Why I Set This Goal: 52 Recipes

Cooking for me actually does go back a little ways, even though it only recently that I really started enjoying it as much as I do. I think it mostly started when my brothers and I would argue every Sunday about whose turn it was to choose and make the dessert that week (it got pretty heated sometimes...no pun intended).

After Luisa and I got married, we found out that we really enjoyed cooking together. Part of it was probably just that both of us really love good food. We probably spend money more often on good food than on many other things...I guess that's just the priorities that we have.  But it adds another level when you've cooked the food yourself.

Another cool thing about cooking is that you get to know exactly what is in the food you are putting in your mouth. Now, I have never been a huge health nut. Before I got married, my staple foods in college were probably canned chili, eggs, and cereal (don't worry, I never mixed them together). For me, the important thing was always that as long as it tastes good, it doesn't matter what is in it. I've been really blessed to not have any problems with my weight (Luisa would actually prefer that I put on a few extra pounds) and also been blessed to have a pretty athletic body, without having to pay any special attention to my diet - I probably mostly have my mom to thank for that, though. But I just want to say that I never really cared about how healthy I was eating.

Luisa and I had a lot of conversations about that topic after we got married. She comes from a family that knows a lot about nutrition and where eating healthy is very important. Granted, Germany has a lot less processed and artificially manipulated foods than the US anyway. Part of it was also that the Word of Wisdom talks about eating healthy (for those of you that aren't LDS, the Word of Wisdom is a set of dietary guidelines that we follow; most people know about how Mormons don't drink alcohol, smoke, or drink coffee or black tea, but it also give guidelines about eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, and eating meat sparingly, for example. These things weren't as obvious in the 1800s when we believe Joseph Smith received that revelation). So after a little while I guess it started to rub off on me (although I'm not willing to give up my sugary breakfast cereals yet). It's kind of weird to me that a lot of fatty, unhealthy foods just don't taste good to me anymore - recently I couldn't even finish a Costco polish sausage, and today I had trouble finishing a bowl of that Nalley chili that I ate so often in high school and college. I tried a box of Kraft mac and cheese over Christmas break...couldn't finish that either. I'm actually really thankful that Luisa helped me out in this way.

So my point in explaining all that is that it is nice to be able to cook and choose what is in the food I am eating.

I still didn't really realize that I enjoy cooking so much until Luisa got pregnant and almost literally couldn't leave her bed for about three months. In that case it was kind of a choice between starving to death, eating microwavable dinners every day (not much better), grabbing Chinese take-out every day, or getting in the kitchen and cooking. I decided to start cooking and started to really enjoy it. Even after Luisa started feeling better, I didn't stop cooking, I just started cooking with her.

At the beginning of this year I was thinking about what I would like to accomplish this year and thought about wanting to cook a bigger variety of foods, since sometimes we get caught in a rut, eating the same stuff over and over again. Partly inspired by a friend who set a similar goal, I decided that I wanted to try a new recipe every week of the year (this friend also set a goal to read 52 books and finish 52 home projects, but I don't think I would survive that right now).

Since I thought maybe someone else would be interested in the recipes I try, I decided to make this blog to report on which ones worked, what I did to change them a little bit, and what I would do differently the next time. I'm definitely far from being some amazing chef, but I have to say, some of these recipes have turned out dang good. Enjoy!

Week 7: Roasted Salmon with Shallot Grapefruit Sauce (plus Dessert)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/roasted-salmon-with-shallot-grapefruit-sauce-recipe.html

I was really in the mood for salmon so I thought I would give this a try. I planned on just straight up following the recipe this time but in the end there was not nearly enough sauce, so I ended up pouring in a little grapefruit juice. The problem was that I had already added in the grapefruit sections, so instead of staying as big pieces they broke down into just pulp since I had to reheat the sauce.

The asparagus was definitely a big success! Just sauteed it in some olive oil and added some chopped garlic, in all it took just about 6-7 minutes. It was the perfect texture and tasted amazing!

Josh's Rating: 3/5

I think the biggest problem was, like I mentioned, the fact that I had to add some grapefruit juice to the sauce, which probably messed with the sweet/bitter ratio a little bit. It had some good flavor but it kind of tasted weird with the fish. Don't know if I would make this again.

