Fish Tacos

Ole!




Ingredients:
2 Tilapia Filets
Creole Seasoning
Limes
Shallot
Sour Cream
Chili Powder
Salt
4 Soft Corn Tortillas
Fresh Salsa (chopped onion, tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro)


First, rub the tilapia fillets with the creole seasoning on both sides.  Heat a little olive oil and butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat and add the tilapia.  Cook for a few minutes on each side until cooked through and slightly crispy on the edges.


While the fish is cooking, put some sour cream in a bowl.  Add the zest and juice of half a lime, a pinch of salt, about a teaspoon of finely chopped shallot and as much chili powder as you'd like.  Stir this into a nice sauce and set aside.


Heat the corn tortillas either in a non-stick pan or wrapped in tin foil in the oven.  When the fish is done, divide the 2 fillets among the 4 warm tortillas.  Squeeze a little more lime juice over the fish, top with the sour cream sauce and fresh salsa.  Eat!


I like to serve these with refried beans and corn chips because it's delicious to scoop some beans onto the taco as you go.  You can really jazz up a can of vegetarian refried beans by doing this: plop them out into a sauce pan, mix in about 2 tablespoons of green salsa, about 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese and 1 tablespoon of sour cream.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.


Serves 2....best recommended with a bottle of Pacifico garnished with a lime wedge.

Spicy Beef Enchiladas

I would like to preface this recipe with the fact that this is not necessarily a healthy dinner.  Perhaps you could make a nice side salad or some sort of vegetable invention of your own, but I had a salad for lunch so I thought, what the hell, jalapenos and green chiles will have to suffice.  Nutrition facts aside, these enchiladas were delicious!  And I used up left over ground beef, which is a near miracle in this house.


I made 5 (8") enchiladas and had leftover rice and meat, so you could make a lot more with these amounts.


Ingredients:
* 1 lb ground beef (buy grass fed, always!)
* One package Taco Seasoning
* 1 box Spanish Rice
* 8" Corn Tortillas
* Grated Cheddar Cheese
* Low Fat Cream Cheese
* One can Red Enchilada Sauce
* One small can of diced Green Chiles
* Chopped jalepenos


Now Do This:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and coat a baking dish lightly with cooking spray.


Cook the ground beef in a pan until just browned.  Add in the packet of taco seasoning and about 3/4 cup water, mix well and simmer for about 10 minutes.  You could easily make your own taco seasoning with things like salt, crushed red pepper, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder... pretty much any of the spices you always have on hand that sounds kinda Mexicany.  I like the packaged kinds that don't contain MSG.


While the beef is cooking, make the Spanish Rice according to the package directions.  Again you could make your own using the same spices and whatever rice you like.


Lay out your corn tortillas and put a small amount of cream cheese in a line down the middle.  I just used my fingers and pulled small dabs off a spoon.  Then, also in a line down the middle (as with everything), put a small amount of the beef, rice, as much jalapeno as you like, and grated cheddar cheese.  Roll the tortilla and put seam side down into the baking dish.  Do this with as many tortillas as will fit in your dish, you can really squeeze them in there.


Pour the entire can of sauce over the top to completely cover the tortillas, then add the green chiles as evenly as possible.  Top with a little more cheddar cheese and put in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and the sauce is starting to bubble.  


After devouring one of these enchiladas I remembered that I wanted to put a little sour cream on top but I was too full to go for seconds.  The sour cream would be really nice because these are pretty spicy.


I'm too impatient for most things, but you could really make this entire meal from scratch, as opposed to packaged ingredients (maybe aside from the tortillas), and I bet it would be amazing.  The only thing that might take longer would be making the enchilada sauce ahead of time.

A Mighty Tasty Salad

I took this recipe from one of my many Cooking Light magazines I have archived awkwardly in a bookcase.  Whenever I'm feeling completely uninspired I grab all the magazines I have from whatever season it is and see if I can find a good recipe.  I found a recipe for a broccoli slaw salad with some sort of Asian dressing and boy was it delicious!  Super flavorful and a great accompaniment to marinated chicken and roasted acorn squash (and now I'm painfully full).


You can use as much of the following as you like, depending on how many people you are serving and how much you like of each ingredient.


For the slaw, mix together the following in a large bowl:
*One large carrot, shredded with the veggie peeler so you end up with long strips of carrot.
*Broccoli with the crown chopped into small pieces, and the stem peeled and julienned.
*Sliced water chestnuts
*One scallion, chopped
*Cucumber thinly sliced (or celery would be good too...probably better)
*A little less than one package of ramen noodles, crushed.  Throw that disgusting packet of preservatives away.


