Italian Chicken This meal was definitely one of the more homemade meals that I have made so far. At first some of the ingredients of the food don't seem like they go well together, but in the end each item adds flavor to the next and I will make this again in the future.The two different parts of this meal were the pot items and the marinade. The ingredients of the dressing were balsamic vinegar, dried parsley flakes, dried basil, kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper, minced garlic, and olive oil. The ingredients that went in a pot were bone-in/skin-on chicken thighs, butter, olive oil, green beans, cherry tomatoes, and crusty ciabatta bread. First, I began making the dressing so that it could be ready when I needed it. To do that I added all of the ingredients needed in a small bowl, and whisked it until it was basically combined. Then I put the chicken in a large zipper bag and poured in about half of the dressing. After sealing the bag, I squished it and shook it around so that the dressing would coat the chicken. I should have done this better because it didn't stick to the chicken well in the end. Then I trimmed the end of the green beans, put them in a large bowl with the tomatoes, and poured the remaining dressing over it. I tossed and mixed the tomatoes and green beans around to evenly coat them. I put the chicken in a large, deep dish skin up and then transferred the beans and tomatoes with the chicken. All of that went into the oven to roast for 20 minutes. While that was in the oven, I ripped the bread into medium sized chunks, put that in a bowl, drizzled with olive oil, and mixed. When the 20 minutes were over, I took the dish out and shook it so that nothing would stick and then added the bread. It then went back into the oven for 15 minutes. Before eating, I buttered the bread. It was just my mom, brother, and I rating this meal. The taste got a 10/10 all around. The bread was my favorite part, the tomatoes added a wonderful and juicy flavor to the green beans, and the chicken was amazing. The appearance was a 10/10 from everyone as well. It was put together evenly, and looks appetizing. Finally, the consistency of the meal was also a 10/10 from the whole crew. This meal turned out to be the only competitor to my last 10/10 meal.
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Pizza Surprisingly, I have not made this food before. This week's meal is pizza. Not any specific type of pizza, just a regular pizza with some toppings on it. It was pretty good but there are a few things that I could have done better.The ingredients of this meal were Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, flour, pepper, mushroom, onion, pizza dough, pepperoni, and even though there is garlic in the photo, I did not use any garlic while making the pizza. All of the toppings were added on right before putting the pizza in the oven. When making the pizza, I tried a couple of different cheeses and settled on shredded mozzarella. To start I chopped up the onion and peppers so that I could add them later as toppings. Next I got the dough, put some flour on a plate, and plopped the dough onto it. Before beating and rolling out the dough, I put some flour on my hands also to prevent the dough from sticking to my fingers. I forgot to get a rolling pin from the store so I had to use my hands to roll out the dough. It was pretty difficult to get the dough spread out evenly and ended up being thick. After rolling the dough, I added the sauce and spread it around, leaving about an inch around the outside for the crust. Then I added the cheese, pepperoni, onion, mushroom, and pepper, respectively. Finally I put it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. At the end the only problems were that the dough was thick and the pizza wasn't a circle, more of an oval. For this meal my mom and brother rated the pizza. The taste got a 10/10 from everyone. The cheese was good and all of the toppings added a nice flavor. The appearance got a 8/10 from my mom, 7/10 from my brother, and a 7/10 from me. The reason was that the crust puffed out a lot and that the pizza wasn't circular. The consistency got a 10/10 from everyone because it was all put in the oven together so it was all heated together. The pizza turned out well but I don't think that I would want to make it again.
