Recipe Reviews

I managed to cook 2 recipes yesterday (and one today) and got out for a walk yesterday afternoon with my girls (for an hour or so). So yeah for me! The muffin top is wearing off-- well, starting to rub anyway. ;)

Anyway....I did two recipes yesterday from the new Cooking Light (May 2008).

"Summer's Best Garden Salad"
Ingredients
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil
4 cups shredded romaine lettuce
1 cup yellow pear tomatoes, halved
1 cup chopped peeled cucumber
1/2 cup finely chopped orange bell pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced radishes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 small yellow squash, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (about 1 cup) *This I didn't have.
1/2 cup chopped avocado *Don't you just love avocado in anything?!

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Gradually add oil, stirring with a whisk.
2. Combine lettuce and the next 6 ingredients (through squash) in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over lettuce mixture, and toss gently to coat. Top with avocado.

6 servings (serving size: about 1 cup salad and 4 teaspoons avocado)
Nutritional Information CALORIES 64(52% from fat); FAT 3.7g (sat 0.6g,mono 2.3g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 1.6g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 28mg; SODIUM 123mg; FIBER 2.4g; IRON 0.9mg; CARBOHYDRATE 7.8g

The salad was really good. I'm really going to try to make more interesting salads. Following a recipe like this totally makes me add stuff I wouldn't ever think about adding...and speaking of that, I couldn't find the yellow squash at Fortinos. I'm thinking they didn't mean a big spaghetti squash- right?!

I also made the Jamaican-Spiced Chicken Thighs from the same issue. It was super easy and good, too. I replaced the thighs with boneless chicken breasts (they didn't have boneless chicken thighs and I didn't feel like I had time to debone). We also did it on the BBQ instead of on a grill pan. Here is the link for the recipe:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1734339

Finally, tonight I made Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes from the CL Complete Cookbook (partially motivated by the fact that my litre of buttermilk was about to expire). We all really loved them. I think I've bought pancake mix too many times. The made-from-scratch ones are so much better.