Tag Archives: Cooking Light

Bacon is always awesome, Cheesy Cheese, Chicken, Everything is better fried, Pasta, Southern

Kids Night!

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Looking over my blog I realized, gosh darnit, we eat pretty well around these parts. Lamb the other night, Moroccan dates another. I was feeling a little too fancy for my own pants and decided to take it back a notch. Nothing can make me feel like a kid again than crunchy chicken fingers with a dipping sauce and creamy mac and cheese. I grew up in a house with a home cooked meal every night (thanks Mom!) with fun food items like these to look forward to when I came home from school. Something about this simple combo just made me giggle like a little Emily again.

I chose these Pan-Fried Chicken Fingers with Spicy Dipping Sauce and the Chicken, Bacon and Ranch Mac and Cheese both from Cooking Light plus some adult grape juice aka a nice bottle of a 2008 Cols Du Vents Corbieres to go along with. Trust me it just sounds fancy, it was on sale for $9.00 at Whole Foods Market! 

I also like Cooking Light’s comparison of regular chicken fingers versus their creation:

OLD WAY
703 calories per serving
1,000 milligrams sodium
10.7 grams saturated fat
Deep-fried in lard
Drowning in sauce
Greasy, heavy coating

OUR WAY
414 calories per serving
495 milligrams sodium
1.5 grams saturated fat
Pan-seared in canola oil
Just enough spicy mayo sauce
Light, crispy, crunchy

Pan-Fried Chicken Finger with Spicy Dipping Sauce (Photo by John Autry)

Dude, the sodium and saturated fat difference alone should be enough to convince you to give these a try. I couldn’t find the recommended Kashi brand cereal at our HEB so I winged it and grabbed Grape-Nuts Flakes cereal. YUM! This cereal made a delicious sweet crust for the chicken. I pan-fried two minutes per side as instructed but had to chunk the whole batch into the oven for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees to finish them off as they were still pink inside. After that though? Awesome chicken fingers with a crispy, crunchy crust and not greasy just like they say plus the chicken was still juicy. I heart this sauce. It was so simple but y’all it is a spicy little fireball so watch out and lower the amount of Sriracha if you are not a heat seeker. Of course I loved it’s spicy kick.

The mac and cheese. Nom, nom, nom. I omitted the chicken from the recipe because well that’s too much poultry for one night. Also, I decided to use turkey bacon and used three slices instead of regular bacon and only using one slice. I can’t help it, I love bacon or bacon flavor in anything! Otherwise I followed this to the letter and it turned out perfectly. I especially loved the ranch flavor of this dish. With the onion and garlic powder and fresh dill, it just zinged and zanged but without all of the calories of a true ranch dressing.

After dinner, bellies full but not too much, we sat down and watched Zombieland. This was David’s first time seeing the film and my second. My goodness I love this movie. I think every single line of Woody Harrelson’s is an excellent one-liner. My favorite…? Here you go. We have leftovers for lunch today and I’m thinking about making a chicken tender salad with the Pioneer Woman’s – don’t you just heart her?! – homemade ranch dressing with the remaining mac and cheese on the side.

Update! Leftover chicken fingers on top of mixed greens with above mentioned ranch dressing and mac and cheese – SUPER LUNCH!

Lamb Lambs!, Quick and Delicious, Salad

A Perfect Dinner

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There are times after a meal, when you sit back and have loved the whole experience from start to finish. I chose this Roasted Lamb with Pomegranate Sauce from Cooking Light and Mixed Greens with Pears, Walnuts, Gorgonzola and Green-Tea Vinaigrette from Bon Appetit and we loved it.

The lamb was a simple sear and roast and then you let it stand for ten minutes to help all of the delicious juices redistribute. This is going to sound strange, but I liked that when measuring each liquid for the sauce the recipe used up my 1, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 cups all at once so I could easily mise en place them all and pour as I go. Anal retentive much? Me thinks so. After resting, the lamb came out perfectly medium rare and juicy to boot plus pomegranate sauce rocked. The only thing I would change is using one teaspoon of flour instead of two, as it was slightly thicker than desired and I think reducing the amount would do the trick if you are into a thinner sauce.

