New Food Reviews

The family has had to deal with a lot more new food than usual lately. Here's the lowdown.

Ham & 13 bean soup: went over about as anticipated. Everyone ate the requisite one bowl, and I've been eating the leftovers. I don't mind; I liked it, though I think it could have used more vegetables. Next time, I'd make half the beans and double the veg for a batch.

Sara Moulton’s Orecchiette (er, Macaroni) with Broccoli and Chickpeas: not well received at all. Even I didn't think much of it, but that could be that there was too much tomato (I used a big can instead of a small one) and we'd just had mostaccioli the night before. There are lots of leftovers. We've used up some of them by taking out the broccoli, adding some bok choy and chicken broth, and making a kind of soup. I think it would have been better without the tomato & broccoli, and with some other flavors instead. Leftovers for me this week, because I'm trying to use food up.

Mostaccioli: always popular, especially when there's garlic bread. A baguette can be sliced thinly, and since it's a small piece, not a crazy number of calories.

Cod: I floured it and sauteed it in some butter. Both Sarah & Jeff said it tasted buttery, but I thought it had the most delicious fish flavor, like the inside part of really good fish and chips. Looking forward to more cod recipes, especially since it's supposed to be very heart healthy.

Haven't done the Moors & Christians yet. I'm soaking the beans now, and will throw them in the crockpot before we go to church. I'll use as much as I want tonight, but there is so much other food in the house, I'm not going to push them on the rest of the family. The rest of the cooked beans will go in the freezer.

Twice Baked Potatoes: A lot of the ingredients here were a concession for Sarah. Bacon instead of ham, mozzarella instead of cheddar, and spinach instead of broccoli. She thought they were ok, Lauren didn't care for them, but Jeff & I thought they were pretty good. I used the link above as inspiration, but changed it up a bit. Four big potatoes, 8 slices of bacon, a small shallot, a half a cup of milk, no butter, a bunch of spinach, wilted, and 8 oz of part skim mozzarella. I baked the potatoes in the crockpot, and finished them under the broiler, which worked out well. Will definitely make again.

The hockey game last night was fun (Lauren now wants to play hockey next year--we'll see if she remembers this come August), but it wasn't a healthy day for me, despite staying within calories. Almost no fruits or veg. I'll make up for it today. I can't wait for summer fruits to come in season. I'm getting bored with apples, grapes and bananas.

Dinners this coming week include IHOP for Lauren's birthday. I'll have to get requests for meals, and try to include some family favorites instead of so many new things. Sadly, biscuits & gravy will not be on the menu for a while.