April 04-10

1. Spicy Roasted Chickpeas. An excellent addition to a green salad, meatless or otherwise. A great snack too.
2. Shepherd's Pie with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potatoes. I used green onions instead of chives this time, but it doesn't make much of a difference. The only real change I've made to the recipe is that I used kefir (homemade) instead of buttermilk. This time kefir was old and very tangy, I absolutely loved how potatoes turned out, they reminded me of sour cream & onion potato chips flavour. Funny how it's all mixed up in my head. I'm pretty sure that artificial flavours are supposed to remind us of real foods, not the other way around, LOL.

3. Salmon, Romaine lettuce salad with chickpeas and Orange Herb Dressing. Love this unusual dressing! It's a bit bitter because of the orange peel, but not unpleasantly so.

4. Lemon-Marinated Chicken breasts with Eggplant Ratatouille. Mmmm. Yum! It turned out soooo goood! I'm making this marinade for chicken breasts my new favorite. The Ratatouille is a great summer side dish, I know I'll be making it over and over again. The original recipe called for white wine and white wine vinegar, but I had no wine and didn't feel like buying a bottle for mere 1/4 cup of it. So I used chicken broth and apple cider vinegar instead.

5. Salmon Patties with Eggplant Ratatouille. I had half the eggplant left over and decided to make Ratatouille again. Salmon Patties didn't want to stick together very well, so turning them over halfway through was a bit of a challenge. They didn't completely fall apart, but still...

6. Portobello Mushroom Stroganoff. Never thought of using silken tofu to replace a creamy sauce. The result was surprisingly good. There was a bit too much sauce and too little mushrooms though. If I make it again, I'll use 1.5-2 times more mushrooms.

7. Lemon-Marinated Chicken breasts, Romaine lettuce salad with chickpeas and Orange Herb Dressing.

8. Lemon-Marinated Chicken breast with Romaine lettuce salad and Tarragon Mustard Dressing. This dressing has tofu as a base, and I wasn't too excited about the result. It wasn't bad per se, but I prefer the other 2 dressing recipes I've tried so far.

Cooking for One (Mar 21 - Apr 03)

I was lazy last weekend, so this report is going to cover 2 weeks. I repeated a few recipes from the last couple of reports (like Beef & Broccoli Orange Stir Fry or Quinoa with pecans and cranberries), so I'm not including them here.

1. Apple Candy Pork with Chickpea Puree.I LOVE this recipe, it's definitely one of my favorites. Actually, this one and Marinated Pork Chops & Grilled Peaches are my favorite ways of cooking/eating pork. It's just doesn't get any better than this. :)

2. Basil Pecan Vinaigrette. The original recipe calls for walnuts, but I didn't have any. It's pretty good! Yeah, dressings don't look very appetizing by themselves :)

That's how I used it. With pork tenderloin:

With soy-maple Salmon

3. Chicken BBQ Pizza. The picture is terrible, I know. But the pizza itself was very good, trust me :) It's on a whole wheat tortilla, and the sauce is obviously homemade (sweet and tangy).

4. Hot & Sour Swiss Chard with pork tenderloin. I've never cooked swiss chard before so I had no idea what to expect. I was ready for a disappointment, but it turned out quite good actually.

5. Skillet Chicken Cutlets with Mushrooms with ... surprise-surprise!... chickpeas puree. I've made this before, and will make again. Quick, simple, tasty.

6. Vegetarian Hash. I've made it half a dozen times before. This dish introduced me to acorn squash. Believe it or not, I've never had it prior to trying this recipe, and I absolutely love this vegetable now. I usually serve it with an egg or an omelet for some protein.