Tuna Steaks with Lemon Caper Sauce

I got this recipe from foodandwine.com when Eric wanted fish for dinner and I was craving capers. We had all the ingredients in the house and it went together so quickly!

INGREDIENTS
. 3 tablespoons drained capers
. 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
. 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley-we had dried parsley, so I just mixed it all together to let the leaves soak up the moisture for about 10 minutes and it turned out fine.
. 3/4 teaspoon salt
. 1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
. 8 tablespoons olive oil
. 4 tuna steaks, about 3/4 inch thick (about 2 pounds in all)
DIRECTIONS
. Light the grill or heat the broiler. In a small glass or stainless-steel bowl, mash the capers with a fork. Stir in the lemon juice, parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper and then 6 tablespoons of the oil.
. Coat the tuna with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Grill or broil the tuna for 4 minutes. Turn and cook until done to your taste, 3 to 4 minutes longer for medium rare. Serve the tuna topped with the sauce.


This was so yummy, and so easy, we're definitely doing this again. The article notes that it would go well with any fish, and I agree! I think I'll try it with salmon next.

Garlic broccoli pasta with tomatoes and cashews

This one was better than I thought it would be. We had all the ingredients and it looked like a good fast dinner, but it was actually very flavorful. The cashews were an afterthought, but definitely made the meal better!

1 lb pasta-we used spaghetti...it might have been prettier with farfalle
1 bunch broccoli
1/2 package grape tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 cup chopped cashews
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cup freshly grated romano cheese

Cook Pasta as directed.

Trim broccoli, coarsely chop.

Heat nonstick 12 inch skillet until hot. Add garlic, cook 2-3 minutes, stirring.

Add broccoli, 1/4 cup water into skillet. Cover and cook 8-10 minutes or until broccoli is meltingly tender, stirring occasionally. Add cashews in the last few minutes.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup cooking water. Return pasta to pot, add tomatoes, romano, broccoli mix, and reserved cooking water. Toss until well mixed.














**Edited to add-I have made this dish a few times since, and if you want to add a little protein, cut up raw chicken into bite-sized pieces, coat in flour, and cook in a little bit of oil until done, then toss in with the rest of the dish. MMM!

Sausage and Vegetables

This was one of the easiest things I've ever made, and it was so good!

The recipe called for sausages, but we used turkey bratwursts. Cut each one into 4 pieces. Grease a baking dish, and put sausages in. Cut some potatoes, butternut squash, green peppers, and onions and add to the dish. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with pepper, and toss to coat.

Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, stir, and bake for 15 more minutes. 

My squash was a little too thin and kind of mushed a little, so I'll do it thicker next time, but other than that it was really good!

Lettuce Wraps with Moo Shu Pork

1 4-ounce package mushroom blend or shiitake mushrooms (we had extra portobellos from another recipe so we used those)

3 cups shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix (we like broccoslaw)

1 lb stir fry pork strips or tenderloin cut into thin strips

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce (we used soy sauce)

1 small head lettuce, leaves removed and core discarded

Stir fry mushrooms and cabbage for 5-7 minutes, add pork and stir fry until pork is almost cooked through. Add hoisin sauce and 1 tbsp water and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute, or until pork is cooked through. 

Spoon into lettuce leaves and eat like a taco!

Tofu Veggie Stir Fry

This was so easy to make, and so fresh looking and delicious!

Ingredients

Tofu, cubed
2 tbsp olive oil
small bunch broccoli, cut up
handful baby carrots
handful green or wax beans, cut in halves or thirds
handful snap peas
small red onion, cut up
2 tsp teriyaki sauce

Heat the oil in a pan and brown the tofu on all sides. Meanwhile, put the veggies in a covered bowl and microwave 2-4 minutes, depending on how you like your veggies. When the tofu is browned, add the veggies and pour the teriyaki sauce over. Cook, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Teriyaki Salmon Dinner

This was so easy to make, and sooo good!

We got individual frozen fillets of salmon from Costco that were really good!

Thaw as many fillets as you need to cook, and marinate in teriyaki sauce, enough to cover them half way for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 350, and get out a piece of foil for each fillet. Bend the edges up like a bowl, and put a fillet in each piece. Spoon the remaining marinade over each fillet, and close the foil tightly. Place them in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet, and bake for 40 minutes, or until the salmon is done.

I served this with a wild rice blend and steamed broccoli. I've made it for a couple of dinner guests and have gotten rave reviews!

Banana Split Breakfast

This is one I made at work with the kids, it came from Highlights, or one of those kid magazines. The kids loved it, and we've made it a few times.

Put a container of yogurt in the freezer for at least a few hours. If you are using a large container (not a serving size one) make sure you take it out at least an hour before you use it. If you use a serving size container, you only need 20 minutes.

