Keep It Tight! Tilapia (or Flounder)

I love fish! I could eat it in almost every meal.. all sorts.. I haven't met a fish I didn't like yet... of course, some are better baked, or fried, or cajun, blackened. etc... but with all seriousness, I still like all of them!

All day I thought I had TILAPIA to use for this nights meal... and it wasn't until I got home, that I realized ... NOPE.. its  FLOUNDER... !!!  I still used the recipe I found with my Clean Eating Recipe cookbook, and it was a hit, all 8 pieces of flounder were GONE! I liked the fact that I got to throw seasonings in a bowl, dip the fish and within 15 minutes I could have a nice meal!

I matched the flounder up with asparagus, which was steamed, with lemon and some whole wheat/ brown rice.

KEEP IT TIGHT TILAPIA - Tosca Reno, Eat Clean

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup / 60 ml best-quality olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 tsp / 5 ml paprika
• 1 tsp / 5 ml ginger
• 1 tsp / 5 ml fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp / 5 ml dried mustard                    (I didn't have this, and it was still devine!)
• 1 tsp / 5 ml oregano
• 1 tsp / 5 ml chili powder
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 4 tilapia filets, thawed                        ( I used 8 flounder fillets)

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 400ºF/ 205ºC. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium sized bowl combine olive oil, garlic and seasonings.
3. Dip each filet into the seasoning and place it on the baking sheet.
4. Pour any remaining seasoning over the filets on the sheet and place the baking sheet in the oven.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.

Creamy Cauliflower Mac

What you may not know... is I am attempting to not let the fat man catch me become more clean in my eating.. I am sure you have heard about all the Clean Eating all over the place.. but its made a difference in my world... and yes, I still continue to bake... I know I am almost as back as the lung cancer patient that continues to smoke RIGHT? ... shut up.. I know!!!

You see, when my other half arrived back from his deployment - I wanted to continue with my healthy eating + his physical activity routine = one big happy family... big being just an adverb?

I did have moments where I fell off the wagon alittle - well I made SWEETS that were gluten free (that has to count for SOMETHING) .. but I couldn't deprive the guy of home made goodies he longed for... COME ON... he fights for our freedom!!!... so I digress...

I made this two nights ago...  CREAMY CAULIFLOWER MAC, I added chicken pieces to the dish, for my protein.

Mark Bittman's recipe (RunnersWorld magazine- March 2011)

• 2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cauliflower, cored and cut into large pieces
• 8 ounces whole-wheat elbow macaroni
• 1/2 cup grated cheese (I used Gruyere)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• Salt and black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup whole-grain bread crumbs

1. Heat oven to 400° F. Boil a pot of salted water.
2. In a saucepan, warm stock and bay leaves on medium-low heat for five minutes; turn off heat.
3. Cook cauliflower in boiling water for 25 minutes. Put cauliflower in a food processor.
4. Cook pasta in boiling water for five minutes. Drain and rinse to cool; put pasta in a greased, nine-inch square baking dish.
5. Process cauliflower with stock (discard bay leaves), cheese, oil, mustard, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, working in batches.
6. Pour sauce over pasta, toss, and spread evenly in dish. Top with Parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake 20 minutes.

Turkey with all the fixin's

I wanted to have turkey this week for lunch... which meant, I had to cook a turkey.. some might say "big deal" .. well it wasn't suppose to be but since the turkey BREAST I THOUGHT I had in the freezer ended up being an WHOLE  turkey.. my entire Sunday was shot to hell.. since I knew I would stuck in the kitchen most of the time. .. UGH.. better make the most of it. So out with potatoes, and corn, peas, cranberry sauce, 'stuffing' - you name it!  ALL FOR THE LOVE of WANTING SOME DAM TURKEY!!!.. so while I was in there getting all my goodies out - it dawned on my that I had made pies, the end of the apple season when we went pickin.. I certainly felt that after all this work I deserved something like an apple pie... LOL...

Fast forward....  I got the apple pie out to bake up (since it wasn't baked before frozen -- are you suppose to do this? -- and had it tantalizing me baking while we finished our main turkey meal. 

