A Sunday Afternoon of Cooking with Moe

My good friend Maureen was kind enough to come over a few weeks back to help me prepare for my annual Christmas party. We had such a good time cooking in the kitchen together that we made a date for the following Sunday afternoon. She selected a few recipes from my blog that she thought she would like to make during the week. On Sunday we shopped together for the ingredients and spent a few hours chopping, mixing, cooking and laughing.

We cooked up a storm and made:
2 batches - Chicken and Rice
2 batches - Runner's World Meatloaf
2 batches - Mediterranean Oven-Roasted Tomatoes (post to come later)
1 batch - Braised Pacific Halibut (that is what you see above, post to come later)

If your not a huge fan of cooking I would definitely recommend having a cooking date with a friend. Time flies when you are cooking with a friend and joking around. (Especially if you have a glass of wine) You will most likely learn some tips from each other and you get to try out each others favorite recipes. Best of all you will have enough food to get you at least half way through the week and you will have had fun making it!

Turkey Quinoa Loaf - Made with Chicken - Served with Cranberry Orange Sauce

I used to be freaked out by ground chicken. The thought of it just didn't sit right with me. Chicken is supposed to be served as a breast, not ground up. Because of this cookbook I have ventured into new territories when it comes to cooking. I would never have chosen a ground chicken recipe 5 months ago but since almost everything I've made from the cookbook is delicious I decided to give it a try. And you know what? It was fine. I enjoyed it and would even make it again. As far as flavor is concerned this meal is a little tamer then most in the book. But that's ok. You don't need to get punched in the face with flavor every night of the week.

SERVED WITH: Asparagus and mini carrots. I was having a lazy night so I ended up with a weird combination of food for dinner. Some mashed potatoes would have been nice. Even a simple salad. I did however make some cranberry orange sauce to go with it. I found it a little bitter. It would be fine without it or with a tiny bit of ketchup (Ketchup is a read light items so be careful!)

COOKING TIPS: The good thing about this meal is you can assemble it the night before and just pop it in the oven when you get home. It does take about one hour to cook so it would make a nice Sunday evening meal.

RATING: 7. I was not overly fond of the flavor of sage and would try something like oregano next time.

Runner's World Meatloaf

This is one of my old stand by recipes. It is not in the GI cookbook. I got it from Runner's World Magazine. It is a pretty healthy dish consisting of lean ground beef, a ton of veggies, and oatbran.
Get the recipe by clicking here.

My dish came out quite wet and didn't serve up in perfect slices but it tasted great anyways. Yes I know it looks ok in the picture but that is only because I squished it together so that it would look appetizing for the photo. What is even better is I have plenty of left overs for lunch for a few days.

SERVED WITH: I had to get a little creative with the veggies this week. I used what I had in the crisper. So we ended up with a side salad, green beans and fried mushrooms. Now that I have been on a healthy eating kick for the past two weeks I am even finding myself eating my veggies plain without any butter or salt. I am learning to enjoy the natural flavor of vegetables. Well I lie, the mushrooms were fried in some butter...that is what makes them taste so good! :)

COOKING TIPS: The trick with the dish is finely chopping the vegetables so that they cook all the way through. I don't have a food processor so I just spend a few extra minutes chopping, chopping and chopping.

RATING: 9. It tastes great and is full of healthy ingredients.