Pesto Chicken and Veggies

I always struggle to prepare vegetables. I don’t know what to do with them besides put them on a tray with dip. During my daily stroll through the popular recipes on Tasty, I stumbled on a video about prepping meals ahead that yielded a dish I could easily make for dinner.

The recipe
Weekday Meal-prep Pesto Chicken and Veggies from tasty.co.

Ingredient changes
Other than making half the recipe, the only change I made was swapping out the poisonous, awful tomato for delightful, yummy red and yellow bell peppers.

Ease (or not) of prep
The worst part of prepping this dish was chopping everything. Chopping chicken, chopping ends off beans, chopping peppers. I think I just hate cutting boards.

I also added a step to my prep. Someone in the comments of the recipe mentioned that you should blanch your beans before throwing them in the pan so I looked up a video for instructions and did that.

From chopping ingredients to sitting down to eat, it probably took about 45 minutes. It’s no chicken-dumped-in-the-slow-cooker but it’s no 3-hour-lasagne-rolls either.

The Boyfriend Test: Pass
Jeff really liked it (who’s surprised?). He loves beans so there was no way he wouldn’t devour this. As is occasionally the case, he got my last few bites as well.

Picky Eater Test: Soft pass
Generally speaking, I liked this dish. Chicken good, peppers good, beans good, however; I find pesto sauce can be hit and miss for me and I didn’t like it here. I don’t have a specific criticism of it, i just found it kinda meh. The next time I make this dish (which I imagine I’ll do more often when beans are in season and I can get fresh local ones), I’ll try a different sauce. Maybe a teriyaki or marinara. This is the sort of dish I’ve been wanting to make so I’m going to work on perfecting it.

Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower

I have wanted to try roasted cauliflower for a long time. I like raw cauliflower (with dip, obviously) so it seems like a natural step to add cheese.

The recipe
Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower from tasty.co.

I made it as a side for chicken, which I fried with salt and pepper. I have no recipe for that, I just made it the way we like it.

Ingredient changes
The only thing I did differently was half the recipe. I’m always suspicious of huge quantities of a thing I might not like (if I do like it though, watch out, because I’m about to fill the freezer with it).

Ease (or not) of prep
Dump ingredients in a bag, shake ’em up, bake it. Probably took about 20 minutes to chop cauliflower, mix everything, and get it in the oven so thumbs up from me.

The Boyfriend Test: PASS
Jeff freaking loved this. He ate so fast I had to ask if he actually chewed it.

Picky Eater Test: Fail
I, on the other hand, did not enjoy it. I didn’t like the breading and I found each bite mushy. I thought the breading would crisp up more but it was just soggy vegetable with Italian seasoning. Jeff was more than happy to finish mine.

Jeff’s mom suggested I try again with a new recipe so I’m going to try something a friend of mine suggested. I’m going to put a bit of distance between attempts though; if my second try comes out mushy as well, I might be done with cauliflower forever.

Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges and Spicy Garlic Sriracha Dip

It seems to be my new habit that when I’m not sure what to make for dinner, I curl up in the recliner with my iPad and scroll through the Tasty app, waiting for something to catch my attention. Thus it was that I found this potato wedges recipe. The dip recipe I found via Google search. I don’t really like dipping sauce with potato wedges so I found something I knew Jeff would like.

The recipe
Wedges: Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges from tasty.co.

Sauce: Spicy Garlic Sriracha Dip from mostlyhomemademom.com. She really buries the lead and puts the recipe way down the page so, for expediency, I will just include it here:

2 cups mayonnaise
2 tbsp sriracha
2 tbsp dried, minced garlic
3/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp curry powder

In a medium bowl combine ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.

Ingredient changes
The recipe didn’t specify what kind of potatoes to use so I got baking potatoes, expecting to get nice big wedges. This was one of those eyes-are-bigger-than-any-bowl-you-have scenarios. Next time I try wedges, I’ll get regular white potatoes so that the wedge slices are more reasonably sized.

As for the sauce, I couldn’t find dried, minced garlic so I just used garlic powder… I just watched the video again to see what they actually use and it’s garlic powder. I can’t decide if I want to face-palm or eye-roll.

Quick aside, I’m going to have to buy a spice rack for no other reason than all the new spices I had to buy for these recipes.

Ease (or not) of prep
Both recipes fall into the dump-stuff-in-a-bowl-and-stir category so they were pretty easy to put together. Egg wash is always messy but I’m pretty sure I would gladly trade a little mess for a faster meal.

I have a few glass jars kicking around so I used one of those to store the dip. Easy peasy.

The Boyfriend Test: Pass and pass
Jeff said the wedge breading was really flavourful and the dip wasn’t too spicy but still pretty good. Well, he didn’t actually say that in particular. It went more like this:

Me: How is it?
Jeff: Good.
Me: How’s the wedges?
Jeff: Really good.
Me: You like the breading?
Jeff: Yeah, it’s good.
Me: How’s the dip?
Jeff: Good.
Me: Spicy?
Jeff: Not really. Good though.

He’s a man of few words but they’re usually the right ones.

Picky Eater Test: Fail and not applicable
I, on the other hand, wasn’t a big fan of the wedges. I think I’m not a fan of chili flakes so they overwhelmed my palette. I’m a big fan of potato wedges though, and I like the idea of Parmesan cheese in the breading, so I’ll likely look for another recipe to try.

As for the dip, I think pepper is spicy so I didn’t even try it.

