Fiber ... and Some Pinning Notes

Happy Friday everyone! On the fiber front, here's where I stand with my Tunisian Meets Tartan bag:
 

The three pieces of the bag were whipped up fairly quickly. Now I need to add the "tartan" (and I'll get to add that pop of heathered plum) and then commence finishing. However, my JAL participants requested more time, so we'll be at it through the end of October. If anyone is interested in joining us, there's still plenty of time. I probably won't pick this up again for a week or so, as I have a very full design plate at the moment.

 
As I blogged a little while back, I have a Pinterest account. I have been enjoying pinning things that catch my eye and inspire. Most of what I pin is by and large inspirational or fanciful ... except for ... well ... the food. Since I love to cook and eat (!), I've pinned many pins to my food board with the intention of trying the underlying dish. Recently, I did just that, and I thought I'd share my results with you (your results may, of course, vary):
 
1. Lemon Crinkle Cookies: (originally pinned by someone else from KitchenMeetsGirl.com)

 

To the right is what the cookies look like in the original pin/blogpost.

I repinned these onto my food board because I love citrus, the cookies look darn delicious, and sounded too easy to put together. I expect the last point should have been the tip-off for me, since 2 of the 4 ingredients are highly processed (box cake mix and whipped topping). They were, however, as advertised - super easy to put together, as you can see in my before baking photo:

My finished cookies actually looked pretty good:

However, then there's that eating thing. While I am not opposed to convenience food (especially boxed cake mixes), I usually doctor them up after baking, because they are a little ... well ... bland. These cookies look far better than they taste. If I ever made them again, I would definitely punch up the lemon flavor with some fresh zest or even a little squeezed juice. Ultimately, though, I didn't really like the texture of them - they were a little too cake-like for me. But, again, you might want to whip up a batch and check them out for yourself.

2. Chicken Broccoli Casserole (originally pinned by someone else from MyNameIsSnickerdoodle.com)

Now, folks, I love me a good casserole - one pot, in the oven, resulting in several meals - oh yeah. I had roasted a chicken earlier and after having two meals with the dark meat (my eating m.o. when it comes to chicken), this seemed like the perfect way to use up the white meat plus the fresh broccoli I had in the fridge. But again, the recipe calls for canned cream of chicken soup. I haven't actually used canned soup of any kind in quite a while, and even though this dish came out perfectly fine:

I don't think I'll be making it again because of the processed, flavorless taste of the soup mix. There were some intriguing comments on the original blog entry, one of which noted the cook used alfredo sauce; another added curry. I think the massaman curry paste I tested recently for America's Test Kitchen would be a fantastic substitute here, omitting the cheese and probably subbing in a different veggie (although I did like the fresh broccoli in this - it was a great bright note amid the flat sauce), since there's a lot of ginger in the curry paste. As you can see, I'm pretty much remaking the entire dish.

So, while these pins will come down from my food board, there's one really good lesson learned - if there's too much prepared or processed food in the ingredients, I should skip it and move on. I don't begrudge any cook convenience but for me, my tastes have just radically changed. C'est la vie.

A totally gratuitous George Bailey photo ... and,
yes, he really was sleeping "on" the chair just like that

Now don't forget to head on over to Andrea's at Wisdom Begins in Wonder to see everyone else's tasty fiber plate this Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday. May your weekend be filled with flavor ... and of course, fiber.