Baked Ziti I chose to make baked ziti for this week's meal. This was one of the best meals I have made so far. Every single meal was a fun experience and I have learned a lot. Baked ziti was a new experience and I have never had it before.All of the ingredients of the meal are ziti pasta, onion, ground beef, spaghetti sauce, broccoli, provolone cheese, sour cream, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, salt, Texas toast, and pepper. The ingredients that went into the baked ziti were the pasta, onion, ground beef, spaghetti sauce, provolone, mozzarella, Parmesan, salt, and pepper. The broccoli and Texas toast were made separate. I started by boiling slightly salted water in a large pot. While that was heating up, I put the ground beef in a large skillet to start browning it. I then chopped an onion and added that to the beef while sauteing it. I also stirred in the sauce. When the water came to a boil, I added the ziti noodles and cooked those for 8 minutes. I also let the beef cook for 15 minutes. Once the pasta was done I drained the water and preheated the oven. When everything was done cooking, I added the ingredients in a baking dish in the following order: half of the ziti in the bottom, topped with provolone cheese, sour cream, half of the meat sauce, the remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese, the remaining meat sauce, and topped with Parmesan cheese. That was put in the oven for 30 minutes. After about 20 minutes, I put broccoli in the air fryer with some olive oil for 8 minutes. When the broccoli was done, I left it in the air fryer so that it didn't get cold. After the ziti was done baking, I took that out and preheated the oven to a higher temperature and put the toast in for 6 minutes. Once everything was done, I plated the meal. The score was done by my Mom and I. For taste, both scores were a 10/10. It was amazing and all of the cheeses added so much flavor. For appearance it was a 10/10 for both. It looked delicious and exactly how it was supposed to in the recipe that I followed. Lastly, the consistency was also both a 10/10. Everything stayed warm while cooking and was ready to eat. The final score comes out to a perfect 10/10. This is the first perfect score of the project.
Tilapia For this week's meal, I made tilapia with some other smaller food items. I have had tilapia several times but have never made it in a "real" way. I always just rubbed some oil on it and threw it in the air fryer, but this time I used flour and a couple of other things to season and cook the fish on a pan.The ingredients of this meal were watermelon, tilapia, broccoli, butter, honey, olive oil, sesame oil, flour, cilantro lime seasoning, salt, pepper, and white bread. The tilapia was cooked in a pan with the olive oil, butter, flour, cilantro lime seasoning, salt, and pepper. The broccoli was cooked in an air fryer with sesame oil, salt, and pepper. The bread was heated in the microwave with butter and honey spread on it. The watermelon was cut up into what definitely could have been smaller pieces. Using sesame oil for the broccoli was not planned and had to be used as a substitute for olive oil because I used all that was left on the fish, however it turned out pretty nice. To start I mixed some flour and the seasoning together in a container. Then I got the fish out and washed it off, and dabbed it dry with a towel so that the flour would stick to it. I got a pan out, turned the stove on medium-high, and poured some olive oil on it. Once the pan was ready I could stick the flour to the fish and then put it on the pan. I was able to fit 3 of the fish on the pan at a time. It took about 4 minutes for each side to cook before I had to flip it, and after those 8 minutes I would rub melted butter on it and put the salt and pepper on. In between doing the fish, I put the broccoli in the air fryer, splashed some of the sesame oil on it, then turned it on for 10 minutes shaking it up occasionally. I wanted to try something different than the recipe that I was following so I decided to use Parmesan cheese for the last batch of fish. This turned out to be a good idea and added some more flavor to the fish. After everything was done, I put them in containers with lids so that the heat wouldn't escape and the food would stay warm. I got a cutting board, a giant knife, and a watermelon and chopped that thing up. It was the first time that I was the one cutting a watermelon and not my parents doing it for me. I started by accidentally butchering it and leaving some unwanted marks on the outside but that ended up not mattering because I just cut all the inside flesh off of the rind anyways. I also got the bread out, cut it in half, and applied my butter and honey. I had my whole family rate the food this time. The average score for the taste was a 7/10. It was very salty and I don't think that it is quite watermelon season yet because it wasn't a very soft and juicy one. My score was 9/10 because I don't mind the salt, though it did hurt my tongue a bit. The broccoli, in my opinion, turned out extremely well along with the bread. The average score for the appearance was 9/10. My rating was the same. The watermelon just looked out of place and should have been cut up into smaller pieces and put in a small bowl. And finally, the average score for the consistency was a 10/10 including myself. Overall this meal earned a 8.8/10. I typically don't care for fish, but this meal was excellent.
