On a healthier kick…
I can’t finish a regular book to save my life, but I read cookbooks constantly. Normally, I have about five I’m looking through at any given time and my sidebar obsession tracker usually lists at least three. But every now and again I’ll get completely obsessed with just one. Right now, it’s Food Network’s Ellie Krieger’s The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life. I found I’m not the only one taking notice of this book, there’s a new blogging group that recently formed called Craving Ellie In My Belly or “CEiMB” for short that is tackling one recipe a week from The Food You Crave.
What I like about this book is that it’s all food I would pretty much normally eat, just done in a healthier way and not made up of any weird ingredients. The weirdest things are probably Pearl Barley and Buckwheat Flour and those aren’t even weird. Who doesn’t want to eat a little bit healthier if it really isn’t that much of a sacrifice, ya know? This past Friday night at my co-worker’s party, the Wii said I was slightly overweight. Just a smidge over the normal line. So it’s time to whip myself back into shape, baby! The great thing is that this is the one cookbook of mine the boyfriend has gone through and said “that sounds good… this sounds good… that sounds good…” so it’s great to have him on board with me trying some of this stuff out for our dinners. Normally all I ever hear is “eh” from him.
The first thing I made from the book was the Stuffed Turkey Burgers and they were excellent. I highly recommend them. Those got me on a lean ground turkey kick and since I found it so cheap at the store this week I wanted to try Mom’s Turkey Meatloaf next. The CEiMB group had already done this meatloaf and looking through their posts in my reader I found it had gotten pretty decent reviews from most. And Food Network members give it four stars out of five. The interesting thing about this recipe is the addition of quick cooking oatmeal as the binding ingredient. That sort of surprised me and when all was said and done, you couldn’t even tell it was in there. The only change I made was using leftover jarred Roasted Red Peppers from the turkey burgers instead of fresh. Everything else was followed to the letter.
I also made Smashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives that are pictured alongside the meatloaf in the book. These were really good also. The potatoes are steamed over boiling water which was a new technique for me at home. Not too much to say, they were super easy and tasted pretty good. The only changes I made were using dried chives instead of fresh and guesstimating what 1 1/4 pounds of little baby potatoes would be instead of using big ones.
I really should have showed a picture of the inside of the meatloaf but I was hungry and wanted to eat. My bad. I definitely would make both of these again. I’m really looking forward to trying out some more of the recipes. I already got stuff from the store to make a few more things this week. Check back to see how they turn out!
Links:
Smashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives Recipe
Mom’s Turkey Meatloaf Recipe
Stuffed Turkey Burgers Recipe
