Baked Eggs in Ham Cups

This is one of my favorite dishes from the GI cookbook. Tonight I made it for the third time and it tasted as good as it did the first two times. The dish is essentially egg whites with a little seasoning cooked in a nest made of ham slices. I found some great organic ham (and turkey) slices from a local farm called Rowe Farms. The deli slices are sold at my local grocery store which makes it handy to buy. If your having people over for brunch and you want to impress them be sure to serve this. Everyone will think you put a lot of work into it.

SERVED WITH: I always serve this dish with a side salad. Tonight I was organized and added a side of asparagus as well.

COOKING TIPS: Instead of using muffin tins as the recipe suggests I used my ceramic ramekins. It looks prettier and I find a muffin tin that is not completely full starts to smoke. Because of this I had to add an additional 10 minutes to the cook time for a total of 25 minutes in the oven.

RATING: 10. This dish scores a perfect 1o with me because it tastes great, it looks impressive, and it is super easy to make.

Chocolate Pudding

I was desperate for something sweet tonight. Luckily there is absolutely nothing bad for me to eat in the house so I resorted to making a dessert from the GI cookbook instead.

COOKING TIPS: It was very quick to prepare but had to sit in the fridge for about an hour before it cooled down enough to eat. This was my first time making pudding and I was surprised at how easy it was to make but unfortunately I didn't find it to be very tasty. It was more the texture that I didn't enjoy, the flavor was fine. It is worth a try if you are having an uncontrollable chocolate craving. I would have been more satisfied with a small square of dark chocolate.

RATING: 3. It's doubtful I will try it again.

Strawberry Tea Bread

Little did I know that baking something in a silver cake pan is different from baking in a black cake pan. I discovered this the other night when trying out a new recipe from the GI diet cookbook. The recipe for "Strawberry Tea Bread" makes two loaves and I used the only two tins that I had on hand, a black one and a silver one. Both of the loaves appeared to be cooked and the tester came out clean after poking the middle of the bread. After letting the cakes cool down I went ahead and started to slice them up so that I could freeze them into single servings, an easy snack to grab out of the freezer for my mid morning coffee each day. When I cut into the cakes the one in the silver pan was cooked nicely but the one in the black pan was cooked on the outside and appeared a little undercooked in the middle. Check out the photos above. The second picture is from the silver pan and the third is from the black pan. The loaf in the silver tin cooked much more evenly and held together properly. The black tin produced a loaf that was crispy on the outside but feel apart in the middle.

COOKING TIPS: After this experience I did a google search to confirm my findings. It turns out you can simply set the temperature of the oven lower so that your baking cooks more evenly. For some tips on different bake ware and how to adapt your recipe check out this link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5621772_cook-different-cake-pans.html


RATING: 6. In the end they were both edible so my efforts did not go to waste and I had some delicious snacks to get me and my husband through two weeks. I only rated this treat a 6 because I didn't enjoy the texture of the strawberries in the bread and I found it a little lacking in flavour.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I have never liked pancakes before. I always found them way to sweet to eat first thing in the morning. This cookbook has changed me. It has two fabulous pancake recipes. They are both so good it is hard to pick a favorite.

This Sunday I tried out the cottage cheese pancakes. If you don't really like cottage cheese don't worry I am sure you will love these pancakes anyhow. I encourage you to try it out!

SERVED WITH: I served the pancakes with some cut up strawberries and a tall glass of water. I kept the leftover pancakes to reheat for breakfast tomorrow morning or to have as a snack in the afternoon. They are incredibly filling, I was stuffed full after only two.

COOKING TIPS: The only tricky thing about these pancakes is trying to figure out when they are done. Because they have cheese oozing and melting inside them when they cook it is hard to tell if it is the cheese or wet uncooked batter inside. Following the instructions of 2 minutes per side gave me the best results.

RATING: 10. This breakfast was delicious and I look forward to the next lazy Sunday so I can cook them again.

Citrus-Paoched Haddock

I managed to muster up the energy to cook dinner tonight instead of spending more time on the couch watching TV. The reason I chose this dish is because I had some leftover white wine from a few nights ago that I didn't want to pour down the drain (I don't like white wine and besides it is not on the list of acceptable foods according to the GI diet anyhow)

The recipe was pretty easy to following and was ready in a quick 20 minutes. With barely any prep work this makes for the perfect weekday meal.

SERVED WITH: I served the fish with a side of brown rice and cauliflower. It would have made a nice presentation if I had used broccoli or green beans to add some colour to the plate but that was what I had left in the crisper at the end of the week.

COOKING TIPS: I found my poaching liquid evaporated before the fish was fully cooked and ended up adding in some extra stock to keep it going. This resulted in a complete lack of sauce to pour over the fish at the end. I think I went wrong when choosing a frying pan that was to large. Perhaps if it was in a smaller pan the liquid would have stuck around longer.

RATING: 7. Even with problem with the quickly disappearing liquid the meal was still pretty tasty and I would definitely try it again. Although, I might try it with a different type of fish as I found the haddock to have a slightly unpleasant "fishy" smell. (yes my fish was fresh)

Chicken Fingers with Apricot Dipping Sauce and Sweet Potatoe Fries

I will admit that I "hit the wall" this week and was not really in the mood to do much cooking. Last night I made the decision to give myself a break and eat dinner out with my husband. The meal was enjoyable but I did cheat and ate a dish with white pasta. The food tasted good on the way down but left me feeling completely bloated afterwards. After not eating any white pasta for over three weeks I really felt the difference. I did manage to fit in one new GI recipe though.

SERVED WITH: I tried out a recipe for chicken fingers with apricot dipping sauce and I paired it with another recipe for sweet potato fries. The dish was half decent and I would definitely make it again.

COOKING TIPS: It would have tasted much better if I had paid attention to the instructions ahead of time. I was not aware that the chicken has to marinate for one hour before cooking it. I was not willing to wait the hour and instead marinated the chicken for a mere 10 minutes. Because of this the dish was lacking a little bit of flavor. Instead of coating the chicken in breadcrumbs the recipe calls for toasted sesame seeds. The sesame seeds added a nice crunch and flavor. Since I couldn't find any toasted sesame seeds at the store (maybe they don't exist) I toasted them myself in the frying pan before using them. If you have never done it before, don't fear, it is quick and easy. Just pop them in a frying pan on medium and give them the occasional shake, you'll know they are done when they start to go brown. For detailed instructions click here.

The sweet potato fries were tasty but could have use some more seasoning in my opinion. They were coated in olive oil, chili powder and paprika. They had a slight kick but I enjoy sweet potato fries just as much when they are tossed with a little garlic, oregano and olive oil.

RATING: 6. But it only got a low rating because I didn't follow the instructions properly.

Tonight I am going to attempt to make a poached fish dish. Unless I am feeling completely exhausted and in need of another night off.

Blueberry Rock Cakes Again!

Here is another shot of a fresh batch of blueberry rock cakes I made this week. Yes! I really really love eating these. Last week I found that the colour and density of the cakes were off a little from normal. After some thinking I realized a few days later that I forgot to add in the baking powder. Opps! They still tasted good anyways but I thought I would pop up a picture of what they normally look like.