I'm A Chef Now
Last Saturday, I had some long-time friends over for late lunch and shenanigans. To prepare for the event, I decided to make a passel of food from scratch. Three soups, a couple of dips and a dessert. My backup plan if it all sucked was to order Spinato's Pizza so we weren't going to starve.
It was nearly three hours total of chopping, dicing (which is different than chopping for you non-chefs), mixing, heating, spicing and tasting. It was also two loads of dishes, three pans, one crockpot, a micro-plain, a Spiralizer and too many mixing bowls to count. I really could have used a kitchen assistant.
All for four people.
Definitely one of my crazier ideas and a lot of kitchen time. But, I wore an apron the whole time so that's the thing that tips me into professional Chef status now, right?
Everything I made was a low or 0 Weight Watcher's Freestyle point food and I don't think it was readily apparent. As in, it didn't come across as "diet" food.
Here's the menu (with links to the recipes), the point count and our feedback on the items. Please forgive the paper bowls in the pics but I just wasn't up to another couple of loads of dishwashing so I went with the easy cleanup serving option.
Chili Lime Black Bean Soup Black Bean soup is not very attractive. It looks like gray library paste, especially when you're eating the leftovers. Despite its coloring, this was pretty tasty. There was a nice buildup of heat and it had a lot of flavor. Two of us thought it would benefit from a little more Cumin but it was good as it was. 1 Point
Italian-Inspired Vegetable Barley Soup I couldn't find fresh Basil so used dried and I think this suffered from blandness because of it. If I make it again, I would up the garlic and add in Italian Seasoning as this definitely benefited from adding pepper and salt as it needed "something". The barley was perfectly cooked (and I was really close to the prescribed timing on this one) as it wasn't gummy nor hard. Instead of shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, I had shaved Parmigiano. 4 Points
Slow Cooker Veggie-Noodle Soup I misread the ingredients and put in 2 Tablespoons of Italian Seasoning instead of 2 Teaspoons. I think it helped. This had a nice flavor and the zucchini noodles were fun and a satisfying replacement of actual noodles. I might use less spinach next time although one of my friends said she really liked having a lot of spinach in the dish. 0 Points
Nectarine and Scallion Relish I served this with two different types of Good Thins crackers, Corn & Sea Salt and Wheat One Ancient Grains. Definitely making this again but will add more jalapeno next time. 0 Points for the Relish, ridiculously low points for the crackers (4 Points for 41 corn crackers and 4 Points for 23 of the wheat).
Onion Dip Most people are familiar with this as it's Onion Soup Mix added to sour cream. A delicious staple of cocktail parties, buffets and binge eating, I used non-fat Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream. Not a noticeable difference. This was served with Reduced Fat Cape Cod Kettle Chips in Original and Sea Salt & Vinegar. 0 points for the dip unless you eat it all at once and 4 points for 19 chips.
Greek Yogurt Dill Dip Also served with the crackers and chips, this was not as popular as the other items. I found the combination of dill and mustard a little weird. Having said that, the colleague who recommended this to me said she uses it on her sandwich wraps as she was getting bored with just plain mustard and I think it would work well. I shall be trying it out. 0 Points when using non-fat Greek Yogurt
Blueberry Cheesecake-Yogurt Bark This is not a great dessert. It's just too wet. You have to serve it fully frozen and then it's too cold. As soon as it starts thawing, it requires a spoon. My friend suggested it would be better as a trifle and I agree. The flavor is there, for sure. I've been adding it on top of my morning oatmeal and it's great. 1 Point
Now that I'm a Chef, I can give you some pointers. The first one is to really, really clean your cutting board after cutting jalapenos. Their oil lingers and lingers and will transfer to your next items.
The second is to not put freezer bags of soup on a wire freezer shelf. As I live to be an example for others on not what to do, I did exactly this and the bags puddled up then froze around the wires. That required hacking at the bags to break them away from said wires. It also required profanity to rival that of the Dad's in A Christmas Story.
The third is to serve a lot of wine with your meals. Enough of that and everyone will stop caring about the taste of the food.
