Pinday: Crockpot Orange Chicken

Alrighty, here's another Pinterest recipe that I loved and my guys didn't.  I guess I don't do a good job of picking out recipes for the whole family's taste buds instead of just my own!  The issue is, though, that neither of my guys like the texture of chicken cooked in the crockpot.  So next time I'll try the same recipe cooked on the stovetop, and I bet they'll like it better.  For those of you whose families like crockpot meals, though, I highly recommend this.  The flavor was fantastic, and it was pretty simple.  :)  Pin here, recipe here.  Below is my photo and the original recipe.

Crockpot Orange Chicken
Ingredients:
• boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks
• 1/3 cup flour
• olive oil
• 1/2 T salt
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 T ketchup
• 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate (thaw or throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
• 4 T brown sugar

In a bowl, mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and ketchup. Pour the flour in a small bowl.  Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.  Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken.  The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot. After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crock pot.  Then cover the chicken with your sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3.Serve over rice and even add veggies if you want a healthier meal.  Enjoy!

It's a little irritating that the recipe doesn't tell you how much chicken to use!  I used 6 chicken breasts, and I thought the sauce-meat ratio was good.  It would've been fine with less chicken, though, for those of you who don't want a lot of leftovers!  Since I used that much chicken, I actually had some trouble browning it because the pan I used was too small.  So make sure to use a large enough saute pan to brown your chicken, or do it in batches - I think it would've been better if I had been able to more thoroughly brown the chicken.

I don't think this was very much like Panda Express Orange Chicken, which is of course fabulous.  However, that chicken is deep fried, which I'm sure is why it's so good!  My much healthier orange chicken was just different, but also very tasty.  It was definitely very orange-y and very sweet.  Not a hint of spice in it.

I served it with jasmine rice lightly flavored with garlic and ginger, and a freezer bag of stir fry vegetables lightly seasoned with soy sauce.  The salty vegetables were a nice contrast with the sweet chicken.  Let me know if you try this!

Pinday: Roasted Red Pepper & Basil Pesto Penne

So, how about another vegetarian Pinday recipe???  Alright, then.  Your wish is my command.  This week's recipe is Roasted Red Pepper & Basil Pesto Penne.  I hesitate to share it because I loved it, but neither of my boys liked it.  You use your own discretion about whether or not to try it.  Read on for how to avoid making the mistakes I did, and yours might be received better.  Pin here, recipe here.  My photo and original recipe below.

Roasted Red Pepper and Basil Pesto Penne

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup roasted red bell pepper (fresh or jarred)

1 cup basil leaves

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 lb. penne pasta

¼ cup heavy cream, optional

Directions:

Place garlic and pine nuts in a food processor.  Pulse until finely chopped.  Add Parmesan, red pepper, basil leaves, salt and pepper.  Pulse until well combined.  With the motor running, add olive oil through the feed tube and process until incorporated.  Set aside.

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and return to the pot.  Add the pesto to the pasta and stir to combine.  Stir in heavy cream if desired for a creamier sauce.  Heat until warmed through.  Serve immediately.

This recipe was really simple to make, and I "healthified" it by using whole wheat penne and fat free half & half instead of the cream.  My first mistake was in using all 3 cloves of garlic, because it just so happened that the head of garlic I had on hand had HUGE HONKIN' cloves.  I should've probably only used one, but I went ahead and used 3 because hey, we like garlic!  But geez, not that much!  So if you use normal-sized cloves of garlic, then go for the 3.  If you have mutant-giant cloves, consider using fewer.  :)  But hey, we were all set in case of any vampire attacks that week.

My second mistake was trying to substitute a different nut for the pine nuts.  Because man!  Pine nuts are really expensive!  And our Wal-Mart only had big bags of them, so I couldn't justify that expense.  So I tried to sneak in walnuts, which I know Justin doesn't like, but I hoped chopping them tiny in the food processor would make them ok for him...  Alas, it didn't.  I like walnuts, so I didn't mind the taste of them, but I definitely could taste them.  Next time I would either try pecans, which I think wouldn't have tasted as strong, or just spring for the pine nuts. 

