And the Recipe Experimentation Continues!

The fridge and pantry are stocked and so the recipe experimentation continues! Yesterday I tried out a recipe from my 'Weight Watchers in 20 minutes' cookbook. The recipe was called 'Pork Chops with Scallion-Lemon Relish'. It was incredibly simple (as you would assume a 20 minute recipe would be) and turned out to be pretty tasty. I paired it with some simple brown rice and more of those homemade rolls I had made a little while back. This is what it looked like:

Weight Watchers Pork Chops with Scallion-Lemon Relish

Randy especially really enjoyed this recipe - I liked it but wasn't as into it as he was. We also have a super sensitive smoke detector in our apartment which, under normal circumstances, is probably a pretty good thing. However, when I'm cooking and need to use the broiler component on the oven, for some reason it always sets off the smoke detector. So that was annoying. But other than that, this was a nice quick, tasty, healthy (if you don't count the roll and butter) meal.

Today I wasn't working so I spent the day making a 'Quiche Lorraine' recipe from a cookbook called 'How to Cook' that my mom gave me when I was 15.  This is another slightly time consuming recipe as you have to make the crust, fry and crumble bacon, whisk the sauce together, etc etc. I chose to make this earlier because I've made it in the past and I find it tastes better once it's been refridgerated for a little while and the flavours have had time to really come together. That and I like having few dishes to do following supper so I was doing the dishes as I went along. It came out of the oven looking like this:

Quiche Lorraine

I paired it with a simple spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette as I find it pretty filling.

Quiche Lorraine with Spinach Salad

Looks sort of similar to the Spaghetti Pie I made in my first blog entry but it has none of the same ingredients (except for maybe eggs). The downside to this cookbook is that all the measurements are American so I had to go online to convert them to metric units, but a small price to pay for a decent meal.

Just a reminder to vote on this week's poll question. Speaking of cheese, I had marble on my sandwich for lunch and used swiss cheese in the quiche. I've also got a block of cheddar and a block of pecorino-romano in my fridge. I've even got a container of ricotta cheese in there as well....no wonder Randy's cheese consumption has gone up!

Our landlords (who happen to live above us) gave us some Spaghetti that they made today but we had already eaten our quiche. I'm planning on having it tomorrow for supper with some homemade garlic fingers.

Shoutouts from the past two days go to: Chocolate coconut Timbits and Sprite Zero.

Before I get to the recipes, check out Sebastian having one of his regular stressful weekdays:

The Hard Life of a Cat




Weight Watchers Pork Chops with Lemon-Scallion Relish

Serves 4

8 scallions (finely chopped)
2 tbsps reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 pork chops
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1) Spray the rack of a broiler pan with nonstick spray and preheat the broiler.

2) To make the relish, combine the scallions, soy sauce, lemon zest and juice in a small bowl. Set aside.

3) Sprinkle the pork chops with the salt and pepper. Place on the broiler rack and broil 4 inches from the heat, about 6 minutes on each side. Serve with the relish

Per serving (1 pork chops and 2 tablespoons relish): 212 calories, 9 grams fat.



Quiche Lorraine

1 1/2 cups flour, sifted

100 grams cold butter, chopped

2-3 tablespoons cold water

3 slices bacon, finely sliced

60 grams Swiss cheese, grated

3 eggs

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

a pinch of nutmeg

chopped chives

** I also added crushed red pepper flakes for a bit of spice

Combine the flour and butter in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in enough water to combine. Turn the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and press together until smooth.

Roll the pastry out between 2 sheets of baking paper large enough to fit into a greased, 9 inch tin ( I used a cake pan).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Ease the pastry into the tin and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Lay a sheet of baking paper over the pastry base. Fill with dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beans or rice. Cook the base for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Cook the bacon in a frying pan over medium heat until crisp. Add the rice back to the pastry base. Sprinkle the bacon over the rice and scatter the grated cheese over the top.

Whisk the eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg, and some pepper in a bowl. Pour over the bacon and cheese. Sprinkle with chives. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.