JenThe idea for this week came from watching the video “Feeding Bill Gates a Fake Burger (to save the world)”. We challenged ourselves twice this week! The first was via Burger King – we bought a regular whopper and the “impossible” version to compare. Here are both together – can you tell them apart? (Extra pickles on both…because that’s how I like it!) Very similar. The taste was a little different, but pretty convincing. The Impossible version looks more appetizing with the grill lines. I preferred the taste of the regular Whopper, but if you had offered me an Impossible Whopper without telling me, I may not have noticed. Next was a challenge for our own kitchen! I went with tacos because I thought it would be pretty easy to disguise the flavor if it wasn’t good. 😊 This particular meat substitute called “Lightlife” is soy based and came pre-seasoned. It cooks up nicely, and overall it’s pretty good. I think the next time I would buy the unseasoned version and use the taco seasoning we’re used to. Everyone in our family ate it though and said they’d eat it again. That’s a win! I’m not sure if we’re ready to jump on the “Meatless Mondays” bandwagon, but I definitely want to try to cut back on our meat consumption. Hope you all enjoyed the challenge! 😊 Mandy Nikita I 🧡 Saturday Bites! Unfortunately, my pineapple turned brown on the counter before I could use it during last week's challenge. We were too darn busy, BUT new pool and painted house! So YAY! This week's challenge was just that - a challenge! I've never really tried using meat alternatives other than beans or chick peas. But I stretched this week and prepared Tofu using a marinade from my Thug Kitchen cookbook. They specialize in vegan meals. No, I'm not vegan, but they know how to prep some tasty veggies. I still stand firm that the texture was nothing like chicken or pork, but the flavor was on point! This marinade had an Asian twist with soy sauce, orange juice, green onions, ginger and more. The other not-so-positive is the prep time was over 3 hours. Fortunately, my job is within the house now, so I have the time. But for working parents, I doubt they could invest so much time in such a simple meal. I will make this again though. Georgia Ran and I try to eat at least one meatless meal a week. Fun fact. We love mexican food. So I winged it with this one. Black beans, frozen corn, red onions, poblano, leftover steamed rice, garlic, taco seasoning, sour cream, salsa verde, shredded cheddar and cilantro. Cammy Love, love, love Jen's experiment this week.
Until next week, Jen, Mandy, Nikita, Georgia and Cammy
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Cammy This was my week to choose and I chose pineapple. I was thinking I'd make a nice simple pineapple upside down cake. Then I remembered the multitude of chicken dishes mom made when I was a teen. Chicken was cheap and she could make all kinds of chicken dishes. I grew to dislike chicken, in spite of the many wonderful ways mom cooked it. These days I'm growing to like it on an occasional basis. Anyway, as I was thinking about pineapple, I recalled that my favorite of mom's chicken dishes was her sweet and sour chicken. Mom searched for the recipe and then I searched for it again and neither of us could find it. We did find this sweet and sour pork recipe that was identical except for the meat. Yeah! I call that a win! It came out of an old church cookbook that I believe was the church that my grandmother went to. I am going to have to explore that recipe book a little more one of these days. In the meantime, we really enjoyed this sweet and sour chicken tonight. I did not bread the chicken, just fried it in some olive oil. I figured the pineapple and rice would be more than enough carbs! Jen Pineapple for breakfast! I made "Hummingbird Pancakes" this morning - they were delicious! Mandy Nikita Nikita has been a baking fool this week and that has kept her busy in the kitchen. If we are lucky she'll share her beautiful bakes with us. Georgia I'm a big fan of pineapple. Pineapple was the only thing I craved when I was pregnant with my son and the husbands favorite cake is pineapple upside down cake. So I'm always up for this challenge. When it comes to these challenges I'm always looking for something new. I mean what's the use in having a challenge and not really stepping outside my norm. We've had a pretty busy week and actually had several people over for dinner this week. So I was looking for something I could make that would fulfill this challenge. And then I found these. You'll note I never add the maraschino cherries to my pineapple upside down whatevers.. Randy doesn't like them (so weird) These were not bad. Not great, but also not bad. What kept them from being great? They were not donut like. At all. The pineapple and brown sugar were not caramelized. So it was more like a soggy bagel with warmed pineapple on top. Live and learn. And we move on to the next challenge. As always we bring you different takes on a single food.
