One of my favorite fish is Cod. I drizzle filets with a little EVOO, pepper or blackening seasoning and bake in the oven at 350 for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the filet.
I served this the other night over a bed of sautéed Brussel sprouts with bits of pre-cooked bacon tossed in with crushed grape tomatoes on the bottom layer.
Super fast, fresh and healthy.
Pro-tip: Half the Brussel sprouts and sauté in EVOO for about 15 minutes until softened, but so they still have a bit of crunch. When cooked, toss in the bits of pre-cooked bacon for added flavor. No need to salt if you use the bacon.
Now that the weather is getting nice we’ve been eating on the patio. I absolutely love eating outside with the fountain on and the great view that we have, it’s restorative.
We found a place nearby (shout out to https://naturesfoodpatch.com/) where they make their own sausages filled with unusual and tasty fillings (i.e. a chicken sausage with broccoli rabe and cheese and and pork sausage with bacon). We tossed some shrimp, asparagus, little neck clams and a filet mignon that we butterflied right onto a hot grill. We also had a side of our homemade pickles (see my pickle recipe: here )
Pro-tip: For the little neck clams, soak them in fresh water with a tablespoon of flour (this makes them release any sand they may be holding onto). Then put on hot grill until they pop open. Serve with melted butter mixed with garlic, a splash of fresh squeezed lemon and a little cilantro or parsley.
This dish was so delicious and simple. I always say that you just need to start with the freshest, closest ingredients you can find and whatever you make will turn out great. I started with some cherry tomatoes that I halved. I put them in a baking dish with a few cloves of garlic, Kalamata olives, some fresh oregano, basil and mint from the garden, drizzled the mix with olive oil and seasoned with S&P. I would have put a block of feta cheese right in the middle of it…but the husband…I baked the dish for about 40 minutes at 350 (I then removed half for hubby and added feta cheese to the rest and baked for another 10 minutes).
Next, I simply sautéed my shrimp in a little EVOO and a pat of butter along with some Vidalia onion, garlic and seasoning.
To plate this dish: I served it over cauliflower rice, so I plated that first, topped with shrimp, then with the baked tomato concoction. It was delicious, easy, hearty and a dish that I will definitely make again.
We love fresh ahi grade tuna. When my fish monger has it we’ll buy a small steak, pepper crust it with fresh cracked black pepper and simply sauté it in a little EVOO for about a minute and half per side. I serve it with a little wasabi and low sodium soy sauce, it’s a great appetizer and so delicious.
Pro-tip: This was cooked a bit more than we like (thanks to my ADD) but still flavorful.
Last week at the farmer’s market I couldn’t resist buying a bucket of the most ginourmous jalapeños that I’ve ever seen. I had no idea what to do with them, I considered pickling them or making a jelly. I wound up making poppers, which was fun and will make for a good appetizer or keto snack.
This dish would be fun to make with the kids. I just seasoned some cream cheese (salt & pepper) cut the stems off the peppers, cut a slit down one side of the pepper and stuffed with about a tablespoon of the cream cheese. I then wrapped an uncooked slice of bacon around each pepper and secured with a toothpick. I chose to freeze these, when I’m ready to cook I’ll defrost, remove toothpick and bake them at 350 for about 20 minutes.
We needed a quick low carb dinner after a long day, followed by a walk to the beach to see a gorgeous sunset. We wound up making zucchini fritters and BLTs on lettuce wraps. Delicious and low carb.
I never made the zucchini fritters before. What I did was grate up two zucchinis using my food processor (you could also use a box grater). I set the grated zucchini in a bowl, salted in and let it sit for an hour (the salt draws out the water). I then squeezed handfuls of the zucchini to get any residual water out and placed back in a dry bowl. I added seasoning (salt, pepper, minced garlic and 1/2 packet of Sazon – I’d love to add some parmesan to this, but the husband…), one egg and enough almond flour to bind the mixture. I pan fried the fritters, but you could also bake in the oven. They came out great. You can serve with a little tzatziki or even ranch dip on the side.
