try new recipes and save the ones I like for a personal recipe book

Next one will probably be an apple and squash soup. :)

Chickpea, Artichoke, and Celery Salad (from Good Times magazine)

1-Healthy: Healthy vegetable salad.

2-Taste: Unfortunately, I had a headache and could only chew on one side due to recent dental work so I think this prevented me from fully savoring it, but I did enjoy what I had. One of the ingredients was sundried tomatoes and though I like those, I wondered if replacing them with cherry tomatoes might have been better suited for this salad. In general, it was fresh-tasting and crunchy and the chickpeas blended nicely, offering a softer, meatier taste and texture.

3-Time and ease of preparation: Other than a bit of chopping, this really does not take very much time and is very easy to make. No special equipment required.

4-Ingredients: 11 ingredients (including such things as salt and pepper, lemon juice, olive oil…). So you may already have some of these on hand, otherwise they should be easy to find and more than half could definitely be used again. If you are making this for one or two people, you will have leftovers.

5-Presentation: Really colorful! The picture provided did it justice.

Final Thoughts:
I have an upcoming baby shower and have been considering testing a salad I found online that people seem to really like, and then I came across this one. I decided to try it to see if it could be an alternative. It looked and sounded good, and seemed simple. I feel like I wasn’t in the best state to fully enjoy it but from what I could tell, it was good and it was a great looking salad. It is a salad you could whip up fairly quickly for an occasion or guests, that would be different from what you might normally serve. In its simplicity, there is still more to it than the name might suggest, and there is a nice blend of textures and subtle flavors. A great choice for the summer. To be fair, because I couldn’t fully judge the taste, I would give this recipe 4.5 to 5 stars.

*If anyone would like me to share the recipe, please let me know and I will gladly post it here.

Will try a new one this weekend!

Eat-Your-Veggies Harvest Vegetable Whole Wheat Pasta (from www.yum-o.org, submitted by Rachael Ray)

1-Healthy: A very healthy, wholesome recipe.

2-Taste: I have to admit I was disappointed this second time around. Though it isn’t one that is bursting with flavor, I remembered it being tastier the first time, and I couldn’t quite pinpoint what made the difference. Only differences in terms of ingredients were that I used squash instead of eggplant (there is the choice) and didn’t use nutmeg (this ingredient is to taste). I think using less pasta might have allowed the mixture and flavor to be stronger, and I think the mixture being more liquidy this time around might have played a part, too. Some of the flavors I might have expected to come through didn’t so much, and if I were to make this again, I might even consider adding garlic. I usually don’t feel the need to add salt even if the taste is subtle but I found myself reaching for it to enhance the flavor. I do think adding the ricotta adds a nice, mild flavor and you can put as much or as little as you want since this is added at the end. I think another factor that was significant in terms of adding to the disappointment in taste was that it got cold fast. I suddenly remembered how this happened the first time around too. I don’t know what it is that causes this. Could it be the whole wheat pasta or the dollop of cheese? The cheese was cold but even when it was not mixed in, some of the pasta itself still didn’t feel warm enough. I ended up putting my second serving in the microwave to heat and though it helped, the warmth didn’t seem to last very long.

3-Time and ease of preparation: There was no time on the recipe itself but it still took a while, in spite of having help this time around. I’m trying not to compare with the last recipe (soup) because this was really a meal and there was more involved. Still, it seems like it should have taken less time than it did, but I really feel a lot of the extra time was due to my being slow.
Most of the cooking time for this recipe is active.
I feel the order of the directions could be improved slightly. Maybe this is one of the reasons it looks simpler than it feels. One of the first steps should be to prepare the vegetables by washing and chopping. For someone trying this recipe for the first time, for a strict direction follower, and for someone inexperienced, this could throw things off. I really feel the key to this recipe is preparation and this is one thing I did remember from trying it the first time. If you have the necessary equipment and have everything prepared beforehand, the timing can be ideal because while the pasta is cooking, the vegetables are in the oven and you can take care of the mixture. Everything can then be ready at the same time and ready to serve. The cooking time itself is not long. So please keep in mind this point is very subjective.

4-Ingredients: 15 to 16 ingredients (I omitted the nutmeg). This may sound like a lot, but it really is not as daunting in reality. I have included every little ingredient and you may already have some of these on hand, like salt, pepper, olive oil, onion, garlic, pasta, etc., otherwise they can be easily found, are not expensive, and you leave with a small shopping bag. Also keep in mind this recipe is meant to serve six, so you be able to serve a family or guests, or have some leftover to enjoy. Besides having some of your staples and maybe some cheese leftover, most of the ingredients will likely get used up if you purchase just the quantity you need.

5-Presentation: The mix of vegetables looked nice and so did the herb mixture – almost nicer on their own than with the pasta even. In the end, you have to keep in mind that this pasta will not have a creamy sauce but will be more tossed and coated if you will. I do think the onion and pepper are better if chopped in smaller pieces than the other vegetables.

