Sweet and Spicy Garlic Tilapia over Black Rice

This is my first time making black rice. It has a slightly chewier consistency, almost like brown rice.  It really paired well with this Asian inspired dish. My hubby gave me the best compliment while eating it saying, “If this were served at PF Chang’s, I would get it every time”. 

Ingredients: 

1 package of mushrooms

1 medium onion

1 cup raw broccoli florets 

3 pieces of Tilapia

1 cup black rice

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Sweet and Spicy Garlic Sauce

¼ cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic paste

1 teaspoon sriracha chili pepper sauce

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar


Start your rice first because it will take about 20 minutes or so to cook. If you time it right, you can have your fish and veggies ready when the rice is finished cooking. 

1 - Start Rice by boiling water, adding a pinch of salt, then rice, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes on low. 

2 - Mix what will become the sweet and spicy garlic sauce .

3 - Place Tilapia in a foiled baking dish coated with cooking spray. Drizzle a couple of teaspoons of your mixed sauce over the fish along with a pinch of salt. Place a few small chunks of butter on top of fish. Broil at 550 for 12 minutes or until fish starts to look brown and crispy on top

4 - Chop up your onions and add them to a non-stick skillet that’s heated over medium high with your sesame oil.  Let the onions and sesame seeds cook for about 2 to 3 minutes while chopping up the remaining veggies.  

Add in the mushrooms and broccoli and keep the temperature at medium high, stirring the veggies constantly like you would stir-fry for another 5 minutes.  Add in your sauce and cook for 2 minutes over the same heat before turning it town to med low heat.  The sauce should thicken after about 2 more minutes and ready to serve over the rice.

Let me know if this recipe was easy for you to read and understand.  I could really use the feedback and would love to improve my blog.

Fried Eggs Over Portobello's Stuffed with Creamed Spinach and Swiss Cheese

 

 

It’s a sip your coffee slowly kind of Sunday and I smell my mushrooms baking in the oven as I type this blog.  I haven’t had a chance to blog a lot lately.  I have a ton of new recipes that I need to put up and I plan on accomplishing that today. 

I'm swapping out carbs this morning and replacing them with mushrooms.

Recipe Follows:

3 large Portobello mushroom caps

3 eggs

3 pieces of Swiss cheese

One 9oz box of Pre-made creamed spinach. (you can make your own but this is a short cut)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Fresh Basil for garnish (optional)

 

Rub the Portobello with a little olive oil, salt and pepper

Top with creamed spinach mixture and one piece of Swiss cheese

Bake a 375 for 20 minutes or until mushroom is soft

*Tip* click on this link to see how you can prevent soggy mushrooms.

http://www.lifeasastrawberry.com/portobello-mushroom-pizzas/

When there’s 5 minutes left in cooking time, fry your eggs in a sauté pan and then place on top of the Portobello. Garnish with fresh chopped basil

 

 

 

Fried Eggs with Butternut Squash and Onion Hash

 

 

As I said before, I prefer a hot meal for breakfast and eggs over anything.  Using pre-cut, bagged butternut squash, I cut my prep time in half.  Cutting into a hard butternut squash is no easy feat, so this is the better way to go in my opinion.  I’m making a dish tonight with chicken sausage so I snagged one from the fridge and threw it in the pan.  The brand I like to use is Al Fresco and it’s all natural and “buffalo”, which I love! 

Ingredients

1 small yellow onion

Pam or olive oil to coast the pan

1 buffalo chicken sausage-casing removed.

½ bag of fresh pre-cut butternut squash

1 teaspoon garlic paste

1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves

Salt and Pepper

Toast is optional

 

In a sauté pan over med, heat coated pan and add garlic.  I diced my squash a little more so the pieces were smaller.  Throw in your sausage, squash and onion with a little salt and pepper and cook for about 5 minutes or until the mixture starts to lightly brown.  Make sure you break up the sausage as best you can into smaller pieces as you cook.  Cover the pan for 3 minutes so the squash is tender, then remove the lid and cook 3 minutes more or until the contents are crispy and caramelized.  Toss in your spinach and place the lid back on for 1 minute.  Once the spinach has wilted, mix in well with the squash and sausage.  Remove from pan and plate. 

                           

 



 

                         

 

Cook your eggs according to preference.  I love over easy eggs where the yolk is running and soaks in to a buttered piece of toast…yum!

