Few and Far Between

I start to get on a roll, then my life gets hectic. Oh well. I figure a few posts are better than none at all. So while I sit in Pine Grove, PA tonite for a little business travel (yeah google & see why I am having a hopping night) I thought I would update.

They are both Annie's Eats-shocker I know. I just default to her blog b/c I know the recipe will turn out great. I made some adjustments & have documented those below.



Salmon Pesto Pasta
Ingredients:
For the pesto:
1/4 cup pine nuts
5 medium cloves garlic, with peels
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves, rinsed thoroughly
2 tbsp. fresh parsley leaves (optional)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Pinch table salt
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

For the pasta:
12 oz. salmon
Slice portabella mushrooms (optional)
Salt and pepper
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
8 oz. pasta
5 oz. evaporated milk
1/2 cup pesto (above)
Grated Parmesan, for serving

Directions:
To make the pesto, toast the pine nuts in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, just until golden and fragrant, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Saute the garlic in the skillet. Tear the basil leaves off and place in the processor. Blend it all up while slowly drizzingly in the olive oil. Transfer to a bowl & stir in the cheese, add salt if necessary.

--> This could also be bypassed by purchasing the premade pesto at the store <--

If your salmon is not filleted do so now. In a skillet, swirl with olive oil & bring to medium heat. Add sliced portabella mushrooms & begin to saute. Season the salmon w/salt & pepper and add to the pan. It will start to flake apart as it cooks.

While the salmon is cooking, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Transfer the cooked pasta to a colander to drain. In the empty pasta pot, heat the evaporated milk over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer and reduce to about 1/4 cup. Return the cooked pasta to the pot and stir to combine. Add the salmon to the pasta mixture and stir over medium heat until hot. Remove from the heat and stir in the pesto. Top with grated Parmesan, if desired.


This was so awesome. Not only is it delicious, but I was able to make this on a weeknight in probably 30 mins flat.

Spicy Shrimp & Bok Choy Stir Fry

This was so good, but I didn't make enough! I always forget that ingredients like bok choy, spinach, etc... They cook down. So I thought, oh one head of bok choy will surely be enough. Yeah, not so much.



Spicy Shrimp & Bok Choy Stir Fry
South Beach Diet Book

1 ½ lbs large shrimp
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 lbs bok choy, sliced crosswise
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
2 tsp chile garlic sauce

Combine shrimp, scallion whites & garlic
In a wok, heat oil. Add shrimp mixture & cook until shrimp are pink, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
Return pan to heat, add bok choy, cover & cook until crisp & tender, 3 to 4 mins. Drain any liquid from the pan & add to the shrimp.
Return pan to heat, add soy sauce & garlic sauce. Stir to combine, bring to a boil. Add shrimp mixture & toss to coat. Cook just briefly. Stir in green scallions & serve.


** This was really good, the sauce had just the right amount of spice to it. I will use the sauce again, but probably add more stir fry veggies. It just seems really plain-not in taste-just in looks.

More Salmon

We bought a huge salmon fillet at Sam's Club that I portioned out for our meals. This was salmon dinner #2.

I used my chicken with sherried mushrooms recipe & applied it here. Only I broiled the salmon & seasoned it with S&P.



Here is the recipe for just the sherried mushrooms & sauce
1 (14.5oz) can fat-free low sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp butter
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 Tbsp minced shallots
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 Tbsp chopped parsley

1. Place broth in a small saucepan & bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1 cup, about 7 minutes.
2. heat a medium skillet and add butter, mushrooms, and shallots to the pan. cook over medium high heat until mushrooms are light browned, stirring constantly. Add sherry; bring to a boil. Add 1 cup reduced broth, cook until reduced to 1 1/2 cups (about 7 minutes).

I just drizzled the sauce & mushroom mixture over the salmon when it was done cooking & served it with a little whole wheat couscous.

Updating fool!

I hope I have time today to make some updates-finally! I really hope to keep this blog. It has been so helpful to me since starting P90X again because I have been able to go back to the recipes I posted when we did this diet the last time. Saving me TONS of time by not having to search the Internet for new recipes. Now I am sure my updates & posts will die down, sometimes I just don't have time for a picture and I do a lot of repeats for simplicity sake, but I will try my hardest to post a bit more often.

That being said, P90X is here. We haven't been completely committed to the workouts, as we are still trying to figure out routines & schedules these days, but we have started the diet. And by diet, I don't mean a lot of food restriction. There are so many foods you can eat on this diet, but its mostly high protein, low carbs, eat 5 times a day type of deal.