Onto the salad…shockingly easy and the vinaigrette is AMAZING. I was so happy to see a second use of the green tea (matcha) powder I purchased for this dish last week. I feel like matcha is quickly becoming the flavor enhancer of the day. The vinaigrette mixed with the toasted walnuts, cheese and pears was so light and delicious and worked perfectly as an accompaniment to our lamb dish.

I highly suggest giving these two a try lambs! The salad recipe originates from SENCHA in Colorado Springs and I couldn’t find it online so here you go. Heart you!

Mixed Greens with Pears, Walnuts, Gorgonzola and Green-Tea Vinaigrette
Prep 25 minutes
Total 25 minutes

2 tablespoons of Champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon match green-tea powder
3 tablespoons corn oil
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (thanks for the excellent olive oil Kari H.!)
6 cups (loosely packed) mixed greens
2 pears, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

Puree vinegar, shallot, chives, mustard, basil, and matcha in processor. With machine running, gradually add corn oil and olive oil. Season vinaigrette to taste with salt and pepper. Place mixed greens, pear wedges, toasted walnuts, and Gorgonzola cheese in large bowl. Add 1/3 cup of vinaigrette to salad mixture and toss to coat evenly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide salad among plates and serve, passing remaining vinaigrette alongside.

– Compiled by Zinzi Edmundson and Janet Taylor McCracken

And now, I leave this for David…the Brie/Gorgonzola line is just too appropriate…There’s Something About Mary

Menu Plan

I Love It When A Kitchen Comes Together

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As I’ve mentioned before, we are renovating our kitchen and after countless hours installing new cabinets, sawing, hammering, sweating (but no tears!) and praying to the home gods, we finally get our new countertops in! Needless to say, my cooking will be a little quiet the next few days while we finalize but I did manage to create a menu plan for this week. I hope I get around to making them all but, hey, who cares, we are almost there lambs! Pictures to come, possibly one of me attempting to give the countertops a hug. :)

Monday: Roast Lamb with Pomegranate Sauce and a Mixed Greens with Pears, Walnuts, Gorgonzola and Green-Tea Vinaigrette (Bon Appetit, not on the website yet)

Tuesday: Fish with Orange and Saffron Broth (Bon Appetit, not on the website yet)

Wednesday: Pan-Fried Chicken Fingers with Spicy Dipping Sauce and Bacon and Ranch Mac and Cheese

Thursday: Halibut Provencal with Mixed Greens

Global Flavor, Quick and Delicious, Seafood

Scallops with Green Tea Cream

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I’ve had this recipe on my radar since it appeared in the November issue of Cooking Light but for some strange reason every time I had it planned for dinner something would come up (friends showing up in town, last-minute errands etc). BUT the food gods were smiling upon me last night because I finally got around to it. I will say one thing, if you don’t have a specialty food store in your area finding matcha powder might be harder than finding a needle in a haystack. After a visit to HEB with no luck, David and I walked around Whole Foods Market looking everywhere, asked a staff member that led us to the wrong thing and then David suggested we look in the tea aisle…duh right? We found the glorious powder and I purchased the scallops last night.

Scallops with Green Tea Cream (Photo by Randy Mayor)

Lord have mercy this was amazing. That cream was dyn-o-mite. Plus, it’s 10 ingredients long with just three steps so it came together in 15 minutes tops. I followed everything to the letter, but since this is meant for first course, I upped the amount of scallops and on the side we had sauteed baby bok choy with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chile flakes and minced garlic. Simple, fresh, light and that sauce is crackalicious.