Pretty sure I'm ready to be on Chopped after this. I'll let you know how my audition goes but they'll probably put me in an All Star competition right away.
It was nearly three hours total of chopping, dicing (which is different than chopping for you non-chefs), mixing, heating, spicing and tasting. It was also two loads of dishes, three pans, one crockpot, a micro-plain, a Spiralizer and too many mixing bowls to count. I really could have used a kitchen assistant.
All for four people.
Definitely one of my crazier ideas and a lot of kitchen time. But, I wore an apron the whole time so that's the thing that tips me into professional Chef status now, right?
Everything I made was a low or 0 Weight Watcher's Freestyle point food and I don't think it was readily apparent. As in, it didn't come across as "diet" food.
Here's the menu (with links to the recipes), the point count and our feedback on the items. Please forgive the paper bowls in the pics but I just wasn't up to another couple of loads of dishwashing so I went with the easy cleanup serving option.
Chili Lime Black Bean Soup Black Bean soup is not very attractive. It looks like gray library paste, especially when you're eating the leftovers. Despite its coloring, this was pretty tasty. There was a nice buildup of heat and it had a lot of flavor. Two of us thought it would benefit from a little more Cumin but it was good as it was. 1 Point
 |
| Enjoy your gray food! |
Italian-Inspired Vegetable Barley Soup I couldn't find fresh Basil so used dried and I think this suffered from blandness because of it. If I make it again, I would up the garlic and add in Italian Seasoning as this definitely benefited from adding pepper and salt as it needed "something". The barley was perfectly cooked (and I was really close to the prescribed timing on this one) as it wasn't gummy nor hard. Instead of shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, I had shaved Parmigiano. 4 Points
 |
| Definitely need the pepper! |
Slow Cooker Veggie-Noodle Soup I misread the ingredients and put in 2 Tablespoons of Italian Seasoning instead of 2 Teaspoons. I think it helped. This had a nice flavor and the zucchini noodles were fun and a satisfying replacement of actual noodles. I might use less spinach next time although one of my friends said she really liked having a lot of spinach in the dish. 0 Points
 |
| Popeye approved! |
Nectarine and Scallion Relish I served this with two different types of Good Thins crackers, Corn & Sea Salt and Wheat One Ancient Grains. Definitely making this again but will add more jalapeno next time. 0 Points for the Relish, ridiculously low points for the crackers (4 Points for 41 corn crackers and 4 Points for 23 of the wheat).
Onion Dip Most people are familiar with this as it's Onion Soup Mix added to sour cream. A delicious staple of cocktail parties, buffets and binge eating, I used non-fat Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream. Not a noticeable difference. This was served with Reduced Fat Cape Cod Kettle Chips in Original and Sea Salt & Vinegar. 0 points for the dip unless you eat it all at once and 4 points for 19 chips.
Greek Yogurt Dill Dip Also served with the crackers and chips, this was not as popular as the other items. I found the combination of dill and mustard a little weird. Having said that, the colleague who recommended this to me said she uses it on her sandwich wraps as she was getting bored with just plain mustard and I think it would work well. I shall be trying it out. 0 Points when using non-fat Greek Yogurt
Blueberry Cheesecake-Yogurt Bark This is not a great dessert. It's just too wet. You have to serve it fully frozen and then it's too cold. As soon as it starts thawing, it requires a spoon. My friend suggested it would be better as a trifle and I agree. The flavor is there, for sure. I've been adding it on top of my morning oatmeal and it's great. 1 Point
Now that I'm a Chef, I can give you some pointers. The first one is to really, really clean your cutting board after cutting jalapenos. Their oil lingers and lingers and will transfer to your next items.
The second is to not put freezer bags of soup on a wire freezer shelf. As I live to be an example for others on not what to do, I did exactly this and the bags puddled up then froze around the wires. That required hacking at the bags to break them away from said wires. It also required profanity to rival that of the Dad's in A Christmas Story.
The third is to serve a lot of wine with your meals. Enough of that and everyone will stop caring about the taste of the food.
Pretty sure I'm ready to be on Chopped after this. I'll let you know how my audition goes but they'll probably put me in an All Star competition right away.
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