Ahi Tuna Sandwich

Another way to prepare and eat fish. I love fish. :-)  The goat cheese gives this sandwich a lovely zing that goes really well with the tuna, but goat cheese is pretty mild, so you'll have to be rather generous with it.

In hindsight, I guess I should have seared the sides of the tuna just for photo presentation purposes.  If you look closely, though, you'll see I did get a nice brown crust on the top of the fish (and on the bottom, too, I promise), if not the sides.

Ahi Tuna Sandwich

Ingredients:

• Orowheat 100% whole wheat sandwich thins
• goat cheese
• olive oil
• fresh Ahi tuna fillets cut into patty-size pieces
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• baby spinach, washed and dried
• tomato slices

Directions:

• Spread goat cheese generously (generously!) over the bottom half of each sandwich thin.
• Place the sandwich thins in the toaster and toast until desired crispiness.  The goat cheese will soften but won't necessarily melt.
• Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium high heat in a large pan.
• Lightly season both sides of fillets.  Place in pan and cook 2-3 minutes on each side until fish is nicely seared on the outside and fully cooked on the inside.**
• Place fillet patties onto the cheesed sandwich halves.  Add spinach and tomato slices and top with the other halves of the toasted sandwich thins.

**Note: unless you are purchasing sushi-grade tuna, please cook your fish all the way through for safety reasons.  This includes all fish purchased at mainstream supermarkets.  If you like seared tuna, where the fish is raw/rare inside, you'll need to buy sushi-grade tuna at specialty stores.

Sauteed Kale and Tomato

Kale.  It's my new favorite green.  Seriously.  It's robust, flavorful, and chewy and crunchy at the same time.  I had some beautiful tomatoes today so I thought I'd sauté them up together.  I loved it.  Hubby didn't care for the tomato part, so I'll try this again another time without the tomato (maybe with mushrooms?).

Sautéed Kale and Tomato

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 3 medium tomatoes, sliced and seeded
• A big bunch of kale, chopped into bite-size pieces, washed and drained
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• Tastefully Simple Onion Onion

Directions:

• In a large pan, drizzle a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
• Add the tomato and sauté on medium-high heat until soft (approximately 5 minutes).
• Add the kale, a few dashes of TSSS and a few dashes of TSOO. 
• Sauté until the kale is soft but still slightly crunchy/chewy (approximately 3 minutes).
• Serve immediately.

We had this tonight as a side to some Simple Snapper and yams.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin

I normally would make this with a few cloves of freshly-crushed garlic, but I don't have any on hand at the moment, so I just used garlic powder (I'm also out of Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic - gasp!). Ghetto, I know. My apologies. :-)

Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed (I used 1 tablespoon of garlic powder today)
• 2-3 teaspoons of dried rosemary
• a few dashes of Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• a couple tablespoons of olive oil
• 1.5 lb pork tenderloin, all visible fat removed

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• In a small bowl, combine the garlic, rosemary, seasoned salt and olive oil so it forms a paste.
• Rub the mixture all over the pork.
• Place pork on a sheet pan and roast until a meat thermometer registers 155 degree F (45 minutes to 1 hour).
• Let the pork rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

I like to add veggies to the pan about 20 minutes before the end of cooking time, so they can roast alongside the pork and soak up any of the yummy juices.  Today's green of choice: Brussels sprouts.  YUM!

Simple Snapper

I think I'd mentioned before that my favorite way to prepare light fish is just with a dash of seasoning and then pan fried on the stove. It's easy, it's quick, and it's tasty. And it adds more fish to my diet.

Simple Snapper

Ingredients:

• fresh red snapper fillets (or other flaky white fish such as tilapia)
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt (or your favorite seasoning)
• PAM

Directions:

• Lightly sprinkle Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt over each side of fish fillets.  Let sit for 10 minutes.
• Pre-heat large pan on medium-high.  Spray with PAM.
• Cook fish (in a single-layer) for a couple minutes on each side until cooked through. If it doesn't have a nice light sear to it, turn up the heat a little bit.

