Cooking With Dawn

I have been inspired by my friend Gigi and her http://networkedblogs.com/p27456199 to not only cook at home more, but to cook healthful, tasty foods. In the past I have found it difficult to find tasteful foods that were healthful. If I did find something, it was either expensive to prepare, or it took too long. Being a Mom of three young boys, finding time to prepare meals with lengthy cooking times is difficult.

I recently stumbled across the website Eat Better America (www.eatbetteramerica) and found a wealth of information on their site. I have also found a great stash of recipes. I have moved several of them into my “favorites”.

Tomato-Basil Chicken

http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/whole-grains/tomato-basil-chicken.aspx

Tomato-Basil Chicken was a huge hit at our house. My oldest son, who can be picky, told me it was my “best meal ever”. He also gave me two kisses and told me to cook it every week. (My son is a lover, but he has never before kissed me about anything I’ve cooked.) My husband loved it, and I was giddy the next day at the thought of eating leftovers – and I usually do not like to eat leftovers for lunch. The great thing was that I bought all the supplies I need for this for just under $13, to serve a family of five with leftovers.

I did cook the recipe as provided by Eat Better America.

“Healthified” Cheesy Pizza Pasta

http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/special-occasions/healthified-cheesy-pizza-pasta.aspx

My kids loved this! My oldest wanted seconds, and my twins loved that there was sausage in here. Philip told me the mushrooms “looked funny and smelled bad”, but he hates mushrooms. He did eat everything else and ask for seconds as well. The recipe called for me to use turkey Italian sausage and turkey pepperoni. I used regular Italian sausage and regular pepperoni, simply because I forgot to look for “turkey”. It tastes like pizza, with noodles instead of crust. I also used whole-grain wheat pasta.

Thai Scallops and Noodles

http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/30-minutes-or-less/thai-scallops-and-noodles.aspx

The Thai Scallops and Noodles was an OK dish. I used the bay scallops, so by the time it was cooked, they looked like marshmallows, so that was unappealing to me. The recipe as it is written came up with a very strong peanut butter flavor. While I love peanut butter, it was overwhelming. I really want to like the recipe, so I’m going to try it again sometime and use the larger sea scallops instead of the bay scallops, and try to reduce the amount of the peanut butter used to see if I can improve the flavor.