Trout & Butternut Squash

I don’t know if I have mentioned this or not, but I am not fond of cleaning up after I’ve made a meal.  I do my best to keep the number of pots and pans to a minimum when cooking.  I did a superb job of it when I made this meal.  I used one baking pan and since I used parchment paper clean up was a cinch!

I took my butternut squash and put it on a parchment paper lined baking pan.  I poured a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over it.  I added some fresh rosemary, thyme and sage and a bit of salt.  Tossed it all together and pushed it to one side of the pan.

I took another piece of parchment paper and put two pieces of trout on it.  I sprinkled them with some ground chipotle and rosemary and drizzled some lime juice over them.  I folded the parchment paper around it and put it on the other side of the baking pan.

I baked them together for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees.  I like my veggies to still be a bit firm.  So if you want yours well done, I suggest cooking the squash about 15 minutes or so first then putting the fish on.  Oh, and however long you cook it, turn the squash halfway through the cooking.

Trout

Squash and trout

Plated squash and trout

Spiced Vinegar – Great Homemade Gifts

I like to take my excess peppers and make spiced vinegar.  They make excellent gifts and are a cinch to make.

I cut some cayenne and jalapeno peppers and added some thyme and rosemary.  I didn’t have any cloves of garlic.  I only had the minced stuff I bought at Costco.  I poked everything into the bottle and poured vinegar over it.  That’s it.  See, I told you it was easy!

Buy some labels, print them up and slap one on.  Voila, beautiful gift.  The best part is… It will last a very long time.  All they have to do is add vinegar when it gets low and it is renewed!

Put goodies in the bottle

Add vinegar

It will take a week or two before it is ready.  Put it in the refrigerator and let it get delicious!

Curried Chicken & Veggies in under 30 Minutes

This dish is delicious.  I am eating it as I am typing this.  Make no mistake.  This post will take longer than expected for me to type.  It is hard to tear myself away from this dish.  It is wonderful!  Even better, it is simple to make.  Believe me after working all day I don’t want to make a complicated dinner.  I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but the meals I prepare are simple.  I like simple.  Life is hard enough, let’s keep cooking fabulous meals simple!

Ingredients: (these are the amounts I used, change whatever you want)

2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite size pieces

3 carrots, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

2 medium red potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces

4 cups raw Kale, chopped.

1 jalapeno, chopped (you decide for yourself if you want the seeds or not.  I wanted them)

fresh rosemary

fresh thyme

fresh oregano

fresh Thai basil

1 tbsp coconut oil

2 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock

2 tsp ground turmeric

2 tbsp red curry powder

2 tbsp arrow root or corn starch

Toss your potatoes in a preheated pan with the coconut oil and stir.

Add carrots, stir.

Add onion, stir.

Add jalapeno, stir.

Jalapeno

Add stock, stir.

Add herbs, stir.

Add stock

Add chicken (if your chicken is bite size it won’t take long to cook all the way through), stir.

Add Chicken

Add spices, stir.

Spices

Add kale, stir.

Add kale

When your potatoes and carrots are cooked dissolve the arrow root in a little water and pour into pan to thicken the remaining stock, stir.

Cook it for a couple more minutes allowing it to thicken into a sauce.

Allow to thicken

Serve warm!  You have a complete meal in there.  Well, after we paired ours with a Milk Stout, we had a complete meal. Meat, Veggies, Starch, Dairy.  I have to brag a little bit, all the veggies except the carrots were fresh from the garden.  All the herbs were fresh from the garden.

Serve it warm

Enjoy it! I know I am! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

Full Meal Deal

Tonight I’m posting our dinner.  It was about half and half store-bought and home-grown but not to worry it was 100% DELICIOUS!

Full meal deal

Ingredients:

Chickpeas (Central Market)

Rosemary (garden)

Thyme (garden)

Olive oil (Costco)

Tilapia (Costco)

Radishes  – slice radishes and leaves (garden)

Mangos (Costco)

Red bell pepper (Costco)

Green Onion (garden)

Jalapeno (garden)

Cilantro (Central Market)

Garlic (Costco)

Sweet potato (Costco)

A dash of cinnamon (Costco)

Snap Peas (Costco)

I started by putting a cup of chickpeas in water to soak before I left for work this morning.  When I got home, I watered the gardens then I picked some rosemary and thyme to go in the hummus.

If you want to bake your potato in the oven, get it in there now.  Otherwise cook it in the microwave later.

I started the chickpeas and threw in the rosemary and thyme. I brought them to a boil and then turned them down to simmer for about 45 minutes.

