Tilapia with Spinach and Faux-Risotto

I really love the way a well made risotto compliments a meal, but it's a bit too much carbs for me.  I'm not a huge fan of carbs because they're my weakness!  I'd rather stay away because one small portion of white rice will turn into eating an entire pot!  I can't control it!  I was so happy to stubble across this recipe while at a friends house.  We wanted to make mashed "faux-tatoes" and didn't have a food processor so we used a potato masher instead.  The result was somewhat like risotto.  I quickly took note of what we used and decided I needed to share with all of you.  So here goes... Tilapia with Spinach and Faux-Risotto

 1 Head Cauliflower
2 or more Cloves Garlic
1 tsp Butter
1 Cup Finely shredded Parmesan Cheese
2 Tilapia Filets
About 1/2 Cup Flour
Juice from 1 Lemon
6 oz Spinach
Salt and Pepper to taste

Remove the greens from the cauliflower and cut into 1 inch slices

Arrange on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Let roast in a 400 degree oven until it starts to turn brown on the bottom.  Flip each piece and roast again until both sides are browned and can be easily pierced with a fork. 

Add a tsp of butter to a pan and cook the garlic slightly until it starts to turn brown. 

Add the cauliflower and garlic to a bowl and mash until you have your desired consistency.  Add about half of the cheese to the cauliflower and transfer to a pie pan.

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top and place back in the oven at 300 degrees until ready to serve.  

I'm not sure what happened to the pictures of me cooking the fish and the spinach.  Add the lemon juice to a plate or pie dish, add the flour to a separate dish and season with salt and pepper.  Dip the tilapia in the lemon juice and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.  Next, dip the fish into the flour and coat evenly.  Heat about two tsps of oil in a pan and add the tilapia.  Cook on one side until slightly browned and then flip.  Cook again until the fish easily flakes with a fork. 

Transfer to a plate and heat two more tsps of oil in the pan.  Add a chopped clove of garlic to the oil and brown lightly.  Add a few handfuls of spinach and toss in the oil to coat, once it has wilted add it to a plate and top with a piece of tilapia.  Remove the Faux-Risotto from the oven and spoon onto the plate. 

For extra lemony flavor add a touch of garlic lemon dressing. 

Crush a clove of garlic with a pinch of salt.  Add the juice of one lemon and drizzle over everything!

The Husband and I loved EVERYTHING about this dish!  I hope you do too!

Farmers Market Feast - Portabella Mushrooms

Every Sunday the Husband and I got to a local Farmers Market to get fresh produce for the week.  Our favorite is the Hunterdon Land Trust in Flemington. We love the fact that these products are grown locally and we can talk to the farmers to find out about their practices for growing their products.  I know many of you may stay away from Farmers Markets because of the price which is why I wanted to create this post.  I went to the market with $25 in hand, ready to feed 4 people.  The only thing I used from my own kitchen was Salt, Pepper and Olive Oil.  I will say, you could probably make the same meal for less from your neighborhood grocery store, but do you REALLY know what goes into everything you're eating?  How many hands and vehicles it's been through to get to you?  Give your local market a try this weekend.  You may be surprised what you find!

$25 got me:

1 bunch Garlic Scape (the farmer gave me some background before I bought it - it's like "garlic flavored scallions")

3 Tomatoes

1 bunch Basil

1/2 lb Mozzarella

4 Portabella Mushrooms

1 Loaf Cheese Ciabatta bread

I spread 1 Tbsp olive oil on the bottom of a casserole dish and added the mushrooms.  I drizzled another Tbsp of oil on top with some salt and pepper.  I then put everything into the oven at 350 while I prepared the sauce.

I removed the skins on the tomatoes by cutting a X into the bottoms...

Adding them to a pot of boiling water for a few minutes until the skin starts to crack...

And then adding them to ice water to finish the job.

I then peeled the skins off

And cut the cores out where the stem was. 

I added 2 tomatoes, 15 leaves of basil, 1 garlic scape, a slice of cheese (about 2 inches of the end) and salt and pepper to the blender.  I pureed until smooth

I then diced the remaining tomato and squeezed it into the sauce to make it slightly chunky. 

