Summertime...and the cookin' is easy...

I've been doing a lot of cooking the past couple of days, well, weeks really. I invented a recipe for keylime shortbreads (too popular to keep around long enough for pics), made homemade doughnuts, a festive 4th of July trifle/parfait type of thing and took a basic recipe for chicken tetrazini and made it low fat and a little healthier than usual.


Here is the parfait. I made a white cake mix, folded vanilla pudding into homemade whipped cream, made a berry compote and added fresh uncooked berries to layer in this recipe. We'll add sparklers to it on the actual 4th of July and celebrate.

Here's the tetrazini and I'll quickly admit the photo makes it look like it was a little dry. It was not. It was delicious. Instead of adding cream or milk to the bechamel sauce, I instead used lowfat chicken stock and it was very good. I also grilled the chicken breast for added taste and sauteed the mushrooms with minced garlic. This was freaking delicious and with the exception of one modest lunch-sized portion for the next day was gone within minutes. I was very happy with the outcome of this dish.

I'm planning to make a few new dishes for the family this summer. I'm thinking we'll go for a nice and spicy shrimp etoufee next. Because I feel like taking pics and posting stuff right now, you'll probably get to see the stuff soon, assuming I keep posting stuff. Stay tuned!

PS. There is no beef sauteed with peas and onions in the parfait.