Battle Ricotta: The Finish; Weigh In Wednesday

Let’s start with breakfast, shall we? Today to finish up my Battle Ricotta I chose a recipe I found on Epicurious.com. Canyon Ranch Berry Fruit Crepes seemed simple enough for a fairly quick breakfast, I had all the ingredients on hand, and it featured Ricotta cheese. So I got to work. Everything came together very quickly. The ricotta filling took mere seconds to mix together, as did the whole wheat crepe batter. The only thing that really took any time was the berries- and that was because I used a frozen triple berry blend, and needed to thaw them slowly in the microwave. Crepes in general are extremely quick quicking, so overall I was pleased with the speed it all came together. To assemble, I laid a pair of crepes on a plate, and spooned a generous tablespoon of ricotta cream down the middle. The cream contained the ricotta, cinnamon, powdered sugar, and a little zest. The I spooned berries over the cream and rolled them up. For photography purposes I topped the pair with another small dollop of cream and a scoop of berries.

The result? Eh. I’m on the fence with these. The flavors aren’t anything stellar that make you really want more. And the ricotta gave the filling a wierd texture. I’m unsure if I will make this exact recipe again, but I do like the concept. I love crepes, and this was my first attempt at whole wheat crepes. I would make those again, and berries are always good. But I think were I to make this again, I would use a different cream. Maybe some yogurt that has been drained for an hour or so. On the plus side though, I learned today that Zander loves berries. He had two bowls of the berries straight up with a spoon, and loved every bite. We will be exploiting that further with berries in the house more often.

So overall, the Ricotta Battle went well. I was pleasantly surprised with two of the three dishes, and with modifications to the third one, I think I have three repeater recipes. Ricotta cheese overall is an interesting creature. It’s not quite cheese, but it’s not quite anything else either. Will I continue to cook with it? Likely, I will. But I won’t hunt it down or look for it to be a feature ingredient.

And as for Weigh-In Wednesday… I just don’t know what to say. I pretty much suck these days. Other than overindulging in Coconut Cake this past weekend, I’m still in control of what I eat. And I think overall my whole family is eating better with the whole grain/lean protein/more veggies focus. But I just can’t seem to find my exercise groove. I am all set to chalk it up to being the busy Mom, but that just doesn’t seem to cut it. My problem is time. I just don’t know when to fit it in. The ideal time for me is nap time. I don’t like to do a workout when Zander is awake and busy because at any time he could desire my attention and need a diaper change or a snack, or help getting a train together, and that would produce a pause in the workout, and it could conceivably take all day to get a 30 minute workout in. And while nap time is ideal…I can use that time for so much more. I would much rather spend my morning playing with Zander and then use nap time to get the obligatory laundry and dishes out of the way. So… I’m not sure where Weigh-In Wednesday is going. I am still maintaining my teeny loss of 3 pounds, but it hardly seems motivational to me to load up the blog every Wednesday and go on about how I suck. So I am going to take the next week to think about where I want to take my regular Wednesday posts. There will still be something, but I’m thinking about changing my focus just slightly. But come back next Wednesday for that.