Sunday, May 20, 2012

Impressive, no. Delicious, yes!

So, this week included just a couple old-favorites and two new recipes to try.  On Sunday, I started the week off with my no-fail, easy-peasy slow cooker chili -- 2 cans chili beans, 1 can black beans, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can mild diced green chiles, 1 diced red bell pepper, 1 diced yellow onion, 1/2 cup broth or water, and a bag of meatless crumbles or some cooked, ground turkey or lean beef.  Throw in a crockpot with some of your favorite spices, I do some cumin, cayenne pepper, dash of cinnamon and some salt to taste; heat on low for 4-5 hours.  It's simple and we had this for leftovers twice this week.  Another night, I came home from work late to a lovely, spaghetti and meat sauce dinner prepared by my wonderful husband!

As for the new recipes we tried this week; I made a "Chicken Spring Rolls" recipe from Clean Eating and discovered that making spring rolls is not so easy!  The rolls were delicious, but my rolling skills with the rice paper left a lot to be desired and left us with a pretty messy dinner.  Of course the recipe makes it look so easy, but I just couldn't get my rolls to be as tightly wrapped as they always are at Asian restaurants when we have them.  I have to also preface that the rice wrappers I bought are the kind that are hard and brittle and then you soak them to soften.  So trying to wrap the rolls as the paper was still softening might have been the problem.  I might try buying egg-roll wrappers next time and baking these.  All-in-all, they were really good and filling.  We had this recipe with peanut dipping sauce and cucumber salad.  The other recipe I tried my hand at was from one of my favorite cookbooks, Rebar, Modern Food Cookbook; and I made the "Tempeh Tacos".  Tempeh is becoming more and more one of my weekly standards now as I'm loving all the recipes I've made with it.  It marinades and cooks great, and really adds a nice crispy, dense texture to your dish.  I'm sure this recipe would also be great with tofu, meatless crumbles, or any type of meat.  After you make the accompanying salsas, this recipe comes together super quick and we had plenty of salsa left to enjoy with some sweet potato chips!









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