Pork Nuggets This week I made pork nuggets. I have never made pork nuggets before and didn't even know that people made pork into nuggets. However, they ended up being pretty good. I made two different flavors and they were both excellent.This meal consisted of carrots, rice, a pear, and the pork nuggets. All of the ingredients were butter, coconut oil, olive oil, pork, carrots, pear, buttermilk, corn starch, flour, rice, and pork rub. For the nuggets specifically, the buttermilk, corn starch, flour, and pork rub were used to cover the outer layer that would be fried in a pan full of coconut oil. The carrots were cooked in an air fryer, covered in olive oil, separately from everything else. The rice was cooked in the microwave. I made sure to get every food group by adding a pear in with everything else. To start the meal I cut up the pork into nugget size pieces. Then I put the pieces in a bowl and made a marinade for them by mixing the pork rub with buttermilk and then refrigerated it for 40 minutes. I had to do this with two different batches with the different flavored rub. While that was refrigerating, I put together the dry mix that goes on top of the marinade. I mixed corn starch with flour and more rub to make it. Then I put the carrots in the air fryer with olive oil poured on it for 30 minutes. When the pork was refrigerated, I got that out and thoroughly rolled all of the nuggets in the dry mix to completely cover them. I had to make sure that the nuggets also didn't have too much flour on the outside of them so that they would cook faster and have room to breathe so that the pork on the inside would get cooked. Once the pork nuggets were ready to fry, I poured coconut oil into a skillet and heated it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I placed only a couple of nuggets into the pan at a time so that it would not get overcrowded and they could all fry evenly. Before I took them out, I checked to make sure that the inside was cooked by checking to see if it was the right temperature and looking for a nice white and dry color. When they were done, I made a liquid sauce by mixing barbecue sauce and melted butter to coat the nuggets with. By that time, the carrots were done and all I had to do was put the rice in the microwave for about a minute and a half. My brother and mother were the ones who rated this meal along with myself. For taste it was an 8/10 from my brother, an 8/10 from my mother, and a 7/10 from myself. Some of the nuggets were dry and too crunchy and the carrots weren't that good. The sauce added a nice tangy flavor and helped with the dry part. The appearance got a 10/10 from everyone including myself. We thought that it all looked nice and the sauce on the top was the equivalent to putting a cherry on top. The consistency got a 10/10 from everyone because it was all hot and freshly cooked. Overall this meal got a 9.2/10. I think this turned out well and was probably the most difficult thing I have made just because of the management of everything and remembering where I am in the process. I will be making this again in the future.
Eggs and Bratwurst This week's meal wasn't a specific combination of foods with a special name, just simple eggs and bratwurst with a couple of other foods along with it. While being simple, it was delicious and my first meal of this project using the grill.Not everything in this meal was combined together such as the blueberries and the biscuits. The ingredients were blueberries, eggs, onion, cheesy bratwurst, biscuit, salt, pepper, and sriracha. The eggs were combined with salt, pepper, and cut onions and scrambled on a pan. The bratwurst were cooked on a grill and were not chopped and combined with the eggs. The biscuits were put in the toaster because they were made before I cooked this. Lastly, the blueberries were in a bowl on the side. All of the food groups were met with the cheese that was made with the bratwurst when they were processed. Thinking back on it I think it would have been better to chop up the bratwurst and put them in my eggs and then add the Sriracha to it. I started with the bratwurst by putting them on the grill and keeping them at a steady 300 degrees until they got a crisp brown color on all sides. I only had to turn them a couple of times to keep them from burning while cooking. While the bratwurst were cooking, I poured a solution of egg yolk with salt and pepper into a pan on the stove to cook the eggs and added the onion.. I had to wait until the eggs started softening and bubbling upward before I could scramble them. Once they did so, I added a little more salt and pepper. I took the bratwurst off the grill and finished with the eggs on the stove. After that I washed some blueberries and put them into a bowl and also put the biscuits into the toaster. Then I set the table and got together all of the food. This meal was rated by my step-dad and I because no one else was home. For taste he gave it a 9/10. The biscuits were sweet and soft, the bratwurst were a little burnt on the top, the eggs were good, and the blueberries were good. I gave it an 8/10, just because I would have liked the bratwurst to have been cut and mixed in with eggs. He gave the appearance a 7/10 because the Sriracha was just sitting on top of the eggs and not mixed in and it looked weird with a whole bratwurst on the side. I gave it a 10/10 because I didn't see anything wrong with it. For consistency we both gave it a 10/10 because everything was a good temperature. I'll probably make this again as a nice breakfast meal in the future.
