Red snapper baked Alaska style and Vichy carrots

Here is the recipe for the snapper.

2 tablespoons butter
2 pounds red snapper fillets
salt and white pepper to taste
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
3 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spread butter into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange fish fillets in a single layer over the bottom of the pan, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for about 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Meanwhile, whip egg whites in a clean dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold in the parsley, mustard and tarragon. Spread the egg white mixture over the fish in a layer about 1 inch thick. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top.

Return to the oven, and bake for about 6 more minutes, or until meringue is golden, and fish flakes with a fork.

Here is the recipe for the carrots.

2 pounds carrots
4 tablespoons butter
Kosher salt
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
Handful chopped fresh parsley sprigs

Slice the carrots into coins. Put them in a saute pan with the butter, salt, sugar, and 1 cup water. Cook, tossing occasionally, until the carrots are tender and the liquid has reduced to a glaze. Scatter over the parsley, and serve.

Ok, where do I begin in this review? Well, the carrots, basically, waste of butter. Seriously. The recipe just wasn't good and it left a residue on my plate that was unappealing. The fish was interesting, but Kevin hated the meringue on top. The girls were stealing it, so it might be a fun way to make eggs for the girls in the future, but I won't be trotting out this dish again.

Tomato Curry Lentil Stew

Every week I try to make a soup. It's a nice quick lunch when we're busy, it's something Kevin can take to work if we don't have leftovers from the night before, and they're filling and generally inexpensive. I actually made this recipe when I made the masoor dal, in case it wasn't filling enough. No one else ate it but me that night, and in the days since I can say that this is definitely a make ahead dish. It has gotten MUCH better while hanging out in my fridge!

Here is the recipe.

1-1/2 cups dry lentils
3 cups water
15 ounces stewed tomatoes
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons chopped onion
6 stalks celery, chopped, with leaves
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
9 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Combine lentils and water, bring to a boil.
Lower heat to simmer, add tomatoes, onion, and celery. Cover and let simmer 45 minutes. Check every 15 minutes to stir, and add water if necessary. Add spices last 15 minutes to taste. Taste and re-spice if necessary before serving.

I like allrecipes.com because they have the option of changing the number of servings and they give you an altered recipe. It really takes the guess work out of it, which is fantastic. I made this recipe with 6 servings, so that I could buy a 15 oz can of stewed tomatoes (I hate recipes that only call for 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste when the smallest can you can buy is 4 or 6 ounces!) Anyway, I probably wouldn't use stewed tomatoes again, they're basically whole tomatoes that have been stewed, so you have some really big unwieldy blobs of tomato hanging out in your soup. I'm not a fan of needing to cut your soup (unless it's matzo ball soup!) so I'd probably substitute a can of diced tomatoes. I added about a cup of water at the 15 and 30 minute mark as well.



This is a tasty soup, and with the few changes I've mentioned, I think it's a real winner for a make ahead soup. The recipe was really cheap to make, and for those on WIC, this is a great way to use the dried beans you get (and the beauty of lentils are that they don't need to be soaked overnight!)

Jalapeno poppers!

I found this recipe for yellow peppers stuffed with quinoa, corn, and feta cheese and wanted to try it. While grocery shopping at Fresh & Easy, I saw they only had a big bag of jalapenos as opposed to selling them by the piece. I grabbed the bag and some neufchatel cheese, and figured I'd make baked jalapeno poppers. We had some that were lackluster from Buffalo Wings and Rings the night before, and I figured I couldn't do much worse! My husband talks about these poppers that the wife of a coworker from a previous unit (5+ years ago!) made, and I was a little jealous to be honest. If he's going to be talking about someone's poppers, I want them to be mine, dang it! I tried 2 different recipes, one mixing cheddar cheese, cream cheese, garlic, and paprika, and the other just straight cream cheese. Both are wrapped in delicious bacon, I highly recommend getting nitrate free bacon, this way you can feel super good about your choice to nosh on deliciousness.