The one GOOD substitution I made was using fat free half & half in place of the heavy cream.  I only used about 2 tablespoons instead of the full 1/4 cup, and it worked perfectly to give it just a hint of creaminess. 

I served this with oven-roasted vegetables, which both my boys DO like, so they got their veggies that night!

Pinday: Stuffed Eggplant Rolls

It seems like all the Pinterest recipes I'm featuring on here are vegetarian, but those are the new recipes I'm trying these days!  So here's another vegetarian hit: Stuffed Eggplant Rolls! The pin is here, and the recipe is here.  Below is my picture and original recipe.

Stuffed Aubergine Rolls 

Ingredients

• 2 aubergines, cut lengthways into 0.5cm/¼ in thick strips
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil, for brushing

For the filling

• 150g/5oz ricotta
• 150g/5oz buffalo mozzarella
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped

For the sauce

• 250ml/8fl oz extra virgin olive oil
• 450g/1lb cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• pinch sugar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/355F/Gas 4.
2. Season the aubergine slices well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and brush with oil.
3. Griddle for a couple of minutes on each side in a hot griddle pan, or until golden-brown grill marks are formed. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
4. For the filling, mix the ricotta, mozzarella, nutmeg and spring onions together in a bowl.
5. Lay out all of the slices of aubergine onto a clean surface. Place about one teaspoon of filling at the bottom edge of each one.
6. Roll up the aubergine slices, like a cigar, around the filling, then rest them seam-side down on a plate.
7. For the sauce, heat the olive oil in a pan and add the cherry tomatoes.
8. Simmer for 8-10 minutes until the tomatoes begin to break down.
9. Remove from the heat and stir in the garlic and sugar. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
10. Spoon some of the sauce into the bottom of an ovenproof dish.
11. Carefully place the aubergine rolls, seam-side down onto the sauce, and spoon over the rest of the sauce.
12. Transfer to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cheese begins to melt.
13. To serve, spoon the rolls onto plates.

The recipe came from a BBC site, where they call eggplants "aubergines!"  There were also a few other British words in the recipe that I just did the best I could to interpret and do correctly.  I don't know what spring onions are, but I just diced half a regular onion and sauteed it a little before mixing it with the cheese.  I also left out the nutmeg because I thought that sounded weird.  :)  Finally, I just used prepared spaghetti sauce to top them instead of making my own with cherry tomatoes.  Big time saver there!

These were delicious, although they took longer to make than I expected.  I used my Pampered Chef grill pan to grill them, and that worked great, just took a long time since it only held 4 or 5 slices at a time.  (I also used olive oil cooking spray instead of brushing the slices with olive oil, but I DO NOT recommend doing that...  The spray ended up burning onto my grill pan and being very difficult to get off!)  The grilled eggplant was very tasty, though, and I bet at some point I'll just make grilled eggplant as a vegetable side dish!

So this one was very tasty, but a bit too much effort to make all the time.  A nice special treat for my eggplant-loving husband, though!

I served them with Oven Roasted Garlic Green Beans, which were delicious, but for us needed to be cooked longer than the 8 minutes the recipe calls for.  Next time I'll probably do like 15 minutes, which I bet would be just right for us!

Apple Recipes

As promised, here are some of the delicious recipes I made with our hand-picked apples!

Cinnamon Apple Crisp from Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Before you dismiss this as a weird Weight Watchers recipe, Justin and I both agreed this may have been the best apple crisp we've ever had.  Ever.  I doubled it and made it in a 9x13 dish, and that was not too much.  Absolutely delicious.  I used maple-flavored agave syrup, but I think plain maple syrup would be just great if you don't have agave nectar on hand.  It would've been tasty with ice cream, as suggested in the recipe, but we didn't have any on hand, and it certainly didn't need adornment.