First up is an oven roasted salmon w/spinach & tomatoes.

I served this is 1/2 cup of cous cous.

I marinated the salmon in olive oil and minced garlic. I spread a layer of spinach in the bottom of a 9x9 pan, layered on tomatoes, then placed the salmon on top of the veggies. Seasoned it with S&P and some more garlic, then roasted it at 375 for about 20 minutes or until flaky. (I can't remember if I covered it. I think I did)

Shrimp & Sausage Hash

I won't lie, I was little skeptical about this recipe. I read the ingredients to the hubs and he said "well that sounds freaking awesome!" so I put it on the menu. I mean, it didn't even call for ranch and he thought it sounded good. I think maybe my issue with the recipe is b/c I don't really like all my food to touch. I don't know why, but I just don't.
So hash is a mixture of meat, potatoes, onions & spices. I had some smoked sausage in the freezer and needed to figure out something to make with it. I went to the Armour-Eckrich website and found this recipe.


Smoked Sausage & Shrimp Hash
Ingredients

1 cup chopped red potatoes (1/2-inch pieces)
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 large shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
1 package (16 ounces) Eckrich® Smoked Sausage, halved lengthwise, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 large yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 cup chopped peeled sweet potato (1/2-inch pieces)
1 large red bell pepper, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Directions

1. Place red potatoes in small saucepan. Add enough cold water to cover potatoes. Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil 2 minutes. Drain. Remove potatoes from saucepan; drain on paper towels.


2. Meanwhile, heat oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add shrimp; cook and stir 30 seconds, or until shrimp just start to turn pink. (Shrimp will not be fully cooked.) Remove shrimp from skillet; set aside.


3. Add sausage and yellow onions to same skillet; stir. Reduce heat to medium-high. Cook and stir 6 minutes, or until sausage and onions are lightly browned. Add red potatoes, sweet potatoes, bell peppers and garlic; cook 6 minutes, or until vegetables are crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Add shrimp and green onions; cook and stir 1 minute, or until shrimp turn pink. Stir in salt and black pepper.

**Some of my changes--> I didn't have yellow or red peppers, but I still had a ton leftover from our garden in the freezer. So I just used those. I wish my potatoes had been more browned than mushy. I am not sure why they got mushy-maybe my pan wasn't big enough. I used normal sized shrimp, so I had about 10-12 of those.

I was surprised at how much I liked this. The hubs loved it (meat & potatoes kind of guy he is) and I think if you used turkey sausage it would be pretty healthy.

Salmon Cakes

I had some salmon fillets in the deep freeze that I needed to use up. I was tired of the same old grilled salmon and really wanted to make something a little different with them.

The original recipe I found was a Cooking Light recipe. I have linked it below, however, I altered it quite a bit. My only complaint is that my cakes didn't stay together all that well. I am chalking that up to the fact that I used fresh salmon as opposed to canned salmon.


Cajun Salmon Cakes with Lemon-Garlic Aioli
Ingredients
Aioli:
2 tablespoons fat-free mayonnaise
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon bottled minced garlic

Cakes:
3 salmon fillets
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise
2 tablespoons panko
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup panko
1 tablespoon canola oil
Preparation

To prepare aioli, combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.

To prepare the salmon, spray a large skillet with olive oil (I use my Misto) and heat. Cook salmon until it flakes when you touch it with a fork. Remove from skillet. In a bowl, separate the salmon as best you can.

To prepare cakes, combine salmon and next 5 ingredients (through mustard) in a medium bowl. Divide salmon mixture into 8 equal portions, shaping each portion into a (1/2-inch-thick) patty. Dredge patties in 1/2 cup panko.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place patties in pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned and heated through. Serve aioli over salmon.
To compliment the meal, I steamed some broccoli & made a pasta creation from my pantry. I had whole wheat rotini, butter, garlic & onions. So I carmelized the onions & garlic, then tossed the cooked pasta with them. I added a little bit of the pasta water to give it a little sauce & I topped it with parmesan cheese. This was super easy & a good way to use up my ingredients in the house. I won't post a picture but really, whole wheat pasta is not very photogenic.

Kabobs

One summer, my friend Jennifer & I had a little bit of an obsession with kabobs. I think it came about more b/c we a) dont know how make small amounts of food. If we are cooking, we'd better invite 50 people and b) one bag of wooden kabob sticks last forever.

