Saturday, February 6, 2010
Diana: All on her own
Thursday night I (Diana) made the ez tomato-basil chicken (200 under 200, pg. 138, 175 cal). Highly recommend it. Very easy. I actually used a can of crushed tomatoes with italian dressing because I couldn't find the basil kind. It was great. I also tossed some Italian seasoning and basil seasoning on top before baking. You will need to make some side to go along with it for a meal. Matthew thinks it would be better with two big slices of Mozzarella cheese.
First aid, Fire Alarms and Chaos Galore!!!
Dishes used: 21
Fire Alarms: 1
Fingers burnt: 1 thumb
Igniting Stovetop Flames: 1
Matt's Annoyance Level: 4
Well, let's just say it was an interesting Hungry Girl Evening. Once again, we set off the smoke alarm. (Last time we did it while making the Fries). I burned my thumb when attempting to flip hash browns in a skillet. Hash browns don't flip. Diana almost set me on fire when she discovered the flammable properties of cooking spray. And Matthew looked at us in annoyance when he had to once again clear the smoke from the apartment.
Now I am sure you are wondering what recipes could possibly lead to such an eventful evening. We'll tell you: Snazzy Spanish Omelette, Butternut Hash Browns, and Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins.
Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 278, 127 calories per serving) This was the only recipe that didn't give us any trouble. Everything worked out according to the directions except we did have enough to make 6 muffins instead of 4. Perhaps if you dice the apples instead of cutting them into cubes like we did, it will make the 4 serving recipe. They were good, nonetheless. We would recommend using foil muffin cups instead of paper cups.
Snazzy Spanish Omelette: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 60, 191 calories per serving) The sauce is simple to make but we felt we didn't need such a large portion. We would recommend adding some of the veggies to the omelette mixture instead of the sauce. Diana says she wouldn't even bother with the sauce. She would put all of the veggies in the omelette and just put the two tablespoons of salsa on top. So this was a fairly simple recipe. Of course we had an omelette pan that Diana's mother left behind on accident. It might be more difficult if you don't have an omelette pan.
Diana's advice: If you have a gas stove, don't spray the aerosol cooking spray near the open flame. You just might set your best friend on fire or at the very least scare the crap out of her.
We would also like to point out that one serving could actually feed two. This makes for one large omelette.
Butternut Hash Browns: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 92, 104 calories per serving) This was the most eventful and challenging recipe of the evening. Perhaps, in hindsight, we should have throughly read the recipe before we began. We missed the "tip" on shredding the butternut squash with a cheese grater. We used a vegetable peeler. It didn't affect the taste but it probably would have assisted with the ease in other parts of the recipe. We also discovered that you should attempt to make 3 recipes at a time or 3 servings at a time. You really need to do one serving at a time if you want to the recipe following the directions written in the book. After setting off the smoke alarm and burning my thumb while attempting to flip 3 servings of hash browns in a skillet, we decided to put it all into a pyrex dish and bake it in the oven. Diana set the oven at 350 degrees while I tended to my now blistering thumb. We baked it around 7 minutes--after we had already cooked a portion of it on the stove. So maybe bake it for 5 minutes, flip it, and bake for another 5 minutes.
Even though the recipe made for an interesting evening, it did taste like real hash browns. This is something I personally might try to do again to see if I can perfect it.
Fire Alarms: 1
Fingers burnt: 1 thumb
Igniting Stovetop Flames: 1
Matt's Annoyance Level: 4
Well, let's just say it was an interesting Hungry Girl Evening. Once again, we set off the smoke alarm. (Last time we did it while making the Fries). I burned my thumb when attempting to flip hash browns in a skillet. Hash browns don't flip. Diana almost set me on fire when she discovered the flammable properties of cooking spray. And Matthew looked at us in annoyance when he had to once again clear the smoke from the apartment.
Now I am sure you are wondering what recipes could possibly lead to such an eventful evening. We'll tell you: Snazzy Spanish Omelette, Butternut Hash Browns, and Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins.
Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 278, 127 calories per serving) This was the only recipe that didn't give us any trouble. Everything worked out according to the directions except we did have enough to make 6 muffins instead of 4. Perhaps if you dice the apples instead of cutting them into cubes like we did, it will make the 4 serving recipe. They were good, nonetheless. We would recommend using foil muffin cups instead of paper cups.
Snazzy Spanish Omelette: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 60, 191 calories per serving) The sauce is simple to make but we felt we didn't need such a large portion. We would recommend adding some of the veggies to the omelette mixture instead of the sauce. Diana says she wouldn't even bother with the sauce. She would put all of the veggies in the omelette and just put the two tablespoons of salsa on top. So this was a fairly simple recipe. Of course we had an omelette pan that Diana's mother left behind on accident. It might be more difficult if you don't have an omelette pan.
Diana's advice: If you have a gas stove, don't spray the aerosol cooking spray near the open flame. You just might set your best friend on fire or at the very least scare the crap out of her.
We would also like to point out that one serving could actually feed two. This makes for one large omelette.
Butternut Hash Browns: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 92, 104 calories per serving) This was the most eventful and challenging recipe of the evening. Perhaps, in hindsight, we should have throughly read the recipe before we began. We missed the "tip" on shredding the butternut squash with a cheese grater. We used a vegetable peeler. It didn't affect the taste but it probably would have assisted with the ease in other parts of the recipe. We also discovered that you should attempt to make 3 recipes at a time or 3 servings at a time. You really need to do one serving at a time if you want to the recipe following the directions written in the book. After setting off the smoke alarm and burning my thumb while attempting to flip 3 servings of hash browns in a skillet, we decided to put it all into a pyrex dish and bake it in the oven. Diana set the oven at 350 degrees while I tended to my now blistering thumb. We baked it around 7 minutes--after we had already cooked a portion of it on the stove. So maybe bake it for 5 minutes, flip it, and bake for another 5 minutes.
Even though the recipe made for an interesting evening, it did taste like real hash browns. This is something I personally might try to do again to see if I can perfect it.
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