Recipe #1

5 large jalapenos (or more if they're smaller)
1/2 c cream cheese
1 c shredded cheddar
1 t salt
pinch of pepper
3/4 t smoked paprika
1 clove garlic, crushed
5 slices bacon

So, I don't think I ever really follow recipes exactly. Between a picky husband and kids, and my love of garlic, I'm always making changes. In this one, I used neufchatel cheese in place of cream cheese (in a fruitless attempt to make them better for me, heh!) and used about 5 cloves of garlic. Don't worry, it's not too much! Basically, this puppy is easy, I cut the tops off the jalapenos, slit it down the middle, and scraped out the membranes and seeds. I mixed the cream cheese, shredded cheese, salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic all together, then stuffed those bad boys. I would recommend you not stuff them too much, a lot of it ended up on my baking sheet, which really sucked, even though I tried hard not to stuff them too much. You wrap them in bacon, and keep it in place with a toothpick.



I took this picture while Kevin was taking them off the roaster (so the bacon fat would have somewhere to go!) I followed the recipe's guidelines, and it wasn't enough time. It was all pale and not so tasty, the bacon was stretchy and blech. We popped them back in the oven for another 10 minutes at 375, I would say a MINIMUM of 30 minutes in the oven.

Recipe #2

Now, this recipe is super simple. Cut the jalapenos in half, scoop out it's guts, fill with cream cheese and wrap with 1/3 of a strip of bacon then secure with a toothpick. Again, we followed the directions on the recipe for cooking time, and they came out much better.



Excuse the messy plate, but as you can see the bacon is much crisper looking. This was tasty, but we were missing the flavor of the first one.

Side by side pic


Verdict?

I would follow recipe # 1, but use a longer cooking time, and add way more than the 4 garlic cloves that I added (but then again, I love garlic!) If you're doing it for a game day situation, I'd do the recipe #2 situation (1/2 a pepper wrapped in 1/3 slice of bacon) to help stretch ingredients, but still use the filling recipe from recipe #1.

Tomatillo Avocado Salsa

I'm planning on having a jewelry party sometime in November and like a total food minded person, I'm already scanning my magazines for tasty noms for the party! Last time I had Wheat Thins Tuscan Herb flatbread crackers (OH MY GOSH! So tasty and NO HFCS or hydrogenated oils, only problem is the commissary stopped carrying them!), some alouette brand spinach and artichoke cheese spread, sliced cucumber and carrots, homemade mango salsa (don't ask for the recipe, my friend made it and she's not sharing it unfortunately) and tortilla chips and salsa from the local Mexican market. The spread cost less than $20, and everyone loved everything. This time I wanted to make more of it myself since we won't have guests this time around and I can devote a little more time to cooking or preparing food.

Anyway, I got this recipe from Diet & Nutrition magazine, which is a pretty amazing magazine if you've never heard of it. I made a half batch of this recipe and gobbled it down all by myself. I didn't use the cilantro or the cumin seeds, though next time I make it I'll have to give it a shot!

8 oz tomatillos, papery husks removed, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 1/2 avocados, pitted, peeled, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
3 scallions, white and light green parts only, minced
1 jalapeno chile, stemmed, seeded if you wish (a must if you don't like it too spicy), and minced
3 tbsp minced cilantro leaves
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground toasted cumin seeds (optional)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil

To make the salsa, combine all the ingredients except the vinegar and oil in a bowl. Mix well but gently, taking care not to mash the avocado. Whisk together the vinegar and oil until emulsified, and add just enough of this to the salsa to moisten it. Reserve any leftover vinaigrette to use in other salad dressings.

Here is a picture of the finished product:


Now, on to the menu. I'm thinking of getting tortilla chips from the Mexican market, serving this, mango quesadillas, and chicken tortilla soup. Any thoughts on the menu?

Kale chips

I, like most moms I'm sure, have a hard time getting my kids to eat their veggies. I puree them and add them to recipes, allow them to be dipped in organic ketchup (shudder!), ranch, whatever, just eat them. I found this recipe for kale chips and was intrigued. It's a simple recipe, oil, kale, vinegar, and the oven, but it had me wondering how good they could be. I bought some kale, and divided one bunch into 3 batches. 1 batch was olive oil and salt; 1 batch was olive oil, salt and apple cider vinegar; and the last batch was olive oil, salt, and garlic mustard aioli spread from Trader Joe's. They all came out pretty good, the girls went gaga for them, and I watched as they munched on kale with a little evil giggle going on inside. Emily asked what they were, I asked what she thought they were, and she said garlic chips. I said, ok, that's what they are. Do I regret it? Not really, I'm not sure if she would have decided against eating more if she had known it was kale (which she doesn't know what it is) but I wasn't taking the chance, this kid loves garlic! Today I'm making more, I'm going to try an Asian twist on it with garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and red pepper flakes. I'll let you know how they turn out. In the meantime, here's the recipe:


Fresh kale - at my grocery, 3 bunches weigh a pound
Olive oil - allow about 1 tablespoon per pound of kale
Apple cider vinegar or mustard - allow about 1 tablespoon per pound
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375F, 400F, up to about 450F. The higher the temperature, the faster the roasting. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Under running water, wash each kale leaf carefully, splaying the leaves to get into the crevasses. Arrange in a single layer on a double layer of paper towels. When the paper towels are completely covered, put another paper towel on top and press gently to remove as much water as possible. (See TIPS.)

In a bowl, mix the oil and vinegar or mustard. Add the kale and loosely swirl the leaves around to distribute the oil mixture. With your hands, rub the leaves together, the objective is to cover every bit of leaf with the oil and mustard/vinegar, working the oil into the leaves. Arrange the leaves in a single layer on the baking sheet. "Rain" with salt -- be generous!

Bake for 5 minutes to start, then stir around and bake for another 5 or 10 minutes. We like the kale best when it's still quite green but with some salty crispiness versus completely crispy. Tastes may vary so taste as you go along! Serve hot! Savor!


NUTRITION ESTIMATE
(How many calories in Kale Chips? How many Weight Watchers points in Kale Chips?) Assumes that 1 pound serves 8, Per serving: 44 Calories; 2g Protein; 2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 6g Carb; 1g Fiber; 337mg Sodium; 0mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 1 point

http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2010/03/crispy-salty-kale-chips.html

Odd smells abound

So, tonight I decided to make zucchini bread because the attempt at getting the girls to eat zucchini didn't go so well. I gave them grated raw, a slice of raw, and a quarter slice of steamed with garlic. They tried it, but didn't opt for more, so I guess that's a good start! I also am on a soup making kick, and really digging my Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook, so I'm making Overnight Onion Soup in the crockpot for Friday. The house smells like cinnamon and onions, which is oddly good. The smells are coming from different parts of the kitchen, so they don't blend too much, and now that the bread is cooling, the cinnamon is making way to slow cooked onion smell.

Here's the recipe for zucchini bread:

Zucchini or carrot bread

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c oil
1/2 c honey
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c grated zucchini (or carrot)
1/2 c chopped walnuts (I omitted these because I didn't have any walnuts on hand, I'm also not a big fan of nuts in baked goods)

Optional:
1/2 c raisins
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat oil and honey in large bowl. Add eggs, vanilla, and zucchini. Stir in sifted dry ingredients; fold in walnuts. Pour into greased 5x9-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 45 to 60 minutes or until loaf tests done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes; invert onto wire rack to cool completely. Wrap and chill or freeze. May substitute melted butter for oil, brown sugar or molasses for honey and 1 1/2 c grated carrots for zucchini, or use half of each. Yield: 12 servings.

Approx per serving: Cal 224; Prot 4g; Carbo 25g; Fiber 3g; T Fat 13g; 51% Calories from Fat; Chol 35mg; Sod 150mg.

Carrot-Walnut Bread: Use 1 1/2 c ground walnuts in place of 1/2 c chopped walnuts.

I think to get the fat down you could use apple sauce instead of oil as well, but it's a tasty delicious treat the kids couldn't wait to eat (unfortunately they were getting cranky and sent to bed before it cooled fully. They'll have some in the morning!) I don't have a loaf pan, so I used my 8x8 pan and it was done in 45 minutes. It might have benefited from a little less time, but it wasn't burned.

Here's a picture

Fresh from the oven. The edges are a little browner than they should be, but that's ok!


Cooling, I can't wait to taste it!


You might not be able to see the green in it, but it's there! Hopefully the kids won't notice.

It was tasty!

Here's the recipe for overnight onion soup, it's super easy!

