Trying Out a New Vegetable

When I say "trying out a new vegetable," I don't mean this vegetable just got invented ((obviously)). 

 Rather, I just haven't ever cooked this vegetable before, so the entire experience was an experiment. 

I googled some recipes and came across this one. Another recipe I found called for a much higher temperature and a shorter amount of time, but I decided to go with the "low and slow" method.

I didn't have red potatoes, so I used the regular baking potatoes that I had on hand. I cubed them up, added some sliced onions, and halved the brussel sprouts. I had to thaw the chicken in the microwave first (*make sure if you ever thaw something in the microwave that you cook it immediately afterwards) and then instead of marinating in the balsamic vinegar, I just rubbed the vinegar all over it and stuck it in the bottom of the pan with some olive oil. 

The vegetables got a good amount of salt, pepper, oregano, thyme and olive oil. 

The chicken cooked at 325 for 15 minutes on their own first, then the veggies were added to the top and the rest cooked for another 45 minutes.

 

The verdict? The chicken was cooked perfectly, could have used some more seasoning probably (I forgot to salt and pepper it) but the vegetables were slightly underdone. Next time, I think I would roast the vegetables on a sheet tray by themselves.

 

For dessert, we had leftover dessert from steak night. 

I've recently been learning the value of a quality piece of meat.

My extremely talented chef of a boyfriend is allowing me to share with you his secrets of cooking the perfect steak. He was recently given a cast-iron skillet and that piece of kitchen equipment did wonders for these pieces of meat.

First, get the skillet really hot. Salt and pepper the steak. Melt some of the fat off of the steak in the skillet. Sear the sides of the steak and then cook on each side for 1-2 minutes. But he wants me to give the disclaimer that he can't really give an exact time, because truly he just has to "feel it" to know when it's done.

As much crap as I give him for all the build-up...

it was a pretty dang good steak.

And for dessert that night we had oreo pudding pie. At the time we ate it, it was still a little soft and the cuts weren't quite as nice as in the below picture (when it had been in the freezer overnight). 

I kind of made up my own recipe for this one..

 

1 package cookies n cream pudding pie mix

mixed with 1.5 cups skim milk

(stir that together for about 2 minutes until it's nice and thick)

Fold in 1 8 oz container of whipped topping (I used fat free)

And pour into an oreo cookie crust. 

Let set in freezer for as long as you can before the meal. Ours only got about 45 minutes in there before we dug in. 

Oops!

And for anyone who is interested... the nutrition information!

 

You'll notice the most caloric and fatty part of the dessert was the crust! Might be surprising to some people, since it's so thin, but sure enough, by dropping the crust and having this pudding-esque dessert in a bowl, we could have saved 100 calories and 5g fat per serving. That would have brought each serving down to 140 calories and 1 g of fat! Not bad for a dessert that certainly tastes indulgent.