My favorite animal to eat.

I was so ahead of the eating-fish-twice-a-week-for-dinner trend.  Since I don’t eat red meat, ground turkey and chicken can get kinda boring 7 days a week, so fish was the obvious animal to mix things up in our dinner routine.  With all the different varieties out there, seafood just never gets old to me.  For the most part seafood is healthy, as long as you don’t deep fry it or dunk it in buttah (mmm…lobster), but you have to get kinda creative with the preparation because without it, most fish is pretty tasteless.  Tilapia is a great fish for people that think they don’t like fish.  It’s super mild, slightly meaty, and picks up just about any flavor that you pair it with.  This tilapia recipe is a favorite in our house because it’s healthy, yet it has this crunchy parmesan crust that gives it this faux-fry quality, but without all the artery clogging oil…which is great because we’re going to have lots of the yummy, artery clogging stuff for my next post…cupcakes are a’coming!

 

 

 

Parmesan Encrusted Lemon Pepper Tilapia (super long name for a super easy dish)

• 2 - 4 oz. Tilapia Fillets
• 1/4 cup Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp. Lemon Pepper
• 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp. Parsley
• 1/2 tsp. Paprika
• 2 tsp. Grated Parmesan Cheese

 

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a baking sheet with olive oil. 
2. Place the tilapia on your baking sheet and evenly distribute all seasoning over fish.  Add the lemon juice over the fish and then bake for 20 minutes. 
3. Remove fish from the oven and sprinkle the top of the fish with Parmesan cheese.  Heat your broiler to high and broil the fish until the cheese is golden brown. 

My throw-some-spices-together-and-don’t-make-a-mess-in-the-kitchen Shrimp.

Remember when I told you about that great deal I got on shrimp at the seafood counter?  Well, our freezer was getting a little crowded, so I decided it was time to have another shrimp feast for dinner.  Blackened Grilled Shrimp is another ”Daniella-ified” healthy recipe, but I use the word “recipe” lightly as I just throw some seasoning together and that’s about it.  The seasoning really makes the dish though.  I used to love to order blackened seafood when we went out to eat, until I realized that the traditional cooking method of blackened fish is frying it in a pool of butter…well, no wonder I liked it.  This version uses the same spices, but with just a light coating of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a hot grill to do the trick.  I typically serve these Blackened Grilled Shrimp with grilled asparagus on the side and grilled pineapple for dessert…lots of grilling outside = less mess in the kitchen for Gus to clean up, so obviously he’s a big fan of this meal.  “I cook, you clean” is pretty much my favorite marriage mantra. 

 

 

 

Blackened Grilled Shrimp

• 1 lb. Shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tbsp. Old Bay Blackened Seasoning (You can’t go wrong with Old Bay.)
• 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp. Onion Powder
• 1 tsp. Paprika
• 1/4 tsp. Cayenne Powder
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil for coating

 

1. Heat your grill to high.  Rinse the shrimp and remove the tails.
2. In a small bowl, combine all the spices together. 
3. In a large bowl, combine the shrimp with the spices.  Thoroughly coat each shrimp in the seasoning.
4. Skewer shrimp on kebabs and lightly brush each kebab with a thin coating of olive oil.
5. Turn heat on grill down to medium and place shrimp on the hot grill.
6. Grill shrimp for about 1 1/2-2 minutes on each side.  Shrimp is done when they appear opaque and slightly pink.  (Don’t overcook these beauties.  I’ve warned you before.)

A West Coast Cooking Lesson from Yours Truly.

I certainly have been a blog slacker lately, but I do have a good excuse…I recently returned from a trip to Seattle, where I visited my dear friend, Niki.  One of the very first places she took me was Pike Place Market.  This place puts my little Farmer’s market to shame!  Gus is lucky that we don’t live in Seattle, or else our grocery bill would be outrageous with all that fresh seafood and produce at my fingertips!  I knew that I could not leave the West Coast without preparing a meal with all those beautiful ingredients, so we returned a couple days later for the goods.  After eyeing the seafood counter, I knew I would definitely need to take advantage of the huge shrimp and decided on a pasta since it’s simple and Italian, and those are the kind of things that I do best.  I also found some beautiful Heirloom tomatoes at the produce stand and Buffalo mozzarella in the Italian market, so Caprese Salad it was!  Such an easy, simple salad, but the fresh ingredients really make this one stand out.  Plus, easy and simple were Nik’s favorite words when it came to the kitchen…

Niki is a wonderful friend with many amazing talents (you should see this girl iron!), but when it comes to cooking…well…let’s just say she is really good at ironing.  I’m kidding.  Kinda.  In her defense, she is good at baking and made my Mama’s Snickers Cake last year all by herself!  (after a little education on Devil’s Food Cake, but we’ll keep that between me and you, Nik.)  She is definitely open to learning about cooking though, so we decided to have a little cooking lesson with all our Pike Place goodies and make an Italian Feast for dinner.   She was the best little curly-headed Sous Chef that I could have asked for, and not only was the meal was excellent, but Nik discovered she’s pretty talented with a knife!  An hour in the kitchen and the girl could chiffonade basil!  I definitely see a marriage proposal in her future now that her boyfriend knows that she’s got one Italian meal under her belt!    It was a wonderful trip with good meals and even better company.  Nik, you can be my Sous Chef anytime…especially when you cut up all the onions, so I don’t cry and ruin my eye makeup!