Cinnamon Apple Crisp
Filling:

• 5 medium apples, peeled and diced
• 1.5 oz raisins (small box)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 3 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup agave nectar

Topping:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar (not packed)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (half stick) butter, melted

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine apples, raisins, cinnamon, agave nectar and lemon juice in large bowl. Sprinkle with cornstarch. Toss until fruit is coated. Place fruit in an ungreased baking dish.
Mix remaining ingredients. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake about 40 minutes or until topping is golden brown and fruit is tender.
Serve with a scoop of low fat ice cream or fat free frozen yogurt. Enjoy!!

Crockpot Applesauce from A Year of Slow Cooking

Elias adores applesauce and eats it every day, so to me that seemed like an obvious thing to do with all our apples!  I've never made applesauce before, though, so I wasn't sure what all was supposed to go in plain applesauce.  This was the first crockpot applesauce recipe I looked at, and this is one of my favorite food blogs, so I thought I'd try it.  I tripled it to fill up the crockpot, and I left out the brown sugar because I figured the apples are sweet enough.  I thought the cinnamon-vanilla applesauce it made was absolutely delicious - to me it tastes a lot like apple pie filling!  However, Elias is used to plain unsweetened applesauce and he didn't like this very much.  Ah well, I hate that I have to eat this whole batch myself!  I'll make another batch for him with just apples, lemon juice, and water.

Crockpot Applesauce
--4 large apples, skinned ,cored, and cut in quarters
--juice from 1 lemon
--1/2 tsp cinnamon
--1 tsp vanilla
--1 T brown sugar
--1/4 cup water

Skin, core, and cut your apples into quarters. Plop the pieces into your crockpot. Add the juice from the lemon, and the water. Pour in the vanilla, and add the cinnamon and brown sugar.  Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. When the apples are super tender, mash with a potato masher or large fork.

Apple Pancake Rings originally discovered on Pinterest!
I expected this recipe to be harder than it was to make.  It was actually quite easy, and it was really delicious!  I left the peels on the apple to add a little more nutrition, and that worked just fine.  I also made my own Bisquick mix from this recipe, using white whole wheat flour and Smart Balance margarine.  Only two apples made this whole plateful, and we all really liked it!  I didn't bother with the apple cider syrup - we just used maple syrup, which was delicious!  The pumpkin pie spice really gave it a great flavor.  Also, I didn't have any lemon zest to put in the batter, so I just put in a dash of lemon juice.

Apple Pancake Rings

• 1 Cup Bisquick Baking Mix
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Zest of 1/2 Lemon
• 2 Medium Apples
• pared and cored
• Lemon juice and zest (for apple cider syrup)
• Apple cider
• Cinnamon

To make hot apple cider syrup: Add apple cider, lemon juice and zest, and cinnamon to a saucepan and bring to a boil. (Use your own comfort/judgement with how much to mix.) Reduce the liquid to a syrup consistency, by half.
Beat baking mix, egg and milk with rotary beater until smooth. Add pumpkin pie spice and lemon zest to batter and mix until incorporated.  Grease and heat griddle.  Core and cut apples crosswise in 1/8-inch slices.  Using a toothpick dip slices into batter. Cook on hot griddle until golden brown, turning once. Serve hot with apple cider syrup.  

So I'm having a lot of fun with all these apples, and we're having some really yummy stuff around here these days!

Plaster's Orchard

After the pumpkin patch turned out to be a little bit of a dud on Saturday, we decided to try running by an apple orchard that's not too far from our town.  I had heard some friends talk about picking apples there, but I didn't really know anything about how it worked or where it was or what it cost!  But we decided to seize the moment and just go.  And I'm so glad we did!  It was a LOT of fun picking apples together, and we got a gigantic bucket full of apples!

What did Elias do with the first apple he picked?  Eat it, of course!

