Halfway Cooking: The Success Stories

Hello, world!

When I’m not totally messing up half of a recipe, I do manage to make some things that are decent. And on occasion, I cook something delicious. Here are the 4 most recent recipes I’ve followed that have come out really well:

• Healthy Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

It looks weird here but in reality this soup is creamy and savory and delicious and if I had some right now I’d be very happy. Sadly, the entire pot has already been demolished.

You guys. YOU GUYS. HEY YOU GUYS.

Make this soup.

For real, though. I don’t know why, but for the second time this summer I’ve grabbed my heavy red Dutch oven out of the cabinet and made soup. The first time I improvised a decent pureed veggie soup, but the above recipe is way better. In fact, this chicken and rice soup is the first large format soup we have ever completely finished!

It is hearty but light, savory, filling, and the fat free half and half was a great way to make something decadent and creamy without feeling heavy. I served it with little toasted French bread rolls and it was a great meal. I am definitely going to break this one out once we hit October.

Also, breaking news: this recipe is the first time I have successfully made a roux to thicken a soup. Mari 1, Cooking…well, more. But I’m getting there.

 

• Healthy Banana Bread

I don’t have a photo of the bread I made. All that’s left is a single slice, and it looks kind of lame and defeatist. Probably because it will be defeated, in an hour, by me while Colin is distracted. This bread is glorious.

Ironically, I’m not a big fan of bananas. They’re overly sweet, they get mushy if you don’t eat them fast enough (high maintenance!), and there are creepy black dots inside. I only buy them if I want a post-workout snack, and I only eat them when they are barely ripe. All that to say, I made this bread because Colin saw bananas at Trader Joe’s and asked for it. Unlike plain bananas, I can get down with some delicious, toasted banana bread topped with a little warm butter. Yup. I went for it.

I had to find a recipe that did not require creaming (no idea where the beater for my Kitchenaid is at the moment). I’ve gone down that road once, and hand-creaming butter and sugar together is not for the faint of heart, nor the faint of arm muscles. Anyway, since I couldn’t bear the thought of hand-creaming, the result is that I discovered a delicious banana bread recipe with no refined sugar OR butter in it. Olive oil and honey give the loaf moistness and just the right amount of sweet. I threw walnuts into half of the batter for myself (Colin dislikes walnuts in baked goods), and it came out perfectly. And thanks to the lack of butter, there isn’t that cloying aftertaste that a dense, dairy-heavy loaf sometimes provides. Big fan, will make again (probably today, since I have 2 gross, ripe bananas on my counter that I cannot stand to look at and refuse to eat plain).

 

• Garlic Cilantro Scrambled Eggs

My idea for this breakfast came from staring at a nearly empty fridge, and wondering if sticking cilantro into scrambled eggs was a thing. Turns out, it totally is, and I happened to have every item for this recipe in my fridge. The sour cream takes the eggs to a new level, and the dish is a great way to use that huge bag of cilantro you have slowly wilting in your kitchen.

I have zero photos because this was devoured as soon as it was done cooking. If you’re looking for a special breakfast that feels like it took a lot of effort, but basically uses up your leftover toppings from Taco Tuesday, try this recipe. That literally sounds like the perfect recipe for a frat boy trying to cook breakfast for a new lady friend.

FRAT BOYS THAT READ THIS BLOG: Why are you reading my blog?? Also, make these eggs, meet a nice girl, and stop doing crazy things. No one needs to see you puking out a window onto an air conditioner unit (true story).

 

• French Toast Casserole

 

Now here is a recipe I DID document. Colin randomly mentioned making French toast, and then the idea got stuck in my head to the point that we wound up at the grocery store on a Saturday morning, buying challah bread. In addition to being delicious, and covered with a crunchy brown sugar topping, it was oddly satisfying to slice up that giant loaf of bread into bite-sized chunks, hah!

The only mistake I made here was that I forgot to grease the bottom of the pan, but it cleaned up easily. And in this case, I actually decided to add more of the egg and milk mixture than what was recommended, and I think it saved the dish from becoming too dry. I had about two servings of this over the weekend, and Colin polished it off throughout the week for breakfast. Success!

If you try any of these recipes, let me know how it turns out!