 

 

 

Caprese Salad (a fancy name for Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Salad)

 

• 2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick (Heirloom is best if you can find them, if not then On the Vine tomatoes are a good alternative.)
• 1 lb fresh Buffalo Mozzarella, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 15-20 leaves of fresh Basil (If you have mad knife skills like Nik, then feel free to chiffonade your basil.  If the word chiffonade scares you, then you can just leave the basil leaves whole.)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil for drizzling
• Balsamic Vinegar for drizzling (this one might be controversial…I love the bite of the vinegar, but some people might prefer to leave this out.)
• Salt/Pepper to taste

 

1. Layer alternating slices of tomato and cheese on a large platter.  Add a basil leaf in between slices or sprinkle the basil chiffonade over the top.  Drizzle with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar.  Season to taste. 
2. That’s it.  You really can’t screw this one up. 

 

 

Shrimp Penne in a Tomato Cream Sauce

 

• 1 lb. Shrimp, deveined and peeled
• 3/4 lb. Penne Pasta
• 3 tbsp Butter
• 3 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 small Onion
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• 1/2 cup Dry White Wine (Don’t use something that you wouldn’t drink!)
• 12 oz can Crushed Tomatoes (If you can find San Marzano, use it!  You will thank me later.)
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 1 tbsp fresh Flat Leaf Parsley
• 1 tbsp fresh Basil
• Salt/Pepper to taste

 

1. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. Olive Oil.  Add the shrimp and cook for a few minutes until they are just opaque.  Watch them carefully!  They are too expensive to overcook!
2. Remove the shrimp to a plate and let cool for a couple minutes.
3. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.  (or if you are me, tell your Sous Chef Niki to do it.  See picture above. )
4. In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. Olive Oil.   Add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat, until soft. 
5. Remove the tails from the shrimp if you haven’t already and chop the shrimp into bite-size pieces.  Set aside. 
6. Once the onion and garlic have cooked down a bit, add 1/2 cup of White Wine to the skillet and allow it to evaporate for a few minutes.  Stir occasionally. 
7. Add the crushed tomatoes to the skillet and stir.  Add the heavy cream and stir until it is fully combined.  Simmer over low heat. 
8. Cook the penne until al-dente, drain, and set aside.   
9. Add the shrimp into the sauce and season to taste.  Chop the parsley and basil and add the herbs to the skillet. 
10.  Add the penne to the sauce and stir to combine. 
11. Top with fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano and serve with a nice, crusty bread.  Mangia!

Sale at the Seafood Counter = Shrimp Stir-fry

We eat a lot of seafood in our house and while shrimp is one of our favorites, I don’t love the price.  Especially when my husband can sit down and eat 2 lbs of shrimp all by himself.  I do, however, LOVE grocery store sales.  I seriously channel an elderly woman as I slowly walk up and down each aisle comparing different brands, calculating the cost per ounce, and searching for any coupon that might just save me a few cents or maybe even a couple dollars…I take my grocery shopping very seriously and I have to say that I am darn good at it.  So when I spotted the deal of a lifetime on jumbo shrimp at my local seafood counter, I cleaned them out and came home with over 4 pounds of shrimp.  I was only slightly embarrassed when I ran into a coworker at the market, who looked in my cart at the rather large packages of shrimp and asked if we were hosting a party.  Nope.  We just love us some crustaceans. 

Enough babble about my grocery shopping hobby…this recipe is another “Daniella-ified” healthy version of your classic Chinese Stir-fry.  It uses very little oil and the sauce is very flavorful.  It’s also easily adaptable based on your protein and veggie preferences.  The sauce is a spicy, szechwany, peanutty, soy saucy, tangy deliciousness, so it pairs well with any type of stir-fry that your little creative mind can think of.   As a kid, I always ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken when our family had Chinese takeout and I loved the chunks of pineapple that accompanied the veggies in the dish…so I happen to think that pineapple tastes absolutely delightful with any type of Chinese Stir-fry.  You might think otherwise, but you should really try it at least once.  Didn’t your mother always tell you that? :)

 

 

 

Shrimp Stir-fry

• 2 lbs Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 2 cups Sugar Snap Peas
• 1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
• 1 Red Onion, sliced
• 1.5 cups Mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups fresh Pineapple chunks
• 1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 4 tbsp Reduced Sugar Ketchup
• 8 tbsp Water
• 2 tbsp Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
• 5 packs of Splenda
• 1.5 tsp Sriracha Sauce (any Red Chili Sauce will do)
• 1 tsp Natural Peanut Butter (Natural means no Jif or Skippy)
• 1 tsp Red Wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Fresh Ginger
• 1 tsp Crushed Garlic
• 1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper

 

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the ketchup, water, soy sauce, Splenda, Sriracha, peanut butter, vinegar, ginger, garlic and pepper.  Whisk until smooth. 
2. In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 tsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and add the sugar snap peas, chopped peppers, onions, and mushrooms.  Saute until the veggies are slightly soft. 
3. Add the pineapple, shrimp and sauce to the skillet.  Continue to cook until shrimp are pink and opaque throughout.  Watch carefully so you don’t overcook the shrimp.  (That would be such a waste of a good seafood sale.)
4. Serve stir-fry on top of steamed brown rice.