So whenever I make kabobs I think of her. Anyway, I busted out some kabob sticks the other evening & grilled up chicken & shrimp teryaki kabobs. My intention was to make them Monday evening, but the hubs & I were tired & sick so we had Sheridan's Custard for dinner. These bad boys marinated for at least 24 hours since I didnt grill them until Tuesday.

I cut up some of our favorite veggies & grilled them as well. There isn't a recipe for kabobs. Pretty much a few steps-->

1. soak your wooden kabobs in water



2. cut & marinate your meats, seafood, whatever



3. cut & season you veggies



4. turn on the grill



5. make the kabobs



6. grill



7. Eat!

I served this with some Near East Tomato Lentil couscous.

Catching Up For May

Wow. Can you believe its almost June? This year is just flying by! I am so excited for summer to be here. KC has the most wishy-washy weather & I am tired of going between dresses & shorts, to jeans & sweaters. Hopefully June will bring us some consistency. I figured since May is almost over, I should probably get my May pictures & recipes loaded. So I apologize in advance for the mass overload of updates.

First up. Mother's Day. My dad called me and said "Jules I saw a great recipe that Paula Deen was making today. We should make it for your mother." Yes my dad watches food network. In fact, my dad loves food network. He cracks me up. The recipe, Steak & Pie, is what he thought would be good for my mom. Its kind of like surf & turf but with waaaayyyy more fat & calories!
Dad said he would take care of the steak part, I had to do the pie part. So I read the recipe and think, really Dad? 2 sticks of butter & cream cheese?? Right before summer? Thanks for the extra days at the gym.

Anywho, we were serving 6 adults & 2 kids. So I didn't want to make the individual pies. But other than that, I didn't edit a thing on the recipe. I just made it in one large pie pan. I had at least enough filling left over for another pie. I just didn't have enough crust.


My dad made the steaks. OH.SO.GOOD. Cooked to perfection


And lots of shrooms to boot!


So who knew a 6 yr old would love it? My nephew stuck up his nose to those hot dogs we made for he & his brother & devoured a little tenderloin & shrimp.

Still Boycotting

The grocery store and I are still in a fight. I haven't forgiven him for taking all my money, make me feel like I am some Sugar Mamma. We might have to make up this weekend since the fridge/pantry/deep freeze is starting to become bare, but my decisions will be made wisely.

Anyway, last night I had to make something for dinner. It was also trash night, which means I clean out the fridge. I had already taken tilapia out of the deep freeze to defrost, I just needed to make something to go with it. On Tuesday, we met a coworker at Gordon Biersch for Happy Hour. He ordered a tapas plate that have tapenade on it. Well lo and behold, I had tomatoes & black olives in my fridge that needed to be used up.

It was somewhat nice out last night, so I fired up the grill and made my tilapia foil packets. This is so easy b/c you don't have to flip the fish, it doesn't get stuck to the grill or the foil & you don't have to pay much attention to it. (This could easily be done in the oven)

Tilapia Tomato Foil Packets
By Jules

Tilapia
Tomatoes, quartered & somewhat seeded
Olives, halved
Seasoning, (I used Paul Purdhomme's Seafood Magic)
Misto
foil

Spray your foil with the misto to prevent the fish from sticking.
Place fish in the middle of the foil sheet. Season with whatever you are using.
Top the fish with the tomatoes, then the olives.
Now make your packets. (I should have taken step by step pictures sorry!)
Bring the two longer pieces together and fold down. Now take the sides and fold inward.
Place on a heated grill for 20 minutes (do not peak in the packets, you will lose the steam).

I served this with a baked potato topped with broccoli & cheese.
You can do this technique with pretty much anything, salmon, chicken, etc... Top with your favorite veggies and season, then you are good to go.

Orange Glazed Salmon & Garlic Onion Cous Cous

Well last week the Hubs and I sat down and went over our finances. We track everything and was in complete shock when I saw how much we spend at the grocery store per month for two people. I could feed a family of 4! Yes I completely understand that eating healthy is more expensive. But I just went to complain about it too!

Needless to say, I am trying to use everything we have in the house right now. I am tired of wasting things. I sometimes make too much for dinner, so I freeze it, only to forget its in the freezer. Or how about fresh produce that goes to waste? That really gets under my skin!

Last night was one of these clean out the pantry nights, that turned out pretty well. I marinated some salmon in OJ for about 45 minutes. Then I used my grill pan to grill it up. I topped it with about 2 Tbsp of cream cheese that had been mixed with dill. Since I topped the salmon with the cream cheese while it was still warm, the cream cheese turned into a nice sauce.

