September 30th, 2009 -
Ninja vs Chicken: Chicken with mushroom sauce
Today’ mission: Making Yummy Chicken Breast
Chicken Breast is said to be one of the healthiest proteins you can eat. Ninja agrees with this but struggles to make it more appetizing because it lacks rich flavor. That’s why Ninja decided to make a delicious mushroom sauce. To compensate for the plainness of the meat, Ninja uses Herbs de Provence and crisps up the outside by cooking for 7-8 minutes per side.
Ninja found these!
| Protein |
Vegetables |
Spices |
| Chicken Breast |
Mushrooms – as many as you like |
Salt & Pepper |
| |
Rosemary, sage, thyme |
|
| |
Cream – 1 cup |
|
| |
Garlic – 1,2 cloves |
|
| |
Shallot – 1 clove |
|
|
Flower – 1 tablespoon |
|
|
Butter – 1 tablespoon |
|
|
Chicken Stock - as much as needed |
|
Here are ninja’s steps:
- Season chicken with salt, pepper, Herbs de Provence and olive oil
- Cook chicken in a pan on medium heat for 7-8 minutes per side.
- Rest chicken on a plate
- Sauté sliced mushrooms, chopped garlic and the chopped shallot in the same pan with the cooked chicken
- Melt butter in the pan and sprinkle flour on top. Blend together for a few seconds before moving to the next step.
- Add cream and adjust the thickness of the sauce with the chicken stock
- Put the chicken back into the pan and serve it hot!
Feedback:
| Good |
Bad |
| Protein |
Lack of vegetables |
| Delicious! |
Cream adds lots of calories |
| |
Hard to not overcook the chicken |
Review:
It was very good. I hope PB learns how to cook this!
September 30th, 2009 -
Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta
Today’ mission: Make a healthy pasta dish
Every ninja knows pasta is bad because pasta makes ninja fat! Everybody knows that being too strict to your diet makes it hard to stay on long term. That’s why ninja makes this special type of ninja pasta once in a while. The good thing about it is that PB loves this dish so much that she usually devours almost all of it by herself. More pasta for PB, less pasta for ninja and ninja stays in shape!
Ninja found these!
| Protein |
Vegetables |
Spices |
| Italian sausage |
Sun dried tomatoes (jar) |
Salt & Pepper |
| |
Frozen artichoke |
|
| |
Garlic |
|
| |
Frozen spinach |
|
|
Italian Parsley |
|
|
Rotini pasta |
|
Here are ninja’s steps:
- Cut sausage into bite size pieces and pan fry it with some oil from sun dried tomato jar
- Start cooking the pasta
- Put garlic and artichokes in with the sausage in the frying pan once sausage is almost cooked
- Put drained spinach and sliced up sun dried tomatoes into the frying pan once artichokes are thawed and cooking
- Add cooked pasta to fry pan
- Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve!
Feedback:
| Good |
Bad |
| Carbs! Yummy! |
Carbs |
| Protein |
PB gains some lbs |
| Spicy and sweet |
|
Review:
Very delicious and easy! The basic ingredients are sausage and sun dried tomatoes. You can add anything you want as long as those two ingredients are present. Perfect for boxed lunches if you have access to a microwave.
September 15th, 2009 -
Today’ mission: Create ninja hummus
Ninja ate way too much over the weekend because ninja was very very bored. So today, ninja decided to make a healthy snack that ninja can munch on whenever he watches his ninja movies. Ninja opened up the refrigerator and decided to make hummus.
Ninja found these!
| Protein |
Vegetables |
Spices |
| n/a |
Chickpeas (cooked) |
Salt & Pepper |
| |
Onion |
Cumin |
|
Garlic |
Paprika |
|
Roasted red bell peppers (jar)Lemon |
Olive oil |
Here are ninja’s steps:
- Throw everything in the food processor
- Pour in olive oil and add spices until it becomes a soft paste to your liking
- Chop up some veggies you would like to dip in the hummus (like carrots and celery)
Feedback:
| Good |
Bad |
| Nice flavor |
Hummus did not go well with asparagus |
| Healthy |
|
| |
|
Review:
It was very tasty, but the asparagus ninja used for dipping did not go well with hummus ninja made. Ninja really likes it with celery and carrot sticks. Later, ninja had humus on top of a plain ninjomelet, which was very delicious and ninja recommends trying that.
September 9th, 2009 -
The Secret of Ninjroom Soup
It’s raining and ninja is cold. Having a cold protein shake after practicing the ninja stroke in the cold indoor swimming pool for hours makes it worse. Ninja has to save himself before his body shuts down in the shock! Shivering, ninja opens up the refrigerator and pulls out what ninja can use to make a great ninja soup!
Ninja found these!
| Protein |
Vegetables |
Others |
| Chicken stock |
Mushrooms |
Cream |
| |
Onion |
Oatmeal |
| |
Garlic |
butter |
|
Chick peas (cooked) |
|
Here are ninja’s steps:
- Cook oatmeal in the microwave
- Chop the onion and sauté with a pinch of salt and pepper in the pot until it turns color
- Mushroom and butter go into the pot and sauté until soft
- Add chicken stock, chick peas, and cooked oatmeal into the pot
- Bring to a boil
- Blend with a hand blender until smooth or at a desired consistency
- Add cream and adjust the flavor with salt and pepper if necessary
Feedback:
| Good |
Bad |
| Nice mushroom flavor |
Soup thickens later because of oatmeal, Add more stock if this happens |
| Good idea using oatmeal as thickening agent |
|
| Minimum amount of cream and butter |
|
Review:
It’s a very hearty soup and ninja really likes what he did. After having a big bowl of ninjroom soup, ninja feels warm and ready to jump over the fortress walls! The secret is to use oatmeal. Oatmeal is ninja’s super healthy food that ninja relies on every morning for ninja energy and he knows it helps him stay in super fit ninja style. If you are courageous enough to try the ninjroom soup, ninja thinks you don’t have to use oatmeal if you don’t want to. Just use more chickpeas or any other kind of beans to thicken your soup!