For the dressing:
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon Agave or Honey
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 Teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/8 Teaspoon ground ginger
1 garlic clove, crushed (or some garlic powder)


Mix all of these together with a whisk then slowly add 1/3 cup canola oil.  Toss the dressing with the slaw then top with a few mandarin orange wedges.


The original recipe called for Napa Cabbage, sunflower seeds and toasted, sliced almonds, which would be delicious.

Pizza, Salad and Artichokes

These recipes are really no-brainers, I mean seriously if you can't make these, then I'm ashamed for you, but I'll give you the recipes anyway, because this dinner was amazing!


Dinner tonight was Margherita Pizza, Spinach+Strawberry+Goat Cheese Salad, and Artichoke halves, vegetarian, cheesy, delicious!


First, cut an artichoke in half and cut off the stem.  Place cut sides up in a steamer basket, cover and steam for about 20 minutes or until the artichokes are just tender when you poke them with a fork.  You really don't want to over cook artichokes, they become mushy and really gross.  But then again, you need to cook them enough so that they aren't tough and you strain your jaw trying to rip the flesh from the leaf.  I like to make a side of melted butter for Jesse and a side of mayo and mustard mixed together for myself to dip these tasty little leaves in.  Did you know artichokes are full of antioxidants and fiber?  It's true.  When these are done be sure to scrape the thistle out of the middle with a spoon, and get it all, this stuff is dangerous!


Once you've got the artichokes steamin', it's time for pizza.  Spray a little cooking spray on a baking sheet and stretch your fresh pizza dough out (NEVER roll it) onto the baking sheet.  I like to use my fists in the middle of the dough and stretch it from the middle first, then hang it from the sides and let gravity do all the work, making sure not to tear the dough.  Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil then cover with pizza sauce.  When you spread around the sauce you'll spread around the olive oil.  Julienne a bunch of basil and sprinkle over the entire pizza.  Shred some fresh mozzarella and add as much as you want... I think a nice coating over the entire pizza is good, but you can add more or less.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until the top is golden and the cheese is bubbly and blistering.


And on to the salad.  Wash and chop a bunch of fresh spinach and drizzle with whatever salad dressing you like.  Tonight I used a Citrus Poppyseed dressing that contained no oil.  Arrange this onto plates so you can add the sliced strawberries and a few chunks of goat cheese on top and it will look pretty.  I love a pretty salad.


I really should have taken a photo of this dinner, it was so satisfying.  And I'm working on better portion control for Jesse and I, specifically trying to follow the rules and have half the plate filled with veggies and fruit, one fourth of the plate protein and one fourth grains.  Tonight it was 3/4 of the plate was fruits and veggies, and 1/4 PIZZA!

Stuff Stuffed with Other Stuff

I highly recommend plating this dinner on a colorful plate, I made the mistake of using cream colored plates and this dinner looked so sad!  There is a serious lack of green in this dish, but it's super healthy and delicious, so put it on a green plate and you're good to go!

Well what the hell am I eating, you ask?  Food stuffed with other food!  Feta cheese stuffed spicy chicken breasts and Roasted Acorn Squash stuffed with sauteed carrots and couscous cooked with dried cranberries.  Hearty, healthy and delicious!  There are a lot of little steps to this dinner, but it's super easy.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

Butter (I'll divide as I go here)

Salt and pepper 

1 Acorn squash

Brown Sugar

Carrots

Couscous

Dried Cranberries

a little bit of Frank's hot sauce, maybe about 1/4 cup

Toothpicks

Feta Cheese

Process:

First, preheat the oven to 425.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.  Cut the acorn squash in half so you have a top and bottom.  Cut a little bit off the top and bottom as needed so the halves can sit level on their butts. Scoop all of the seeds out of the middles and rub a little butter inside.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and as much brown sugar as you'd like.  Place these on the baking sheet with the open side down flat, or with the cup facing down if that makes more sense.  Set this aside, you want to put it in the oven at the same time as the chicken because they take the same amount of time to cook.

Using a sharp knife cut a slit in the thick side of each chicken breast so you have a little pouch.  Stuff the pouch with feta cheese (or blue cheese), then use the tooth picks to keep the pouch closed.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on each side.  Heat some olive oil in a cast iron skillet (or any skillet you can put in the oven) over medium-high heat.  Sear the chicken breasts on each side for 2 to 3 minutes to get some nice color then transfer to the oven along with the acorn squash.  Let both of these bake for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the acorn squash is tender when you stab it with a fork (the inside part, obviously).