4 large onions, thinly sliced
8 c chicken stock
1 small bay leaf (optional)
8 thick slices whole grain bread
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Place onions, stock, and bay leaf in slow-cooker. Cook, covered, on Low for 24 hours. Ladle into individual ovenproof soup bowls. Top each slice of bread with cheese. Broil until cheese melts. Float a slice of cheese toast in each bowl. May substitute beef stock for chicken stock or Parmesan cheese for Swiss cheese. Yield: 8 servings.

Approx Per Serving: Cal 196; Prot 13g; Carbo 22g; Fiber 3g; T Fat 7g; 30% calories from fat; Chol 12 mg; Sod 997 mg.

I used organic vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, I cut the onions in varying sizes, first small, but as my eyes began to water and it became increasingly hard to see, the chunks got bigger. I'm sure the sodium is so high simply because it calls for using canned stock, I think if you made your own you could get it down MUCH lower. We're going to be having vegetarian French onion soup on Friday for lunch! (Most French onion soup starts with a beef stock or broth, so if you're thinking of going veg, don't get this in cafes!)

Will post on Friday to let y'all know how it went!

Lovely tomato soup

I, like so many children of the 80's, grew up with Campbell's tomato soup and Kraft American grilled cheese sandwiches. Well, since then a lot has come out about high fructose corn syrup (present in Campbell's tomato soup, at least the last time I checked), and processed cheese just skeeves me out now (possibly because when my oldest was 3 she got sick after having a "grilled cheese sandwich" at her preschool, aka saltines and a slice of American cheese, in my car on the way home. The smell still haunts me.) I've been on a quest for a really good tomato soup, and found some, but the sodium content is always through the roof! I was looking through my Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook from the La Leche League (freecycle score!) and found an interesting recipe. Here it is:

Tomato Soup

4 large tomatoes
2 slices onion
1/4 small green pepper
1 carrot
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
2 c thin white sauce

Seasonings:
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Dash of ground cloves or allspice
Basil, parsley, thyme, marjoram, garlic or oregano to taste

Plunge tomatoes into boiling water for 20 to 60 seconds. Cool slightly. Peel and chop. Combine with vegetables and seasonings in large saucepan. Simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. May puree or straing through food mill for finer consistency. Prepare white sauce with milk, stock, or water. Stir mixture into white sauce slowly to prevent curdling. Cook until heated through. May omit green pepper and carrot. Yield: 5 servings.

Approx per serving: Cal 135; Prot 5g; Carbo 12g; Fiber 2g; Total Fat 8 g; 53% Calories from Fat; Chol 26 mg; Sod 530 mg

Tomato Rice Soup: Add 1/2 to 3/4 C cooked brown rice. Some of the rice may be processed with tomato mixture.

Tomato Vegetable Soup: After pureeing vegetables, add 1 to 2 c other vegetables and/or cooked dried beans. Simmer until tender. Or add leftover cooked vegetables and heat until warmed through.

Thin White Sauce

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 c milk
1/4 tsp or less salt
dash of pepper

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat; remove from heat. Blend in flour until smooth. Add milk gradually, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly; reduce heat. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. This same method may be used to thicken stock or any other liquid. The method avoids lumps but may burn if made in a thin saucepan. May substitute cornstarch for flour, adding 1 1/2 tsp for thin sauce. Yields 1 cup.

This is what we ended up having for lunch:



I made the grilled cheese sandwich with sourdough bread, butter, swiss, colby jack, and cheddar cheese. I spread the insides with garlic and herb laughing cow cheese, and on mine I had some Trader Joe's garlic aioli mustard. It was very tasty, but I'm thinking the laughing cow wasn't really necessary, and thinking of focusing on one cheese instead of 4 that were in that one sandwich.

I left out the green pepper in the soup, didn't have cloves or allspice, but I did add some garlic, a bay leaf, and basil. I did try it with the cinnamon simply because I was intrigued. I liked it a lot, but next time I'm going to leave out the cinnamon and add more garlic and basil. The great thing about this recipe (or any recipe for that matter) is you can truly make the soup your own, just run with it!

The girls really seemed to enjoy the soup. My oldest remarked that it wasn't red like all the other tomato soups she's had, and I said that's because it has other things in it. She accepted the orange-y hue to the tomato soup and ate it with gusto. I'm wondering if I could sneak some spinach into it and get a good whopper of some iron and a leafy green in on her.