That's it.  How quick and simple (and delicious) can it get?  :-)

Turkey Meatballs

Pasta is the quick and easy go-to meal in most households.  Made with the proper ingredients, it can be very nutritious as well as yummy.  I always use whole wheat pasta, I switched from the white stuff years ago and have never gone back.  Whole wheat or whole grain anything used to be difficult to find at the grocery store, but nowadays everyone carries at least a couple of options.

I also like to make turkey meatballs instead of beef.  When I do use ground beef, I make sure it's from a leaner cut, like ground sirloin.  And I normally like to add extra veggies to my sauce.  Diced zucchini and carrots work really well, and also button mushrooms.  I'll just throw these into the pot while the meatballs are simmering (earlier for carrots, which take longer to soften, and in the last 15 minutes or so for zucchini or mushrooms, which cook much faster). 

Turkey Meatballs
This is a compilation/adaptation of different recipes I've read over the years.
































Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground turkey*
• 1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 1 egg, beaten
• a couple teaspoons of Tastefully Simple Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning (or any other Italian seasoning)
• a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• olive oil
• 1 jar Trader Joe's Organic Marinara Sauce

Directions:

• In a large bowl, mix together the first 6 ingredients above (without the oil and marinara sauce).
• Form into 1.5" balls.
• In a large skillet, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil and brown the meatballs on medium-high heat, turning them a few times to make sure each side is nice and brown.
• Once the meatballs are brown on all sides, reduce heat to low.  Add the entire jar of marinara sauce and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

*Today I used a 1 lb. package of Foster Farms ground turkey.  I sometimes use a package of Jennie-O turkey, which is actually 20 oz., or 1.25 lbs., so if you use this brand, just slightly increase the amount of bread crumbs, grated parmesan and seasoning.  The single egg is still fine.

Roasted Garbanzo Beans

I do apologize for my long blogging hiatus. I was also on a cooking hiatus since school got really hectic as we're rolling towards the end of the semester. We ate out way too much and I can totally feel it in my waist. :-( So even though finals are only a couple weeks away and life is as busy as ever right now, I've decided to get back to cooking and eating healthy.

The challenge with this blog is not necessarily the cooking part, I think I've got that down, it's the cooking new foods part. I love trying new recipes and cooking methods, it's just that when I'm busy and crunched for time, I tend to fall back to my old favorites which are quick to not only think up and shop for, but to prepare as well since I don't have to research and refer to other sources. But I do have a long list of new items I want to prepare and try, so I will do my best to cycle through them on a more regular basis. :-)

I was baking a double-batch of kale chips tonight when my mind started to wander. Hmmm, I wonder what else I can roast up to a crisp? When I opened up my pantry, I saw a lonely can of garbanzo beans (AKA chickpeas) amidst cans of black, kidney and great northern beans. So over to the computer I went to search for a recipe. Ta-Dah! Roasted Garbanzo Beans! So easy and so yummy!

Roasted Garbanzo Beans
Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 oz.) can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• PAM
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Dry the garbanzo beans with a paper towel and place them onto a baking sheet in a single layer.
• Roast in the preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes or until golden brown and crunchy, tossing the beans with a wooden spoon every 15 minutes or so to prevent sticking.
• When beans are nice and crunchy, remove from oven.  Spray the roasted beans very lightly with PAM and sprinkle with seasoned salt.  Toss and enjoy!

Ok, so one can of these suckers isn't nearly enough for a family of 3 plus Grandma.  I'll need to at least double it for next time.  ;-)

Cordon Bleu-ish Chicken

I love love love chicken cordon bleu, but the traditional recipe is soooooo heavy in calories and fat that it's a definite no-go when you're trying to eat healthy. So over the years I've developed my own version. Baked instead of fried, and sans sauce, but still very yummy. I also don't pound out my chicken breasts, but you can if you have the time.

Cordon Bleu-ish Chicken

Ingredients:

• PAM
• 4 medium chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, all visible fat removed
• 4 deli slices of ham (I used Black Forest ham)
• 4 deli slices of cheese (usually Swiss, but I used Provolone tonight)
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a baking pan with PAM.
• Butterfly the chicken breasts.  (Pound them out to 1/4" thickness if you desire.)
• Open up the breasts and stuff each one with a folded slice of ham and a folded slice of cheese.
• Close up the breasts and place them in the sprayed baking pan.  Sprinkle with TSSS.
• Bake until cooked through, approximately 25-30 minutes.