September 8th, 2009 -
Today’s Mission: Ninjamelet!
Once in a while, ninja feeds his training partner one of ninja’s kills (a dish in ninja cooking terms), PB, because PB eats the same thing every day. His favorite food in the whole wide ninja world is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. PB eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast, lunch, dinner and sometimes for a midnight snack before bed. Being very smart, ninja knows PB needs to be fed something other than that to become a strong ninja. Even more kindly, ninja decided to let PB in on the secret of making a super ninja food. Glancing quickly in the refrigerator, ninja realized there is only one thing ninja should make. Super ninja food 123, the Ninjamelet.
Ninja found these!
- 2 strips of Bacon
- 2 Eggs
- 4 leftover small red and yellow potatoes (already boiled)
- Italian Parsley
- Porcini mushrooms
Here is what ninja did!
For the stuffing pan:
- Cut the bacon into small pieces and sauté until crispy
- Cut potatoes into small pieces and toss into the pan containing the crispy bacon
- Add the Porcini into to the pan right after the potatoes with a little bit of butter
- Add a little bit of minced Italian parsley into the pan
- Pepper but no salt (ninja reminder 101 “bacon is naturally salty…”)
For the egg pan: (ninjas don’t use a spatula here)
- Beat the eggs gently with a half pinch of salt, pepper, and a dash of lukewarm water
- Heat up a non-stick pan very hot and melt half a tablespoon of butter
- Wait until almost all the bubbles go away in the butter and the pour the eggs in the pan
- Wait for a few seconds
- Lift up the pan and start shaking in a circular motion, sliding it around and spreading the yolk on the pan further.
- When the bottom is set, but the top is still fluid start jerking the pan toward you before it completely coagulates. It should be sliding around freely.
For the finish:
- Carefully put the stuffing on still soft (not completely cooked) egg.
- Keep jerking for a couple more seconds to fold the egg around the stuffing.
- Roll it gently onto a plate and garnish with parsley.
Review
Ninja knows that a great ninja would never make an excuse for a kill! Therefore, of course ninja won’t say anything about the little hole made by ninja’s katana in the finished super ninja food. Besides, ninja does not think that PB would ever notice. Smelling the super seductive ninja food, PB lost the most important ninja lesson, to be calm and assertive. He is jumping up and down drooling with a knife and fork already on his hand!!! Being a good ninja chef, ninja first tested for poison. Yummy! Flavorful, fluffy egg, crunchy bacon inside with potatoes and porcini! PB sat at the table very patiently while ninja told PB another important ninja lesson. “A ninja eat his kill before it gets cold!”
Ninja note:
Ninja learned this technique from a great ninja chef, Julia Child, who trained in France, the ultimate ninja country. She is the master of all ninja arts and ninja just recently watched a wonderful movie about her.
September 7th, 2009 -
Today’s mission: Make a healthy lunch !
Being already too hungry before ninja starts cooking does not make a good chef out ninja, but ninja has to do it. Ninja doesn’t want to regret chewing down a toasted muffin with honey following the HaggenDaz (chocolate chocolate chip) even though it is so tempting right now. Trying to be strong, ninja opened the refrigerator and it was a almost empty. Ninja found a roasted chicken thigh leftover from last week, an overripe tomato, halved lemon, a green pepper, a jar of Roasted bell peppers, ready-to-use pre-washed mixed greens and walnuts. Here is what ninja did:
- Heat the chicken thigh up in the microwave
- Cut all the ingredients into bite sizes
- Toss everything but the walnuts and chicken with lemon juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil
- Toss in the chicken and walnuts
Ingredients ninja used:
|
 Protein
|
 Vegetables
|
|
Roasted Chicken Thigh
|
- Green pepper
- Roasted bell pepper
- Prewashed mixed greens
- Tomatoes
- Walnut
- Red onion
- Lemon
|
|
 Feed back: Good
|
 Feedback: Bad…
|
- Very healthy
- Good amount of protein
- Walnuts
- Something new
|
- Green pepper did not get along with the rest
- Strong onion taste
- Not enough seasoning
|
Suggested improvements for the next salad and your salad:
- Do not use a raw green pepper
- Taste and adjust the flavor of the whole salad
- No raw onion unless soaked in water first
- Toast the walnuts
|
Review
The first few bites ninja devoured tasted very delicious. After the second serving, the green pepper started to get to ninja. It did not have the sweet flavor ninja likes when it’s cooked and was just not tasty! This is very funny because ninja uses raw green pepper when ninja makes pasta salads and ninja likes it a lot. Also the onion was killing ninja. It was just too much onion flavor even though ninja used only a little bit of it. Ninja did not put enough salt and acid so ninja was adjusting the taste while eating. Over all, it was edible, but ninja did not enjoy it too much. Next time, ninja will start earlier when ninja is not too hungry so ninja can focus more on the details…