Chicken Alfredo The meal selected and prepared for this week of genius hour, is chicken alfredo. I have always enjoyed this dish store bought and have never had a homemade version of it, so I wanted to try it out. I also wanted to have something other than ham for Easter dinner.The listed ingredients are chicken breast, fettuccine noodles, grated Parmesan cheese, Caesar salad, blueberries, crushed red pepper flakes, parsley, Texas toast, unsalted butter, minced garlic, thyme, heavy cream, salt, and pepper. While all of these were used for the meal, separate parts were made. There was the sauce, the salad, and the chicken and noodles. The sauce consisted of unsalted butter, minced garlic, thyme, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese. The salad was lettuce and Caesar dressing mixed with blueberries in it. The chicken and noodles were made separate with nothing added until they were ready to be mixed in with the sauce. To start, I cut up the parsley and thyme so they would be ready for when I needed them. Then I got my equipment out and started to boil some water. While that was going, I began working on the sauce. I put butter in a medium sauce pan and let that melt, then added garlic and stirred. I also put salt and pepper into the sauce. Then heavy cream was added along with cheese. I had to stir that until the cheese melted in with everything and it was completely combined. I also had to make sure that the sauce didn't come to a boil. I don't actually know why that is, but it was a strict recommendation made by the recipe that I followed. Then I put chicken in an air fryer while I did everything else. Once the water started boiling for the noodles, I put them in a separate pot and let them cook for 13 minutes. I also added thyme after letting the sauce cool down off of the burner for 3 minutes and then placed it back on the burner on low. After the noodles and sauce were done, I poured the sauce in with the noodles and mixed it in well. I then put Texas toast in the oven for 11 minutes so that it would be crunchy just how I like it. When the toast was still in the oven, the chicken finished and I put it in a separate bowl to keep out of the noodles until everything was ready to be eaten. Before the toast was done, I got the salad out and mixed it with the dressing. I added blueberries into the salad because I needed a fruit for my food groups to be complete. For the ratings my whole family was there to share their opinions. Because there were so many people, I am just going to give the average of the ratings given to me and then my rating is separate. For taste, the average score was 9/10. The noodles were just a bit dry, but other than that everything was great. My rating was a 10/10 because we added more moisture to the noodles before I had any. The appearance was a 10/10. Everyone jokingly said that after I sprinkled the parsley on top. Then they said that it did actually look great so it deserved a good rating. I gave it an 8/10 just because I think it would have looked better with another piece of bread along with the one on the plate, and less chicken for a better pasta-chicken ratio. The consistency was a 10/10 because that is pretty hard to mess up. My rating was also a 10/10. The overall score for this meal was 9.5/10. I think this was my best meal yet, it was delicious and got the best rating so far.
Tacos This week I made tacos for my project. They turned out pretty good but were very messy. I was debating whether or not I should make tacos but ended up doing it. The reason was that tacos are not my favorite thing to eat, but I am glad that I did because they were great.The ingredients for the tacos were flour tortillas, lettuce, sriracha, salsa, onion, sour cream, avocado, shredded cheese, ground beef, and taco seasoning. The reason that I used tortillas was because I forgot to get hard shells at the store and forgot about them. It worked out though because I found a way to make the tortillas a good substitute. I also was going to use many different seasonings on the meat to create my own taco seasoning but I didn't have most of the things at home that I would have needed to do so. It would have cost a lot more than just buying the seasoning. To begin cooking I turned the stove on and put the meat into the pan. I started chopping up the meat so that it would have the right shape for a taco. While that was cooking, I started to cut an onion to go along with the meat. I made sure to turn the meat over so that it would cook evenly around it and also added the onion to it. Before adding the seasoning, I drained all of the fat and added water as written by the instructions. Then I brought it to a boil and turned the stove to low, stirring occasionally. In between stirring, I buttered up the tortillas and put the buttered side down onto another pan to get it hard to have around the same texture of a taco shell. After putting it on the pan, I had to be quick to sprinkle cheese on it so that it would not burn. I put the meat on a tortilla and fold it into a tray. I made eight tacos in total and once I was done folding one, I had to be quick to get another tortilla onto the pan so that the pan would not burn. While being a very messy and sloppy looking food, it was a good meal and I will probably make it again soon because I have a lot of leftover materials. For this meal, my Mom and Step-Dad rated it. My Brother doesn't like tacos so he didn't eat any. For taste, both of them rated it an 8/10. The reason was that it was very messy and since I didn't use taco shells, it didn't have that satisfying crunch. I thought it was a 9/10 just because I have had tacos a lot before and they have gotten pretty old to me. For appearance, my Mom gave it a 6/10 because it looks very sloppy and messy because of no taco shell to hold it together. My Step-Dad gave it a 10/10 just because he didn't care how it looked, he just wanted to eat the food. I would give it the same as my Mom because of similar reasons. For consistency of heat throughout the tacos was 10s all around. It was a good thing that I left the meat on a low heat to stay hot for the rest of the food. Overall this meal was a 6.8/10. Not my best but I will definitely try to do better on my next meal.
