Baked Cod with Roasted Orange Pepper Sauce over Arugula with Lemon Vinaigrette

Baked Cod with Roasted Orange Pepper Sauce over Arugula with Lemon Vinaigrette 

We were so excited to try this dinner tonight, I totally skipped taking photos. So I'm including a photo of an arugula salad in case you're not familiar with this peppery green which has been popular in Italy and has been gaining traction here in the US since about the millennium. If you're from the UK you'll know it as "rocket," which is a much better description of the flavor in my mind.

This time of year, where I live in northern Illinois, arugula is plentiful and inexpensive at the farmers' markets and I'm always looking for recipes where I can let its flavor shine. This dish is one of those. If you don't have arugula, you can use a mixed field green salad with the same dressing.

For most recipes I create, I more go by taste than measurements, so I'm guessing on the amounts of the seasonings.  Feel free to use more or less to your taste and preference.

For the Fish:

2 lbs. cod or other firm white fish

2-3 T olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp sea salt

Fresh ground pepper to taste

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp dried basil

Drizzle fish with olive oil and season with remaining ingredients. Bake in preheated 400°F oven on foil-lined pan or glass dish for 20-35 minutes or until fish flesh is opaque and easily flakes with a fork.While fish is baking, make the sauce and dressing.

Roasted Yellow Pepper Sauce

1 yellow, red, or orange bell pepper (I had yellow, so that's why the color was yellow. The flavor is essentially the same.)

1 small yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

Juice of ½ fresh lime (do NOT substitute anything from a plastic fake fruit!! You can substitute fresh lemon juice or omit if you don’t have the fruit).

1 tsp ground coriander

4 T olive oil, divided

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Rinse and dry the pepper. Then roast the pepper over an open flame on your gas stove top, turning as each side becomes charred. If you have an electric range, place the pepper under a broiler and keep a close eye on it, turning it as each side becomes charred. After charring, set aside for a few minutes until cool enough to peel. I peel mine by rinsing under cold water and pulling off the stem and removing the seeds and ribs with my fingers. Tear into large chunks and put into Vitamix or other high speed blender..

Meanwhile, sauté the onion and garlic on med-low heat in about 2-3 tablespoons olive oil seasoned with about ½ tsp salt until translucent and just starting to brown around the edges, about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with ground coriander. Pour mixture into the Vitamix. Blend on medium to high for about 30 seconds. Adjust salt and pepper seasoning, add remaining olive oil and blend again for a few more seconds until the mixture is smooth and homogenous.

Whip up the lemon vinaigrette:

1 tsp lemon zest

¼ c olive oil

¼ c fresh-squeezed lemon juice

¼ tsp of xylitol, stevia, monk fruit, or other natural sweetener

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped (or ½ tsp dried)

Sea Salt and Freshly ground pepper to taste

Place all ingredients into a glass jar (Ball or Mason style or recycled jelly jar), close lid tightly and shake it like you mean it. Toss with four large handfuls of arugula.

To plate:

Place a bed of the lightly dressed arugula on the plate, then top with a serving of fish. Finish the play by drizzling about 1/8 cup of the sauce (I have a small-sized ladle which is perfect). It tastes as delicious as it looks and next time I fix this (possibly next week) I'll update with photos. :-)

Pineapple Blueberry Ginger Green-ish Smoothie

Ever since I picked up my Vitamix, barely a day goes by without another experiment in deliciousness. I may have enjoyed the exact same smoothie twice, but if I did, it was never in a row and almost never on purpose. There are simply too many combinations to try and fall in love with!

However, many of my smoothies have some things in common. I prefer fruit-based smoothies (unless I'm feeling like chocolate!), and there are a few things I use very often.

Two of the standard ingredients I almost always use include:

Unsweetened Plain Almond Milk - I've tried fruit juices, coconut water, coconut milk, and even plain filtered tap water as the liquid base for my morning breakfast smoothies, but I always return to good old almond milk. It blends up well and doesn't add any distinctive flavor. Plus it's low carb for when I'm doing that kind of diet, has only 30 calories per serving (only water beats that!), contains some great vitamins and minerals (sorry, H2O!), and even has a gram of protein. Sometimes I add the vanilla flavored almond milk, but it's always the unsweetened variety. If I'm going to add a sweetener, I want to be in control of exactly what it is I add and how much.

