Living in a Cereal World

Sometimes I forget that the best way to use up a product is to find recipes at that particular website. In this case, it was teriyaki Saute Express, and the recipe:  Teriyaki Shrimp Lo Mein . It seems like I make these Asian-inspired dishes frequently enough, so I try to vary the proteins. And we do like shrimp, but I don't want to shrimp us to death, either...at any rate, it was a good week to try this recipe. I seriously thought about omitting one of the teriyaki squares in case the flavor was too intense but I ended up leaving it alone. If you wanted to, I would suggest cutting out the one mixed with the noodles. I also didn't use the green bell pepper and the red pepper was more than enough. Somehow the cilantro got thrown away before serving; I think you need it to really finish the dish. Overall, good flavor, didn't upset my stomach--next time I'll be sure to keep the cilantro close by.

Was it an unintended consequence or a secretly hoped for one? Either way, I'm still trying out new side dishes for a receptive audience. This time it was  Angel Hair with Tomatoes and Basil . The recipe suggested you could turn it into a side dish so I did so by cutting it in half. That was just enough for three, although I'm still not great at measuring pasta amounts. The flavor was tomato-y but not too much, which was good for the acid reflux watchers. I could've used more basil but, again, I'm still working on seasoning to taste. It was definitely a make-again, though.

You thought I was going to make through a whole month without trying a cereal, didn't you? Well, I haven't run out of material yet. I wasn't expecting to like this one since I wasn't crazy about the dryness or texture of the  other flavor . And I was right, the addition of cinnamon makes a world of difference. Or maybe I was just feeling charitable this morning. Or maybe it was the mixture of cereals and banana. Whatever the case, I liked this one a lot more and will be adding it to the permanent rotation. ******* I didn't mention that I had strawberries on my cereal twice this week. That's not something I would typically put on Oatmeal Squares  but I'm starting to think strawberries go with just about anything.

My mom loves strawberry shortcake more than anything, dessert-wise, but Easter was so late this year that I didn't want to make anything cake-related this time around. Instead, this was my Mother's Day gift:  Strawberry Meringue Pie.  Similar elements, different take. At least that's what I was thinking when I chose it. It turned out to be more of a lemon meringue pie with fresh strawberries--so dad ate most of it--but let's not split hairs. It helped that it called for jarred lemon curd. One less step for me. This is a really simple pie, and best eaten the day you make it. Not that that stopped us from eating the leftovers. And I'm now on a strawberry kick. I'm hoping next month to shift that over to blueberries.

We're still having some freakishly cold nights but there's been enough warm weather to start making pasta salads. And what better way to make a pasta salad than to choose the ingredients yourself?  Parade  lays it all out for you; you come up with the combinations. It's like the Choose Your Own Adventure of pasta salads, except you don't have to cheat to succeed. I started with mezze penne because I felt the regular size was too big for the rest of my ingredients: chopped celery, shredded carrots, diced hard-boiled egg, and capers for extra flavor. Next time I'll probably add peas, too; that's what I think of when I think "classic" pasta salad. Process of elimination led to the creamy Dijon dressing--I don't think I can handle the other two. I made it ahead of time and was concerned that it was too dry but everyone else thought it was fine. Actually the next day the flavor seemed even stronger. Other combination ideas: broccoli/chickpeas/almond

I'm sure I clipped this  Rice-Pasta Pilaf  recipe years ago thinking, "Hey, this looks like Rice-A-Roni," because the best way to get the people I know to try new things is to tuck it in something familiar. The key here is the cilantro. If it looks like too much, it's probably not enough. We had enough rice for leftovers the next day and I had to season it again . Also, if you really want it to look like Rice-A-Roni you have to break your spaghetti into super-small pieces. I wasn't too worried about it. ********* I'm sure you want a cereal update. I only have one in the pipeline right now, probably next week.

I know it seems like I've been saying this a lot lately but here's another recipe I've been dying to try:  granola bars . I swear my print version calls them Chewy Granola Bars but the website says Cinnamon Granola Bars, which makes sense since the article was about cinnamon. Anyway, they are  chewy granola bars. I'd never used wheat germ in my life; back in the early '90s my dad went on a wheat germ kick, so I always thought of it as weird health food. It actually helps with the composition of the bars; otherwise, I'm not sure if an all-oat chunk could really be called a bar. I especially liked that it only made twelve bars--what would I possibly do with more than that? As it was, I took half to class and everybody raved. Next time I make them--there will definitely be a next time--I'll be sure to try adding dried fruit bits. All I had this time was a bag of dried apricots, not that there was anything bad about that.

I liked this recipe so much I felt punny when I took post-dinner notes. It's  Tabbouleh with Green Beans and Feta . Tabbouleh is one of those dishes I've been meaning to try forever but chickened out for whatever reason. But now that I have bulgur in the house I need to use it, so why not try a tabbouleh with ingredients I know and love (green beans and feta)? The only thing I didn't have was a steamer basket, so I just boiled the green beans for six minutes--they probably weren't as crisp as they would've been otherwise but they weren't mushy, either. The dressing gives it a sweet-tart flavor and really balances the feta. This would be a great alternative to pasta salad during grilling season (and the leftovers hold up well, too)!

(Well, as instant as I get, anyway. I need my ideas to marinate a little bit.) Do you ever read a recipe in a magazine and think, I need to make this now? My "now" took a week but it resulted in these  Island Burgers  from Good Housekeeping last month. I have a go-to turkey burger recipe but I'm open to trying others. The only thing I wasn't too sure about was the jerk seasoning, so I cut it back by half a teaspoon and it still had plenty of flavor. It was almost like eating a taco in a burger with the heat and spice in the meat cooled by the mixture of Greek yogurt and mango. And the leftovers for some reason didn't taste as spicy. I also hadn't had an English muffins in ages . My child memory has them feeling dry and having a weird aftertaste so I never really had any desire to eat them as an adult--except for the occasional Egg McMuffin, but I haven't had one of those in years, either. The multigrain ones from Thomas' that I used for this recipe

(As you'll see, I'm still a bit behind.) This Easter we had guests, so it was the perfect excuse to make a cake.  Angel Flake Coconut Cake , to be precise. It seems there's a lot of coconut cake recipes out there but I saw this one first and made up my mind immediately. I have to be honest, though. The frosting sounded kind of gross to me. I don't really want pudding (however pudding-y it may have been mixed with the Cool Whip) on my cake. That's two separate desserts that I don't want to combine. I know, that's really rare for me. But anyway, since we're kind of over super-sweet frostings, I thought I'd try a  Greek yogurt frosting . Yes, it's for cupcakes, but I didn't need that much anyway. It came out as more of a glaze but that was actually perfect, since I only had enough flaked coconut for the cake batter and the finished layers (it was left over from the  coffee cake  I made in March). The sides were bare but that can make for a pre