5 Day Cooking Challenge
Tj and I have been in a bit of a cooking rut. Maybe it's because we've been eating out so much, or maybe it's because we both can't cook, but we found we had the same recipes on rotation and we were getting sick of them all.
It's always a bit of a challenge to cook for each other because we eat so differently. I am a vegetarian and Tj definitely is not. Neither of us are very advanced cooks. I can look through baking recipe books and watch youtube videos and pin desserts on Pintrest for days. But for proper meals, most of the time I'm good with toast or salad.
I decided to challenge myself to try a new recipe every day of the week! Well, for 5 days. Let's not get too crazy. So last Sunday morning we sat together and picked out a few recipes that we were interested in trying. The rules were that they had to be something we could both eat (or be adapted for the other person) and they had to be something we've never tried before. I've linked all the recipes below so you can see how good their pictures looked, and how mine turned out lol. Here we go...
Sunday: BLT Balsamic Chicken, Avocado and Feta Salad
After a few weeks of having visitors and eating out a lot, we were feeling the need to eat a little healthier. We decided to start off with a salad. Tj loves when I make salad. Usually it's a side for whatever he's eating, and my main dish. I lay everything out like a salad bar so we can each put whatever we want. I like lots of tomatoes and Tj doesn't like too much cheese.
We chose a BLT Balsamic Chicken, Avocado and Feta Salad that I found on Pintrest. The pictures looked so delicious! The salad probably wasn't that healthy after all the toppings, but we were really excited to try it.
Adaptations to the recipe: Tj added a bit of cucumbers and I added some apple and sunflower seeds to mine, but if I made it again I think I would add some roasted chickpeas to get some more protein
Final thoughts: Tj liked it, especially because there were a lot of leftovers. It didn't quite live up to my expectations so I don't think I would follow this specific recipe again, but I definitely feel inspired to switch up my 'salad bar' toppings.
Monday: One Tray Pasta Bake 4 Ways
The four types of pasta were: Alfredo Pasta, Garlic Primavera Pasta, Pesto Pasta, and Caprese Pasta. These pasta recipes are pretty basic. But I saw the video on Facebook and it just looked like fun! And this cooking challenge is all about finding new recipes that we like - so this is 4 recipes in one! I definitely used almost a whole roll of tinfoil trying to make the little boats. I made some, and then realised my oven and my tray are too small so I had to use 2 trays. While cooking this I accidentally hit the child lock on the oven and it shut off. I couldn't figure out why the cheese wasn't melting, and I had to bust out the manual to figure out how to turn the child lock off. Oops haha.
Adaptations to the recipe: I added bacon to Tj's portions of the Alfredo, Garlic Primavera, and Caprese pastas. That meant I had to make even more stupid tinfoil boats.
Final Thoughts: Both of our favourites was surprisingly the Garlic Primavera Pasta so I will definitely make that one again. The best part was the leftovers because everyone knows pasta is better the next day. Considering I made 4 different types of pasta, there weren't that many dishes to clean at the end!
Tuesday: Turkey Taco Burrito Bowl
Taco Tuesday! We decided to switch it up a bit and try this recipe for a Turkey Taco Burrito Bowl. I do make tacos every now and again, since ground beef is the only meat I'm not afraid of cooking. I usually mix it up for myself and put taco seasoning on veggies or beans to add to my tacos. This recipe looked good. I was a little nervous for the cilantro lime rice, but Tj and I both love cilantro so I was open minded. It was surprisingly delicious! I wanted to cheat and just use a packet of burrito spices, but in order to honor the challenge I stuck to the recipe.
Adaptations to the recipe: I made some roasted veggies to add to mine and baked some tofu to add to my bowl. The tofu was a little dry. Tj actually loved the corn with the turkey meat but said maybe next time don't add the beans.
Final thoughts: I don't know how a burrito bowl is different from a taco bowl, but I would make something similar again with the cilantro lime rice. Tj loved the leftovers.
Wednesday: Quiche
Today was actually supposed to be 'an easy chicken meal that anyone can make' recipe because as a non meat-eater I wanted to see if it was actually easy. But it was similar to one of the pastas we had, so I decided to save this for another time. At this point in the week I was pretty sick of cooking. Every day I was making a list and going to the grocery store. But I decided to stick with it. I don't know why I thought of quiche, but I've never made one before and it seemed pretty simple. And I could also use up some of the groceries we already had. I made two - one with ham and bacon and cheese for Tj, and one with spinach, feta, and tomatoes for me.
Adaptations to the recipe: Ok, so here's the interesting thing I did. I cut some potatoes into small pieces and boiled them and added them to the quiches. Sounds weird, I know, but one of our favourite Spanish dishes is Tortilla, which is a Spanish omelette with potatoes and onions. It looks like a thick quiche without a crust, and they serve it on bread, or in a baguette. Making an actual Spanish tortilla was a little ambitious for my limited skills this week, but the potatoes in the quiche actually worked really well. You should try it!
Final thoughts: It was a quick and easy meal to throw together. It took me longer to find the crust shells in the grocery store than it actually did to make the quiches. I will definitely make it again. With the potatoes lol.
Saturday: Pesto Spinach Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes
I took Thursday night off from cooking to eat some of the leftovers from the week. On Friday night we treated ourselves and went out, so Saturday we were back at it. Tj wanted the noodle dish he always makes himself, so I chose a recipe that was just for me. I'm usually not a big Quinoa fan. The only quinoa recipe I've made before that I actually liked was a quinoa lasagna. I had some almost disasters with this recipe. The first one was that I cooked the quinoa in veggie broth. This made it taste nice, but when I added the pesto and spices it was waaaaaaay too salty. I had to cook another batch of quinoa, and add some leftover plain rice before it was edible. Then when baked it the tomatoes lost their shape. Not the prettiest to look at but still tasted yummy.
Adaptations to the recipe: Lesson learned: don't cook the quinoa in broth. I added a bit of rice and stuffed a pepper along with the tomatoes to see if I liked that better. Next time I would add even more spinach.
Final thoughts: This recipe was actually quite yummy and I would definitely make this again! Tj didn't even try it *eyes roll*
Sunday: Vegan Banana Oat Baked French Toast
I made this on Sunday morning and it was such a treat! Made the house smell so yummy. It was quick and easy to make. I made two portions at once for Tj and I. I wish I made more. What I liked was that it was easy to whip together with things I already had around the house. It was a little mushy, so I think next time I would toast the bread a bit before mixing it in.
Adaptations to the recipe: I chopped some bananas in when I baked it, and sprinkled a tiny bit of cinnamon and brown sugar on the top. I ate mine with a bit of syrup, and Tj had his with ice cream!
Final thoughts: I might like this better than traditional french toast! Definitely going to have this more often. Maybe even tomorrow.
Well, this week was a lot of planning, and grocery shopping, and a few kitchen disasters. But it was a lot of fun, and we had some good meals. I think one major bonus was Tj had lots of new leftovers everyday to bring for lunch! I definitely feel like we are out of our cooking rut and feel more inspired to try new recipes. I also feel inspired to practice my photography 'skills' because it's hard to take pictures of food that look good. I should also practice plating the food better, but somedays it was hard enough holding Tj back from eating to let me take any pictures haha.
If you have any good recipes for me to try let me know!