Chicken Stir Fry I have prepared chicken stir fry this week. It required me to learn how to use a new kitchen tool. I also realized that the cooking process and ingredients to use are very similar for many different foods. Overall, I think this meal turned out well and I will definitely be making it again in the future.For this meal, I was required to make a sauce from scratch and also cook with many different ingredients. The list of ingredients is broccoli, mushrooms, chicken breast strips, chicken broth, corn starch, pepper, honey, salt, red pepper flakes, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, peas, green beans, carrots, yellow carrots, red bell peppers, water chestnuts, yellow onions, sesame oil, and ginger paste. Out of the ingredients, the homemade stir fry sauce consisted of sesame oil, honey, red pepper flakes, corn starch, soy sauce, and ginger paste. I also added sticky white rice into the rest of the food, some grapes on the side, and a glass of milk making sure that I hit fruits, grains, and dairy. With all of these things, every food group was taken care of. For this meal I had to go out and get some more soy sauce and a wok. A wok is a deep skillet with a handle on each side. The food was prepared in the wok while the sauce I made was in a sauce pan. For the sauce I combined water with soy sauce and the other ingredients listed previously. The sauce would not be needed until later so I put it to the side. After pouring olive oil into the wok, I dumped the vegetables in and cooked them at a medium high temperature on the stove. Once the vegetables were getting close to being done, I put the pre-cooked chicken in. I added some more olive oil and stirred it around for a minute. Then I finally put the sauce in with the rest of the food and got it to a boil to help cook everything. While doing this I put some rice in the microwave so that it would come out nice and hot with everything else. Once everything was done it was time to put everything on a plate and serve it.
Spaghetti For this week I decided to make spaghetti. There was a lot to keep track of while cooking this, but other than that there wasn't anything too difficult about it to make it a hard meal. I enjoyed making this meal more than the last, not for any particular reason though I just liked it more.For Week 3's meal, I made spaghetti. The listed ingredients of the meal were cheddar cheese, mushrooms, bell peppers, fettuccine noodles, ground beef, tomato paste, olive oil, ground black pepper, sea salt, onion, garlic, and Italian spice and salt. I also had a little bit of yogurt on the side because I was still hungry after eating. I made sure to include all of the food groups in order to fulfill the requirements I set on my project. Cheddar cheese was an unfortunate substitute for Parmesan cheese because I forgot to get it while shopping for ingredients. Even with this, I think the food turned out pretty good because the cheese did not add much flavor. After already doing a week of preparation, this week was easy to keep a hold on everything that I would be doing throughout it. On Monday, I started brainstorming ideas of what to make and chose a steak meal as a possibility for something because I couldn't really decide on anything without looking at what I had at home and what I need to get. On Tuesday I ended up changing to spaghetti because my grill needs to be cleaned and I wanted to be able to start cooking as soon as possible. On Wednesday, I looked up some recipes during the time in class that my teacher provided to work on the project and listed them. On Thursday I went to the store after school and got the items that were needed for the recipe that I chose to make. On Friday I took a break and worked on a project from a different class. Saturday, I made sure I had everything in the kitchen and practiced making a very small portion of spaghetti. And today, on Sunday I made the actual meal for my family and I. Starting off, I cut the onion and peppers, then tossed them in a pan with some mushrooms. After letting them cook for a bit, I put them in a container off to the side so that I could start cooking the hamburger. I put the hamburger into the pan and then broke it up with a turner and moved it around so that all of it would cook evenly. I also added the seasonings onto the hamburger while it was cooking. During all of this there was a pot half full of water for the noodles. I turned the burner under the pot on so the water could begin to boil before I put the noodles in. While the water was heating up I poured the grease out of the pan from the hamburger and then added the tomato paste to the hamburger. In order to keep the onion, peppers, and mushrooms from getting cold on the side, I put them in a pot with the hamburger on low heat also so that they could absorb the flavors. When I merged the hamburger and side ingredients, I didn't realize that the juices with the onions and stuff would make the sauce with the hamburger really runny and watery. For future preference, I will drain the juices. I put the noodles in the pot with the now boiling water so they would begin cooking. After the noodles were done, I was done and prepared the table. The cheese was added on top of everything after it was on a plate.
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AuthorCyrus Zwanzig ArchivesCategories |