I grabbed my mangos and started chopping them up. Then I chopped about half a red bell pepper and threw that in.  Next came the jalapeno seeds and all.  Then the green onion (about a 1 inch onion and all the green ends). Then some cilantro and some garlic (about 2 cloves).  If I had remembered to buy some limes I would have juiced and zested one and threw that in as well.  Mix it all up and set it aside to let all the flavors mingle.

Mango Salsa Ingredients

Mango Salsa

I put the tilapia in a pan with about a tbsp of olive oil.  I covered it with sliced radishes and radish leaves.  I threw in a little cilantro as well.  Start cooking it over a medium-low heat. Put a lid on it.

Tilapia with radishes

Pop a sweet potato in the microwave to bake unless you had the time to bake your potato in the oven.  They do always taste best baked in the oven.

I drained my chickpeas, reserving the liquid.  Tossed them into the food processor with the herbs and a couple cloves of garlic, I cooked with them and processed away.  I poured in some of the liquid to keep it moving.  I put in about 3 tbsp of olive oil.  When it looked like it was getting too thick I would add a little more liquid.  At this time, turn  the heat up on your fish to medium-high. It is ok if your hummus looks like it might be a little runny.  It will set up and be fine in about 10 minutes.  Toss in some paprika and whatever else you might want to flavor it.  Put it in a serving bowl and set aside.

Your tilapia should be done now.  Take it off the heat.  Take your potato out of the microwave and slice it in half.

Grab the snap peas out of the refrigerator and get everything plated.  It is time to eat!

Let's eat

 

Amazing Chicken and Brown Rice

By:  Michelle Williford

I threw together an amazing meal tonight on the fly.  Lucky for me I can raid the garden to get my veggies… and raid it I did!

I made enough to feed four or in our case two for dinner tonight and two for lunch tomorrow.  Hello brown bag!

Ingredients:

Brown rice (2 cups cooked)  I cooked mine with rosemary because I can’t cook anything without a little something.

3 Chicken breasts (chopped into bite size pieces)

3 cups chopped cabbage ( I used what I had left over from making cabbage rolls the other day)

Jalapeno peppers (I used 3 because the ones I got aren’t that spicy)

2 cups chopped mushrooms

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

A handful of Cilantro (that is a unit of measurement in my kitchen)

Greens of choice ( I used collard greens, spinach, kale, and swiss chard)

A few radishes and their leaves

A sprig of fresh thyme

A couple sage leaves

A couple Thai basil leaves

About a tablespoon of fresh oregano

1 tbsp arrowroot

1 tbsp ground ginger root (man how I wish I had some fresh on hand)

A splash of lemon juice

1 tbsp coconut oil

Directions:

Please start your brown rice first as it will take approximately 45 minutes to cook.

Chicken breast

Saute chicken in coconut oil

Put coconut oil in pan on med-high.  Once oil has melted, add chicken and let cook for a couple of minutes.

Add cabbage, stir and let cook for a couple minutes

Cabbage

Add jalapenos, stir and let cook for a couple minutes

Add Jalapenos

Add mushrooms,stir and let cook for 1 minute

Add mushrooms

Add radishes, stir

Add cilantro, sage, thyme and greens and stir. (I ran a knife through mine so they would be bite size)

A handful of cilantro and some oregano

Greens & Herbs

Your pan will seem overly full, don’t worry, it will cook down shortly.

Add greens

Add a splash of lemon and stir to spread.

Add ground ginger and stir.

Take notice of all the juicy goodness in the bottom of the pan… it is the base for your sauce.

Dissolve the arrowroot in a little water and pour into pan.  It will thicken quickly, so stir until it does. Once thickened, remove from heat.  Your sauce should have completely coated your dish.  Your meal is ready to serve!

Stir in arrowroot until thickens

Serve warm with brown rice and enjoy!

Serve with brown rice

Cabbage Rolls Michelle’s Way

I was craving cabbage rolls tonight – THANKS MISTY (we talked about it and I had to have it)!  Luckily they are easy to make!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cooked quinoa

1 head cabbage

1 lb ground turkey

2 green onions

2 cloves garlic

1 jalapeno pepper

2 tsp fresh rosemary

2 tsp fresh sage

2 tsp fresh oregano

1 tsp fresh thyme

2 tsp ground ginger (I didn’t have any fresh on hand)

Directions:

First I toasted then cooked the quinoa.

Then I carefully peeled the  cabbage leaves (don’t beat yourself up when you tear almost each one unexpectedly)

I popped the leaves in the microwave for 2 minutes to make them more pliable While they were cooling…

Cabbage leaves

I chopped my onion, garlic, jalapeno and herbs

Chop ingredients

I mixed them with the ground turkey.

