Working at a library has its pros, you can spot new books and grab 'em to check out! I always thought that you'd have all day to flick through books but I hardly have time at all! When I see a cookbook I'm all over it!
Pure Delicious caught my eye as it was a cookbook that specialised in dairy/nut/allergy/gluten free meals. The book is by a blogger called Heather Christo whose family has various allergies so she has been cooking meals that suit their needs. As I am always looking for alternatives so I figured what harm could it do to browse at home? The only danger is wanting to cook most of the meals!
Apparently, taco salad is just taco meat slopped on tortilla chips
with cheese, lettuce and salsa. That didn't put me off as Heather's version was a healthy Mexican
meal worth a try.
Yay or Nay: Yay
O.M.G. This is my new favourite meal to make. I mean the sauce, the sauce...It truly is the bomb, the mix of fresh crunchy veggies, salty chips, spicy meat with the zingy sweetness of the sauce to cut through it, is a mouthful of heaven! This version is available in the book but here are some other versions on her site.
I'm always on the lookout for easy weekday meals, now the mains jump out, however, side dishes are always a pain to find. There are staples that I run back to but when you want something that is quick, tasty and healthy it is quite the gamut.
This recipe for Andie Mitchell's Healthy Peanut Sauce reminds me of Gado Gado, which is always good! I figured I'd pair it with some spicy baked tofu and drench the sauce on some noodles. I found some mung bean noodles which I thought would make a good alternative to regular wheat or buckwheat versions.
Yay or Nay: Yay
The sauce was a no-brainer, I mean peanut butter, who doesn't love?! I do have to say that the sauce was a lot thicker than I was expecting but the recipe does say to add water to get the consistency right. The mung bean noodles were a surprising hit - chewy and carb-free so win-win! I would rinse the noodles as instructed but I thought the heat from the noodles would help loosen and coat the sauce a bit better.
As soon as I moved to the U.S. I needed something from home to rustle up dinners while I wasn't working. I remember seeing Jamie do his thing on TV with Gado Gado. It looked delicious on screen and I had never tasted something like this before, so when I needed some inspiration I knew this was the dish to try. First, I had to buy the book, later I realised I could've just looked up the recipe online. Duh! What did we do before the internet?
Yay or Nay: Yay
Sorry, the photos are a little skewed! This was a combo of pictures from my last two tries of this recipes. Obviously the ingredients don't match but that's the beauty of Gado Gado, you can mix and match ingredients BUT keep the dressing the same! I substituted the green beans for Thai basil which I had leftover from Pho (although I think I had some Vietnamese coriander in the first pics). Anywho, it was all good, made even better with the nutty tangy dressing which is the star!!