Two things about me: 1) I rarely use the microwave. Ours in fact, has been broken for months. The only button that works is the “add 30 seconds button” that I will occasionally use to warm something up (3 x 30 seconds lol). For the most part the microwave is just large clock in my kitchen. The other thing about me is that both my daughter and I are obsessed with Trader Joe’s. There isn’t one close to me in Clearwater, which is rough since I used to live around the corner from one in New York. We always ponder what we call the “Trader Joe’s Parking Lot Phenomena”. People seem to loose their minds in the excitement of being at a Trader Joe’s and forget that they’re actually driving. Every Trader Joe’s parking lot is a shit show. I’ve seen maneuvers and accidents in these parking lots that are pretty incredible. @TraderJoesRants – anyone have any idea what is happening in these parking lots?
Well yesterday I needed some retail therapy so I drove 40 minutes to get to the nearest Trader Joe’s (in St. Pete). I knew what to expect and was not disappointed. There’s a certain calm that comes over me when every location of a store chain that I love is set up the same way and your not standing in a random isle confused and lost. For $50 I got quite a bounty. One of the items that I was excited about was a bag of frozen mushrooms, which I decided to microwave – without reading the instructions. After a small fire erupted in the microwave, my husband was happy to point out the clearly explained “DO NOT MICROWAVE” instruction on the packaging. Oh well.
This is my bounty:
And this is the small fire…
Anyway, in the end I made a great stir-fry of shrimp over cauliflower rice (sans the mushrooms) with mixed veggies. It was healthy and yummy. The Argentinian Red Shrimp from Trader Joe’s were excellent, I highly recommend.
Shout out to Trader Joe’s in St. Pete that had not only the normal great stuff that we love but a wine selection that was very impressive!
I love coming home to the smell of something that’s been cooking for hours. This recipe I found online is a keeper. It takes a bit of prep, but it’s totally worth it. I made a few adjustments including leaving out the sugar and using low fat yogurt. Since we’re watching our carbs I served this over zucchini linguine, which I sautéed in EVOO before serving. You can find the recipe here:
So, for any of you on social media and/or various food blogs you’ve seen the hoopla around the “Mississippi Pot Roast”. I’m not a big pot roast person but I do love an easy crock pot meal during a busy week, so I thought I’d give this a go. I followed the recipe exactly (which I NEVER do). Since it’s only four ingredients I thought, what could go wrong? The four ingredients are: a chuck roast (mine was about 2 pounds), 5 pepperoncinis, 1 packet of dry ranch dressing, 1 packet of dry au jus gravy mix.
I chose to brown the chuck roast in a skillet for about 5 minutes per side to enhance the flavor (you can skip this step, but I think it’s worth doing). Then I placed chuck roast in my crock pot, topped with packet of dressing and packet of au jus and laid the 5 pepperoncinis on top of that. You add no liquid to the crock pot – I know this seems counterintuitive but trust me, the meat releases a lot of liquid as it cooks. Set for 8.5 hours on low and wait for the magic to happen.
I served zucchini soup as an appetizer. As sides I made roasted asparagus and cauliflower mashed. Message me if you want the cauliflower mashed recipe, it’s really good!
Pro-tip:This dish came out delicious, the meat – while it shrunk about 50% in size – was tender and flavorful. For my taste the dish was a little salty. Next time I would add only 1/2 of each dry packet and add a little fresh ground pepper. I think if you wanted to add some carrots and potatoes about half way through the cooking process this might absorb some of the salt.
There’s nothing like super fresh, simply prepared seafood. We’re lucky to be on the Gulf where seafood is both fresh and abundant. Tonight we started with some sautéed shrimp (just sauté in EVOO and/or a little butter with a bit of garlic and whatever spices you like, i.e. pepper, blackening seasoning, chili peppers).
Then, for the main course, I blackened some fresh cod and baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees (I cooked the cod over some sliced Vidalia onion for flavor). It was perfectly cooked. Cod is mild with large flakes and needs to be seasoned. This is the same fish that I use for fish and chips. I bought a one pound piece of cod, which was enough for two people. I found no bones in the cod, which is usually the case.
My new penchant for blackening seasoning started with this Old Bay product. I love it and it’s not super salty.
I plated the cod over broccoli rabe with some of the onion from the baking dish. Of course serve with fresh lemon. Enjoy!
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