Luisa's Rating: 2.5/5

It ended up being a little too acidic and not really enough flavor. It was a nice idea and it tasted good, but not perfect.

Dessert: Simple Baked Apples

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Baked-Apples/

I thought I would try baking a dessert, too, and I really love apple desserts (my Aunt Lynne, for example, makes the most amazing apple pie I have ever tasted). So I thought I would look for a quick easy recipe and found this one.

I only put in a tablespoon of sugar instead of a half cup and I just mixed everything up in a big Ziploc bag. There is probably a better way to go about it, since the flour ended up not distributing very evenly. I only left it in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Josh's Rating: 3.5/5

It was a solid dessert that was definitely enjoyable but it wasn't anything special. Of course, for the small amount of work it took it was definitely nice to have a tasty dessert. The other cool thing is that it is pretty healthy...at least before adding ice cream ;)

Luisa's Rating: 2.5/5

I didn't like how the flour was clumped in some places, which ended up being kind of slimy. It would have been better if it had had some sort of crunchy aspect to it.

Week 6: Red Lentil Curry

This time I actually thought to take a picture before eating it











http://allrecipes.com/recipe/red-lentil-curry/

We love lentils, especially red lentils (a good lentil soup is delicious). So when I was looking for a recipe that had red lentils, I saw this recipe and thought, since the last curry dish worked out so well, maybe I'll try it again. We had Karsten over for dinner tonight so he's adding his own comments, too.

We went to an Indian grocery store in Orem and got some curry paste, some cardamom, and some frozen garlic naan bread. While we were there, the lady who owned the store recommended tossing a cinnamon stick and some cardamom in the oil for a little bit to infuse it with some flavor before adding any of the other ingredients.

I also mixed up the spices and cooked them separately in some oil before adding them to the onions, along with some fresh tomatoes. I also added about a pound of cut up chicken after adding the spices. The lentils only took about 10 minutes, but I just left the lid on and they stayed warm without getting mushy. I also added a little extra tomato sauce to balance out the spiciness.

I forgot to put the rice on in the beginning so we ended up just eating it with boil-in-the-bag rice, since it went faster. We also had some fresh pineapple and the frozen garlic naan.

Josh's Rating: 3.5/5

          One thing for sure, I will leave out the chili powder next time, because the recipe was already super spicy without it. That being said, this tasted pretty good, especially with the naan bread. I thought that having lentils and rice would take away too much liquid but it ended up being just the right consistency.

Luisa's Rating: 3.5/5

          It was really good, even though it was so spicy. I loved to eat lentils in a different way than just in a soup. I didn't think mixing the rice and the lentils was a problem at all. Adding the pineapple was also good. If it was a little less spicy, it would be easier to taste all the different flavors.

Karsten's Rating: 4/5

           I love spicy food, and I just really liked this dish. It was a good blend of spices and flavors and tasted great with the naan. There was "naan left" when I was done.

Week 5: Chicken Parmesan

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-parmesan-recipe.html

We had my old roommate and his wife over for dinner and I thought I would try out this recipe, since I had been thinking about wanting to make chicken parmesan for a while. I also wanted to find a recipe that didn't use breaded chicken, since it's pretty unhealthy and I was never really good at getting breaded stuff to stay crispy.

Another fun thing about this recipe was making the tomato sauce from scratch instead of just using a jar of premade sauce. We also bought a couple basil plants so it was cool to use basil from our own plants.

The only real change I made was to omit the butter on the chicken.

Served it on top of penne pasta and with a fresh garden salad.

We also had plenty of sauce leftover that we were able to freeze to use another time.

Josh's Rating: 3.5/5

          This was a nice, solid tasty recipe. The sauce definitely turned out really tasty. Nothing that blew me away but definitely worth making again.

Luisa's Rating: 3/5

          I like it better when the parmesan is crispier. I think I've had better chicken parmesan before, but I think that it's just because the recipe was so simple.

Week 4: Curried Coconut Chicken

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Curried-Coconut-Chicken/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

We love going to Bombay House here in Provo and I thought I would try out some Indian food, although it seemed kind of intimidating, to be honest.

