Occasional Cooker
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Member Since: May 2002
Cooking Level: Intermediate
Cooking Interests: Baking, Slow Cooking, Mexican, Italian, Southern, Mediterranean, Healthy, Quick & Easy
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Balsamic Green Beans by Saveur631
About this Cook
I am a working woman married to a wonderful man for over 20 years and mom to a yellow labrador retriever named Rosie. I took up cooking later in life to try to help my family to eat healthier.
My favorite things to cook
I love to cook foods with lots of flavor which sometimes means spicy but not necessarily. I also like to use marinades to add flavor. We like Asian, Cajun, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican, and Southern dishes.
My favorite family cooking traditions
Growing up the kids generally did not participate in the cooking. My father did much of the cooking. Therefore, it was a lot of meat and potatoes. He made some excellent Texas style BBQ such as brisket and barbecue chicken.
My cooking triumphs
I consider it a triumph if I can make a recipe healthier and delicious so my husband does not realize it is healthy. Some triumphs include my "Kickin' Turkey Burgers, Asian Lettuce Wraps, and Braised Balsamic Chicken from this site.
My cooking tragedies
I have made several attempts to make desserts, such as cake, healthier and have not had as much luck with many of these. Whole cakes have gone in the trash after only one serving.
Recipe Reviews 58 reviews
Thai Style Chicken Pasta
This was very good with a few slight modifications to ingredient amounts. I was looking for a recipe to use what I had on hand and this recipe fit the bill for most of the ingredients. First, as I didn't have dried red chili peppers, I used about 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper. As I like a medium spice level I could have used more crushed red pepper. I also used ground ginger instead of fresh since I didn't have any fresh. Lastly I tripled the amounts of the soy sauce, lemon juice, and white wine and probably should have increased it more. I served it with diced red, yellow, and green bell peppers and whole wheat shell pasta. Next time I want to try it with the dried red chili peppers and the fresh ginger as I think that would make it better. However, 1/2 tsp grated FRESH ginger is a very small amount. Next time I would probably triple that amount as well and quadruple the amounts of the soy sauce, lemon juice, and white wine.

2 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Jan. 29, 2012
Lizzy's Creamy Chicken Bake
5 Stars with tweaks. This is a great choice for an easy base recipe for a quick weeknight dinner. Since we like lots of flavor and spices I did tweak the recipe some to use what I had on hand instead of going to the store and to tweak it for our tastes. First since I didn't have seasoned salt, I sprinkled a little of each black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne on the chicken before browning it. For the sauce I used a healthy request cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken since I had it on hand. However, next time I would use cream of chicken soup because I thought the mushroom flavor was a little too strong. I used fat free sour cream and my hubby thought it tasted like a restaurant style full fat sauce. He didn't think it tasted like it had any low fat substitutions in it. Since I didn't want the sauce to taste solely like onion dip, I added a packege of dry zesty Italian Dressing seasoning mix and a splash of white wine. I served the chicken and sauce over pasta with roasted red, green, and yellow bell peppers. It was delicious. I will make this again.

1 user found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Jan. 26, 2012
Turkey and Quinoa Meatloaf
This was very good meatloaf. The texture was perfect and it was nicely spiced. I followed the recipe with the exception of subbing ketchup for the tomato paste (because I didn't want to open a can of tomato paste for only 1 TBL) and I used Montreal Steak Seasoning instead of salt and pepper. As we like spicy bold flavors next time I will probably follow other reviewers recommendations to add bbq sauce to give it a little bolder flavor.

1 user found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Jan. 22, 2012
 
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