Recipes from If It Makes You Healthy

So I am preparing to review my first cookbook. Yes, I am not a cookbook critic! Isn't that exciting? I would say so! Anyways, in the hopes that my first review garners a lot of views I am working my way through several recipes to see if they are as delicious as they claim.

The book: If It Makes You Healthy.
The authors: Sheryl Crow--who is apparently now a cook-- and Chuck White
The claim: "more than 100 delicious recipes inspired by the seasons"
My progress: two recipes; Oatmeal Currant Cookies and Haricots Verts Salad

So out of the first two recipes I've made, one pleased me and the other one was alright. I don't mean to undermine the recipes, but I will definitely make some adjustments to them in the future. But I don't want to give anything away before I actually review the book, so for now I'll just give you the modified recipes and let you decide for yourselves.

The cookies are not what you would usually imagine when tasting an oatmeal cookie. They're very chewy but taste great.

The salad is good, but the extra taste that the white balsamic vinegar adds makes it a whole lot better (although I am a biased balsamic vinegar-lover)

Oatmeal Currant Cookies (adapted from If It Makes You Healthy)

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (doesn't specify if it should be cold or room temperature, so I would say cold)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons low-fat milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup dried currants

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, mix sugar and butter until blended. Add egg and beat constantly for 1 minute. Slowly add applesauce and milk and beat until just combined, about 1 minute.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in two batches, blending well after each addition.
4. Add oats and currants and mix until just combined. 
5. Drop cookies in tablespoons onto baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cookies look crisp around edges. Cool cookies on baking sheets fro 5 minutes and transfer to wire rack. Cool completely on rack.

Haricots Verts Salad (adapted from If It Makes You Healthy)

• 2 cups green beans (haricots verts if you can find them)
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds, slightly toasted
• 12 grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• S & P

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a pinch of salt. Add the green beans and cook for 2-3 minutes or until slightly soft, water still boiling. Drain green beans and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water. (This is called blanching). Drain green beans after 3 minutes in ice water.
2. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and add green beans. Toss to mix and season with S & P. Serve cold.

Frittata and Kale Salad

I can't really say breakfast is my favorite meal, because ALL meals are my favorite, but I definitely love breakfast. What better than to have breakfast for dinner?

First of all let me state that I am not a pancake fan, so when I say breakfast for dinner I don't mean pancakes and waffles, I mean eggs. Frittata to be exact. Last weekend I stumbled upon an easy frittata recipe (almost all frittatas are very simple to make) and several variations in FOOD by Martha Stewart, and yesterday I finally made it.

Originally, the frittata was going to be a turkey zucchini with gruyere cheese frittata, but for some reason I completely forgot to buy zucchini.  So I looked around in my veggies drawer and found some asparagus spears, the perfect substitution.

As a side, I made one of my favorite salads. Because breakfast is good for dinner, but I need to have some kind of green in my dinner or I won't be satisfied. Anyways, the Kale and Pine Nut salad from Bon Appetit is one of the salads that I could eat over and over again. And yes, contrary to popular belief, there are some salads that I don't like.

Turkey, Asparagus, Gruyere Frittata (adapted from FOOD by Martha Stewart)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup cubed turkey (about 1/2 inch thick)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped asparagus
• 3/4 cup shredded gruyere cheese
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• S & P

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Heat olive oil on a 10-inch oven proof skillet over medium high heat. Add turkey and asparagus and season with S & P. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, until asparagus are slightly tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile slightly beat eggs and egg-whites together. Add egg mixture to the skillet and sprinkle with the gruyere cheese. Cook until edges are set, about 5 minutes.
3. Transfer skillet to oven and cook for 10-13 minutes or until frittata is set. Place plate over skillet and invert frittata. Serve immediately

Kale and Pine-nut Salad (adapted from Bon Appetit)

• 2 tablespoons dried currants
• 2 tablespoons pine-nuts
• 2-3 bunches kale (depending on size), stems removed and leaves thinly sliced
• 7 1/2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Shave parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Place currants in bowl with 5 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar and let marinate for 2-24 hours (the more they soak, the better they will taste in the salad). Lightly toast pine-nuts on a baking sheet.
2. In a small bowl whisk 2 1/2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, olive oil, and honey until honey dissolves. In a large bowl place kale, drained currants, and pine-nuts and toss with dressing to coat. Let salad marinate for 20 minutes, tossing occasionally.
3. Add parmesan cheese and serve. 

Sunday Cookout

So Sunday comes around and its one of those days when all I want to do is lounge around in my sweats, watch TV (even if it's just background noise), aimlessly procrastinate on the internet, and bake or cook like a crazy person. The last part being the most important.

I was feeling for cookies, but when I came across a Buttermilk Biscuit recipe from Noble pig (one of the best food/wine blogs out there!) that would help me get rid of the almost-expired buttermilk and left-over cake flour in my kitchen, I changed my menu.

First time making biscuits; first time making bread without a food processor. And let me tell you, it's definitely not as hard as those crazy cakes I've done before. Pretty simple recipe and delicious outcome (my roommate actually said they were just like Pillsbury ones, but I haven't decided if that's a good or bad thing). 

Anyways, here are some picture of the process, and then the final product (although I did forget the melted butter towards the end, so the presentation is really not great).

Next on my dinner menu was Turkey Meat Loaf (adapted from Spicy Turkey Meat Loaf) and Kale Salad with Pine-nuts, Currants, and Parmesan).

Again, first time making meat loaf. I wasn't excited about the ketchup dressing at first, but it actually came out pretty good considering its ketchup. I added normal mustard instead of the dry mustard since that's what I had, and it was in the oven for about 1 hour (granted my oven acts up now and again)

Finally the favorite part of my meal: the kale salad! Its an easy recipe, but it does take some planning because the currants have to marinate for a while. I sometimes add more dressing, depending on the amount of kale I have, but the recipe is pretty much perfect. Do use the specific vinegars asked for, because that's the only way to get the yummy factor!

And then, dinner was finally served (about 2 hours after I began cooking).