This dip has inspired me to try making my own dressings and sauces. My aunt makes an excellent homemade Caesar dressing and Jeff’s brother made a delicious Alfredo last weekend. Jeff enjoys a hearty garden salad so perhaps the first one I’ll try is a balsamic vinaigrette. Now to find a recipe… to the internet!

The Curmudgeonly Cook: Mexican Vacation Edition!

I certainly didn’t intend to take a month-long hiatus from writing but apparently that’s what happens when I go on vacation! My sister got married in Mexico so, you know, twist my rubber arm to go hang out on a beach for a week!

Jeff and I were both so excited as we prepared to depart. He was excited to get away from work, eat new foods, and spend time at the open bar. I was excited to laze about in the sun wearin my cute new bathing suits, go snorkeling, and, most importantly, not have to cook for a seven whole days!

I am not an adventurous eater, like Jeff, but I tried a few new things. The food on our resort was excellent, especially at the a la cartes (keeping true to my stubborn palette, my favourite my the Italian restaurant. As always, you can’t hurt my feelings with bread, cheese, and pasta). Jeff and my stepdad enjoyed the Steakhouse best. My mom couldn’t contain herself for this little cream puff thing they had at the buffet. We literally went to the buffet after having dinner at an a la carte, just to get a cream puff.

The only foods of which I remembered to take pictures were desserts. Did I ever tell you about the time Jeff’s mom delivered me an entire cheesecake? I’m just saying, If there’s cheese in cake form, I’m there.

The cheesecake in Mexico was delicious (though, I must say right now, not as good as Ruth’s. And I’m not just saying that because she reads the blog. Ruth makes the best damned cheesecake I’ve ever had, no joke!). I had cheesecake at the Steakhouse and it was the perfect dessert to my meal. I prefer a graham cracker crust but the softer shell was also good.

My favourite dessert of the trip was the cannolis at the Italian restaurant. The shell was crunchy but not overly messy and the filling was so creamy and not overpoweringly sweet. It was such a perfect, light dessert after a heavy meal of pasta and bread.

For the life of me, I can’t remember what I had for dessert at the Mexican restaurant but I know Jeff had ice cream. He said it was good. I had ice cream at the buffet a couple times; it has a different texture than what we’re used to but that’s probably because it’s actual iced cream and not some weird edible oil product that comes out of a machine at Dairy Queen.

The meal served at my sister’s wedding was probably the best thing we ate the whole vacation. The appetizer was goat cheese and tomato slices, of which Jeff didn’t eat much (he likes cheese as an ingredient but not as a slice to bite into, and we both hate tomatoes). I smeared the cheese on a dinner roll (this same thing was served to us at the Mexican restaurant) and it was soOOooOo good. It was so delicious that I pillaged extra dinner rolls from my neighbour’s plates (with their permission, of course).

The main course was steak with vegetables. I know steak-eaters will hate this but I’m a well-done sort of girl so I traded the middle of my steak to Jeff for the more cooked edges of his.

Again, for some reason, I can’t remember what we had for dessert. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was yummy.

We weren’t there for a day before Jeff said to me, “From now on, we are doing this every year.” To which I responded, “Uh… yeah-huh!!” We had a lot of fun. The resort was lovely, the staff were so helpful and friendly, the food was delicious, and the beach was gorgeous! The sun was a bit of a jerk but I’ll trade an aggressive sunburn to be free of the burden of the kitchen any day.

Calzones

I made two-ingredient pizza dough about a month ago and, while it was good, I’ve been looking for another way to make pizza. As is my new usual these days, I found a good-looking calzones recipe while stumbling around on the Tasty app.

The recipe
Classic Meal Lover’s Calzones from tasty.co.

Ingredient changes
I really only used the dough recipe from this link and opted to fill the calzones with our own ingredients. I’m sure Jeff would have loved the cooked sausage but I wanted to make this meal a bit easier. I sliced spicy salami, spicy salami, and green peppers for Jeff and I used pre-cut pepperoni for me. I usually add more exciting toppings to my pizza but I need to get better at making dough so I have more room for stuff like pineapple (that’s right. Pineapple on pizza. Come at me, bro).

Ease (or not) of prep
The first time I made these, I handled the dough too much and it came out tough. I’ve made them since and every time the dough gets lighter and easier to handle. This is one of those doughs that only has to rise for an hour so I’m into it. After that, it’s just rolling out the dough and adding ingredients. I had to use my fingers for the egg wash at first but I’ve since bought a silicone brush to do the job. I’m not very good at rolling in the corners but I imagine, like the dough, that takes a bit of practice. Overall, I’d say, besides the hour to let the dough rise, this takes about 45 minutes to get into the oven. Normally I would complain that that’s a little too long but…

The Boyfriend Test: PASS PASS PASS
Jeff LOVED these. He was pretty excited to see them come out of the oven and, after he had a couple bites, said that the things I make keep getting better and better. He also said calzones are in the top three of his favourite things I’ve made so far, so these, like the chicken primavera pasta, are now a permanent addition to our menu.

Picky Eater Test: Pass!
I really enjoyed these as well. Even when I screwed up the dough, it came out nice and chewy, rather than dense. I used an extra old cheddar and mozzarella mix and that was really good. Also, don’t be shy with the cheese. The first time I made them, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to fold them so I didn’t use too much cheese. Adding more cheese means you get those commercial shots with the big long stringy pieces which, though not necessary, is about the closest adults can get to playing with their food.