August food

August was kind of a lopsided month. The first half of it I made hardly anything new, actually, I didn't really cook very much at all the first half. Since Matthew had a week off of school and work we just hung out all the time. It was awesome, but also meant we just kinda took it easy with what we ate, which was also awesome. I think I definitely made up for it the second half of the month though.

The Stuff That Came Out Really Good:

Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies: Here’s my philosophy on low-fat, low-cal, low-whatever treats. Most of the time, they just aren’t worth eating. If you’re going to have dessert, then make it worth it! That being said, this recipe came highly recommended and turned out to be a very delicious cookie. What made it low-fat? Applesauce replaced some butter, and it used an egg white instead of a whole egg. Also, half of the flour was whole wheat.

Veggie Enchiladas: This was corn tortillas rolled up with black beans, zucchini and red bell pepper. Matthew thought they needed more sauce, which they did, and that they would taste better with chicken, which they probably would, but they were still very delicious. And quite healthy to boot.

Fresh Fruit Enchiladas: We made it with peaches, strawberries and mangoes rolled up in a flour tortilla topped with a cinnamon vanilla sauce. Super good.

Spring Green Risotto: I think this was my favorite risotto that we’ve made thus far. It was delish. It had peas, asparagus and leeks in it (Side note: leeks are really good—I had no idea). We skipped the two cheeses in it and Matthew liked it, although he wanted meat in it, surprise, surprise.

Quinoa w/ Mangoes, Red Pepper, Green Onion, Pecans, Cilantro: Well, the title of this pretty much sums up what was in it. First time trying quinoa, and you know what, I liked it. Kinda a cross between couscous and tapioca. During dinner, Matthew just kept saying how this was a really weird dish, but good.  And he really did enjoy it a lot. I'm actually super impressed by how willing he is to try all sorts of stuff.

Peach, Basil, Mozzarella and Balsamic Pizza: When I told my mom that this was SOO good, she was all like “um…peaches… and vinegar… on pizza?!!” as if it was the most disgusting thing she could imagine. Haha. So funny. Anyway, just think of it less as a pizza and more as a fancy artisan sandwich. So refined. Even though there was no artisan-like bread involved…

Toffee Bar Brownie Torte: This was my birthday cake! It was rich, decadent, beautiful and absolutely amazing. Nothing more to say about it, I loved every bite.

Stir Fried Noodles: I think that this may have been the best reaction Matthew’s ever given me to a meal I’ve made. He loves Chinese, and when he snitched a bite of this before dinner he just started gobbling. Ha. Canton noodles, rice vermicelli, snow peas, red bell pepper and carrots stir fried up into sublime deliciousness, that’s what this was. We even got to go to a Asian marked to buy the noodles which was exciting (if you're wondering, there's one on 300 S 300 E in Provo)

Chicken with Cherry Sauce: We made this two times, trying to get it right, and I still want to mess around with it more because I feel like it’s just not quite there yet, but it was still good and Matthew devoured it, so I count it as a success.

Café Rio Style Pork Salad: You know how everyone loves Café Rio out here, some people so much that they go through the work of making a knockoff salad? Well, I don’t love café rio (I do like it), but I still went through the effort to make a knockoff version. And it was something we both enjoyed a lot.

The Stuff That Came Out Much Less Than Good:

Apricot Chicken: This was so disappointing. Looking at the recipe, I thought it was be fantastic, even while I was making it I still thought it was going to be fantastic, and then when we ate it, it was just…weird. And not the good kind either.

Black Bean Brownies: I had my doubts about these before even making them, but we still tried them. Meh. Maybe it’s because I pureed them in the blender and if you had a food processor you could get it into smaller bits, but I could still taste little chunks of black beans, and the texture of the brownies wasn’t really that great either.

Eggplant Parmesan: This probably would have been a lot better if we had cooked them for a shorter amount of time.

Three More Things:

1. My favorites: The Brownie Torte, the Stir-Fried Noodles, the Fruit Enchiladas and the Spring Green Risotto. (What? I can have four favorites.)

Matthew's favorites: the Stir-Fried Noodles, Cafe Rio Pork, and the Quinoa.

2. The last three things on the "Good" list weren't from the internet, they were from good, old-fashioned cookbooks. If you happen to be interested in any of them, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I'll send the recipe to you.

3. Here is a picture of my brownie cake torte thinger. Thanks to everyone who helped me eat it :)