By this time the mushrooms were ready so I pulled them out of the oven.

Added a slice of cheese to each.

And coverd them in sauce. 

I popped everything back in the oven until the cheese melted... I also cut the bread in half and tossed it in the oven for a few minutes to warm up!

I still have a whole bunch of garlic scape and basil left along with half of the bread and about a quarter of the cheese. 

I also had about half of the sauce left over.  It made a great dip for the rest of the bread!

This was a great meal!  For a few extra bucks I would have liked to add some salad greens.  I could have used some of the garlic scape and basil to create a homemade dressing. 

There you have it, a meal for 4 for $25 plus leftovers to use during the week!  If you're worried about not using your produce before it goes bad, I'd share with a friend.  That way you'd both get what you need, for less with no waste!  Farmers Markets are a great place to spend a Saturday or Sunday morning!
There's fun music, great food finds like (local honey and aged cheeses) and great people to talk to.  Bring your dog too, they'll love it!  Ours does!

Lemon Basil Salmon Burgers

I'm in the mood for a burger!  The weather has been so gross out lately so on that days that it's actually dry outside I want to stay out there as long as possible.  I decided to make a light refreshing salmon burger with few ingredients and thought that lemon and basil would be the best combo.
Here's what I started out with:

Ingredients:
About 2lbs Salmon
Juice from 1/2 Lemon
1 Egg
2 Cloves Garlic
1/2 Cup chopped Basil

Cube the salmon and add everything to a blender or food processor.  Blend it until everything is uniform.  Don't forget to add salt and pepper!

Once it's finished blending, wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge until you're ready to grill.

When you're ready to eat, form the salmon into patties and prepare the grill by spraying it with non-stick spray meant for the grill.  Make sure the grill is nice and hot!

Grill the burgers on each side for a few minutes.  Your burgers may be fatter or thinner so make sure to check one inside to make sure they're done.  I ate mine over a simple salad with avocado, but the husband had his on a kaiser roll with mustard.  These were great!  I need to make them again!!

Cod Soup

I've been craving this soup for weeks now.  I just knew a nice firm fish would stand up well to soup and it would give it a great flavor!  I wanted to stay away from spinach for this one and went with a zucchini instead.  I added a touch of heat with some jalapeno too.  Remember to be careful when removing the seeds and membranes and wash hands thoroughly afterward!

 Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil, minced or thinly sliced
3-4 Garlic Cloves
4-6 oz Mushrooms, sliced
4 Cups Vegetable Stock
1 Jalapeno, seeds and membranes removed, diced
3 Potatoes, diced in inch large chunks
1 Zucchini, diced in inch large chunks
5-7 Tomatoes, diced in small chunks
2 Cod Filets, diced in inch large chunks
2 tsp Dried Basil
1-2 tsp Cumin, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste


Add the oil to your pot, let it get hot and then add the garlic.  Let the garlic cook for a few seconds and then add the mushrooms.  It was really hard to get pictures of the steps for this soup, the mushrooms steamed up so much! Add a touch of salt and pepper here.

 Once the mushrooms have lost most of their water and have started to brown, it's time to add the stock, jalapenos and potatoes. I wanted the potatoes to have a bit longer to cook and soften. Add a little bit more salt and pepper again.

 While that's cooking, you can dice the zucchini and tomatoes and then add them to the pot with a touch more salt and pepper.  It's always best to add it in small touches along the cooking process!

 At this point I added some cumin and basil and cut up the cod.  I had been cooking about a half hour before I added the fish.  Once it was added, I turned down the heat to low and let it sit another half hour.  The only thing I would have done differently would be to have mashed some of the potatoes before serving.  The liquid was too thin for my taste.  But the flavor was awesome!  I topped it with parmesan cheese too! YUM!!

 

Avocado Gazpacho 2 ways

It's been a while!  We're back from Colorado and getting back into our routines.  I made a great Tilapia dish on Monday but I totally forgot to take pictures!  I'll just have to make it again.