Justin using the apple picker.  I had never been apple picking before, and this little contraption was totally awesome!

 

Elias was a good picker!

 

We ended up with 75 apples for $10!  Not too shabby.  They're a mixture of Rome, Red Delicious, and Golden Delicious.  And delicious is right!  YUM!  :)

I've been having a LOT of fun figuring out ways to use all these apples, and I'll do another post soon with all the new apple recipes I've tried!

Pinday: Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

For this week's edition of Pinday, here is another healthy vegetarian recipe I found on Pinterest.  We love this so much, I've made it twice since I first found it!  Absolutely delicious, and so very healthy with all those veggies!  It is kind of work intensive since you have to chop all those fresh veggies, but I think the freshness is what makes it so delicious!  You could definitely chop them all the night before, or even roast them all the night before and have it put together ready to pop in the oven the next evening.  The pin is here, and the recipe is found here.  Below is my picture and the original recipe.

Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas
adapted from The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman

1 poblano chile, cut into matchsticks
2 red bell peppers, cut into matchsticks
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 medium onion, halved and slivered
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
3 T heat-safe oil like grapeseed or coconut
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups homemade or store bought salsa/pico de gallo
2 ounces baby spinach leaves (about 2 big handfuls)
9-10 corn tortillas, halved (try making homemade tortillas!)
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a cheddar-Monterey Jack blend)
sour cream and thinly sliced scallions (green onions) for garnish, if desired

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a large shallow roasting pan or rimmed cookie sheet.

Place poblanos, red bell peppers, cauliflower, sweet potato, onion, and corn kernels onto cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle the cumin and minced garlic over top. Add a generous pinch or two of salt and black pepper, then use your hands to mix everything together. After everything is coated well, spread the vegetables evenly in the pan. Roast for 30-40 minutes until vegetables are tender and begin to brown in spots. Stir or shake the pan every 10 minutes for even roasting.  Remove pan from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

Prepare an 8x8x2 or 9x9x2-inch square baking pan with nonstick spray. In a small bowl, stir the cilantro into the salsa. Spread 1/4 cup of salsa into the bottom of the baking pan. Add a layer of tortilla pieces, to completely cover the salsa. Top with 1/3 of the vegetables, a handful of spinach, and 1/3 of the cheese. Make a second layer of tortilla, salsa, vegetables, spinach, and cheese. Top with with a layer of tortillas, salsa, vegetables, and cheese. Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and everything is heated through.

Let it sit for 5 minutes and cut into squares. Serve with sour cream and a sprinkle of sliced scallions.

Serves 4-5

I leave out the poblano chile, but maybe throw in a little of another kind if I have it on hand.  I also use frozen corn and olive oil.  I also leave out the cilantro because I don't like it, and I didn't bother serving it with anything on top - it is stunning as is!  As you can see from my photo, though, this recipe fills up a 9x13 casserole dish...  I don't know how the original chef got it all to fit in a square dish, but no way would I be able to!  And I'd say it serves 6-8, depending on how big your eaters are.  But this is so scrumptious that I'm glad it makes a LOT...  I love having the leftovers again the next day!

Pinday: Stop What You're Doing And Make This!

Oh my stars in heaven above.  I had other recipes I was going to feature for this week's Pinday, but as soon as I tried this one, it jumped to the front of the line!  Let me preface this by saying that I have a serious sweet tooth, especially for rich, chewy things, and cookie dough may be my all-time biggest weakness.  However, because of my personal struggles with food and weight, cookie dough is just never a good choice for me.  Ever.  But then this week I saw a friend pin this recipe with the caption "Tastes like cookie dough, but it's HEALTHY???"  I just had to click, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing!

Back in my South Beach Diet days, I sometimes would make black bean brownies, which would fool lots of people who would never have guessed they were made with beans instead of flour.  So I cracked up to find a cookie dough recipe made with beans!!!  Ha!  Why had I never thought of this before?!!?!