Mix together

Then mix in the cooked quinoa.

I cut each cabbage leaf in half (lengthwise) and I removed the thick stem part.

Put about a tbsp of turkey mixture in a cabbage leaf and rolled.

Roll cabbage

Don’t worry too much about them all not rolling up all pretty.

They will still taste good and that’s what is most important!

Steam them for about 10 minutes each (or until turkey is cooked through).

Serve warm and enjoy!  I like to eat mine with some soy sauce sometimes.

Cabbage rolls ready to eat

My Garden 2012

I put so much of myself into my gardens each spring and I get such a pay off!  All the beautiful photos I am going to share with you will be in future posts of recipes.  You can think of it as a preview of sorts!

Before you see the pics, please keep in mind my gardens are organic.  You’ll probably see leaves that have been munched on. It happens.  I can’t help that my garden tastes so good!

Herb Garden

I’ve got mint, thyme, rosemary, oregano, and sage for herbs.  I’ve also planted blackberries and blueberries.  In a separate area I have Thai basil.  It took over my herb garden last year earning it a place of its own in a pot. (I have control issues… lol)

Vegetable garden

In my vegetable garden I have planted cayenne peppers, jalapeno peppers, kale, swiss chard, spinach, collard greens, radishes, okra, lima beans, zucchini, and acorn squash.  I have used every bit of space available in my vegetable garden to get all that in a 10×3 space. Sometimes I wish we lived in the country so I could have a huge garden and didn’t have to decide what to plant each year.  I could plant everything I wanted every year.  Alas, I love the city life too much.  Well really I love the short drive to work and all the conveniences of city life.

So you should see posts on all the goodies I have growing soon!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Brussel sprouts make me happy.  I want them to make you happy to.  I know there are a lot of brussel sprout haters out there.  I hope this recipe changes your mind!

Ingredients:

Brussel Sprouts, halved

Onion, sliced

Pepper, sliced (pepper of choice.  I used an Anaheim because that’s what I had on hand today.)

Oregano

Thyme

Radishes and radish leaves (optional) – the leaves are quite yummy on young radishes.

Coconut oil (enough to coat everything)

Spices of choice (I used black pepper and salt)

Ingredients

Put all your veggies into a bowl and toss in the herbs and spices.

Add coconut oil and toss (I find it easiest to do this with my hands) to coat.

Toss with coconut oil

Once everything is coated, put in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

I put mine on the bottom shelf because I was baking a chicken too (see recipe for baked chicken). I put it in for the last 30 minutes of the chicken bake time.  It turned out wonderful!

Baked chicken (See recipe for Baked Chicken)

Just out of oven

Plated meal

Wasabi Tilapia with Swiss Chard

I keep frozen tilapia on hand.  For a busy person it is a necessity.  You can have a wonderful meal ready in minutes.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

Wasabi paste

Swiss chard

Onion

Herbs of choice (I used oregano and thyme)

Directions:

Put olive oil in pan.  Turn heat on.  Set on medium high heat.

Put fish in pan

Wasabi on tilapia

Spread wasabi on the tilapia (put on as much or as little as you like, it is your meal!)

Add onion to pan

Add onion

Add swiss chard and herbs.

Add swiss chard and herbs

Cover and reduce heat to lowest setting.

Let cook for about 8 minutes or until fish is cooked through.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Plated meal

I paired mine with some fresh green beans, buckwheat groats and My Flaming Lips Whole Wheat Brownies for dessert.

Oh So Tender and Easy Stove Top Pork Roast

I like to use a few pots and pans as I can when I cook (means less clean up).  Here’s a one pot wonder for you.  Stove top pork roast.  It makes a very tender delicious roast.

Ingredients:

Pork sirloin tip

Herbs of choice (I used fresh ones.  Sage, oregano, and thyme)

Spices of choice (I used paprika and ginger)

Carrots

Sweet potatoes (as you can see I don’t peel mine.  Lots of goodness in the skin.)

Green Pepper

Onion

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup chicken stock, vegetable stock or water

Directions:

Over medium high heat sear all sides of the pork roast.

sear pork

Turn heat down to medium low.

Medium Low Heat

Slice onions, peppers, carrots and sweet potato and put into pan.

Put herbs and spices on pork.

in pan

Add liquid (chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water)

Cover and cook until pork is cooked through. About 40 minutes.

Serve it with a vegetable (I served it with green beans) and you’ve covered all your food groups for a well-rounded meal.

Enjoy!