HOURS later, when we all could eat again, we had pie.. it was yummy good... the teens put some ice cream on the top - the other half put his cheddar cheese and ice cream (gag gag gag.. though I never tried it)... I return to get a picture of it.. for bragging rights, since it was just a beaut.. and this is what I found...

It must have been good!

I used a recipe from Paula Deen... I know ... right.. its the reason that I might have to repackage this and claim its something with sardines... so the teens dont eat it!.

APPLE FILLING BY PAULA

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
• Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
• 7 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced

Paula's Perfect Pie Crust, recipe  as follows

• 3 tablespoons butter, diced
• Egg wash, for brushing
• Sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. In another bowl, sprinkle apples with the juice of 1 lemon and toss. Stir in the sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples.
Set aside.

Roll out chilled dough into 2 circles and use 1 round to line a 9-inch pie pan. Chill the other round.

Mound the apple and sugar mixture into the pie pan lined with dough. Dot with the cubed butter.

Using a pastry cutter, cut an even number of strips from the remaining rolled out dough. Transfer every other strip to the pie top and weave in the lattice by folding every other strip back onto itself and laying another strip perpendicularly. Fold the strips back across and repeat until completed.

Brush the top of the pie with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Trim the overhanging dough and crimp edges.

Bake pie for 45 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes before slicing

Sour Cherry Cheesecake, with spiced wafer crust

I made these  GF Maple spiced cookies  - recipe here. Had some left over (14 to be exact) and then crushed them up and made a crust for cheescakes.

Crust:
14 cookies crushed, melted 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp Borwn sugar (packed) mixed together - divided between 12 cupcake papers in tin, and baked fpr 5 minutes in Oven at 350.

Filling:
1 Tbsp flour - Gluten free
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
1 8oz cream cheese, softened

Beat together filling mixture, divided into 12 cupcakes and baked for 15 minutes at 350.

Cooled and topped with topping.

**I used Sour Cherry Preserves. I may drizzle some melted chocolate over them before I serve them, but I just threw them in the refrigerator overnight- so the temptation was gone.

Crunchy Fudge Cookies

Is your mouth watering?

Mine is.... it looks at these cookies and my butt just got bigger... oh but wait... these cookies are less than 70 calories... so now what do you think?

You think you want the recipe?

Want to go preheat the oven a while? I will wait... its to be 350. Go ahead... while you are doing that, make a fresh pot of coffee... because these are simplely the best when ate with coffee...

The cookie you have options with... to be gluten free or not... to be fiber one or chex crunchy... though my daughter thinks you could add rice crispies and it would still be good... I just haven't gotten there yet.

Betty Crocker (Gluten Free) Recipe

Fiber One Recipe 

Chex Recipe

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

STAY BACK!!!! DO NOT COME ANY FURTHER... ITS DANGEROUS!!!

Must consume at own risk!!

MARTHA DOES IT AGAIN!! SHE DOES THIS STUFF AND I CANNOT HELP BUT TRY IT MYSELF...
DAMN YOU!

 

CHECK THIS OUT!!

 

 

The little bites are too easy not to share!

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room-temperature
• 1 cup crushed pretzels
• 5 ounces milk chocolate, melted

Directions

Stir together peanut butter, sugar, and butter. Stir in crushed pretzels. Form into 1-inch balls. Freeze for 30 minutes. Dip in melted chocolate. Refrigerate until set.

Graham Breakaways - with Cranberries and without!

I was on the hunt for something that I could makewith Chocolate and include in some cute packages... and then I remembered.. TOFFEE SALTINES... how could I change them up.. go I went to googling my food blog peeps... and found this here! This is exactly what I wanted... and I added Cranberries to part of the batch!

YUMMY! Delicious! and easy to make. Heck most of the ingredients are staples in the cabinet!!!! HOORAY FOR ME!

Then I packaged them in this:

Chinese Take Out box


Someone is going to love these.. and their fortune cookies in which I included in the box!