Now the original pin linked to one recipe, but then in that recipe, she also linked to an even healthier version that wasn't quite as good.  I thought I'd try the healthier one first, though, because if I liked it, then I wouldn't know what I was missing with the less-healthy one.  And it was AWESOME!  The first one uses peanut butter, where the second one uses applesauce, so the second is much lower fat.  So here's the lower-fat recipe and my photo:

Blondie Batter Dip

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained) (250g)
• heaping 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plus 3T nondairy milk (or more or less, as needed… start out with less)
• Sweetener (see note below, for amount)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• Optional: I add 1/4 cup flaxmeal for omega 3s and a fun texture

Add all ingredients (except for chocolate chips) to a blender or food processor, and blend until very smooth. Then mix in the chocolate chips.
Sweetener Notes: I used 2/3 cup brown sugar when I made this for the party (*but I also used the higher-fat version). I’ve also used stevia before. And liquid sweeteners (agave, maple, etc.) are fine as well.

In my recipe, I used regular skim milk, splenda for sweetener (I used 1/4 cup, but it was too much.), and I didn't have chocolate chips, so I chopped up some truffle candy I had on hand.  I did add the flaxmeal, too.  It was absolutely delicious, and Justin tried it and thought it was excellent too.  I was surprised to discover that I couldn't eat the whole thing in one sitting - half was plenty, and the rest kept just fine in the fridge.

One thing I will do differently next time (besides having real chocolate chips!) is I'll use my stick blender to blend it well.  It was too thick for my Magic Bullet to process well, so I had too many whole chickpeas left in there.

I was curious about how this recipe would follow the guidelines of certain diets.  As long as you use a calorie-free sweetener and 60% dark cocoa chocolate chips, it would be South Beach Diet friendly for phase 2, and half of the recipe would be 8 Weight Watchers Plus Points.  I think that's definitely ok for an occasional treat!!!!!  So maybe I don't have to say goodbye to cookie dough forever after all!

Pinday: Ham & Pineapple Fried Rice

This week's Pinday recipe was quick, easy, and delicious!  It stood out to me because Elias loves both ham and pineapple, so I thought this would be a great one for him...  But we all loved it!  I unfortunately didn't have enough ham when I was making it (DUH!), so I just sauteed some bite-sized pieces of chicken breasts, and those were delicious too.  Can't wait to try it again with HAM.  (Rolling eyes.)  The only other thing I did differently from the recipe below was that I used minute brown rice instead of white.

Pin here, original recipe here.

This is my Chicken & Pineapple Rice.  Still tasty!

Ham & Pineapple Fried Rice

• 2 cups white rice
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
• vegetable oil
• 2 cups diced ham
• 2 Tbs. soy sauce, plus extra to taste
• 20 oz can pineapple tidbits, drained and reserve juice
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1-2 cups frozen peas and carrots
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice according to the package directions.
Cook the onion and garlic in oil  in a large skillet till soft.  Add the ham, 2 Tbs. soy sauce, 1 Tbs. pineapple juice.  Cook for several minutes till the ham is hot.  Pour the eggs into the skillet and cook, stirring frequently.  Add the peas and carrots and heat through.  Stir in the drained pineapple.  Add the cooked rice, stirring to combine.  Add soy sauce, pineapple juice, salt and pepper to taste.  I added about 2 Tbs. each of soy sauce and pineapple juice.

Pinday: Rachel Ray's Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia

This week's Pinday post will be very simple, because it was a very simple recipe that turned out DELICIOUS!!!  The pin on Pinterest is here, and the recipe is here.  I'm always looking for good fish recipes, because both my boys love fish, and I love the IDEA of fish, but haven't been able to eat it since I was pregnant with Elias.  (The texture makes me gag.)  I discovered last summer at a restaurant that I enjoyed fish on a salad, but that's still a pretty limited way to eat it.  So I saw this recipe for Rachel Ray's Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia and thought it showed promise for allowing me to finally be able to eat fish OFF a salad.  I followed the recipe exactly (except I forgot the lemon wedges to serve with it), and it turned out great!  Victory!  Here's my photo and the recipe:

Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia 
4 Servings, Prep 10 min, Cook 10 min
10 10 20

Ingredients

• ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 4 tilapia fillets (about 1 pound total)
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a shallow dish, combine the cheese with the paprika and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the fish with olive oil and dredge in the cheese mixture. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until the fish is opaque in the thickest part, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve the fish with the lemon wedges.

