A Good Appetite

Curry Turkey Pasta Salad and an Update

2013-05-16T11:51:00.001-05:00

Where oh, where have we been? Well, we have been continuing our diets, which doesn't always lead to the most exciting of menus. That said, the diet has been going well, Matt is down 34 pounds and I am down 23. I'm not saying we don't still eat well, just not as many fun things to share. On top of that, we have just gone into contract on a new kitchen... Ok, not just a kitchen, but the whole

Spanish Chorizo Fried Rice

2013-04-19T08:34:00.000-05:00

The other night Matt had a meeting leaving me on my own for dinner. I was craving some rice, so I went looking through the fridge and freezer to find things to add to it. What I came up with was this mix of Spanish and Asian flavors. I have to tell you this really worked. The smoked paprika flavor of the sausage worked so well with the sweetness of the peas. I kept the sauce simple, just some

Mayan Pork

2013-04-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have been meaning to tell you guys about our Easter dinner for awhile now. We had pork, but not your typical Easter ham. Instead we went south of the border for a Mayan-inspired pork. I was recently introduced to pork cooked with annatto at our favorite breakfast place, Blackbird. Matt had it as part of a breakfast taco and let me have a little bite. It was so good, I said we needed to try

Stout and Sausage Pasta

2013-04-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

The current issue of Cooking Light (a magazine which has really been great while we are counting calories) has a section on Macaroni and Cheese dishes. This dish is adapted from one of those recipes. I am not calling it a mac and cheese because really it doesn't have much cheese flavor. That is because we replaced the Velveeta in the recipe with cream cheese. Why did we make the replacement?

Indian Chicken Pizza

2013-04-02T11:03:00.002-05:00

Pizza is one of those things that can be a little tricky to fit in when you are counting your calories. The killer is the crust. We had gotten lazy and were using a very good store bought dough, but after looking at the calories I knew that wasn't going to work anymore. Our homemade crust is a little better and we usually just top it with fresh tomatoes, a few slices of pepperoni and mozzarella.

Sweet Chili Brussels Sprouts

2013-03-28T10:58:00.000-05:00

We tend to get into a real rut with side dishes, typically leaning towards a steamed green vegetable or roasted root vegetables. So, when we were figuring out what to have with a roast chicken this week Matt said he wanted different. We remembered the brussels sprouts Matt's mom had served at Thanksgiving, that everyone loved, and decided to try to replicate them. Actually, it ends up these were

Smoked Salmon Pasta

2013-03-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a pasta that comes together in about 15 minutes and yet is still nice enough to serve to guests. It was a great busy Sunday night dinner for us. A good deal of the flavor in this dish comes from the smoked salmon, so I would suggest getting the a good one. Or you could smoke your own like we do. The rest of the dish is composed of classic salmon pairings; cream cheese, capers, red onion

A Lighter Cocktail

2013-02-28T10:57:00.002-06:00

Alcohol is one of those things we've cut back on since we've decided to count our calories. We haven't given it up completely, but it's now a treat once or twice a week. Matt is typically happy with a beer, but I like a refreshing Gin and Tonic (with Hendrick's Gin, of course). The problem is tonic is quite high in calories. Sure I could use a diet tonic, but have you tasted diet tonic? It's

Dal with Kale

2013-02-13T11:36:00.000-06:00

Things continue to go well on our "diet." We are learning to portion better, lighten our existing recipes and are trying lots of new ones too. We are seeing some success too, Matt has lost 17 pounds and I'm down 8. Not too bad for 6 weeks in. This is a new dish for us to make. Matt ordered some Bob's Red Mill Red Lentils after trying a Campbell's Golden Lentil with Madras Curry Soup. He loved

Chicken and Olive Stew

2013-01-30T14:27:00.001-06:00

I was looking through the freezer the other day to see how many chickens I had left when I stumbled on a package of boneless chicken thighs. I pulled them out with the idea of doing some sort of one pot, Mediterranean-influenced dish. The star of this dish ended up being the Kalamata olives, their brininess just adds a brightness to the sauce. Enhanced with a little white wine, fresh thyme and

Tomatillo Chicken and Rice

2013-01-23T09:30:00.003-06:00

We roasted a chicken last week, so there was lots of leftover chicken to use in other dinners. One of my go-to dishes for leftover chicken is enchiladas. Well, I took one look at the calories in a tortilla and knew that was out right now. I decided to make a hot dish that would gives us the same flavors with less calories. You know, hot dishes are just never the prettiest thing to photograph,

Pork with Tart Balsamic Cherries

2013-01-17T10:44:00.003-06:00

With only two people in the house, Matt and I have to think when we are shopping and planning meals how we are going to use ingredients that come in larger sizes without a lot of waste. Can something be used in more than one meal that week, like a whole chicken? Should we make a larger dish and have leftovers for lunches? Can we cut it up and freeze the rest to use later? We did the later with

