For this week our protein was salmon, the starch was rice, and the vegetable was brussels sprout.
First we peppered the raw salmon and worked on the glaze. We mixed up the ingredients needed for the glaze and set it to a boil. Then we placed the salmon in the oven for about 12 minutes. After the 12 minutes we spread out the glaze on the salmon and then placed it back in the oven on broil to finish cooking thoroughly. During the 12 minutes that the salmon was first cooking, we cooked the rice. We used a pressure cooker and put 2 cups of water and 1 cup of rice. We set the pressure cooker on the "rice" mode and it cooked for 12 minutes. Then we started on the brussels sprout and bacon. We cut the ends off and removed loose leaves on the brussels sprout and washed them. First there were bacon bits on a pan to cook until desired crispness. When they got done, we placed them in a separate bowl to the side. Then we put the brussels sprout in the pan with oil and cooked them until they were browned. When they were almost done, we added a garlic based seasoning and the bacon bits. Maple syrup was added to sweet the flavor a little bit. We then mixed well and removed from heat. Overall this meal took us 1 hour and 10 minutes. This was a little bit longer than last week. The glaze was left to boil for too long and it became really hard. Because of this, Jenna's mother rated us a 4 out of 5. We definitely could've removed the glaze after a couple of minutes of boiling to keep from hardening. We also could've started on the brussels sprout to save more time because those took the longest to make.
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For the second week, we made an Italian meatball dish with green beans and almonds on the side.
We thawed the meat the night before and placed it in the fridge until we used it. We put the water for the noodles on the stove to boil then worked on other parts of the meal. While the noodles were cooking we mixed the meat and cooked them a bit before putting them in a different pot to simmer with the red sauce. Heidi mixed the meat with all the ingredients into balls to put on a pan and Jenna turned the meat thoroughly until cooked. When the meatballs got done cooking, Jenna placed them in the pot of sauce. We then dry roasted the almonds, took then out to cook the green beans with butter and some garlic powder then mixed the two. The dish was served with noodles and the meatballs in a bowl. The almond green beans were served on the side on a mini plate. The time to make all of this took us around 55 minutes, which is a huge improvement from last week. Jenna's mother then rated our dish with a 3.5 out of 5. The meal was overall good, but there were some minor things that just weren't right. For her mother, the meatballs weren't round, the beans were too crunchy for her, and there were too many almonds in the beans for her liking. But in the end, she enjoyed the meal and said that the time we finished was much better and faster than last week. This week we made a pork based dish with mango salsa and salad on the side. This meal was not very difficult to make, but took more time than we wanted it to. We didn't plan ahead very well and we learned that we should read the directions the day before.
Because we didn't plan very well, we started a bit later than we wanted. We discovered half way through that we had to let the pork tenderloin set and marinate for 30 minutes. We felt like we should've multi tasked better. We split up the jobs so that Heidi mixed together the chili rub and Jenna trimmed and coated the meat. We both cut the salad ingredients and worked together to make the salsa faster. The mango's took a long time to cut. Even with these attempts to shorten the time spent, there was still a time when one of us wasn't doing much to help the other finish the job. This meal took about an hour and 35 minutes. We got slowed down with the marinating, but it gives us lots of room to improve next week. We got a rating of 4.5 out of 5 from Jenna's mother. She judged the meal on healthiness, presentation, taste, and time. She said that everything was good and the meal was healthy, but because we started later and the meat had to marinate, she took away half a point for time. She really enjoyed the taste of the chili rub with the mango salsa. Overall we think we did pretty good for our first meal, but we also could've done more to make the process go faster and smoother. If you wish to use this recipe and try it yourself, you can find it on the Community page where we will be uploading all of the meals we use. |
AuthorHey guys it's Heidi and Jenna and we're here with weekly blogs about our healthy cooking! Archives
May 2020
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