I checked out the pantry to see what else I could make. I had some plain couscous, so I got that out, realized I had some green onions in the produce bin that HAD to be used. I sauteed some chopped green onions & garlic in some olive oil. Cooked the couscous, then added the onions & garlic to the couscous. I added a little garlic salt to give it some more flavor.

Then I steamed some broccoli. (You know the BirdsEye frozen kind that steams in the bag in 5mins)

And there you have it, healthy dinner, without going to the store!

Salmon

Apparently I have been picture hoarding or something. I have been cooking, but I have gotten a little lazy at taking pictures & posting. See I take the pictures, then they sit on the camera for a few days, then I load them onto my laptop, then they sit there for a few days until eventually I get around to posting them. So, sorry for the unflux of updates today, I finally had some time & energy to post.

Sun-Dried Tomato Salmon
This was a quick evening meal. I have made sun-dried tomato salmon many a times. Its really quite easy.
1. Take a bottle of Kraft Sun-Dried Tomato dressing
2. marinate your salmon for about 30 mins,
3. roast in the oven at 400 until the fish flakes easily with a fork

Now here is the twist on this one, we had a sun-dried tomato aioli from Viansa so I just topped the roasted salmon with that. I highly doubt it was diet friendly. I mean aioli is like mayo. But it tasted great with this salmon!

Round out the meal with a baked potato & some green beans.

Fish with Pine Nuts, Olives, Basil...

Ok so this recipe has a long name, but I swear its easy to make! Sometimes the Williams-Sonoma recipes look long, lengthy& difficult. They aren't, but they do take a little but tweaking to make it work for the everyday chef.
Our diet, or whatever you want to call it, has us eat a lot of fish. I like to find ways to make the fish more interesting. This recipe looked like a winner. I pulled out some tilapia and we were off.

Fish with Pine Nuts, Olives, Basil & Wine
Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients:
1/4 cup pine nuts
4 firm white fish fillets, such as snapper,
rock cod, flounder, sea bass, halibut,
swordfish or tilapia, each 6 to 7 oz.
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 Tbs. finely minced garlic
5 Tbs. fresh basil leaves, shredded
1/2 cup Mediterranean-style green and/or black
olives, pitted if desired
Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F.

Spread the pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until they take on color and are fragrant, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. Increase the oven temperature to 400°F.

Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper. Place in a baking dish in which they fit in a single layer. In a small bowl, stir together 3 Tbs. of the olive oil and the wine. Pour over the fish fillets. Top with half of the garlic and half of the basil, and then distribute the olives around the fillets. Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake until the fish is opaque throughout when pierced with a knife, 10 to 15 minutes. The timing will depend upon the thickness of the fillets. Using a slotted spatula, transfer the fillets to warmed individual plates.

Pour the pan juices, olives and reserved pine nuts into a small sauté pan and set over medium heat. Swirl in the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil and the remaining garlic and basil. When warm and fragrant, spoon over the fish. Serve immediately. Serves 4.


**My Tweaking**
I halved this. There are only two of us and I hate reheated fish.
I toasted the pine nuts in a skillet on the stovetop.
Having baked the tilapia at 400F for 10 minutes (it was super thin) and it still be raw, I up'd it to 425 for 15 minutes and it was perfect.
I served this with some whole wheat pasta, but a lemon risotto would be superb with it. I just didnt think about the risotto until the fish was in oven, the fish would have been done long before the risotto.
Oh this totally looks like something you would get at a restaurant!

Hum, what a letdown

So I was super excited for the dinner I had planned for Friday night. Smoked Salmon Pasta-yum!! I love pasta, I miss pasta. But we pretty much only eat it one night a week. I found this recipe and had some smoked salmon at home. I thought this would be a delicious healthy, yet scrumptious dinner. Not so much. It was missing something. Hubs said it had too many peas, but then again he doesn't like peas. I didnt have any tomatoes, as the recipe said to add on diced tomato, but I dont think that would have helped. It lacked the "umph" I was going for. It was bad, I just expected it to be better.


Pappardelle with Smoked Salmon
Courtesy of Cooking Light
Ingredients
1/2 pound uncooked pappardelle (wide ribbon pasta) or fettuccine --> I had to get whole wheat and the only option was spaghetti1 teaspoon butter
2 cups chopped Oso or other sweet onion
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup (4 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup chopped plum tomato --> omitted
1 (10-ounce) package frozen petite green peas, thawed
1 (4-ounce) smoked salmon fillet, skinned and cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Preparation
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain. Keep warm.
Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add broth and cheese; cook 4 minutes or until cheese melts, stirring frequently. Add tomato, peas, and salmon; cook 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in dill, salt, and pepper.