If you decide to make this I hope the food gods shine down upon you and nothing stands in your way, but hey I guess all good things do come to those who wait eh? I might start selling my leftover matcha powder to the highest bidder though. :)

Dose of Veggies, Global Flavor, Italian, Lengthy recipe but worth all the whisking, sweat and tears, Soup, Uber Healthy, Vegetarian

Ribollita

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Soup and bread – two food soul mates. I for one know I don’t like a yummy bowl of soup without some delicious crusty bread. Now kick that up a notch with this Tuscan version of soup known as Ribollita or in Italian Reboiled that has delicious crusty bread in it. Yep…IN IT. I’ve never heard of this soup but when I saw it in the Cooking Light November issue I thought I would save it for a cold, blustery day. Well, it’s here, right now actually, swishing the trees outside our windows and is very brisk indeed. A Ribollita is nothing fancy, just vegetable scraps and day-old bread but it does take time to make – three days from what I could find in my research. This one only took a few hours for chopping, baking, and of course building the soup so eh, that’s not so bad.

Ribollita (Photo by John Autry)

Y’all, this soup was super gentle. The flavors of the kale, tomatoes, beans, carrots, potatoes, yadda, yadda, yadda and yes, my delicious bread made this SUPER hearty. This bad boy is packed with good-for-youness and it’s vegetarian. We loved this for a gentle lunch on such a cold, windy day. Tonight, it’s Scallops with Green Tea Cream if I actually get around to making them this time. I swear, aliens are going to abduct me to ensure I don’t. More on this issue later and oh! if you haven’t yet, be sure to become a fan of Cooking Inside the Lines on Facebook today. Warm reboiled hugs.

Breakfast, Eggs, Global Flavor, Quick and Delicious

Eggs Poached in Curried Tomato Sauce

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Mark Bittman, famous cookbook author and well-known food writer of his weekly food and recipe column The Minimalist in the The New York Times can also add Cooking Light contributer to his already impressive list of accolades. Since his debut in the magazine, I’ve wanted to try one of his recipes and his Eggs Poached in Curried Tomato Sauce was a must. I’ve always loved the traditional version of this Israeli dish known as shakshuka, but Mr. Bittman’s version looked out of this world in the flavor category. Get this, it calls for fresh ginger and garlic, jalepeno – for a spicy kick, cilantro, curry powder, coconut milk and of course, diced tomatoes. Flavor to the Nth degree if you ask me.

For some reason I thought this would take longer than it did but it came along in a New York minute. Follow his advice and make sure the sauce is wet before placing the eggs in to ensure proper cooking. I toasted the English muffins, chopped the green onions, plated and bam, an extraordinary and unique breakfast dish. I could have eaten that sauce on anything or just had it alone. I loved the ooey gooey egg sitting on top of the toasted muffin that soaked up the yolk and rock star sauce. Try this for an amazing breakfast treat, or heck, any time of day.

Eggs Poached in Curried Tomato Sauce (Photo by John Autry)
Menu Plan

Happy Thanksgiving Lambs!

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It’s Thanksgiving or as I like to think of it, the warm-up for my most favorite time of year…Christmas! We have plans to deck the halls until it looks like the holidays threw-up in here and since this week is wonky due to travel, games and mucho decorating, I menu-planned out this week and into next (I have issues I know). You may notice that all of these recipes are from Cooking Light. There’s no question that I love that magazine, but I typically mix up my recipe choices from all of my favorites as much as I can. But, given that this week I typically let my diet go to hell in a hand basket I try to kick-start my diet back on a healthy eating plan. What better way than to choose recipes that automatically lend themselves towards that? I’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming afterwards, scouts honor.

I hope you have a very, very happy and safe holiday week with your loved ones and oh, yeah, TEXAS FIGHT!

Parmesan-Sage Roast Turkey with Sage Gravy Recipes

Saturday: Oil-Poached Salmon with Fresh Cucumber Salad (Update: this dish was just fine…)

Sunday: Coconut Crusted Chicken with Cashew-Curry Sauce

Monday: Scallops with Green Tea Cream and Baby Bok Choy (I never got around to making this but make this I will)

Tuesday:  Roasted Red Snapper and Herb Pasta with Shrimp (not on the website, will post later!)

