Thursday, April 8, 2010

Today's Recipes:

(also from the Weight Watcher's site)

Mexican Flavored Edamame

Ingredients:
* 5 1/3 oz frozen edamame, shelled, about 1/3 of a 16 oz bag
* 1 1/2 tsp sea salt, or less to taste
* 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions:
1) Place a small saucepan filled with water over high heat. Add edamame to pan and bring to a boil; boil for 3 minutes and drain. Place edamame in a serving bowl and set aside.
2) To make seasoning, mix together sea salt, chili powder, ground cumin and cayenne pepper in a cup; toss with edamame until well-coated. Yields about 1/3 cup per serving.


Minted Zucchini-Cherry Tomato Saute

Ingredients:
* 1 tsp olive oil
* 3 medium zucchini, diced
* 1 medium garlic clove, minced
* 1 cup cherry tomatoes, or about 10, halved
* 1/3 tsp table salt
* 1/8 tsp black pepper
* 2 tbsp mint leaves, chopped

Instructions:
In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil. Saute zucchini and garlic until zucchini is tender-crisp, 1-2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, salt and pepper; saute until tomatoes are heated through, about 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in mint.


My Thoughts:

I'm so glad that I love edamame and tomatoes, I pretty much know that these recipes will be hits. The only concern I have is for the tomato saute. Nowhere in the instructions does it say what level I should heat things (medium, high, low) so I will have to play it by ear, which is not good for a new cook. I need someone to hold my hand!

These both seem easy, but that is the point. I'm easing into this cooking thing, and if I have to start with frozen vegetables and sautes, well, that's fine with me. Hurray, I'm cooking!

My least favorite part of cooking (well, of anything, really) is the cleanup. The cleanup for last night's recipe was pretty minimal, most of it was dishwasher-safe, so I just threw out the onion peels and loaded the dishwasher. Very simple cleanup!

2 comments:

Anne King said...

I've made the mexican flavoured edamame before... but with beans and chickpeas, it was really good.. big hit with my hubby too :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Leah,

YAY for cooking. I share my recipes on my Facebook business page, Julie's Healthy Living, so I know a little bit about the subject. I've spent 15 years on and off in the food industry so I might be able to help. I realize that this post was a few days ago, but you can use it for future reference.

For sauteing vegetables:
First heat the dry skillet over a medium-high setting. THEN add the oil. You should never add oil to a cold pan. As the pan heats it will burn the oil. If you wait until the pan is already hot, no burnt oil. Also when cooking over a high heat you want to use a canola, sesame or other nut oil. Olive oil will become rancid at high heat and muck up the quality of the finished product. Depending on the vegetables you saute anywhere from 5-8 minutes until they are cooked and crisp tender. Hope this helps. :)