could say I have definitely have enough for the amount of space I live in.

There are Great Intentions that accompany each purchase.
The plan is to create many meals & dishes from the new Cookbook that caught my eye.
But as it goes, some get used more than others; while many get forgotten with each new addition.

This has led me to a personal challenge:

A few months ago I found this book. "The Best of Clean Eating" from the Editors of 'Clean Eating' Magazine.

As I do with every new Cookbook, I flipped through reading over the culinary delights on each page. This one is FILLED with amazing recipes. 

You know how sometimes you have a cookbook that definitely has some crazy good recipes, but also has many that couldn't interest you in the least?

Not this one!!

I can honestly say that I am intrigued by all 201 recipes between its covers. There is a little bit of everything. All of it promoting healthy, easy, and delicious meals. The tag line is: "Improving your life one meal at a time."

'Intrigued' was the only word I could use as until yesterday, I had not actually made any of the recipes. 

Sad, I know.

So the other day I was compelled to take another look through this beautiful cookbook.
Which led to this decision:

I would like to make EVERYTHING is here!

I have divided the 201 recipes into a weekly cooking goal. I will make 5 recipes from the book every week for 40 weeks. I've allowed some extra time for vacations and such that I will be away.

I've printed out the name of each recipe with page number onto
colour coded card (ie: orange=lunches; green=fish, etc). They
are divided into 5 card bundles. Every week I'll randomly pick
a bundle and those will be the recipes I have to make that week.

After I've selected the recipes for the week,
 I'll put them on the fridge like this.
Depending on what our (my husband and I),
will determine what day I can make what.

The recipes for this week  (June 9 - June 15) are:

• Fish & Chips
• Curried Egg White Sandwich with Apricots
• Whole-Wheat Oricchiette with Steak & Vegetables
• Chicken Almondine with Lemon Green Beans
• Roasted Rainbow Tomato Salad

While I will not be listing the recipes individually in this blog, I will be giving my review of them and any hurdles along the way.

I would love to hear what you think as well.

If you enjoy what you see during this challenge, I encourage you to check this book out and try some of these recipes too. And if you really are intrigued, get the book too and cook along with me with the weekly recipe list. I'll post the new selections every Friday/Saturday.

Here we go....