 

  

Sun-dried Tomato and Garlic Tilapia

Tonight I wasn't in the mood for an elaborate meal so I turned on the broiler and grabbed one of my favorite spreads.   I don’t feel like I have to make everything from scratch but I try to.  Usually, spreads and sauces made fresh from my food processor just taste so much better than store bought products.   This is one of those exceptions though.  I found this spread in the produce section at Publix.  I put it in egg whites, on fish, chicken and it’s great with a little butter on toasted Italian bread. 

 

Sun dried Tomato and Garlic Tilapia

Turn on your oven to Broil

Pat the fillets dry and place on a coated baking pan.

Spread a large teaspoon of the California Sun-Dry Tomato and Garlic mixture on each piece of fish and broil for 12 to 14 minutes.  Fish should be slightly brown and crispy on the top when ready.  That’s it, that’s all.  This fish was amazing and tasted like I had marinated it overnight.

Green Olive Crusted Mahi Mahi

So last night I posted the Roasted Vegetables and here is what I paired them with.  Green Olive Crusted Mahi Mahi fillets.  You can make your own green olive paste consisting of pureed green olives, garlic, salt and pepper.  Or, you can sheet like I did and buy the pre-made kind. 

 

Turn oven on broil:

Place fish on a foiled baking sheet  Make sure to pat it dry before spreading the paste on it.  Spread the green olive paste evenly on the top of each fish.  I also took a piece of herb butter and stuck in right in between my fillets.

Place fish on the middle tray in the oven and broil for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown on the tops.

 After baking, remove from oven and squeeze fresh lemon juice over the Mahi. 

 

 

Roasted Vegetables with Truffle Oil, Almonds and Applewood Smoked Sea Salt

I’m trying my best to eat clean this week as I move into my  second week of boot camp.  I loaded up my grocery cart with various veggies and a couple different cuts of fish.  Tonight we’re having Green Olive Crusted Mahi Mahi and the roasted veggie concoction I came up with.  I can smell it cooking in the oven as a write this blog and the smells are delightful.  I'm new to cooking with white truffle oil so I’ve been trying a lot of different things with it.  This is also the first time I’ve ever used the smoked sea salt and I’m anxious to see how it turns out.   The salt is Pacific flake sea salt, smoked over real Applewood from the Yakima Valley in Washington State.  I found it randomly near the specialty cheeses at Publix and I was intrigued by its unique description.  The bottle says it has a smoother flavor than most salts and can be used during cooking or as a finishing salt.    

 

I pre-heated my oven to 375 degrees and sprayed my large Stoneware Pan with a little Pam.  After chopping up my veggies, I drizzled a little white truffle oil over them, raw slivered almonds and 2 pinches of the salt and distributed evenly.  Bake for 45 minutes, tossing ever 10 minutes or so to prevent burning.  They should look brown and caramelized when done cooking.

 

Ingredients

12 to 15 Brussel Sprouts, trimmed and halved

1 Large Yellow Onion, cut into wedges

1 extra Large Carrot, chopped

1 teaspoon Applewood Smoked Sea Salt

1 teaspoon White Truffle Oil

¼ cup Slivered Raw Almonds

Pepper to taste

 

 

Squash Hash with Poached Eggs

Morning Everyone!  I completed my first week of 5:45am boot camp and I’m feeling accomplished.  I’m also feeling sore but I know it will all be worth it in the end.  Because I’ve been getting up earlier, I’ve had more time to write on my blog and that too makes me feel good too!

 I’m not much of a power bar, cereal kind of girl when it comes to my breakfast.  I love my eggs and a hot meal in the morning.  If you pre-cut your veggies the night before, you can whip this up in less than 10 minutes. 

Start by boiling some water with a little vinegar in it.  If you’ve never poached an egg before, check out this easy instructional from Fabio Viviani.

  http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/easy-secrets-cooking-eggs-fabios-eggs-benedict-153800472.html 

He’s cooking up one of my favorite breakfast meals, Eggs Benedict.  I watched this video a year or so ago and it really helped me to master poaching an egg and making hollandaise sauce. 

I used zucchini squash and patty pan squash along with some diced yellow onions to make my hash.  Patty Pan squash is a summer squash that has a similar taste to acorn or spaghetti squash.  You can ask for it at your local farmers market from summer to early August.

 

In a non-stick coasted small pan, sauté your onions and squash with a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt and pepper.  Cook for 5 minutes while eggs are also cooking in a separate pot.  I served this dish with herb buttered toast and topped my eggs with some fresh Thyme.