Dinner #3: A vegetarian delight!

So technically this should be dinner #4, but I was on my lonesome last Saturday and having technical difficulties with my camera!  So an additional new rule is that I will only post about dinners that are co-creations! 

We've both been feeling under the weather, so neither of us were in the right frame of mind to make a fancy dinner.   So instead simple and healthy was the name of the game.  Rummaging through the fridge and freezer, I came up with a plan.  The staples in my freezer are always ice cream, frozen veggies and Quorn.  Huh?  Quorn?  No it's not a typo - it's a delicious vegetarian brand made from mushroom protein of all things!  (Ironic as neither of us like mushrooms).  I have a slight addiction to Quorn.  It doesn't sound appetizing, but it is soooo good! It tastes like chicken - only with better texture. 

So dinner ended up consisting of cranberry and goat cheese chik'n cutlets served with steamed green veggies in garlic butter.  Simple, yummy, and stress-free to make! 

I'm going to give this one a 4* - it would have been even better served with risotto and worthy of a 5* in that case. 

Dinner #2: In 'n' Out burger (WAIT - I can explain!!)

The original plan was to make some stellar salsa to bring to a Mexican themed dinner at a friends house.  But then I went and inconveniently got sick, so that didn't happen after all.  Musing what to do for dinner at home instead, I had the magical words "we could have In 'n' Out" uttered to me.  Having been on a chicken soup diet all week, and finally having my appetite back, I naturally thought this was a fabulous idea!  So in the car we went to go pick up dinner.

For those of you who are not west coast natives, In 'n' Out is a Californian burger chain that makes healthier fast food than your standard drive thru fare.  Nothing is frozen, the ingredients are fresh, and the beef burgers are exactly that - 100% beef.  It's been around since 1948, and boy, have they perfected how to make a good burger.  Now I'll be honest here, ever since I watched Super Size Me I have shied away from fast food joints.  But then I moved to CA, and was introduced to the delights of a double-double.  So every once in a blue moon, I treat myself and savior the wickedness of a good burger! 

Now the locals know all about the "secret menu" and for those after an extra savory burger will order it animal style (extra spread, pickle and grilled onions).  Not me though:  I prefer my burger to be simple: spread, cheese, burger, bun.  Simple and mouth-wateringly wonderful. Served with a side of fries that actually taste like potato, and ketchup with a little bit of Tabasco sauce mixed in for good measure.  Yum!

A double-double animal style!

A spread only double-double for the sick person with a side of hot tea and ricola cough drops!

Rating: 5 star!  Mina would certainly seem to agree - she loves getting the leftover fries! 

Hopefully next week I'll be well enough to get into the kitchen!  But I'm secretly glad of this week being a "cheat" week.  I'm not sure that an In 'n' Out a day will keep the colds and flu at bay though!  I should go stock up on some apples... 

Dinner #1: Pizza, salad & apple-berry crisp!

Saturday August 20th 2011.

Some Saturday's are just made for making pizza.  This was one of them.  And this home-made pizza and Italian salad was TO DIE FOR!!  And then we had dessert, and that just spoiled us!  I'm a little sad that I made the "no repeats" rule.  I'd happily make this every Saturday, but that would make this blog a little bit boring...

Dinner:

Margarita pizza with Italian garden salad.  Neither recipe was from a cook book, this was more of an "invent your own recipe" dinner.  And it turned out great!!

Rating: 5 STAR!!!  Possibly the world's greatest pizza!

Dessert:

Apple-berry crisp from The Pampered Chef cookbook (with a few additions thrown in for good measure).  

Rating: 4 1/2 STAR!  Yummy, lots of flavor, and not too sweet.

How to make it:

PIZZA

Ingredients: 

• Pilsbury thin crust pizza dough
• Grated cheddar cheese (however much you would like!  We used 1/2 cup)
• Sharp white cheddar slices x2 (cut up into little pieces)
• Roma tomatoes
• Pizza sauce with added black pepper, basil, and oregano from our herb garden

Follow the instructions on the pilsbury can.  Add your toppings, and wah-la!  A truly awesome pizza :)

SALAD

Ingredients: 

• Mixed lettuce bag
• Cherry tomatoes (yellow)
• Grated carrots
• Croutons
• Cannellini beans (1/2 can)
• Squirt of lime juice
• Olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing

Wash the salad and veggies, throw together in a salad bowl, add the toppings, and there you go...

APPLE-BERRY CRISP

I'm going to be a little more detailed here, as it involves baking!  This is adapted from a Pampered Chef recipe.

Ingredients: 

Topping:
½ stick butter or margarine
¼ cup pecan, walnut and almond mix (chopped up into small pieces) **Why choose one nut when you can have a little bit of all three!
1½ cups old-fashioned or quick oats 

2½ tablespoons of splenda  **I used this instead of brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Fruit Filling:

4 medium Granny Smith apples (or any cooking apples will work)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 package (12 ounces) frozen unsweetened mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries) **I used cherries instead of the blackberries
2½ tablespoons of splenda  **I used this instead of regular sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

For topping: 

• Microwave butter for 45 seconds or until melted. Chop nuts.  Add nuts, oats, splenda, and cinnamon to melted butter. Mix well. Microwave 3 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.  Spread onto parchment paper, and leave to cool.  

For the fruit mixture:

• Peel, core, and slice apples, then cut into small chunks. Separate slices into large microwave safe bowl. Add lemon juice and berries to apples. Toss gently.
• In small bowl, combine splenda, flour, and cinnamon. Add to apple mixture and toss to coat evenly. Microwave on High 14-16 minutes or until apples are tender, stirring after 8 minutes. 
• Sprinkle with topping. Continue microwaving 2 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

How this blog came to be...

I've got a shelf full of cook books that I somehow never get around to opening.  Over the past couple of weeks the bf and I have been looking through various cook books and marking off recipes that look delicious.  In some cook books there's a tab on almost every page!!  (Silly I know, but I had started with the tabs, so I had to finish!)  That left us with a dilemma:  We had identified a ton of new recipes to try.  When would we find the time to make them?  I had the solution: We would make something together every Saturday.  

Then I started to come up with some ground rules:  
1) No repeats (unless something in the recipe was tweaked), 
2) We could go eat out on occasion, but would try to stay healthy and be open to sampling new foods,
3) We should take pictures of each meal, 
and then I got thinking...
4) We should make up a blog about what we had for dinner.  

And hence, Saturday Night's Dinner blog was born.  

I've never been to a pampered chef party - but man, do their recipes look yummy!