All the notes from my kitchen, including the Barefoot Contessa recipe reviews, my original recipes, herbal recipes, and more.
On Friday, I made this wonderful soup that tasted so yummy. An added bonus? It’s vegan! This soup is a wonderful soup to make because its essentially a one-pot meal. It has veggies, grains, and proteins all in one recipe! It will definitely save you some time in the kitchen while also ticking off some nutrient requirements.
Continue reading “Hearty Vegetable Quinoa Soup”
Even though this is an Ina Garten cook-through blog, I have been broadening my recipe stash and blog posts since the beginning of 2021. Every so often I take a break from Ina’s recipes and when I do, I try to go plant-based. Over the years, I’ve toyed with going vegetarian or full-on vegan. As of yet, that has yet to happen…just look at a few recipe reviews posts.
However, I am still trying to include more plants in my diet on a regular basis. Thus, I have amassed a collection of cookbooks — both in print and on my Kindle e-reader — that have come in handy over the last couple of months.
Below, I have included photos of some of my favorites. You’ll notice that many of them are “general cookbooks.” The huge tomes that cover the gambit. Think Joy of Cooking but for plant eaters!
This book was one of the first vegetarian cookbooks I purchased! It is still a great reference and resource for me. Plus with Bittman’s extensive knowledge of all types of culinary escapades, I feel good making one of these recipes since I can trust them.
This book has a much different tone than that of Mark Bittman’s book. The author’s humor and love for food easily comes across on each page. There are some great recipes in here, and Dragonwagon’s approach to plant-based meals is much more loosey-goosey than other authors. This makes it a great book for beginners!
I call this one the “Vegan Bible.” It literally has every recipe you could ever want as a vegan. I highly recommend this book, especially since many of the recipes are approachable, even for those starting out on a vegan journey. If you are looking to buy a vegan cookbook, make it this one!
Some books that I have on my Kindle e-reader include:
Love Real Food by Kathryne Taylor, the creator of the food blog Cookie + Kate. It has many wonderful recipes that are whole food and plant-based. One added benefit is many of them include ways in which to make the recipe vegan or gluten free.
American’s Test Kitchen The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook by the Chefs at America’s Test Kitchen. While I know that the Mediterranean Diet is not vegetarian or vegan, it is plant-based. It uses animal protein to supplement the plant-based proteins. Even if you ignore the meat-based chapters, there are still some wonderful, tried and true recipes in this book!
I hope you enjoyed this peek into a small section of my cookbook shelf.
Until next time…
This week I am planning to move away from Ina Garten when it comes to my weekly Friday cooking. As of this moment, I am planning to make a vegetarian dish. Probably a soup. It seems like this time of year, my family enjoys having soup in the house on the weekends.
But the question remains….what soup?
This recipe can be found in Foolproof, page 53.
Last Friday was really cold! Like really, really cold. Mother Nature was definitely preparing us for more than a foot of snow we got on Monday. But, with the colder weather on Friday, I decided that a soup would be the perfect dinner. Of course, I made an Ina soup!
Continue reading “Barefoot Contessa Recipe #30: Winter Minestrone and Garlic Bruschetta”Does anyone else like spiral-bound cookbooks? Personally, I love them! I think they hold up much better than hardcover, and especially softcover ones. It’s a shame that they aren’t printed more often. I guess I’m in the minority on this opinion. After all, publishing is a business.
So I know earlier in the week I posted how on Friday I was planning to switch things up a bit and make something out of the Gourmet Today cookbook. However, sometimes plans change and the weather in southern New England today calls for a hearty soup. So, I’m back to making an Ina recipe. I’ll be making Winter Minestrone & Garlic Bruschetta out of Foolproof. I can’t wait to try this recipe since I am a big fan of minestrone soups in general. They’re so hearty. Especially in the winter.
This recipe can be found in Cook Like a Pro, page 164.
Last Friday I made dinner for the family. The main course consisted of Lemon Chicken Breasts. The vegetable was a beautiful and simple broccoli dish that I think will be a common recipe in my household from now on.
Roasted Broccoli with Panko Gremolata adds a bit of flair to what may otherwise be a boring broccoli dish. The toasted panko crumbs with the lemon and garlic flavor really shines and adds a much needed taste-boost to the broccoli.
Often times, Ina comments on how after she discovered roasting vegetables and the flavor it brings out, she fell in love with preparing them that way. I have to say that I agree. There have been a few recipes on this blog that have the vegetables roasted and I am always impressed with the results.
I will admit that I should have let the gremolata mixture “toast” for a few more minutes prior to serving, but the chicken was already done baking, and people were hungry. Myself included! You live and learn, right?
This recipe can be found in Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? on page 120.
Last Friday, I took over the dinner duty, as usual. This week I made a lovely chicken dish and a side of vegetables to go along with it.
The main course was Lemon Chicken Breasts. While the recipe calls for boneless chicken breasts with the skin on, I wasn’t able to find that. So I just used the more-common boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The breasts did not develop a beautiful golden-brown color on top like the recipe photograph shows, but they were still tasty nonetheless.
The recipe is heavy on the lemon. Lemon juice and zest is used in the sauce that the breasts bake in, but I don’t feel the use of lemon was overpowering. It adds a wonderful, fresh, citrusy flavor the dish. This was perfect for a cold winter’s night since I often find myself longing for the warmer days of summer.
This dish is easy enough to make for a weeknight since it can be completed in around 40 minutes from start to finish. Although, I do feel that letting the chicken rest after taking it out of the oven is essential to prevent the meat from being too dry. But that aside, this is a fast and easy weeknight dinner, which is unusual for Ina. Long time readers of this blog will recall that I have found some of her recipes time-consuming.
The vegetable dish I served with this will be reviewed tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
Well Friday is here again! And what a week it was, for sure.
I took on the task of making dinner tonight and I decided to share my shopping list for the two dishes I’ll be making this evening. One is a main dish and the other is a vegetable dish. I will not be making a side dish or a dessert this week.
At the request of my father, I took the time to try to find a “healthier recipe.” This was somewhat challenging. Most of Ina’s recipes, while delicious, are quite rich. Or, if not rich with ingredients, many recipes such as beef or pork meals are just not as heart-friendly. But, I eventually stumbled upon a great, light, and flavorful chicken recipe that I can’t wait to try!
My Shopping List
Of course, this list does not include any ingredients that I know I already have in the pantry.
I’m getting hungry just looking at the recipes. I can’t wait for dinner time!
This recipe can be found in Foolproof, page 170.
The other recipe I made on Tuesday was a dish that went along with our dinner for that evening. While the dinner we had was not an Ina recipe (it was just chicken sausage), I decided to at least make the vegetables tasty.
Continue reading “Recipe #27 Orange-Braised Carrots and Parsnips”