Combine pasta and salmon mixture in a large bowl; toss gently.

Like I said, not bad, but not what I was expecting.

Grilled Sesame Salmon

I am a total PW today! I have been super busy & haven't had time to update my blog in awhile. I pulled down all my pics from my camera so I figured I should spend some time today posting. See I didn't stop cooking or anything, I just stopped blogging. BAD!

Since my last SB recipe was so great (see the chicken capri) I actually started reading their emails! Crazy thing when you do that you get more recipes! They had one for a grilled sesame salmon I thought I would try out. Talk about wow! The combination of the flavors was amazing. It was Asian meets Thai. From the picture on the website you wouldn't think it had a sauce, but it did.

Grilled Sesame Salmon
Ingredients:
2 medium cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon salt, plus additional to taste
4 tablespoons rice vinegar, divided
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, divided
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons tahini or smooth, natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, divided
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger
4 salmon fillets (about 5 ounces each)
1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
6 cups baby arugula or salad greens
Directions:
Place cucumbers in strainer set in sink; toss with 1 tablespoon salt. Press kitchen towel on cucumbers; drain at least 1 hour or up to 3.
To make sauce, combine 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 tablespoon lime juice, soy sauce, tahini, 1 tablespoon oil, garlic, ginger, and 1 tablespoon water in blender; puree until combined.
Preheat grill to medium-high. Season both sides of salmon with salt. Place skin side down on grill; cook 3 minutes, or until skin shrinks and separates from flesh. Flip; cook 4 minutes, until done.
Toss cucumbers with remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 tablespoon lime juice, 1 teaspoon oil, and sliced onions. Refrigerate until serving.
Divide arugula equally among four plates. Top each serving with salmon, then cucumbers. Drizzle sauce over servings.


**My Notes, bc I always have some don't I? I halved this recipe since I was only making 2 salmon. I also only let my salted cucumbers sit out while I prepped and cooked, so maybe a half hour. Hubs doesn't like arugula so I served this on a bed of Chinese vegetables. The next time I make it, I will serve it with arugula. I think the bitter of the arugula would have paired nicely with the smoothness of the PB sauce & the sour of the cucs. Also, hubs LOVED the cucumbers w/the salmon & the sauce. It was a surprisingly good combo.

Shrimp in Tarragon Sauce

I saw this last week over at Meg's and realized its diet friendly. I am always on the search for new recipes that fit inot the diet and let me tell you, its hard to find in my blogosphere! Don't get me wrong, I love looking at the pictures of the chocolate cakes, the king cakes, the cookies. In fact, I typically salivate at my desk just viewing this eye candy-its the food porn addiction. But I have my special word doc that is called "post diet recipes" of all the baked goodies I wish to make. So sometime this summer you will see lemon meringue pie and BCCC grace the pages of my blog. Until then...

This was a nice quick meal. We didnt get home until close to 7:45 last night and I hadn't set anything out to defrost, so shrimp it was. I could have sworn we planted tarragon in our garden last summer, but I couldn't find any dried stuff. Thankfully I had some store bought tarragon so I used that instead.

This made enough for 4 meals, last night we had it with brown rice, for lunch we had it with whole wheat thin spaghetti. Very delicious!

oh Elly! Thank You!

I haven't been able to make an EllySaysOpa recipe in awhile. I have made many of Elly's recipes and not one has ever not been welcomed with a "this is really good! You have to make this again!" Dern diet & new year's resolutions make my list of Elly recipes I want to try grow longer & longer. But alas! She recently posted a Greco Linguini. Now, I planned our day so we had no carbs for breakfast or lunch so we could have some for dinner-just to try this recipe!

I wont post the recipe again, because I will force you to visit Elly's site, as she has a wonderful collection of unique dishes, but here are some of the things I changed. Greco Linguine!

It was really good!! I subbed whole wheat thin pasta & added some toasted pine nuts. I also didn't have any fresh tomatoes at home, so I just used a can of diced tomatoes that I seasoned with oregano. Definetly on the list to make again!

