Mexican Pork Chops

I’ m a big fan of Mexican food, so I couldn’t wait to try a recipe for Mexican-style chicken from Glamour Magazine ’s 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know cookbook.

Of course, the dish calls for ground cumin, so I took great delight in purchasing this heavenly seasoning for the first time. I also opted to make a few modifications – substituting jalapeno pepper with the milder green bell variety, and omitting ¼ cup of dry white wine (1/2 cup of a chicken stock provided more than enough liquid).

I got so caught up in seasonings and sauce that I’m embarrassed to say I forgot to pick up a key component of the recipe – namely, a chicken breast! Thankfully, I had a pork chop on hand in the freezer.

While defrosting the chop, I savored the rich aroma enveloping my kitchen – sautéed onion, pepper, cumin and oregano. Delicioso.

About an hour later, I had a most flavorful entrée. One that managed not to suffer from the absence of toppings (avocado, sour cream) that, along with the chicken, I also forgot to buy. So I guess you could call my version of this Mexican-lite. No matter -- still heavy with delight!

Here’s the recipe:

Fettucini Amatriciana

Though I've been cooking regularly for five months now, there's one relatively simple concoction that continues to bedevil me -- pasta sauce.

For as much as I've become adept at following (and where necessary modifying) recipes, I can't seem to prevent my sauces from thickening too much. It's happened to me with bombolina, bolognese and, now, amatriciana.

Once again, I turned to Glamour Magazine's 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know, my sentimental cookbook favorite these days. The instructions were simple enough -- heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil, add in a garlic clove, 4 ounces of crumbled bacon and 28 ounces of canned chopped tomatoes.

Woops. Did I say 28? Actually, that's what Glamour said but I somehow ended up with only a 14-ounce can on hand when the time came to cook.

Needless to say, doing without half the amount of liquid recommended here probably contributed to the paste-like consistency. But that doesn't explain why other perfectly proportioned sauces have gone all goopy on me.

My good friend Caroline maintains that my amatriciana attempt was a tasty one (I think it helped that I threw in some diced chicken breast) . I give it a B minus.

Meat-free Paella With Tofu & Veggie Sausage

There are some recipes that end up humbling a neophyte chef like me. Meat-free paella with smoked tofu and veggie sausages, my second selection from Glamour magazine's 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know, turned out to be one of them.

I had already started the cooking process when I discovered the dish called for five cups of vegetable broth -- and I only had three. Thankfully, modifying how much rice I used (1 cup instead of 1:5) took care of that discrepancy. Another mistake was less easily corrected.

The recipe calls for ½ a teaspoon of turmeric and 2 teaspoons of sweet paprika. Well, I forgot which seasoning I had in my hand and ended up dumping 2 teaspoons of turmeric in the pot instead! Upon realizing my gaffe, I quickly scooped up what I could before it absorbed into the already brewing liquid.

This meat-free concoction truly got my out of my comfort zone – and all the way to Whole Foods in Union Square. Smoked tofu and veggie sausages aren’t exactly standard supermarket fare, and I have to say it was worth the trip for my first visit to the organic mecca of food shopping. You can tell many of the people who buy here are serious about what they eat/cook, and I couldn’t help feeling a little extra dash of inspiration from it.

Overall, I would say this is a dish that requires a little patience and a lot of organization. Total prep time is 80 minutes, and includes needing counter space for various items mid-cooking -- space that my galley kitchen (like most in NYC) has little of. But I didn’t let any of that defeat me, especially since the paella is dubbed as an alternative for Glamour’s so-called Engagement Chicken. Dating or not, us single gals need some home cooking we can cozy up to.

Here’s the full recipe:

Warm Pasta Salad

With summer finally here -- huzzah! -- it’s the perfect time to start trying out recipes of the lighter variety. So I was very excited to stumble upon Salads: A Collection of 100 Essential Recipes.

