Thursday, January 17, 2013

The Month of Cooking Light - Week 1

In an effort to eat healthier, I declared January the month of Cooking Light.  For the entire month, any time we eat a dinner at home, it has to be out of Cooking Light magazine.  On a given week, we normally have one or two CL recipes, but we also have one or two nights of lazy cooking that usually ends up in a tasty but not super healthy meal.  

Admittedly, I was a little slow with this resolution (as I was with my other goals), so I didn't get started until last week.  For that reason, I'll keep this going through the Super Bowl to round out a full month.  Here's a recap of our first week's recipes, along with my reviews and notes.

Monday, January 7 - Jerk Chicken and Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers
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I'd give this recipe a solid "A."  Lots of flavor, and the bell peppers are super yummy (though a little messy to make).  The only drawback is that I can't seem to make this dish without leaving a mountain of dirty pots and pans in my wake.

Tuesday, January 8 - Grilled Chicken Florentine Pasta
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I loved this pasta.  It tastes kind of like a rich cream-based sauce but is so much healthier.  Plus, I even substituted the whole milk for skim milk, mostly because I have never purchased whole milk and never have it around.  It reheated the next day really well, too!

Wednesday, January 8 - Loaded Potato Soup
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Billy made this, so I can't really comment on the ease or difficulty of preparing it.  It was surprisingly flavorful, but it didn't really reheat well the following day.

Thursday, January 9 - Maple-Soy Chicken Thighs
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Of this week's recipes, this is the one I'd be least likely to make again.  For as yummy as maple syrup and orange juice are, they didn't seem to make the chicken very strongly flavored.  I was also missing the dark sesame oil, so I substituted some olive oil and toasted sesame seeds.  I don't know how large of an impact that had on the flavor, but it definitely resulted in the chicken being a lighter color than in the picture above.  I honestly think this tasted better as a reheated dish than it did as a fresh one.  If I were super organized, I'd probably use this marinade for grilled chicken to be added to a salad; I'm just  not convinced this chicken has enough flavor to stand on its own as a main entree.

That covers all of the dinners we had at home that week!  Which of the recipes appeal the most to you?  Any Cooking Light recipe recommendations you care to send my way?

Jill

6 comments:

  1. I love Cooking Light! They have such amazing recipes!

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  2. Wow these look great! Did you find that you had to spend more on groceries to get all the ingredients?

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    1. Actually, not at all! A lot of the recipes call for stuff that I try to keep around in general like chicken broth, chicken, milk, flour, shredded cheese, and so on. Plus, it seems like CL repeats a decent number of ingredients recipe to recipe, so even if I only used a tablespoon of cider vinegar, for example, I'm confident it will come in handy in a future dinner.

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    2. I've been cooking a few CL recipes lately and I find that I only have to run to the store to grab two or three things, which is rare for me!

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