We spend a little extra on an Indian curry at the grocery store, since Luisa is a little picky when it comes to curry (it's hard to find good curry here compared to the curry in Germany). Inspired by the coconut curry at Bombay House, we also grabbed some golden raisins and some unsalted cashews to add to it.

Following some of the reviews, I made a couple edits to the recipe. I started by cooking the curry powder in some oil for a couple minutes, then adding the onions and the spices. After the onions are glassy, add some fresh tomatoes instead of stewed tomatoes later. Then added the chicken and followed the recipe the rest of the way, adding the raisins and cashews about 10 minutes before it's done. It took a long time to reduce but it worked out really well.

Ate it with black rice from Costco (the black rice is amazing).

Josh's Rating: 4.8/5

          This tasted absolutely amazing! Definitely the best food I have ever cooked. Next time I will leave out just a little bit of sugar but otherwise I wouldn't change a thing. It had just the perfect amount of spiciness for me and the raisins and cashews were a great addition.

Luisa's Rating: 4.9/5

          It was delicious. I love the sweet and the spicy. It was just plain good.

Week 3: Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/five-ingredient-recipes/parmesan-crusted-tilapia

We really like fish and tilapia is a pretty easy fish to cook. The only thing is that it definitely needs some good seasoning.

I added a little bit to the recipe and the changes worked out really nicely. I chopped some garlic and sauteed it in the oil before pouring the oil over the fish. Also, following some of the reviews on the recipe, I added some lemon pepper and basil to the parmesan mix. I also made sure that there was enough parmesan to completely coat each side of the fish. At the end of baking, I also broiled the fish for about 4 minutes.

Note to self: Always make sure fish is completely thawed before cooking. The first time I tried this the fish was almost raw in the middle and we had to microwave it before really eating it...embarrassing. But the second time it turned out perfect!

Ate it with a side of broccoli and cauliflower.

Josh's Rating: 4.5/5

          This tasted amazing! There was a lot of flavor and the fish (the second time) was perfectly done. Definitely adding to the list of fall back recipes.

Luisa's Rating: 4/5

          Luisa would have liked to have it a little longer under the broiler so the crust would be a little crispier. But the contrast of the soft fish and the crust was great. Would have maybe been good to have some sort of sauce, but it did have a lot of great flavor.

Week 2: Chicken Thighs with Orange Sauce

http://southernfood.about.com/od/bakedchicken/r/r100226a.htm

I had tried making orange chicken toward the beginning of our marriage and it didn't turn out well at all. But I thought I would just give it another try with this recipe.

We always just buy a big bag of Costco chicken tenderloins, so most of the recipes I try will use those instead. This ended up working out pretty well, but only needed about 10 minutes to bake. Had a side of rice and green and yellow beans.

Josh's Rating: 3.5/5

          The big problem with this recipe is that it was extremely sweet because of the orange juice concentrate. Next time I will use less brown sugar and see if I can find a good substitute for the orange juice concentrate. It definitely tasted a lot better than the last time we tried orange chicken, though.

Luisa's Rating: 3.5/5

          It was good, but it was too sweet. Maybe changing it up a bit, using less sugar would help.

Week 1: Slow-Cooker Creamy Herbed Chicken Stew

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/slow-cooker-creamy-herbed-chicken-stew-cooking-for-2/09b16f5f-43e0-4589-9c1e-b896dee5cf79

When we flew to my family's for Christmas, I had to come home a week earlier than Luisa because I had to go back to work. I wanted her to be able to come home to a clean apartment and have dinner ready, since it would already be fairly late and I knew that it would be stressful flying with Jonah. Since I was picking everyone up from the airport, I thought it would be good to find a crockpot meal that could continue cooking while I was driving.

This looked delicious and fairly easy, so I decided to give it a try as new recipe #1.

In the end I basically followed the recipe, but instead of chicken thighs I just used pieces of chicken breast, and I substituted frozen peas for the pea pods.

Josh's Rating: 4/5

          I thought it tasted really good but it felt like something was missing. Definitely worth making again, though.

Luisa's Rating: 3/5

          Luisa liked the stew for the most part but she doesn't really like cream, so this kind of sauce wasn't really her thing. Since you don't have to add the sauce until the end, I'll just not add any of the creamy sauce to hers.