Chopped

I spend a great deal of time with my older sister and 11-year-old twin niece and nephew. However, in this day and age, apart from watching Disney, it can sometimes be a challenge to find something to watch on TV that we all enjoy. Recently, I have turned them on to watching the Food Network, as we all share a passion for food and find joy in cooking. 

The show we have been obsessed with most recently is Chopped. We all love watching these expert chefs come up with mind-blowing creative dishes out of the most repulsive ingredients (ex: dessert from Bone Marrow, Kale, Cottage Cheese). After watching an episode, my niece suggested we have a competition of our own.

We paired into two teams: my sister and niece were one team, my nephew and I the other. We picked four ingredients to make our "appetizer" with. Our ingredients were a bit more user-friendly, but hey, we aren't trained chefs. 

It was required to use all of these ingredients, however you could also help yourself to anything else in the kitchen.

{my teammate}

{opposing team food prep}

{scrambling to plate their dish}

Even though we used the exact same starting ingredients, both teams came up with completely different recipes.

{my team}

 CHOPPED SALAD

Finely chopped butter lettuce, apples and chicken, with a minced carrot, ginger and rice vinegar mixture. Topped with a fresh squeeze of lemon, and crumbled nut thin crackers.

{opposing team}

LETTUCE WRAPS

Thin sliced carrot, cucumber and chicken, with fresh mint, in a rice-vinegar and honey reduction. Topped with nut thin flakes. 

You be the judge - which recipe is most creative, best presented, and looks most delicious, and which team should be chopped?