Wednesday: Grilled Flank Steak with Avocado Relish, Cumin Scented Potatoes

Chicken, Emily Favorite, French, Includes Alcohol, Quick and Delicious, Soup

Braised Chicken and Red Potatoes in Tarragon Broth

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Talk about an Emily favorite. I have made this soup since it’s debut three years ago in the September 2007 issue of Cooking Light. To me, this is a bowl of comfort that I’ve turned to year after year say when I’ve got a cold, it’s gloomy and gross outside or your favorite team ever (rhymes with Fonghorns) gets dismantled again. Bleeb to the blarb.

The flavors of this soup with the tender braised chicken, soft red potatoes, shallots, and white wine are a perfect combo and the tarragon broth provides the perfect balance to make a beautiful soup. Ahhh, the smell of the broth hooks you before you even begin to eat. Plus it has a short ingredient list and is undeniably easy to make…see why I love it so?

I just ate this for lunch and now I’m all comfy and cozy at my desk.  Now if only I could be in my pajamas with my slippers I would be set…and then I would probably get fired…then I would just have to make more soup to comfort myself. Enjoy this y’all, it’s a good one.

Braised Chicken and Red Potatoes in Tarragon Broth (Photo by Lee Harrelson)
David Favorite, Emily Favorite, Pork-a-licious, Quick and Delicious

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops with Polenta

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Oh sweet lambs in the morn…this dish was INCREDIBLE. You can tell I really like something when while eating it I repeat about 20 times how good it is and fill in the rest of my review with “mmmmmmmmmmmmomgmmmmmmmm.” Per my menu plan, I had a day o’cooking which was lovely in and of itself. I did make the Egg White and Sun-Dried Tomato Frittata and Sweet Potato Biscuits, both were OK but we decided they were not really right for a Cooking Inside the Lines dish. If you want more details just ask me in the comments.

I also made the Braised Chicken with Red Potatoes and Tarragon Broth for our lunches today, and I’ll post my full review after lunch.

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops (Photo by John Autry)

Now, for the big winner here, the Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops with Polenta from Cooking Light. Let’s highlight why this recipe was perfection on a plate: (a) the rub was the perfect herbacious complement to the very simple balsamic glaze on the pork chops (b) the polenta…oh wow, the polenta with the cream cheese was out of this world delicious (c) this came together in no-time (d) it was also very wallet friendly and is a part of their “budget eating” section (e) this ROCKED.

One ingredient I changed was the whole milk. I only had reduced fat in the house but trust me after you put the cream cheese in the polenta, you won’t notice the absence of whole milk. I highly recommend this recipe and I think this will go on rotation in our house moving forward. Now tonight, one of my favorite recipes I’ve ever tried, Meatballs All’Amerticiana. Will it be as good as I remembered poodles? Will David think so too? Will I still be amazed by bacon paste? Tune in for more details this week.

Asian, Beefy McBeefy, David Favorite, Fruit, Global Flavor, Quick and Delicious, Salad, This may contain fish sauce or anchovies, Uber Healthy

Thai Beef Salad

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A flavorful salad that’s done in about 20 minutes max? Sold to the Thai Beef Salad from Cooking Light! In a section all about shortcuts and fast recipes this one stood out to me. One, I heart fish sauce. Lambs, I know that’s a crazy thing to swoon over but I love the salty bite and unique flavor it lends to dishes. Maybe I should produce an “I Heart Fish Sauce” t-shirt? Anyone with me?

Thai Beef Salad (Photo by John Autry)

Two, the flavor combinations looked to die for with cilantro, cabbage, soy sauce, lime juice, honey, orange zest, serrano chile and mandarin oranges. Three, it’s a simple, hardly no-cook recipe that worked around our current kitchen status. We simply broiled the steaks in our Wolf microwave/convection oven to medium rare and made the rest of the salad while it cooked. The one thing that really stood out to me was the dressing. After making it in the food processor I gave it a taste and then did a little jig in our kitchen. Emily jig = really, really good.

Give this one a try for a super fast, delicious and healthy salad, and don’t skimp on the fish sauce.