Jumping in with both feet

So last night, I was enthusiastically scrolling through my Pinterest page looking for some recipes to try for The Experiment, and M was looking over my shoulder. He was not as enthusiastic, to put it lightly. As I looked at recipes with ingredients like mango chutney or spaghetti squash, I could overhear the soft mutterings of M: "oh boy" and "oh geez, what have I gotten myself into?" And then I found it. I found the one. And I knew he would not be pleased. And this pleased me greatly, because let's face it, I'm kind of mean in a loving way.

I knew tonight was going to be rough. But I also knew I had to pull this one out and just dive right in. Introducing Pinch of Yum's Butternut Mac and Cheese With Caramelized Onions, Bacon and Apple.

I was hoping to prepare this all and just set the dish in front of M, without him having any knowledge of the ingredients, but he is not one for surprises. He is persistent. It's slightly frustrating and when I'm cooking and rushing around, I just don't have time to fight it. So I tried to be coy: "It's a variation of mac and cheese." There. That was good. Nope. He was on to me. "Is this the one with butternut squash?" "Ummmm...." Yeah, I had no out. But I did not divulge the rest of the ingredients, hoping once again that he would evacuate the premises and let me get to work. No such luck.

So while I was trying to finish things up, I had to chop the apples. "There's APPLES in this? Oh man." This was not looking good. "I hope you know your ESL is going to be pretty low." Yes, yes I know, M.

Without further ado I present the Butternut Squash Mac And Cheese with Caramelized Onions, Bacon and Apple:

Why is this meal challenging to M?

Where do I begin?? 1) Butternut Squash. His hatred of squash is enough to make me stop right here. But oh no, it gets better. 2) Apples. Let me put this right out there. Other than the occasional banana, I cannot recall a time when M voluntarily ate a piece of fruit. It's freakish. Maybe if it was baked into a pie, but no, no regular fruit. 3) I messed with a comfort food. I took mac and cheese, a dish he usually loves, and I basically turned it upside down. M is not a fan of change, especially when I put stuff he doesn't like in it.

M's ESL I went between a 2 and a 3 on this one because I was kind of hoping the bacon would help pull the number up. But as I made the dish, I fell back to a 2. It was so squash-y. I knew it was going to be a challenge.

So before I even go on to his ASL, let me just say that I thought this dish was DELICIOUS!! And my daughter gobbled it up. She gave it a 10/10! I definitely will be making this again....

....but probably not for M.

M's Reaction and ASL

When I first asked M what the ASL was, he replied, "I'm not sure yet." Hmm. Interesting response. After a few more bites I got a "I'm not digging the apples." And then the gem: "If you could take all the other stuff out and leave the mac and cheese, it would be fine." HAHAHA, very typical M statement. However, his ASL? A 3.5! Higher than I expected, so I was a little happy about that. He did elaborate: "If I came home and you said this is what was for dinner, I'd eat it, but I wouldn't be happy about it." Ok then.

Once a month, M has a dinner meeting for some water-lovers club or something. I guess I'll be saving this dish for a mother-daughter night.

Baby Steps

Before I even get started on what the dinner was for tonight, I thought it would be best to have some way to measure/evaluate M’s reactions to the meals.  After all, this is an experiment, right?  So with that, I present the following statistical components I will use to evaluate each meal:

1)    The name of the meal
2)    Why this meal is “challenging” to M
3)    M’s expected satisfaction level (or ESL) (on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being fabulously satisfied) based on #2 and my knowledge of him
4)    M’s actual satisfaction level (ASL) after the meal

I’m using the word “satisfaction” to describe several things:  satiety, taste and likeliness/willingness to eat it again.  I realize that this is not very scientific, but hey, it’s my blog, I do what I want.  I’m also planning on trying to update with my weight loss progress once/week since that is kind of the point of the experiment, but we’ll see how that goes.

On to today!!!  Today is not a very challenging day, but I didn’t want to throw him into Chicken Tikka Masala on Day 1.  Oh yes, that dish will happen at some point and that night will be extremely entertaining.  But for today, I wanted to start out slowly, and ease M into the experiment.

One of my favorite websites is Gracious Pantry and it’s a popular one amongst clean eating enthusiasts.  I’ve had this recipe on my Pinterest page for a while, but I’ve always been held back a little by a few things.  First, I’ve never had chicken and dumplings before and I have no idea how it should taste.  Also, M’s not a big fan of chicken stew type meals and if it’s soupy, forget it.  However, I felt like this was close enough to a chicken pot pie situation to try it out on him.  It’s pretty basic, no crazy spices (although my first time using marjoram, I think) and no weird grains or beans that might freak him out.  I almost feel like I’m cheating a little bit with this meal because I do think he will like it, but it also might wind up being one of those “it’s ok, I’d eat it if I had to” meals, which aren’t exactly super encouraging.

So here we go:
1)    The meal:  Gracious Pantry’s Cleaning Eating Chicken and Dumplings
2)    This is challenging to M because he is not a big fan of chicken stews or creamy dishes
3)    M’s ESL:  I’m going with a 5 on this one.  I’m optimistic but cautious.  It’s still a bit like a chicken soup and he’s just not into that.  But this recipe is highly reviewed so fingers crossed he surprises me.

THE OUTCOME

Well, this is probably not going to be the most accurate assessment.  Apparently, my Crock Pot is terrible.  It overcooks everything, which is what happened with this tried-and-true recipe.  It overcooked it a bit.  I had to run out to a meeting so I left M home with the Crock Pot full of chicken and dumplings, and hoped for the best.

M’s ASL:  6.  I’m actually a bit surprised it was even that high given the fact that I thought it was overcooked.  However, when I pushed further for more details, I got “it was ok.”  Twice.  I’m not sure if he was trying to make me feel better or if he was distracted by Wile E. Coyote and The Roadrunner on tv.  I asked him how much he ate and he said “a bowl.”  I have a feeling he was trying to make me feel better, so I don’t think his 6 is really a 6.

Lesson for the day:  no more slow cooker recipes until I get a new one!