I’m a big fan of pasta (carbs = bliss), so I recently tried out the cookbook’s recipe for warm pasta salad. My favorite part was whisking together the olive oil, vinegar, sugar and mustard. Who knew making tasty dressing could be so simple?

Total prep time is about 25 minutes. For a healthy, delicious dish ideally suited to the season, you can’t beat that. Here’s the full recipe:

Seared Salmon Steak

Like everything else in life, learning how to cook is made much sweeter with the support of fabulous girlfriends. My friend Lisa recently reminded me of this when she surprised me with 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know, a cookbook from the editors of GLAMOUR that’s been on my shopping list since it came out a few months ago.

Craving something healthy after a weekend of gastronomic indulgence in Boston, I turned to the seafood section and a recipe for Simply Sophisticated Seared Tuna Steak. When a trip to the supermarket revealed a $16 differential between tuna and salmon, the recessionista in me opted to go with the latter.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it taught me something I didn’t know – namely that seafood can only be marinaded (in this case, an hour) for a limited amount of time before it starts to cook. My other favorite part – the exquisitely simple but delicious marinade itself: ginger, soy and brown sugar mixed together. Combine that with olive oil in the pan and the result is yum-ola!

“Glamour.com assistant editor Meredith Turits calls this her go-to dish anytime she wants to make something easy and impressive,” says the recipe intro.

Simply Sophisticated indeed.

Prep Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 8 minutes

Here’s the complete recipe:

Squash Gratin

When it comes to culinary inspiration, one of my favorite muses is most definitely my beloved sister-in-law Barb. In addition to her extensive repertoire, she has a great collection of cookbooks. I recently thumbed through one that featured entrees under 300 calories per serving, and was excited to find a recipe for butternut gratin.

Having never made a squash dish before (or a gratin, for that matter), this was uncharted territory for me. I didn’t realize how large a butternut squash in until I saw it in the supermarket, at which point I happily made the suggested substitute for acorn squash instead.

One of the things I love about this recipe is how easy it is. You nuke the squash and then the gratin mixture, and prep time is about 30 minutes. The flavor combination of squash, pork chops, onions, bread crumbs and reduced-fat cheddar cheese is delicious. A satisfying entrée that scrimps on calories and not taste. Here’s how to make it:

Quick Chicken Parmesan

When you live to eat like I do, finding healthy variations of decadent favorites isn't always easy. So I was excited to stumble upon Ellen Haas' low-cal quick chicken parmesan recipe in Fit Food: Eating Well For Life.

Easy to make in just 30 minutes, the recipe includes most of what everyone loves about chicken parm -- tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese (low-fat, of course), olive oil and oregano. Sauteeing and baking the chicken gives it a great flavor. The purist in me, though, must admit I missed having bread crumbs on my cutlet.

Still, for less than 300 calories and 10 grams of fat per serving, it more than satisfied.

Click on the image below for full ingredient and prep details.

BBQ Mango Tilapia

When you’re a neophyte chef like me, sometimes even the simplest dishes can be fraught with peril. So I recently discovered when I turned to Hungry Girl’s 200 Under 200 recipe for bbq mango tilapia.

As a big fan of both barbecue and mango, I was beyond excited to try this out. Until I found myself in the fruit section of my neighborhood supermarket in a bit of quandary. What color mango to select? Not realizing that, like bananas (my all-time favorite fruit), green does not equal ripe, I made the wrong choice. Which I discovered as I struggled to slice the stubbornly brittle mango -- and nearly broke a knife in the process.

Hungry Girl’s recipe calls for two teaspoons of brown sugar and one teaspoon of molasses. I faced another dilemma here. Should I modify the ingredients? After all, I’m the amateur and the cookbook is the expert, right?

I opted not to make any changes and, sure enough, found the finished product to be a little too sweet for my taste. Lesson learned -- it’s okay to trust one’s instincts when it comes to making sure a home cooked dish pleases your palette.