From Solo Lisa's Kitchen

In order to stick to my New Year's resolution of becoming less culinarily challenged, I thought I'd introduce a new feature on this blog to motivate myself. "From Solo Lisa's Kitchen" features snapshots of the results of my cooking experiments. This first installment is longer than usual because it includes a couple of things I made during the holidays as well. Enjoy!

Blueberry muffins marked my first foray into the kitchen. Texture-wise I was very pleased with how they turned out (moist inside and with a crunchy shell on the dome), but a quick taste test told me I'd added a bit too much salt to the batter. Lesson learned: Be more precise when measuring ingredients for baking.


The banana cupcakes with cinnamon frosting proved to be much more successful. The cake was moist and full of flavour, but the icing was too sweet for my taste even though I followed the recipe to a tee. I made another batch of these but didn't make the icing the second time around, and just left them as "banana muffins." Ha!


Mmm chicken noodle soup, one of my favourite cold weather comfort foods. This batch was big enough for three days' worth of lunches.


I made the salt and five spice chicken last night using a recipe from the Donna Hay cookbook I bought in Portland. Success! My parents gave it the thumbs up and my brother asked if he could have some for lunch the next day. I'll be packing the chicken with rice for lunch over the next few days.


My "try yoga" goal hasn't kicked off yet, but I'm thinking of doing my first class this weekend. Fingers crossed it goes well.

Have you made any steps towards achieving your New Year's resolutions yet?

20 comments

  1. OMG! Miss Domestic goddess? Can you send me some of those muffins?! haha did you get my letter yet? I can't wait for yours!

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  2. Yay, two thumbs up for you! One of my goals this year is to exercise more and next week, I will start my TTh brisk walking and jogging. Good luck to us! :)

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  3. I'm beyond impressed, lady. My kitchen screams when I get anywhere near it. ;)

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  4. Good Job! Actually, looking at that chicken is really making me hungry right now...

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  5. Loved reading this and seeing those photos of your culinary delights! I didn't bother cooking until a year ago, when I figured it would be a shame to love food this much but not actually create any meals. The muffins look great and so does the chicken! I made chicken noodle soup as well last week. I think the more you play around with ingredients, the more you'll be able to adapt the recipes and ingredients yourself.

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  6. good job lisa!!! those are looking delicioussssssssssss.

    i can't wait to see more photos :) so i can starve myself and drown and envy!!

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  7. Yummy idea, darling!
    Good luck with the yoga ~ you're going to be hooked!

    xoxox,
    CC

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  8. Don't count on going to Y yoga during the Olympics... Lulu's teaming up with Y and they're giving away over a thousand free tix to tourists! I recommend Semperviva :)

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  9. Augh! But I wanted to do their 2-week unlimited introductory pass! Okay, I guess yoga will have to wait until after the Olympics. I'll stick to salsa and lots of brisk walking in the meantime. :/

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  10. Oh, everything looks so yummy! I can just taste the chicken noodle.

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  11. the chicken looks SO good. and blueberry muffins are my fave! great job!...somtimes it's not the cook, but the recipe so don't get discouraged! ;)

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  12. Can I get one of those cupcakes pretty please?

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  13. Mmm muffins! :D They look quite scrumptious!

    I'm doing my first hot yoga class on Saturday, finally! Let me know how your yoga session goes! :)

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  14. Post the chicken recipe!! I need to learn how to cook yummy chicken.

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  15. that banana cupcake looks completely amazing! I'm going to have to do that!

    www.glammed.blogspot.com

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  16. great job lisa! seems like you're already less culinarily challenged!

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  17. mmm cupcakes. the banana ones look really good.

    I also have a donna hay cookbook - i think ti's called Cooking from teh pantry and it's super simple and easy recipes. even I can't screw them up!

    good for you for taking on this challenge.

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  18. Look at you - the budding chef ;)

    Great variety in recipes you've tried out so far ... care for a recipe swap one of these days?

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