Recipe: Tilapia with Sorrel and Nasturtium Leaves with Sauteed Onion Blooms

This would be best served with rice or noodles for a complete menu, but as i'm trying to wittle town a few post marital pounds, i was fine with just protein and greens. A few recent posts have mentioned blooming onions - so i decided to saute some as a side to this yummy, one pan fish dish.

All told, this took me about 15 minutes (pre Bones Thursday night tv viewing) to throw together.
Helpful hint: thaw frozen fish quickly and safely by placing fillets in cool water for 10 - 15 minutes before cooking.

For the fish and greens:

• 4 tilapia fillets
• Large bunch sorrel leaves
• 5- a dozen nasturtium leaves (mustardy tasting
• One small red onion, finely diced
• One - 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
• Dashes cumin, cayenne, smoked paprika, curry, turmeric, just about anything you want (sorrel is quite tangy, so pick herbs with more earthy flavors. Basil or oregano would also be nice here).
• Salt and pepper
• White wine

For the onion blooms:

• Clip the blooms close to the flower
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Place half sorrel/nasturtium mixture around edge of a large flat saute pan. Sprinkle onions and garlic in the center of the pan. Heat to high medium. Place fish into pan and season heavily on top side. Place remaining sorrel/nasturtiums on top of the fish and cover pan. Once bubbling, splash a quarter glass of white wine over the mixture and reduce heat to a lower medium.

Meanwhile, drizzle olive oil, salt, pepper in a smaller pan and rub onion blooms around in the mixture. Bring heat up to medium high and cover. Let one side sear a bit, then flip the blooms reduce heat to medium low and cover until blooms wilt to your liking. You can also add garlic salt/minced garlic, cayenne, whatever you like.

After about 5-7 minutes, flip fish over. Continue to cook until fish is cooked through, about 5 more minutes depending on stove heat.

Sorrel doesn't keep as nice a color as spinach or kale, and the texture is very soft. This would be yummy with some chopped spinach mixed in or with the addition of mushrooms. What's great about the sorrel is there's no need to add lemon to the fish, the sorrel already has a lemony taste.

We both found this to be a delicious meal, but i'll admit that i made the husband a toasted cheese sandwich with Belizean hot sauce as a second course - the man's gotta eat more than i do!

Happy Friday - have a great weekend!

Happy Healthy Banana Muffins with Dates

Oh man. I just ate one straight out of the oven with butter. I'm having a hard time not going back in the kitchen and stealing all of them!
In my Belly!
Now!

Resist, Miranda.

Anyhoo - I had a cup of sprouted grain flour i ground the other day, 3 bananas and some dates - the logical next step: Muffins! Sugar free and fat free muffins!
(ps, i made these guys on Thursday but am posting it Saturday - make some for this weekend's brunch - you'll love them fresh from the oven or as dessert later in the day, and they take sooo little time to prepare - you can have them baking while cooking up the eggs!)

I found this great recipe online. And changed it up just a bit to work with the ingredients i had on hand:

• 2 1/2 ripe bananas
• 5 or so dates, pitted
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon plus 4 dashes pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 cup flour (i used one cup freshly ground flour from sprouted red wheat plus 1/2 cup unbleached white whole wheat flour)
• 1/3 cup homemade applesauce

1. Mash bananas, add chopped dates
2. Add cinnamon and egg- slightly scrambled
3. Add applesauce and mix in
4. Mix dry ingredients together on top of wet, stir in until well combined
5. Bake in muffin tins at 375 degrees for 20 minutes

They turned out perfectly! Moist. Flavorful. A little crunchy here and there due to my unevenly ground flour. Delicious with a little bloblet of homemade butter. These are mostly destined for the husband's stomach while at work on on his way.... but i think i'll be saving a few more for myself. So delicious, and completely unsinful. I'll be making these again.

I just love baking with no sugar or oil and having the results be as delicious and decadent as something more naughty.
What's your favorite "healthy" baked good recipe?

Broccoli and Chicken with Pesto Sauce

HOLY cow, this was good. I had a feeling it would be, but man it sure panned out to exceed expectations.
A broccoli floret was ready to harvest and we still have plenty of pesto in the freezer, so i planned to put those two together. On a trip into the market for frozen peas i noticed whole chickens were on sale. I bought one and chopped it apart and skinned it (ew). The breasts were chopped and placed in the fridge, legs, wings, and body de-fatted and skinned and placed separately in the fridge to become chicken soup / craftable bones later. Apologies for the not so artful photo of the final product, i was already sitting down and asked the husband to photo his bowl.

Makes a perfect two portions with a little leftover for lunch, if you can stand not having seconds.

• 2 not huge chicken breasts cut into 1 inchish cubes
• about 1 1/2 cup of spicy pesto/turkey broth plus 1 T whey
• 2 hot chillies, i used habaneros from the garden
• 1 onion, diced
• pinch chopped fresh rosemary
• 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1 broccoli floret with 3 leaves, chopped to even sizes including the stem
• Mirin (rice wine) or sherry or white wine

Saute the onions, peppers and garlic with a splash of water, salt and pepper, over med/high heat and covered until getting soft.

Add the chopped chicken, season with salt and about 2 T of the pesto sauce, (my pesto and turkey stock were stored frozen in the freezer in ice cube shapes in ziplock bags. I simply tossed them into a cup and thawed them in the microwave for about 2 minutes) and a good splash of Mirin. Cover for a few minutes, stir, re-cover, turn heat to medium and simmer until cooked through. Contents of pan should be steamy and simmering.
Heat pasta water to boiling.

When chicken is cooked through, add the broccoli and stir in with chicken and onions, cover and cook over medium heat. Let the broccoli steam. Meanwhile cook your pasta - i used whole wheat with wheat germ spaghetti that cooked in 5 minutes.

Broccoli if fresh will cook in about 5 minutes, older tougher broccoli may take a bit longer.
When all is just about done, pour the pesto sauce evenly over the chicken and broccoli to warm, covered.

Ta Da! Drain the pasta, serve into bowls or plates ( i like bowls so that all the juices are contained, kept warm, and it's easy to stir without getting green splatter all over yourself ) and top with the pesto brocc/chx.

This was spicy and delicious! Didn't need cheese at ALL, but cheese is always good so feel free to top with some shredded mozz or parm. I really love the flavor habaneros lend to things, and my pesto had jalapenos in it which adds a different heat in itself.

This was easy to do, room for error or wandering about - just be sure that the pan stays covered and the interior is steamy and simmery - don't let the onions/garlic burn.  This method of cooking chicken keeps it SUPER moist. All that steamy goodness shoves itself into the chicken, imbibing it with flavor and retaining a succulent texture. And who doesn't love steamed broccoli or pesto! My pesto is very low in oil, FYI, so the sauce was very healthy and mixing it with the turkey stock made it go further but added a layer of richness. Stir it all up with your noodles to soak the sauce into them too. So Good!
( I got a high five for this one )

What are some of your favorite pesto recipes?