I am far from being a great cook.  Though I’m surrounded by plenty of cooks and chefs  among my friends and family, including Puddingyrl.  I do not have the patience to cook or bake, but this summer I spent a lot of time watching reruns of Chopped with my daughter.  I like the idea of not following a recipe and putting ingredients together to see how they go.  Of course, on the show, they’re seasoned chefs, and I’m just trying to feed my family.  One night after watching Chopped, my daughter had the idea to pick out four ingredients for me to create something like in the show.  I wanted to challenge myself, however, and came up with something that was edible and good for my kid. The first night was a success, so now every Thursday after Jazz class, my daughter chooses her ingredients, and I whip up an easy meal that pretty much anyone could make (no, really, anyone). Most recently, she chose corn, angel hair pasta, apples, and ranch dressing. I had chicken that needed to be cooked, so I marinated it with the apples and white wine. Then, I browned it in a pan with coconut oil and baked it at 350 degrees in the oven. I cooked the pasta and just added butter, salt, and pepper. I put ranch dressing in the corn and sautéed it.

Preparation and cooking time was all under 45 min. Not Chopped time, but I’d like to see contestants balance cooking and two hungry kids asking for supper. Final word: 3 stars. My daughter loved everything but the baked apple. She spit it out and said, “WHAT was THAT?!!” Lesson learned.