Cookbook Review

My day was pretty normal, so I’ll talk about my Monthly cookbook instead.

Teaching:

We got through a journal, finished a measurement mini-book and learned about the Northwest Territories. That’s it.

Exercise:

Only my walk to and from school and for jog-a-long. I also got 100 squats, 100 crunches, 50 pushups and 50 dips done. I want to run but am thinking maybe it was my long runs that did me in again. I’ll try to refrain until I feel better, but I do dislike that I didn’t make my 100km this month:(

Eating:

I figure you guys are good for keeping me on the straight and narrow so I’ll admit what I ate. A piece of crustless quiche, an apple and granola, a fruit,yogurt and granola parfait, a charcuterie board of one carrot, one celery stalk, 4 mushrooms, hummus, 2 slices of cranberry “cheese” rolled in 2 slices of turkey and a quarter cup of homemade granola.

Wow as I write this, I realize I’ve eaten a lot of granola today! It wasn’t planned, but I’ll try to do better tomorrow! You guys might be good for me😜

Cookbook:

So for the past month and a half I have been cooking out of “The Best of Clean Eating 2”. The book has 207 recipes divided into 9 chapters. The chapters are: Breakfast and Brunch, Sandwiches, Salads and Sides, Soups,Stews and Chilis, Snacks and Starters, Dips and Spreads, Main Courses, Holiday Meals, Clean Desserts, Beverages

To recap the 12 recipes I tried:

Easy Make Ahead Breakfast Quiche

Very easy and customizable, but quite bland:(. Onion and garlic would improve it!

Pear Cheese Quesadillas

Yummy and super easy. Quite sweet so definitely a breakfast food- could use some sort of spice.

Tex Mex Morning Pizzas

Good, must toast the English muffins first!

Mushroom Melts

Uses red onion and soy mozzarella. Mom says delicious. Maybe cut the broccoli slightly smaller and toast bread first so it has a crunch. Glad it has some spices in it though!

Pumpkin and Coconut Soup

Made it with water instead of veggie broth. Very good and easy but definitely needs salt, pepper and the yogurt on top!

Beef Stir Fry

Bland

Spaghetti and Meatball Casserole

Lots of steps! The pesto is good, but the meatballs don’t hold together well and the meatballs and sauce are bland.

Baked Manicotti Bundles

Mixture was very runny! Didn’t stay in noodles well. Very bland and only made 9. Had to spread mix over all of the noodle.

Mediterranean Vegetable, White Bean and Feta Penne

Tasty! Would be good for a summer dinner or potluck contribution. Used chili flakes instead of red pepper flakes.

Turkey Pasta Casserole

Very yummy! Needs salt and pepper! I didn’t put the almonds on top and used Daiya cheese.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Didn’t get crispy:(

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Needed two extra minutes to bake. Easy to put together but extremely thin batter. Cupcakes have subtle lemon flavour and though they browned nicely the tops still fell:( think they would benefit from the addition of lemon curd in the centre of the muffin!

I found most of the recipes lacked spice and were quite bland. I also felt like they added unnecessary ingredients just to make recipes “healthier”, aka have more superfoods, etc in them.

I won’t get rid of the book yet, but it is definitely at the bottom of my pile right now!

I already know which cookbook I’m going to start using next week:)

Reading:

I started reading Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan. So far I am enjoying it a lot. I have found the Libby app really good for knocking books off my TBR!

I’m off to read more:)

Have fun!

AJ