Week 8: Cooking my way through the Runner's World Cookbook

At the rate I am going I will still be working my way through this cookbook this time next year!

I have to admit that last week we ate quite well, lots of good meals which generated some nice leftovers.

I got some verbal requests for upcoming recipes as well as the one in the comments (I think the long run chocolate PB cake looks great too- I plan to make that in the next couple weeks!)

So what did I manage to cook last week?

Soba noodles with chicken and peanut sauce

Sometimes you make food after a long day and it is so good that you just shove it in your face, never bothering to come up for air until it is gone. 
For me (and my sister) this was one of those meals. I grilled a couple chicken breasts and shredded them (leaving Eric's chicken free- making some marinated tofu for this would work GREAT.)
Since I grilled the chicken this certainly took longer than the 20 minutes of projected time- I don't know how you might magic cooked shredded chicken out of thin air! If you can, good for you. If not this is going to take you 40 minutes (but totally worth it!!) Kate and I gave it an 8.5 and Eric a 7 (which basically means a 10 in Eric language!)

Rigatoni with chicken (or tofu) sausage

I made one major alteration to this recipe- I used fresh vegetables instead of frozen. I'm simply not a huge fan of frozen veg so I made the rebellious choice to sautee some broccoli and red peppers.
Crazy, I know.
Despite my shenanigans this was fast- only about 30 minutes and stupid easy.
Sometimes stupid easy means kind of basic and this was one of those time.
This was a pleasant Wednesday night dinner but nothing special or worth repeating.
I gave it a 6.5, and Eric a 7. (Eric thought it was pretty fabulous! So maybe a VERY good veggie friendly dinner?)

Red beans and rice with turkey (or tofu) sausage.

For some reason I could not get even a reasonable pic of this monstrosity.
I LOVE traditional red beans and rice- throw a damn kielbasa in it and I'm good to go (for a heart attack...)
This combated that common problem by being rater dire and boring. All of us who ate it thought it needed something major- the ideas were a jar of salsa, a can of tomatoes, a shaker of salt and fewer peppers.
This recipe made an absolutely enormous quantity which we never ended up eating- which says something.
I gave it a 5.5, Eric a 6.5 and Eric's nephew a 7 but I think he was either just being nice or possibly starving. 

Kale-Almond pesto

I picked the kale fresh from my Dad's garden and ran home with it, preparing to tap this out in 15 minutes flat. Why? Because pesto is stupid stupid easy (like your mom...)
Anywhoo. If your kale is filled with caterpillars and you need to remove them this takes absolutely for-frickin-ever. However, if you do not have that horrible problem this would be pretty easy. I assume that anyway, I really do not know since I spent about a million hours picking away at the worms. Jesussssssssssss.
After all the trouble I was pretty psyched- this stuff was great. I dumped it unceremoniously on some pasta and woofed it down. De bugging kale makes a girl hungry.
I gave it an 8 because it tasted exactly as kale pesto should. Eric gave it a 6 because he prefers basil pesto....

Chocolate Berry Crisp

We had my whole (immediate) family over for my Mom's B-day last week.
First, I made her the salmon with lentil tabbouleh (a huge hit!) And as a side note- my Mom is as picky as the come. she said in her non-lying voice that she thought that the salmon was "Good!!!" When she doesn't like something but wants to be nice she says it is "good.....???" Take it from me, you can make this for your fussy Mah and she will really like it in her non lying voice!

Anyway. We finished off the evening with this amazing berry crisp. I used berries from my Dad's famous garden- a mix of raspberries and blueberries which were quite tasty.
The topping was fabulous- not too sweet and nice and crunchy. We LOVED it! Make this shit. Eat it. Throw some ice cream on it, or don't. Eat it for breakfast, I did. Whole pan goneeeeeeee.
Kate and I gave it an 8.5, and Eric gave it a 7.5.

That's it for this week! Being that we just wrapped up July things on the running front aren't all that exciting but they will be picking up. Eventually..