Tilapia Round 2

What is it that people say? You are your own worst critic. Its sad that this memory has stuck with me over the past 2 years, but I really do pride myself on my cooking skills and when something doesn't taste good or turn out right, I get pretty upset.
Rewind to the summer of 2006. I had bought some tilapia at the store, it was on sale and I had never made anything with it. I figured-what they hey- lets try it out. I think I did foil packets in my preparation-probably with some spinach. I opened the pouched and took a nice big wiff when the steam came out. Expecting to smell something good, but instead, I about passed out. I don't know what was wrong-it smelled like old smelly fish. I haven't attempted it since.

Well, after 3 weeks of P90X, there is only so much salmon & chicken a person can take. Sam's Club has tilapia individually frozen, so I took some out and decided to have a go at it again. I mixed together some lemon juice & garlic and marinated the fish for about 20 minutes. Next I seasoned them with parsley, salt & pepper.
I decided I would broil them. I could have grilled but at -5 degrees, I didn't really want to go outside.
After spraying the broil pan so they wouldn't stick, I broiled the fish for about 12 minutes.

With the fish, we had beans with almonds and a salad. The salad had apples, cucumbers, mixed greens & feta cheese. I made my own dressing with balsamic vinegar, a little olive oil and a little salad oil, I seasoned it with oregano.


So this tilapia turned out much better. I am going to say that the it was the fish on the failed attempt almost 2 years ago and not the cook!

Pecan Crusted Salmon

You know when you eat zero carbs with a meal and you just don't feel like you ate anything? I think society did this to us. I am so used to the "meat, veggie, potato" combo or the "meat, veggie, pasta/rice/etc..." combo that when I don't have any carbs, I sometimes feel like I have eaten nothing. I think its the "crunch" factor. No crunch=not filling. After reading a few recipes, I thought, well we can have nuts on this diet, so maybe I should make some type of pecan crusted something. Well I had pulled some salmon out so by default it became pecan crusted salmon.

Get about 1 cup of pecans and puree in a food processor until they look like bread crumbs. I seasoned them with S&P. Place in a bowl. Next I took my salmon and drenched it in egg whites, then in the pecan puree. Place on a foiled and sprayed cookie sheet. Bake in the oven at 400 for about 20 minutes. If the salmon isn't done, increase to 415 for about 5 more minutes.

I served these with a California medley of vegetables. I will say, it was quite filling. The extra crunch of the pecans definitely made the meal fuller, more complete.

Bayou Shrimp Creole

Another simple recipe, perfect for when we are short on time. Yesterday we didn't get our workout in during the day, so we had to do it when we got home. Well that means I don't normally start cooking until 7pm. I needed something fast. We are allowed one serving of carbs per day and we hadn't had any so this looked perfect!

This is from the Del Monte Website. I always stock up on canned tomatoes. The hubs and I love them! (Hence our 8 tomato plants we had in our garden)
Bayou Shrimp Creole
Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup celery, thinly sliced
1 cup green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 tsp thyme
1/2 lb medium shrimp, peeled and halved lengthwise * I used already peeled & cooked shrimp
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) DEL MONTE® Cajun Recipe Stewed Tomatoes * I substituted regular canned tomatoes and seasoned with a Cajun seasoning I had at home
1/4 cup DEL MONTE Tomato Paste
Directions
In a large saute pan, spray with Misto. Add onions, celery, green pepper and garlic. Cook until tender. Add tomatoes, cajun seasoning, thyme and tomato paste. Cook for about 15 minutes so the flavors blend.
Meantime, start a pot of boiling water. When boiling add your brown rice. I just use minute rice, I don't have time for anything else.
When the sauce has simmered for about 10 mins, add the shrimp, cook for about 5 more minutes then remove from heat.

To serve: place 1 cup of brown rice on a plate and top with about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of creole. This made enough for the hubs and I to have dinner and lunch.

PS: Come to think of it, I didn't use celery in the chicken tortilla soup, I used it here...

Good filling

So remember the stuffed mushrooms from below?? Well, dont you think that would be good stuffed in chicken? Or, even better--> SALMON!!!

Yes salmon stuffed with spinach and feta.

So I used the same recipe for the stuffing:

2 cups spinach

1/4 cup feta cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

S&P to taste

But I also added one garlic clove while I pureed it in the food processor. Then I placed a layer of the filling on the salmon and rolled it up, securing with a toothpick. I topped the fish with a little more filling, only because I had some left.

I cooked these en papillote also. I have a history that whenever I stuff something, the insides ooze out, so I figured I'd better cook these the same way. At 350-375 for about 30 minutes.