Meanwhile, put about 2 Tbsp of butter into a little sauce pan with about 1/4 cup of Frank's Hot sauce.  Let these simmer over low heat until the butter is melted.

Cook the couscous according to the package directions, it only takes 5 minutes to cook, so make it close to when the chicken is done.  I added dried cranberries to the couscous and let them sit together for 5 minutes then fluffed with a fork and set aside.  Sautee sliced carrots with a little salt, pepper and either fresh or powdered ginger.

When the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the oven and put on the pates (or if you need to keep it warm for a little longer while the squash cooks, place it in a pie pan on top of the stove) remove the toothpicks and spoon some of the sauce over the top.  You can use as much sauce as you like, it's quite spicy so just keep that in mind.  

Flip the squash halves right side up so you have a nice little cup sitting on your plate.  Fill it with the couscous and sauteed carrots, plop a chicken breast down next to the squash and you've got yourself dinner!  And just because there isn't anything green here doesn't mean it's not healthy.  Squash is very healthy and we all know the benefits of carrots.  Couscous is a great little grain and the dried cranberries really brighten it up.  If you did want to get some green goodness in there you could sautee some spinach with the carrots, but that texture freaks me out so I'll pass.  I usually stuff Acorn Squash with chopped zucchini, summer squash and carrots, but I didn't have those on hand tonight.

Pork Tenderloin

There's a show on the Food Network where this really obnoxious woman makes dinner for 4 for under $10.  This is a great concept, it's good to know that you can eat healthy delicious food without spending your whole paycheck, it's really something that more people need to know.  But this woman who does the show really rubs me the wrong way.  Regardless, I was absentmindedly watching this show one day while working or online shopping (same difference) and caught this woman making a pork roast.  She rubbed some spices on it then roasted it with some sort of green mixture on top, which I think included cilantro, which I detest, and when it finally came out of the oven it looked delicious.  So I decided to make pork tenderloin for dinner that night, with my version of this recipe.  It had to be my own version because I wasn't paying close enough attention to know exactly what the horrible woman used, and I certainly wasn't using cilantro, yuck!  And I'm a master of the pork tenderloin and I've never made a roast in my life, so...use what you know!


Preheat the oven to 425.


In a bowl large enough to roll a pork tenderloin around in, mix together the following spices:
(You're going to be rubbing these on the pork, so use as much of each as you would like)
Garlic powder
Onion powder
salt 
black pepper
cinnamon
curry powder
cumin
paprika


Then in a food processor add a bunch of flat leaf parsley without the stems, the juice of half a lemon, salt, pepper and enough olive oil to loosen the mixture.  Grind this into a nice puree.


Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium high heat and rub the spices all over the pork.  Add the pork to the pan and sear both sides.  Transfer the pork to a rack in a roasting pan and spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard over the top of the pork.  Smear the parsley mixture over the top of the pork.  Use all of it, it will create kind of a thick layer of green covering the top of the pork.


Bake for about 30 minutes or until the pork reaches 160.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing and eating.  It's delicious!


I made this with some rice pilaf and "roasted" vegetables.  I say "roasted" because I forgot to put the veggies in the oven soon enough, so I cooked them in a pan on low for a long time to achieve the same effect.  I used carrots, parsnips and apples...yum!  Be sure to put the parsnips in the pan first because they take longer to cook, then the carrots, and the apple close to the end.  I recommend adding some cumin, cinnamon, garlic and salt and pepper to the veggies for some nice flavor.


This meal is certainly under $10 and you can easily feed 4 people with it.

Turkey Pesto Sandwich

There is nothing fancy about this sandwich, it is not difficult to make, it requires no cooking and I stole the recipe from a sandwich I ate once.  All this said...it's a really good sandwich, and you should make one.


You need:
*Two pieces of bread.  A slightly more dense bread I think is best, like a whole wheat or slices of whatever bread you ate last night with dinner.
*Sliced turkey
*Mixed Greens
*Provolone Cheese
*Italian dressing
*Mayo
*Pesto


Do this:
Place a small amount of mixed greens in a bowl and toss with some italian dressing.  Set aside.


On one half of the bread, spread a little bit of mayo.  On the other half, spread a good helping of pesto.  On top of the mayo, place the sliced turkey, provolone cheese (as much as you like, but I really recommend using more turkey and less cheese) and mixed greens.  Put the other piece of bread on top and you've got yourself a sandwich!


Lunch!