Flax Seeds - These little gems keep things moving along on the inside and are so easy to incorporate into your diet, including in smoothies - plus they're super inexpensive, unlike some health foods. Some studies show that flax seeds can help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and stroke, but I like them for the high fiber content and plant-based Omega-3 fatty acids. Like unsweetened and unflavored almond milk, they add no flavor, but they do make the texture a little thicker, which adds to the rich creamy goodness. I buy them in a big package and then store in a freezer bag in my freezer so they stay fresh. A bonus is I feel better when I have them in my diet. I've also used chia seeds and hemp seeds and like those as well, but flax seeds are my almost daily go-to ingredient.

With my Vitamix, these tiny bits of "super food" get ripped up and fully incorporated so the end result in the smoothie is as smooth as can be. I've not tried blending flax seeds with any other blender, but if you end up with a gritty result or even whole seeds, get a better blender if you're going to be eating smoothies regularly.

A note about green smoothies: They may not be as good for you as you think if you're making the same mistake I was. Last year I began using a large handful of fresh spinach leaves every single day in my smoothies, which after a few months led to painful kidney stones (and two surgeries!) due to a compound called oxalate in the spinach. These days I use spinach in smoothies sparingly and only very occasionally, preferring now to add a tablespoon or two of a natural mint-flavored liquid chlorophyll, available online and at health food stores. It's a punch of the green goodness that doesn't add unnecessary compounds that can lead to disastrous results.

So for this morning's "green-ish" smoothie - I call it that because I used the liquid chlorophyll today, but with the addition of blueberries it was a definite purple rather than green - here's what I added to my Vitamix:

1 cup unsweetened plain flavored almond milk
1/4 of a fresh pineapple (peeled, with core in tact), chopped in big chunks
1/2 C frozen blueberries
2 Tablespoons flax seeds  
1 Tablespoon mint-flavored liquid chlorophyll
1" piece of fresh ginger

Toss all into your high-powered blender starting with the milk and blend on high for 1-2 minutes so all the ingredients are fully liquified, smooth and delicious.  Makes enough for one large serving or to share two smaller servings. Enjoy immediately!

Valentine's Day Flourless Chocolate Cake (Gluten-Free)

Wow. It's been a looooong time. Bad food blogger.

But it's Valentine's Day and I'm back, baby!!

The biggest food-related thing that happened since I last posted? I became gluten-free. Who knew?! Long story for another post.

Tonight I posted these pics on Facebook and some friends wanted the recipe. So here you go:

• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped - I used one 4-oz. bar of Ghiardelli's 
• 1/2 cup butter - not the fake stuff. REAL butter.  
• 1/4 cup organic cane sugar (plain white sugar is fine if you prefer)
•  1/2 cup cocoa powder 
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract   
• fresh whipped cream for garnish
• powdered sugar for garnish
• chocolate covered strawberry for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease a heart-shaped silicone (or 8 inch round) cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder.
2. In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat.
3. Whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. 
4. Temper chocolate mixture slowly into sugar mixture. Then mix well.
5. Pour into prepared pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.Or as completely as possible until you have to dive head-first into it because it is SO GOOD.
7. Garnish with powdered sugar, a dollop (or 3) of fresh whipped cream, and a chocolate-covered strawberry, because you can never have too much chocolate.

 Results:
Both the 9 year old and 11 year old girls fell in love and giggled through dessert. The hubs decided he wanted to marry me again after almost 14 years. So I'll take that. 

Pot Roast A L'Orange in Crock Pot

One of my favorite kitchen tools is my crock pot. I plan a crock pot mean for when I know for sure I'll be too busy to cook after picking up the girls from school.

That's every Monday.

My girls have piano lessons immediately after school every week, which means by the time we arrive home, there's not much time before I have to get dinner on the table. Enter: my crock pot to save the day! [insert halleluiah chorus sound effect here!]