I served it with this baked tomato recipe, and brown rice with chicken bouillion and peas.

Pinday: Tomato Paella Recipe

Unfortunately, for this week's episode of Pinday, I'm posting a Pinterest recipe that didn't quite work.  It did end up being delicious, but it didn't happen the way the recipe said.  Before we go there, here's the link from Pinterest, and here's the recipe and image from the original blog:

Tomato Paella
1. Preheat oven to 450. Warm 3 cups of water or broth in a saucepan. Slice 1 pound of tomatoes into wedges and toss with plenty of salt and pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.
2. In a cast iron skillet, sauté one sliced onion and a tablespoon of minced garlic in some olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add a tablespoon of tomato paste, a pinch of saffron threads, and 1-2 teaspoons of smoked paprika. Add 2 cups short grain rice (I use arborio) and stir for a minute or two until shiny. Add 1/2 cup white wine until it is absorbed, then add the water or broth, and stir.
3. Arrange the tomatoes on top and drizzle with the juices from the bowl. Put the pan in the oven and let roast for about 15 minutes. Check to see that the rice is tender and dry; if not, let it roast for another 5-10 minutes, or until done, adding a small amount of water, broth, or wine if needed. When done, turn off the oven and let sit for 10 minutes or so.
4. On the stovetop, cook the paella over high for a few minutes to develop a tasty crust. Sprinkle with basil and/or parsley, if desired. Enjoy!

Way yum, right?  We're eating a lot more vegetarian these days, and so I'm always looking for new meatless recipes.  Plus, this used saffron, which Justin brought some of back from Turkey because it's WAY cheaper there.  So I jumped all over this when I found it on Pinterest!

Alas, it once again confirms the conclusion I've come to before in my cooking life: I CAN'T COOK RICE.  I am a master at minute rice, but any "real" rice recipe I've EVER tried NEVER works.  The rice just doesn't cook.  I can't tell you how many recipes I've fed my poor guys with crunchy rice, which is edible, but doesn't leave your tummy feeling all that great later.

I've never used arborio rice, so I thought that might be one that would cook properly according to directions.  No, it didn't.  If you look in step 3 of the recipe, you'll see the rice is supposed to be "tender and dry" after roasting in the oven for 15 minutes.  NOT!  I don't think it had soaked up ANY of the liquid at all!  It was crunchy rice soup.  So at that point, I just put a lid on it and simmered it on the stovetop at medium for about 8 minutes.  That DID cook it, and it ended up being delicious, but it's always a bummer to ONCE AGAIN not have a recipe work.  Here's what mine looked like:

So it may have been my fault for using a stainless skillet instead of a cast iron one - but I don't HAVE a cast iron skillet, and they're both oven safe!  Sheesh.  (I didn't take the time for a pretty foodie pic since I was already running behind due to the unforeseen recipe alterations!)

It was very tasty, though, and I probably will make it again.  Next time I imagine I'll just do it all on the stovetop.  My step 3 will be: "Arrange the tomatoes on top and drizzle with the juices from the bowl.  Turn heat to high until mixture is boiling.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer on medium low for 20 minutes."  I'll just cut out step 4, which I didn't do this time either.  The saffron and white wine gave it fantastic flavor, although if you're not into cooking with wine, I'm sure you could substitute with broth and still get a very tasty dish.

So there's my dubious Pinterest story for the week.  Happy Pinday!