Halve a banana, then cut each half lengthwise and put a half in each bowl. Scoop the frozen yogurt over it and top with fruit and granola. We used strawberries and blueberries.

The kids loved making this! We put each topping into a separate bowl and they got to put on as much as they wanted. Its easy to make and not too messy. We also have made it without freezing the yogurt, when they decide at the last minute they want to make it, and they like it just as much.

Adventures with a juicer

We're borrowing my dad's juicer to see if we'll actually use it before we buy one for ourselves. Its big and loud and like 10 years old, and can be kind of hard to clean, so hopefully a new one will be better. 

This morning we made apple beet carrot juice to go with breakfast. It was so good! We try to use as much organic produce as possible (which is why we love living so close to Hillers!). We used 2 apples, 4 carrots, and 3 small beets.

Yes, it was that bright! Eric just found out that you can make orange juice with it, so I think that will be our next adventure.

BBQ Salmon

We have been looking for some good wild caught salmon, and found a bag of frozen salmon that looked really good. 

I thawed 2 pieces, marinated them in barbeque sauce, and grilled them. It was soo good!

We served it with baked potatoes and steamed green beans. Yum!

The picture makes the grill mark look much darker than it really was.  :-)

Healthy Winter Soup

Healthy Winter Soup

I wasn't quite sure what to call this one since there is so much in it, but it turned out soooo yummy!

1 onion, diced

2 chicken breasts, cubed

small package of mushrooms

1 box organic low sodium chicken broth

1 box organic creamy mushroom broth

1/2 cabbage, chopped

1/2 cup bulgur

1 head broccoli, chopped

Pepper

Saute the onion, chicken, and mushrooms in the bottom of a large pot. Add the broths and bring it to a boil. Add the cabbage, bulgur, and broccoli, and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Add pepper to taste, and serve.

I forgot to take a final picture, but I served it with some of my mom's homemade bread, and strawberries and cherries for dessert. 

Lemon Pepper Baked Cod

Lemon Pepper Baked Cod

This was an easy one! We usually use frozen fish, I don't trust the fish thats been sitting in the case all day. I defrosted the fish in the fridge over night, and before I cooked it, I put it in a greased dish, and then sprayed the top with olive oil, spooned some lemon juice over the top of each one, and ground some pepper over the top and baked it at 350 for 12 minutes.

I served it with spinach mozzarella ravioli, steamed broccoli, fresh carrots, and some of my mom's yummy homemade bread.

Broiled Tofu

I've been in the mood for tofu a lot lately...we got a curry tofu salad from Whole Foods the other day that was so good! Since then, I've been thinking about tofu a lot! So I created this dish:

Broiled Tofu

1 package of tofu...I bought one that has 4 smaller bricks that is probably equal to about 2 regular sized bricks. Slice the tofu in half, and then into triangles. You can press it if you want, it makes it more dense, which is good, but this will work whether you press it or not.

**to press tofu, put a towel on a cookie sheet, put the tofu on the towel, cover it with another towel, and put a cookie sheet on top of that. Put something heavy on top to press it down and squeeze the moisture out**

Mix together 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup water, a squeeze of honey, and 1 minced garlic clove. Let it sit for awhile, long enough to dissolve the honey. Marinate the tofu for 30 minutes, turning once.



Broil for 10 minutes on each side.


I served it on rice, with the leftover marinade as sauce, and steamed vegetables on the side. YUM!



*The broccoli photographed a funny color...it wasn't actually brown :)

Butternut Squash Soup

This was a super easy soup because it cheats a little, but was sooo good and healthy!

I started with butternut squash soup which you can just heat and serve as is, its thick like tomato soup, so I added some chicken broth to thin it a little. I baked some chicken and boiled some potatoes, and then threw in half a bag of frozen veggies. It was really good, there's cinnamon and nutmeg, so its a very Novembery soup.

Okie Dokie, Artichokie!

We made artichokes the other day. It was a little bit of a hassle because you have to trim the pokey things off (its actually a thistle!) and wash them and cut off the tops and stems. We put them in a pot with a little bit of water and boiled it for 35 minutes. They turned out really good, we dipped them in cranberry balsamic vinaigrette!

Brussels Sprouts!

We went to Longs (love them!) to get pumpkins and donuts, and they were selling huge stalks of Brussels sprouts for $3!!! So we bought one, it was so cool!



I steamed them for 20 minutes, and while they were cooking, I put some sunflower seeds in a dry pan and toasted them until they were brown. When the brussels sprouts were done, I put some Brummel and Brown spread over them, and the sunflower seeds. YUM!!!

I also made beef that had been marinating in barbecue sauce, macaroni and cheese with beans, and baked potatoes. It was a good dinner!