Final Thoughts:
As I type these final thoughts, I am still unsure of the rating I will give – I will review my comments again after this.
I was disappointed that it didn’t seem as enjoyable this time around but my boyfriend liked it so that made me happy. I won’t be jumping to make this again so soon, but I’m not giving up on it either. It is healthy and I feel that with some tweaking, it can possibly be just right (though I’m not sure what to do about the warmth issue) and the timing in terms of preparation can get better. Okay, so for the rating, let’s see…
I would give this recipe 3.5 to 4 stars.

*If anyone would like me to share the recipe, please let me know and I will gladly post it here.

I have been thinking about the recipe for whole wheat pasta with vegetables that I made some time ago, and wanting to make it again. Hopefully the second time around it can be quicker. Though I remember them generally, I don’t want to read through my last comments too much because I want to be as objective as possible in order to rate the recipe. I’m interested in seeing whether my thoughts are similar or different to the first time. Once I have a chance to try it again, I will post the rating here. :)

I have been thinking for a while about rating the recipes, to determine whether I will include them in the recipe book. I was thinking of a sort of five-star system, but not just a general one to five score. Each star will represent something. This is what I have in mind:

1-Healthy
2-Taste
3-Time and ease of preparation
4-Ingredients (number of ingredients and practicality in terms of finding them and whether they can be used again)
5-Presentation

I think anything over three stars, especially including the first two, will likely have a spot in the book.

I have tried one recipe since.

Golden Butternut Squash Soup (from Easy Everyday – Simple recipes for no-fuss food)

1-Healthy: Overall this was to me a very healthy recipe. There was the option of serving with a drizzle of cream, which I decided not to do. The only other thing that could be more or less healthy depending on the brand and ingredients was the chicken or vegetable stock. This is usually low-fat but if you want to be very thorough, you can examine the list of ingredients to find the best choice. I used the vegetable stock.

2-Taste: It was light and tasty. I wondered if I might want to add salt but I thought the taste was best left as is.

3-Time and ease of preparation: This might be a little tougher to rate, because I am naturally slower. According to the recipe, it could take you an average of 50 minutes, more or less. I’m not sure what an average time for homemade soup can be, but the good thing is that most of this time, you simply need to let it cook and could be preparing something else if you needed to. It was quite easy to prepare. We bought the squash already prepared which helped save time. Most of what was required was chopping and cooking the ingredients. Once you know what to do and have the proper materials, it is very simple.

4-Ingredients: 6 or 7 ingredients only (many of these being staples or ingredients you might already have), which was great. The ingredients were simple to find, as long as the squash is available, and most were things you could use again, which makes it economic, too. If you are making it for one or two people, you will have some leftover.

5-Presentation: It was golden, and sprinkling it with pepper gave its simplicity an added touch. I think adding some green leafy herbs could make it look even prettier.

Final Thoughts:
I expected the consistency to be thicker than it was but that didn’t make it less enjoyable. It was simple to make, did not require many ingredients, and tasted as good as a soup you might buy or have at a restaurant, but was simple and homemade. I like knowing what has gone into something I am eating, especially knowing it is healthy. I would give this recipe five stars.

*If anyone would like me to share the recipe, please let me know and I will gladly post it here.

I will mark this as done when I have 43 recipes. :)

To help with this goal, I will be adding a new folder to my filing cabinet and will include the recipes I would like to try. One thing that is difficult is that for most recipes, I need to purchase ingredients before being able to get started, and some ingredients are not ones you may use regularly. For this reason and to make things generally easier, I will aim to try a new recipe at least once a month (once a week might be more difficult to stick with).
So I thought having a folder for the recipes would help make things more organized. I have certain recipes that I have printed and previously had no place to put them (I think I did put them in a folder at one point but I never stuck with it and never officially named it and filed it away). I also feel like my entries for this goal have been somewhat disorganized and I would like to work at making them a bit clearer somehow.

I wish I could whip up something nutritious and delicious quickly. I am so slow but maybe this will improve with practice. Being prepared and having the right tools also makes a difference.

I found an african recipe called spicey peanut soup! I really wanna try it! I think I will go for all foreign recipes and have a world wide book

A while ago, I did make the lentil soup. It turned out okay, but I was a little bit disappointed and I think it is mainly because, though I didn’t know exactly how it would taste, it was not the way I expected it might. It actually tasted quite a bit like a vegetable soup, which is fine but not overly exciting when you are trying something new and expecting a new and different taste. I suppose the only other lentil soup I really had to compare it to was one from a restaurant. The lentils gave it somewhat of a potato-y taste, and added a bit of crunch. I was surprised by how many lentils there were. The lentils really seemed to stand out and be the main ingredient, while all others were supporting parts, so in some way, it felt like a soup and in other ways it didn’t.
The quantity was quite large, so I did have leftovers for days to come. So in the end, it wasn’t bad but the taste reminded me of a tomato-based vegetable soup and made me feel I could have had that instead and it would not have been a great difference.

There are a few recipes I would like to try. One is a pilaf and the other is a stew. They are both meatless meals so they might interest those of you looking for such dishes.
As I mentioned in one of my earlier entries, I am not as interested in making baked goods at this point, but I did also see a cranberry loaf cake that included light sour cream and egg whites and I thought it might be interesting to try. Instead of the cranberries though, I thought about trying the recipe with blueberries. I will let you know how it goes!