Until next week, Cammy, Jen, Mandy, Nikita and Georgia Georgia Three words Oh My Word Are these as beautiful as the ones Nikita made a few months back? No! Did they take as long to make as the ones Nikita made a few months back? Also no! But. These are so freaking yummy. So yummy.. A nice happy middle between making everything from scratch and making the pre-made refrigerated cinnamon rolls. Fun fact. I used sweet Hawaiian crescent rolls.. Yep. They make them.. Cammy I had no inspiration at all until my chat with some of my favorite ladies this morning. That chat gave me just enough inspiration to make crepes. Using a basic crepe recipe, Crepes Nutella was born. Who doesn't love Nutella? Crepes were spread with Nutella, rolled up and then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Yummy! Thanks for the inspiration ladies! Jen
Mandy Nikita The challenge is Rolled Up! I decided to feel young again with Piggies in a Blanket alongside Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. Am I the only one who wished they just ate party appetizers for lunch/dinner? I mean, why do I have to attend a party to eat these succulent lil' sausages wrapped in buttery, flaky crescent rolls? These days, parties ain't happening! Simple. Easy. Satisfying! Christopher enjoyed a nice plate of piggies while attending school online. This week we were all rolled up and what a fun week it was. I mean.. Just look at what we all made..
I'm pretty sure it's all pretty healthy too! Until next week, Georgia, Cammy, Jen, Mandy and Nikita Mandy Harvest Stuffing Bread!! I saved this recipe years ago. After making it this week I am disappointed in myself for not making it sooner. Our house smelled wonderful as it baked. The top of our bread didn’t brown as I thought it would but that didn’t make us not love everything about this bread. Can’t wait to make it again. We of course had to make turkey sandwiches for the lunch the next day. It was like having Thanksgiving dinner. Have a great week! Mandy Georgia This weeks challenge was bread and I'm not going to lie. My last attempts at yeast bread failed pretty miserably. But. I was excited to give it another try now that was was back in the land of humidity. And.. Taadaa. These two loaves of Challah turned out beautifully. This was my first attempt at making a braided bread. I need a little more practice at the braiding, but all in all feel pretty good about how they turned out. Cammy This week's challenge is bread. I had so many ideas! The first one was to try the Texas Roadhouse rolls again. However, zucchini keeps multiplying on my kitchen counter. I like zucchini, but we're talking a lot of it at this point. A couple of them are huge and probably will be made into some kind of zucchini boats for dinner. However, there is more than enough for that. Needless to say, it was time to make zucchini bread again. I found this wonderful recipe that used a few more of my favorite ingredients: pineapple, cranberries, nuts, coconut... Yummy! Jen Nikita Now that my kitchen is fully up and running, I felt it was time to really turn up the Saturday Bites effort and go full "try-hard" mode. BTW - that's my new teen word of the day meaning an overachiever. Christopher uses it all the time when he gets beat on Fortnite by some "try-hard." My hubby bought me a GORGEOUS KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, and I've been wanting to try the kneading hook. This Babka Star was the perfect test recipe. I learned that you don't need to knead your dough on Speed 4; otherwise, your mixer will hop around the kitchen as if it were competing on American Bandstand. This bread looks intricate and difficult to make, but it really wasn't at all. The technique described in the recipe was easy to follow. You do need two days though because the dough has to sit in the fridge overnight. But this was worth it! The 70% dark chocolate bitterness mixed with the buttery, orange-zested dough made this a triumph in my book. Give it a try if you're looking to impress yourself. 5 VERY different breads. And all look pretty freaking amazing.
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