Baked Cod w/Orange Caper Sauce

This was dinner tonight. I made this with Ling Cod, you can use any firm white fish. I also did not use any salt and pepper, in my opinion it wasn't needed. I didn't have orange juice on hand so I used Simply Orange w/Mango juice.

Ingredients:
1 Orange
1/2 C. finely chopped seeded plum tomato
1/4 C. fresh orange juice
3 T. minced red onion
1 1/2 T. fresh lemon juice
4 t. olive oil
1 T. minced pitted Kalamata olives or other brine-cured black olives
1 T. chopped drained capers
1 t. chopped fresh rosemary
4 6oz Cod fillets

Preheat oven to 500°F. Using vegetable peeler, remove peel and white pith from orange. Cut twenty 2-inch-long, 1/8-inch-wide strips from orange peel and reserve. Chop orange; place in small bowl. Add remaining ingredients (except fish) to chopped orange; stir to blend. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
Spray 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Arrange cod in prepared dish. Sprinkle orange strips evenly over fish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until fish is opaque in center, about 10 minutes. Spoon sauce over fish.

I served the fish with steamed zucchini and couscous. The entire family loved this sauce. The couscous was a big hit with the kids too!

Thymely Marinated Lingcod

Dinner tonight was fresh lingcod right out of the frigid waters of the Pacific. Caught by my sweet hubby! Cooked by yours truly! Ok, a little dramatic I know; but we are a family that really appreciates fish, almost of any kind (Kyle doesn't like Eel). I served the cod with Kashi Original 7 Whole Grain Pilaf and home canned pears. Yummy! Yummy!

The Ingredients:
1/2 C. Onion, Chopped
1 t. Oil
1/2 t. Dried Thyme
1/2 t. Dried Oregano
1/2 t. Dried Rosemary
1/2 t. Pepper
1/4 t. Salt, Optional
1/2 C. Lemon Juice
1 Clove Garlic, Minced
2 lb Ling Cod Fillets, (actually you could use any firm white fish)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and marinate ling cod for 30 minutes. Broil or barbecue until fish flakes when tested with a fork. Makes 8 servings.

Recipe by: Seafood: A Collection of Heart-Healthy Recipes From: Reggie Dwork

I actually didn't use any oil, I think the fish is oily enough. Next time I make this I think I'm going to boil the marinade after I take the fish out and use it as a sauce to mix with rice or steamed veggies.

Edamame

When Kyle and I go out for sushi we like to have some edamame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edamame) on occasion. I found some frozen at Costco today. They came in a six pound bag and inside the bag they were portioned out to 12 little bags. They are already precooked, I just had to reheat them. I was a little hesitant, because what if "just reheating" didn't taste as good as at the restaurant, but they were only $6.50, so I gambled. I brought them home, steamed one bag, threw a little kosher salt over the top, and.... YUMMY!!! So good. In one bag is about 20% of my daily protein and just over 100 calories. How sweet is that? I can't wait for Kyle to try them.

Food Obsession

My newest food obsession is steam corn tortillas. I can't take credit for this. Kyle and I were talking about taco tortilla preferences, of course he's flour, I'm corn. Kyle said he's biggest problem with the corn is that we fry them. Travis piped in and suggested we try steaming them like the taco truck does. I said to myself, duh! So last Friday I made tacos (Midge Meat with ground turkey) and I steamed the corn tortillas. I'm never going back to fried corn tortillas again! I taste more of the corn flavor when they are steamed. I L-O-V-E loooooove them.

Health(y) Nuggets

I made something similar to this from a recipe in Deceptively Delicious (http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/). I used a broccoli puree, it was good, but my kids were quick to point out chicken nuggets aren't green inside. The DD recipe also has you fry the chicken. So this afternoon I had a craving for nuggets and wanted a healthier version. I knew the DD recipe was out. So I just tweaked it, the biggest differences are that I used a white vegetable to match the chicken and baked instead of fried.

1 pound of Skinless Chicken (tenders, thighs, breasts)

1/2C. - 1 C. Milk

1/2 C. Panko

1/2 C. Milled Flax Seed

3/4 of a head of Cauliflower

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Cayenne Pepper

Paprika

Cut up and steam the cauliflower until done. While the cauliflower steams cut the chicken into bite size pieces. I used tenders because they were on sale. I cut each tender into quarters. I put the chicken in a bowl with just enough milk to soak in. Put chicken into the fridge.


Puree the cauliflower. It's super easy, don't let this part of the recipe deter you. Just drop the cauliflower into a food processor and go till it's nice and smooth, if you need to, add just a tiny bit of water about 1/2 t. at a time. If you don't have a food processor and Bullet Blender, (http://www.buythebullet.com/) or something similar works just fine. Put the cauliflower into a bowl.

In a separate bowl mix the panko, flax seed, and all the spices to taste. Take your chicken out of the fridge. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Coat the chicken in the cauliflower, then coat with the panko/flax seed mix. Place onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for about 8 minutes, turn over the chicken and bake another 8-10 minutes. Baking time changes based on the thickness of the chicken pieces.

I served my nuggets with a healthified BBQ sauce. Start with a puree of any green vegetable puree (broccoli, peas, beans) and add BBQ sauce a little at a time until the vegetable taste is masked. I used peas.

With a side of home canned pears and milk to drink we had a fabulous dinner!

Blueberry Orange Bread w/ Vanilla Glaze

First off, I don't have any pictures. Sorry. I didn't take any of me making the bread. Then when mine was cooling my darling son came and ate the top off the bread!

This is so super easy and yummy to make. Just find a blueberry muffin mix you like, or if you have a scratch recipe you like, just add about 2 teaspoons of orange zest to the batter. Instead of pouring into muffin pan, pour into a loaf pan. Bake until brown on top and toothpick comes out clean. It usually takes about 40-45 minutes. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack.

After the loaf is cool. Mix together 3/4 C. powdered sugar, 1 T. water and 1 t. vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over the bread.

Almond Butter Cookies

Almond Butter Cookies:
6 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 cup Almond butter
1/3 cup White sugar
1/2 cup Brown sugar, packed
3/4 tsp. Baking soda
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 cups Flour
Hershey Kisses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat butter, cream cheese and almond butter until creamy. Add sugars and baking soda. Add egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour until a soft dough is formed.


the above picture is without flour, the picture below is what you dough will look like with flour.



Form dough into 1 inch balls. I like to use a melon baller. The melon baller makes the cookies all the same shape and size. Mine is from Pampered Chef, I really like it, just remember to give it a shot of Pam before you begin.



Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes or until just firm. Remove cookie sheets from oven and immediately place one Hershey kiss in the center of each cookie.