Today I posted my love for my crock pot on Facebook:

Several of those comments came from friends asking for the recipe and where I come up with my recipes, so I thought I'd share both here.

I have a few crock pot/ slow cooker cookbooks in my library, however, I haven't consulted them in a while because many of the recipes call for cream of mushroom or chicken or whatever soup and I just don't buy those. As I explained to one commenter I try to limit my processed food purchases to those with 5 or fewer ingredients on the label and all must be ingredients I could easily find to use in my own kitchen or at least identify, such as added vitamin C for example.

So where do I get my recipes? Good ol' Google Search is where I get my inspiration. I check out a few recipes of something I might want to try, make my own tweaks - or more changes - and then give it a whirl. Tonight's Pot Roast a l'Orange was originally inspired by a recipe my Dad makes out of his old Betty Crocker cookbook. Basically he uses orange juice concentrate as a base for the sauce and sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes in the pot with the roast. So that's where I began.

And here's where I ended up:

Pot Roast a l'Orange in Crock Pot

Ingredients:
3-5 lb. bottom round or lean chuck roast (or other beef pot roast of your choice); bone in is best, but I had boneless today

salt & pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
3 Tbls olive oil
zest of 1 orange, then remove skin
1 whole orange, skin removed (from above)
2 C vegetable or chicken broth, homemade is best; I always have some in my freezer
1/4 C maple syrup
1 C cranberry pomegranate juice (read the label and only get 100% juice)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large sweet sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-2" chunks
3 ribs celery, cut into 2" chunks
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-2" chunks
1 bay leaf
1/4 C corn starch dissolved in about 1/3 C water (called a slurry)

Method:

1. Heat oil in large, heavy skillet. Season all sides of roast with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and ginger. Brown all sides of meat. Meanwhile, put zest through cranberry pomegranate juice into a Vitamix or other high power blender and blend until orange is completely incorporated.
2. Add onion and sweet potatoes to the crock pot. Nestle meat on top. Add celery and parsnips on top and around meat. 
3. Deglaze pan by adding about half the orange mixture and scraping up the browned bits from the pan (those bits are called "fond" in case it ever comes up in a game of Trivial Pursuit, and they are full of rich flavor). Pour sauce from pan as well as all remaining sauce over meat to come up to the top of the meat. I needed a little water to get to the level I wanted. Tuck bay leaf into liquid and season with salt and pepper. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-7 hours.
4. About 20 minutes before serving time, remove lid and stir in corn starch slurry. Cover and allow mixture to come to a boil. 
5. Carve meat, it will be falling apart deliciously, and serve with veg on the bottom, meat on top, covered generously with sauce. Enjoy!

Pantry Pasta

There HAS to be a better name for it.

Today is Ash Wednesday. I always plan ahead for Mardi Gras and make my Holy Trinity Jambalaya the night before. The next day when we fast, I don't think much about food. But because I didn't eat anything other than an apple with a schmear of peanut butter all day, by the time I picked up the girls from school, they wanted snacks (kids don't fast) and I was ravenous.

So I started cooking dinner at 3:30 PM. We were eating by 4. Yes, like a senior citizen; don't judge. And I hadn't planned a thing.

As I was running out the door to pick up the girls, I checked to see if I had my ingredients for linguini with clam sauce. Everything but linguini. Three boxes of fettuccine, yes; a box of mini penne perfect for mac -n- cheese, check; and a box of farfalle (bow ties), but no linguini. I have this odd belief that certain pastas just go with certain sauces and if I can't do it right, then I'm not going to bother. Linguini just goes with clam sauce. But without linguini, the bottle of clam juice and can of clams I have in the pantry will just have to wait. I didn't want to stop at the grocery store - we all know what happens when you go to the grocery store hungry. So after a quick mental scan of my pantry, I knew tonight's dinner would be my Pantry Pasta.

I'm taking nominations for a better name in the comments below.

Basically, it's a quick, easy, and tasty one-pot meal that requires exactly zero planning because I always have the ingredients in my pantry. In a perfect world, I'd have fresh mushrooms, but I always keep a can just in case. I hope you'll give it a try!