It's hot and muggy here so The Husband and I wanted something light, cool and refreshing.  He suggested Gazpacho. 

I had never made gazpacho before so I started with a little research.  I found a few recipes that I liked, and decided to try this one from Manifest Vegan, and then make up one of my own, based on a guacamole recipe.  I had a pretty good idea in my head what I'd be using for the soup, but not the quantities.  I put more in the picture than I actually ended up using.  There's two avocados in each picture, but only two total ended up being ripe enough so there's only one avocado per soup.   I knew I'd end up using much less lime than I have pictured, i just wasn't sure how much less.  I only used half a lime per soup!  So here's what I did:

 Cucumber Basil Avocado Gazpacho:

2 Cucumbers

2 Handfulls Basil

2 Garlic Cloves

1 Avocado

1 Green Onion (green and white parts)

1/2 Lime, peeled

 Guacamole Gazpacho:

2 Large Tomatoes

1 Handfull Cilantro

1 Jalapeno Pepper, seeds removed

2 Garlic Cloves

1 Avocado

1 Green Onion (green and white parts)

1/2 Lime, peeled

I literally put all of the ingredients into my blender at once and just blended until smooth.  The only "prep work" I did was cut the ends off the scallions, peel the lime, seed the jalapeno and remove the flesh and seeds from the avocados.  I have a VitaMix so it made everything into a creamy smooth puree!

I did follow the instructions on Menifest Vegan site to chill the ingredients before and after blending.  The soup came out very creamy thanks to the avocado and it was a nice cool meal on a very humid night. We enjoyed the soups out on the deck while talking about the fun we had in Denver.  We can't wait to go back!

Here's a picture of The Husband and me with our friends at our camp on Longs Peak.  It was a great day!!

Very Veggie Soup (Rainbow Soup)

I can't believe I leave for Colorado tomorrow!  I'm so excited to see Denver and hike Longs Peak!!  The place we're staying has a very nice kitchen so I might even be able to get you a blog post!

In case I can't, I wanted to make sure I posted something before I left.  Have you ever heard the expression that in order to get the right fruits and vegetables you should eat a rainbow everyday.  Well today I have a soup that's almost a double rainbow!  Of course there are no blue veggies, though I could have added an eggplant for a touch of purple.  It started out with some beautiful peppers and I couldn't decide what color to pick, so I picked them all.   I'm always trying to make my food colorful! Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2-3 Cloves Garlic
1 Green Onion
1/2 Tbsp Oregano
1/2 Tbsp Basil
1/2 Tbsp Parsley
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
10oz Mushrooms
3 Carrots
4 Peppers
2 Yellow Squash
2 Small Heads of Broccoli
4 Tomatoes
1/4 Cup Tomato Paste
4 Cups Veggie Stock
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the garlic.  Saute for a few minutes until it starts to get fragrant. 

Add the green onion and cook for a few minutes. 

Next add the seasonings.  I liked adding them at this point so they could open up more and add more flavor to the dish.  It really made the house smell amazing! 

Add the mushrooms and cook down until the water evaporates from them. 

Like this:

Then add the veggies as you dice them.  First I diced up the carrots.  I made them smaller so they'd get soft faster. Add a pinch of salt and pepper too!

I stirred that well and then started dicing the peppers.  Once they were all cut up, I added them to the pot and realized I was quickly running out of room! Add another pinch of salt and pepper!

Before I added the yellow squash I moved everything to a bigger pot!  Now that's much better right! Keep stirring everything up with each new addition.  Keep adding small pinches of salt and pepper along the way.  Just don't over do it!

Next was the broccoli.  I kept some of the pieces bigger for more of a crunch. 

Lastly I added the Tomatoes and the tomato paste

Stir everything up well and add the broth.  You can add more than the 4 cups if you'd like it soupier.

Cook on medium until you're too impatient to wait any longer.  Or, if you're not ravenious, you could cook it on low for about 30 minute or more to really let all of the flavors blend well.

We ate this out on the deck under the heater.  There was a bit too much red pepper for me, but the Husband loved it!  I think a potato would have been great in here too! Any combination of veggies would be great, add your favorites!