new food | recipe #1

Remember that time I said I would try a new recipe each week in March and report back? Well, I did the cooking but failed miserably on the reporting.

Here’s the book I focused my March efforts on:

Have you ever seen their show? I don’t think it’s on anymore, but it may be floating around in re-run land somewhere. The premise was that the sister duo (one a nutritionist and one a cook) would take a formerly full-fat recipe and give it a healthy makeover. So the book is filled with straight-forward family friendly recipes and I especially love that they’re made with ingredients I almost always have on hand. The best part is the ridiculous punny names they’ve created for the recipes. This one – One Flew Over the Couscous Nest – is a Moroccan-inspired chicken dish.

Prep was straight forward and quick. I usually freeze my chicken as soon as I bring it home, so my personal trick is to thaw it about 80 per cent but cut it while it’s still a little bit frozen. As a vegetarian, I find it much less icky to cut chicken in a somewhat frozen state. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

I cooked the whole thing in one pot, which is also a huge plus. I used my new cast-iron Dutch oven from the Superstore (not an ad; I just really love it) – it’s heavy and heats so quickly. I love that you can scrape the bottom to get up all of the best bits of goodness without worrying that you’ll scratch the pot’s coating. I’ve been using it constantly and can’t believe I went this many years without any cast-iron cookery in my kitchen.

I liked that this recipe included the side. To jazz up the couscous, they suggested adding a couple tablespoons of orange juice concentrate. It smelled lovely.

Mike really enjoyed it, Jacob liked it a reasonable amount and Isaac was put off by the red peppers, but ate it after we eliminated those from his plate. Given how quick and easy it was to put together, I’d give this a solid 4/5.