White Bean and Ham Soup

2013-01-14T09:35:00.000-06:00

We picked up a new toy for the kitchen this weekend, something that Matt has been thinking about and researching for a little while. It's a Breville Fast Slow Cooker. What the heck does that mean? Well, it's a slow cooker, but also a pressure cooker, and a steamer, plus it apparently makes the fluffiest rice ever. Oh and unlike other slow cookers, you can sauté and sear ingredients in it before

Chicken and Potatoes in Parsley Sauce

2013-01-11T10:27:00.002-06:00

Well, we have jumped right into our new eating plan for 2013. It is taking a little getting used to keeping track of everything, but we are already seeing a difference on the scale which is satisfying. Eating at home is, of course, the easiest and I feel like I'm eating more than I did before actually. What we really have to learn is how to eat out and still stick to our goals. Other than that,

Changes for a New Year

2013-01-02T11:42:00.002-06:00

If you've followed this blog for any amount of time you know Matt and I love food. We love to cook it and eat it. Well, 7 years of enjoying food together has taken its toll on our figures, so this year we decided we needed to do something about it. Now, we aren't going to go on a fad diet or start fasting or anything. Instead we are going to focus on the basics, counting calories and trying to

Beef, Mushroom and Farro Soup

2012-12-17T09:29:00.001-06:00

We are so busy this time of year getting ready for Christmas. Meals tend to be hearty and easy. If they give us leftovers, all the better. Soup seems to fit the bill a lot. This classic soup is fill of umami and will keep you satified on a cold winter night. We used farro in this soup because we didn't have enough barley on hand, you can certainly substitute. Beef, Mushroom and Farro Soup 1 T

Macaroni and Cheese with Pickled Onions

2012-12-04T13:51:00.000-06:00

Oh my gosh, where did the time go? This past month has just been a blur with Christmas shopping, a minor surgery, traveling for the holidays and work and lots of holiday craft projects. It's time I got back to sharing food with you all. If you remember when I was last chatting with you all, I told you about the amazing dinner we had at Geranium in Copenhagen. One of our favorite dishes was this

Eating Copenhagen - Geranium

2012-11-05T11:41:00.000-06:00

When we first decided to go to Copenhagen this year our goals was to eat at Noma, called the best restaurant in the world for 5 years. So, that found Matt on his computer at 3am one July morning when the October reservations for Noma were open. After 70 minutes of not even getting into the reservation system he gave up. We hear approximately 20,000 people try to get a reservation each month they

Easy Kanelsnegle

2012-10-29T11:54:00.000-05:00

We have our fair share of good bakeries in the Twin Cities. One of them, Patisserie 46, was recently called one of the best patisseries in the world! But none of the ones we've tried have the Austrian-style pastries we had gotten just a little addicted to in Denmark. In particular, I find myself craving a kanelsnegle around 4:00 in the afternoon. (Kanelsnegle at a Copenhagen bakery.) So, it was

Torvehallerne and Tivoli

2012-10-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Let's get back to Copenhagen. One of the places Matt was really looking forward to visiting was Torvehallerne, the food halls. The food halls, in the Nørreport neighborhood, are two large glass buildings that are a foodies delight. Inside the buildings are stalls selling all things food; fish, meats, bread, cheese, candy, wine and even kitchen tools. Mixed in with these retail stalls are small

Easy Vegetable Curry

2012-10-22T08:42:00.001-05:00

Let's talk a break from travel posts for a recipe. After being gone, I didn't really have a menu plan for the week, but I did have some vegetables in the house that needed to be used up. Matt has been asking for a curry for a while, so that seemed like a good way to go. This curry could not be simpler. Just sauté your vegetables, add the seasoning and liquid then let it simmer for a while. The

Copenhagen - An Overview

2012-10-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

After a wonderful couple of days in Iceland we were off to Copenhagen. We were looking forward to some of that great Scandinavian cooking we'd had in Stockholm last year. We were not disappointed, but before I get into some of the specific meals we had I thought I'd do a little overview of our time in Copenhagen. We stayed at the quirky Anderson Boutique Hotel in the Vesterbro district. Since we

Eating Iceland

2012-10-16T11:09:00.000-05:00

Matt and I are back from our latest traveling and eating adventure. This time we headed to Iceland and Denmark. Jetlag is hanging on hard, but I wanted to share all our experiences with you. Our first stop is Iceland... Iceland is an amazingly beautiful place especially at this time of year with the fall colors against the black lava rocks and snow covered peaks. There is something otherworldly

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Skulls

2012-10-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

This week my craft challenge group, Iron Craft, is making edible crafts. I went with a Halloween theme and made up some chocolate covered pretzel skulls. Get all the details on making them on Just Crafty Enough. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing

Backyard Oktoberfest

2012-10-01T10:56:00.002-05:00

We've been having some fall beautiful weather here in Minneapolis just perfect for inviting the family over for a Backyard Ocktoberfest. It was also a good reason to grind up some of that pork in the freezer and turn it into sausage. The night before, Matt pulled out the Kitchenaid Meat Grinder and Sausage Stuffer attachments, making both traditional and Wurtemburg style brats. Sunday