Pantry Pasta (or whatever...)

Ingredients:

1 14.5 oz box Barilla Plus brand (in the yellow box) farfalle (bowtie) pasta
1/4 c olive oil
3 Tbls butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves (I always have a bag on hand for my morning green smoothies)
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, liquid reserved
1 small can mushrooms stems and pieces, drained
1 small can tuna (I buy the kind packed in oil; it has way better flavor), drained
1 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Fill large pot with water and bring to boil. Generously salt the boiling water and add the pasta. Cook the pasta according to your taste. From putting it into the pot, to my taste, farfalle usually takes an extra minute beyond the recommendation on the box.
2. Meanwhile, chop onions and garlic and open cans and drain mushrooms and tuna. 
3. When pasta is done cooking to al dente or to your preference, drain in colander. Return cooking pot to the heat and lower to medium high. Melt butter and add olive oil. Saute onions until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and stir for about 20 seconds. Add spinach leaves and saute for about 2 minutes until just wilted.
4. Add artichoke hearts and their marinating liquid, mushrooms, tuna, basil, salt and pepper. As you stir, slightly break apart artichoke hearts. Stir until combined and warmed through.
5. Return pasta to the pot and toss to combine. Drizzle with additional olive oil if sauce isn't saucy enough for you (this will depend on how much liquid you had from the marinated artichoke hearts). Serve in pasta bowls and top with grated Parmesan cheese.

So there it is. It was so good, both girls asked for seconds and cleaned their plates both times. Any suggestions for a better name? I'm open - please share in the comments!

Mardi Gras Holy Trinity Jambalaya

I love how food transports us to other places and introduces us to other cultures, even those in our own country!

I've never been to 'Nawlins, NOLA, The Big Easy, or however you prefer to refer to the city below sea level that was devastated in 2005's Hurricane Katrina. I'm not even a fan of spicy hot (and painful) food, so Cajun cooking doesn't usually make an appearance in my kitchen.

But once a year, when the beads are flying through the air to parade revelers greedy hands, and the sounds of Zydeco music fills the streets, I make a Holy Trinity Jambalaya.

The "holy trinity" of course is a take on the religious theme, but in Cajun kitchens the holy trinity means a mirepoix of 3 veggies: onion, bell pepper, and celery, in roughly the same amounts.

This recipe I've developed over the years takes that trinity to yet another layer, where I use 3 meats. Mardi Gras translates to "Fat Tuesday" and it's the day before the beginning of lent, the Catholic time of prayers, fasting, and almsgiving in the 40 days leading to Easter Sunday. Mardi Gras is traditionally a day of excess in the culinary world, so that where the bounty of ingredients in this recipe gets it's inspiration.

But it doesn't need to be Mardi Gras to enjoy a big, hearty one pot meal. Make it to enjoy any night!

Holy Trinity Jambalaya Recipe

Ingredients:
2 Tbls olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped

Ready to cook!

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tsp sea salt
2 Tbls chili powder
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp thyme
few grinds of fresh cracked black pepper
1 package (4 pieces) Andouille sausage (I get Aidells all-natural brand with no MSG, gluten-free, no nitrites, and no hormones), sliced into 1/2 rounds
1 1/2 Cups brown rice
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 14.5 oz can (or 2 C homemade) chicken broth
1 tomato can full of water
2 bay leaves
1 pound 41-60 shrimp (I buy frozen, shells removed, tail off, deveined)
1/2 tsp hot sauce (or to taste)
2 Tbls fresh chopped flat leaf parsley


Method:

1. Heat oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, green pepper and celery and saute until veggies are tender and onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and saute until just fragrant, about 30 more seconds. Using a slotted spoon, remove veggies to a bowl, leaving some oil in the pot.
2. Add chicken and salt, chili powder, paprika, thyme, and black pepper to the pot and brown for 3-5 minutes. A nice fond will begin to form on the bottom of the pan (meaning the spices and outside bits of the chicken will start to stick ever so slightly -- this is a good thing!).
3. Add Andouille and stir to begin browning, about 2 more minutes.
4. Add rice and stir well. Then add tomatoes, broth, water and bay leaves. Scrape bottom of the pan well to remove the fond and distribute flavors throughout. Return cooked veggies to the pot.
5. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cover and lower heat to simmer for 50 minutes. Walk away to check Facebook, work on your blog, or read a book. Or you could clean up your mess, but that's nowhere near as much fun as the alternatives.
6. After 50 minutes, the liquid will be mostly absorbed by the rice. Remove lid and stir well, being sure to scrape the bottom, or the rice will tend to stick. Add shrimp and hot sauce and stir to combine. Cover and cook 5-6 minutes more, until shrimp have turned opaque and slightly pink, meaning they are fully cooked (hard to tell color in the tomatoes and seasonings, but you can). Remove lid, stir in parsley and season with more salt and pepper to taste and serve!

Both my kids' bowls were empty, even though this had a slight kick to it. I hope you enjoy and as they say on Mardi Gras, "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" (Let the good times roll!)

The Rules of a Recipe Well-Written

Over the weekend, in between fighting the sniffles and having my nose feel all "stubbed ubp" I got a hankerin' for some blueberry muffins. But I didn't want to go through the trouble of making actual muffins - cleaning those individual little tins is no fun. So I thought I'd try a recipe in my cast iron skillet.

I know biscuits are often made in a cast iron skillet and muffins have similar properties, so off I went in search of a recipe that looked good.

Maybe it was the sinus medicine, but I apparently wasn't on top of my recipe analysis game when I came across a yummy-looking photo, did a quick scan of the ingredients - yep I had everything - and decided to give it a whirl.

As I started to follow the steps, I realized the recipe wasn't exactly, well... written for other people to use. I know when I write recipes for just myself, I often write using personal abbreviations. And I'll also write notes on recipes I tear out from magazines or print from the internet with things I added of my own. I think that blueberry muffin skillet cake recipe I found online was like that.

I'm certainly not one to call out anyone else on bad writing (we're all developing at our own rates and some might suggest that would be the pot calling the kettle black; so I'll leave that there). You'll see no links to the original here, but there were some things that made me think, and helped me understand that as a blogger, it's important to make sure my recipes are written for others to reproduce. Here are a few things I learned:

1. Exact Ingredients: Some recipes I've come across online list ingredients but then also provide a number of alternatives well beyond "butter or margarine." The recipe in question suggested melted butter or coconut oil or another cooking oil the reader wanted to use. The flavors, textures, cooking temperatures and the way various fats interact with other ingredients can be vastly different. When I post a recipe I'll share exactly what I used.
2. Order of Appearance: Also when listing ingredients, I promise to list them in order of usage in the recipe that follows. Nothing is more confusing than thinking you forgot to add something only to find it hasn't been called for yet. 
3. Exact Amounts of Ingredients: Does the recipe call for 1 1/2 cups of blueberries or 2 cups? Oh, either will work? Really? Should I use 1/4 cup of sugar or 1/2 cup? Either is fine there, too? Not exactly. Again, the results will be different and unless there is an ingredient to your taste or used as a garnish, or I've tested the recipe both ways, I'll provide the exact amounts of everything.
4. Description of Anything Unusual: The recipe I used called for a full TABLESPOON of baking powder. Yikes... that's a lot. I know muffin and biscuit recipes use a lot of baking powder, so I went with it. The final result provided the right rise and texture, but the flavor, almost predictably, was "tinny" and certainly off to my palate. It wasn't bad enough to trash, but it wasn't good enough to share the recipe, either. If I ever use an ingredient that has an unusual flavor or seems to be an odd amount, I'll explain it as well as I can. Or if YOU try a recipe that I post that tastes off or odd to you, I'd hope you'd please share that and what you think went awry.

It's too bad the flavor didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. The photos look pretty good.  I even drizzled some lemon juice and confectioner's sugar glaze over the top. When I get the recipe in a condition that it's ready to share, I'll post an update. But until then, sorry... I won't break my recipe-writing rules.