Italian Chicken on Couscous with Beans

This is really just something I threw together without a recipe but it turned out really good.



Marinate some chicken breasts for at least a couple of hours in Italian dressing (low fat works fine) Then arrange in a dish and put sliced onions on top of each piece, and bake. While thats baking, start a pot of couscous. I put a spoonful of chicken boullion stuff in it, for fun. When its done, stir in some beans. I did kidney. Serve the chicken on top of the couscous and spoon some of the liquid over it.

Yum!

Tabbouleh

I have fond memories of eating this at my grandparents house growing up, its one of my favorites, and its sooo healthy!



1/2 cup bulgur
10 scallions, chopped
1 small bunch fresh parsley
10 fresh mint sprigs
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Put the bulgur in a bowl and cover with water (the more the better). Let stand for 30 minutes. Drain it and squeeze to remove excess water, then place in a bowl. Finely chop the scallions and herbs in a food processor, or with a knife, then add to the bulgur. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, cover, and chill 2 hours before serving.

Eric and I couldn't wait with our first batch and ate it right away...and the bottom of the bowl was the best. I highly recommend storing it in a wider container rather than a taller one, because all of the lemony goodness falls to the bottom...which may be why they sell it in those short rectangle boxes...

Worlds most amazing smoothie

We finally got around to buying a stick blender, the Cuisinart CSB-76 Smartstick! So far we've only made smoothies and spaghetti sauce but it is the best way of getting vegetables into things that don't usually have vegetables. We bought a bunch of kale, and blended some into the spaghetti sauce.

Then today, I made a super smoothie. I started by washing a handful of kale and trimming off the stems. Then I put in some frozen peaches, pineapple, grapes, and blueberries, and some mandarin oranges from a jar. I splashed in some Bolthouse Farms C-Boost and some Pom Wonderful pomegranate mango juice for liquid, and then added a spoonful of wheat germ and a spoonful of flax seed meal.

Blended it up and you can't even taste the kale (it showed up pretty green in the picture but you actually can't see it unless you look realllly hard)

One thing we discovered on Sunday though is that you shouldn't eat a smoothie with blueberries in it on your way to somewhere or else you'll be scraping blueberry skin off your teeth in the church parking lot

This is definitely something to keep in mind for everyone, but kids in particular will love this. Its sweet but has no added sugar, (actually mine did because I used mandarin oranges but we ate all the other fruit in the house so I had to cheat) and you could even use low fat yogurt or vanilla frozen yogurt to make it more milkshake-like. It took maybe 5 minutes from getting out all the ingredients, washing and trimming the kale, and getting it all blended.

Plus you get all kinds of good stuff, kale is one of the most nutritious vegetables, plus it has a decent amount of calcium, and blueberries and grapes are so high in antioxidants, wheat germ is a good source of folic acid, and flaxseed meal has fiber and omega-3 fats!

Beat that, ice cream!

Shrimp Linguine with Lemon Herb Oil

Eric and I both worked long days yesterday and totally made this up as we went but it turned out awesome!!!

I put some olive oil in a little dish and put in some lemon herb seasoning, some freshly ground pepper, and a spoonful of garlic (from the gigantic jar that Eric bought and I put in everything to try to get rid of it)

You could really put any kind of seasoning in it, but do it first thing so it has time to infuse into the oil.

We cooked a pot of linguine and put a bag of frozen shrimp in a big bowl of water to thaw.

While that was going, Eric chopped some tomatoes and I cut up some fresh parsley (both of which came from his mom's garden)

We put the shrimp in the bottom of the strainer, then put the tomatoes on top, and poured the pasta and water over them (gently so you don't lose all the tomato juice). It heated the tomatoes and shrimp up and cooked the tomatoes just a little but not so they were mushy. put it in a bowl and tossed it with the oil and the fresh parsley.

Yum!

Mexican Stuffed Squash

This recipe is a mix of a couple of recipes from the Moosewood cookbook, with a little bit of my own modifications (it was mostly using some things that we already had, such as squash from my mom's garden and parsley from Eric's mom's garden. It has a very fresh taste.

1 cup cooked rice
2 onions
2 large garlic cloves
1 jalapeno (more if you like it hot), seeds removed
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp ground cumin
1 medium tomato
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 small bunch parsley (it called for cilantro but we forgot to get it, but we had a lot of parsley from Eric's mom, and it actually tasted really good in it)
salt and pepper to taste
2 medium sized yellow summer squash.

Chop the onions, garlic, and jalapeno. Warm the oil in a pan and then add the onions, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook for 7 minutes. Chop and add the tomato, and stir in the corn, and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add the black beans and cilantro (and/or parsley), and stir in the rice. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.


Preheat the oven to 375

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Fill each of the halves with the mixture, put on a baking sheet, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.



Yeah, I get points for plating ;-)