Cook Book Challenge Week #1

Appetite for Reduction
Last Night's Menu: Chipotle Lentil Burgers
Tonight's Menu: Classic Black Bean & Veggie Chili and Fresh Corn & Scallion Corn Bread

Chipotle Lentil Burger pre Pita

Yesterday was the perfect day for chili-- cold, snowy and windy (Chad even had a snow day!), but instead of having soup two days in a row, we opted for the lentil burgers.  Also, since Chad's basketball game was canceled and I had nothing after school, we had plenty of time to make dinner together-- yay!  Skipping the chili was no mistake... these burgers were AMAZING!  I love everything southwestern, so these were perfect for me.  We followed the recipe almost exactly, except we skipped the zucchini.  Buying zucchini in the winter is a sad thing-- it's always small and waxy.  I was worried about the texture, but they stayed together well and (since I haven't made them before) I didn't even miss the zucchini.  We served them with avocado, cherry tomatoes, cilantro and lettuce inside of a pita.  P.S. Today I made sure Chad read and reread the recipe to only include ONLY 1/4 c chipotle peppers!

swirl of Tuffuti and sprinkle of Daiya

Tonight's dinner was Classic Black Bean & Veggie Chili with a side of Fresh Corn & Scallion Corn Bread.  I followed the recipes pretty closely, but made a few adjustments to the chili.  Mainly, I didn't have zucchini (again) so I skipped it and added chopped broccoli and some leftover mashed sweet potato (from Monday).  Chad loves chili and I'm always up for another recipe, so we were looking forward to tonight's dinner.  The chili turned out great, the seasoning was just right and it was just chunky enough.  The cornbread, on the other hand, didn't turn out quite as expected.  I don't know if my corn was not completely thawed or I mixed it too much, but it had more of a spoon bread texture.  I couldn't cut it into the cute triangles that Isa suggested, rather we had to plop it onto our plates.  It still tasted okay and went well with chili, but I'll have to do some more experimenting with this one.  

After making 5 new recipes from "Appetite for Reduction," my favorite thing (other than the fonts in the book!) is the amount of veggies in each recipe.  The soups and the burgers were loaded with a variety fresh veggies and a few canned for ease.  Also, the two biscuit recipes I made called for whole wheat flour.  Everything was fairly quick and easy to make, and super tasty.  I can see all of these recipes finding their way into our usual rotation!

On to the next...