Bon appetit!

Miso-Glazed Sea Bass

Fresh wild Corvina sea bass has currently been on sale at the local grocery store, so this is the 3rd week in a row we're eating it. I'm a seasonal/sale shopper. I just can't justify paying triple for something off-season, there are so many other food choices out there that it's unnecessary. If oranges aren't on sale in the summer, eat the watermelon that is. If the pork chops are full price this week, skip them and buy the sea bass that's seasonal and on sale. :-)

I made this tonight and it was oh-so-good and oh-so-easy. You can buy miso paste in the refrigerated section at most grocery stores, usually over by the tofu or other Asian items. They come in little tubs and keep for several months in the fridge. Just make sure (if you're on the South Beach Diet) to read the labels and buy the ones with no sugar added. I don't miss the sugar because I don't need my miso to be sweet, but if you like the sweetness, you could always add your own no-calorie sweetener. It's all about being aware and being in control of what you put into your body.


Miso-Glazed Sea Bass
Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• PAM
• 1 1/2 pound sea bass fillet, skinned and de-boned, cut into portions
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• 2 tablespoons miso (white or brown, it doesn't matter, it's just taste preference)
• juice of 1 small lime
• water
• freshly-ground black pepper

Directions:

• Preheat broiler.  Spray a baking sheet lightly with PAM.
• Season one side of the fillets with the TSSS.  Place seasoned-side down onto the sprayed baking sheet.
• In a small bowl, whisk together miso and lime juice.  Add water, a little bit at a time, until you get a thick drizzle (about the consistency of pancake batter).  Add freshly-ground black pepper.
• Spoon miso mixture over the tops of the fillets.
• Place the fish 6 - 8 inches under the broiler until it is cooked through, about 8 - 10 minutes.

This is delicious accompanied with roasted veggies (cooked in the same oven at the same time).

Random Soup

I make a lot of random soups.  As in I don't have recipes for them, I just throw together whatever happens to be in my fridge and pantry.  The only constant is boxed chicken broth (I like Pacific Natural Foods brand because it's organic and free range, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg).  I combine1 part chicken broth to 1 part water, bring to a boil, add several dashes of fish sauce, and throw in whatever else I have on hand.

Random Soup
















Today's soup includes:

• carrots
• button mushrooms
• Chinese broccoli
• sugar snap peas
• shrimp
• soba noodles

And it was so good!

Broiled Fish Fillets with Dressing

Here's a super quick and easy way to prepare fish with just two ingredients.  I even do it in my toaster oven (in a 9"x9" glass baking dish), which is great in the summer when it's already hot enough without having to fire up the big oven.

Broiled Fish Fillets with Dressing

Ingredients:

• fish fillets, de-boned and de-skinned, cut into portions (wild Corvina sea bass in the above photo)
• your favorite bottled salad dressing (Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette in the above photo)

Directions:

• In a baking dish, pour enough dressing to coat the bottom of the dish.
• Place the fish fillets in a single layer in the dish.
• Pour more dressing over the fish to coat.  If necessary, use a spoon or pastry brush to make sure the fillets are well coated.  You don't need to pour so much dressing as to completely submerge the fish, just enough to coat it will do.
• Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes. 
• Preheat broiler.
• Broil until the fish is cooked through and nicely browned on top.  (Approximately 8-10 minutes for 1 pound of sea bass, halibut or other white fish.  Approximately 10-12 minutes for 1 pound of salmon, tuna or other firmer fish.)
• Serve over a green salad or with rice and veggies.  YUM!

I like to make this with vinaigrette-type dressings, such as Italian, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Ginger Soy, etc., although a friend of mine broils salmon with ranch dressing and swears by it.  I'd be interested in hearing (or reading?) your feedback on what fish/dressing combination you used and what you thought about it.  Tonight's combo in the above photo is wild Corvina sea bass with Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.  Delish!