Dinner For Three

Since being back in Utah for Christmas I ended up having to have knee surgery, which extended my stay about a week and a half. My mom, coincidentally, had to have arm and wrist surgery a week before I got home so we ended up being two helpless gimps while Grandma was left to take care of us (lucky her). So yesterday we finally got out to the grocery store and came home with a bunch of goodies - fresh mozzarella, halibut, coconut oil, and a ton of herbs and vegetables. We decided that since its my last week being home I'm going to whip up a few culinary creations while I'm here and I can use them to blog about - Yay! New years resolution fulfilled! 

Here's what we had for dinner: 

Ingredients: Yields 4

4 strips of bacon diced
1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 large garlic cloves

5 small zucchinis

2 - 3 bell peppers 

2 roma tomatoes
1/2 tbsp Beau Monde

1/4 cup green onions
20 - 25 shrimp (we used 5 per person, ours were small)

2/3 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
2/3 cup heavy cream
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
First off cook bacon in the oven on 450° until its crisp
 - not burnt! Chop and set aside.
Now...
1. Peel and chop garlic roughly into disks
2. In a large skillet heat the olive oil and the butter on medium until they're melted together
3. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes until garlic begins to turn brown then remove from the pan and set aside. In the meantime..

[PREP]
4. Peel all zucchini into long thin strips - so it looks similar to thick linguini
5. Julliene the bell peppers and the tomatoes - taking the seeds out of both before hand
6. Cut the green onion into short strips
7. Chop the parsley and grate your parmesan cheese
8. If your shrimp is frozen - like mine - thaw it out and peel it
9. Have your wine, cream, tomato sauce and shrimp ready on hand so we can

[COOK]
10. After the garlic is taken out of the pan turn the pan up to medium high add the bell peppers (saute for 3 - 5 minutes until soft)
11. Add the tomato and green onion, cook for about 2 minutes until everything is heated together
12. Add your shrimp and cook until at least one side is fully pink then add the wine
13. Let that simmer until the wine is reduced (about 7 - 10 minutes depending on the size of your skillet)
14. Add your tomato sauce - mine was homemade courtesy of Grandma but when I'm at school I usually use a canned tomato sauce like mushroom or Italian style that I get at TjMaxx
15. Now is when I usually turn the heat up to high so that the sauce can begin to bubble and thicken up a little bit - once its at a nice thick consistency is when I add the cream, parsley, bacon and the cheese (save some to sprinkle on top of each plate though as well at the parsley)
16. I let this cook until its all combined and thick then I add the garlic back in and zucchini

Now here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

And vuala!! 
This recipe can be vegetarian without the bacon and shrimp or you can add leftover chicken or sausage or whatever you want! Don't have wine? That's fine just omit that ingredient, if you don't have cream add butter instead! This recipe can be changed into whatever you want, this is my version of zucchini pasta, now you can create yours!

Like my new signature! I used this tutorial to figure out how to do place it and I used My Live Signature to create it, check it out for your blog!!

Enjoy!

Friday Favorites

Today's favorites are short and sweet - just a few things I've collected over the week that I'm looking forward to. I also have a short and sweet soup recipe that I whipped up today when I didn't feel like making anything that was too time consuming. It was very tasty and its even good cooled or at warm temperature. But first things first, here are the Friday favorites:

 [whole artichoke that will be used in a recipe found at this blog]

 [one of my new favorite ingredients; recipe coming soon]

[cozie recently bought from a good friend in honor of our 2012 graduates]

Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

 1 yellow bell pepper

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 can chili ready roasted tomatoes

1 can cannellini beans

1/2 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon dried oregano 

2 Turkish bay leaves

1/4 cup chopped parsley 

5 cups chicken stock 

s & p

In a large pot saute garlic and bell pepper in olive oil for five minutes until soft. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano. Add chili ready roasted tomatoes and cannellini or white kidney beans. Cook for about two minutes then add five cups of chicken stock - I used two cups of broth and then used chicken bullion cubes and water to come up with the remaining three cups since I ran out of broth. If you do it that way then bring the soup to a boil and then add your bullion cubes, usually one cube is good for one cup of water. Let simmer for ten minutes after adding your two bay leaves and parsley. Ready to eat!

This recipe can be used with any other vegetables too so you can use what you have on hand. Also the spices I chose can be substituted out for other ones or you can choose not to use them all together. I like the cumin because it gives a bit of heat and smokey-ness to the soup and the bay leaves bring out such a deep depth of flavor that makes it more vibrant. However, these aren't required so if you don't have them don't worry! Salt and pepper will do just fine but make sure to season liberally and TASTE it to check the flavor - you can always add more but you can't take seasoning out!

Summertime Asparagus and Tilapia

The big recipe is finally here! 

I've been working on editing these pictures and re-reading the recipe to make sure I did everything right so that when you try this at home it will come out just right! When I went to the grocery store last week there were a lot of things that looked good and I could have left there with almost every vegetable in the produce section but I came home with just a few things that would last me a while. One of those vegetables was asparagus. One bunch will last you a while if you know how to use it properly. Depending on how big or small they are my rule of thumb is to grab a bunch of them with your middle finger and thumb and that is roughly the amount one person can eat. However, if you think that won't be a big enough portion try cooking it with other vegetables and some protein and I promise it will fill you up. The second thing you should know is how to store it. I keep mine in a vase full of water in the refrigerator - I found that it doesn't need much water and they will stay perfectly fresh for about a week or longer even. 

The other main ingredient I picked up at the store was tilapia. Tilapia is a fantastic fish - it is extremely versatile and it takes on other flavors very well so it will pair great with almost anything. It also has a mild fish flavor in my opinion so seasoning and other ingredients is a must in order to give it good flavor and body.

The recipe below was inspired by something I made at work a while back when I was trying to find a way to have a good meal without using pasta. I am on a non-gluten diet currently and during the first few weeks it was very difficult to find things to eat that felt like an entree. My solution: vegetable stir fry or rice - or both! I found that if you cut your vegetable into longer, thinner strips they act as pasta strings and you can put sauce and protein and whatever else you like on top. In this recipe the onions play that roll and if you cook them correctly you get rid of that tart, sour oniony flavor and end up with sweet, mild, savory onion flavor. So anyways, here it goes!

First things first - you must blanch your asparagus before you use it; otherwise it will be tough and the ends will be very fibrous and hard to chew. Here's how:

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. Once its boiling add a handful of salt - well salted water makes for well seasoned ingredients. Add your asparagus (mine is cut before hand so that I don't need to use a bigger pot). Let it cook for about 3 - 5 minutes until it is bright green. Strain or use a spider to fish out the pieces and transfer directly into an ice bath (a bowl of ice cold water with ice cubes) in order to immediately stop the cooking process. Now they are ready for the main recipe.

Summertime Asparagus and Tilapia
1/2 bunch of asparagus blanched

2 tilapia filets (seasoned with s & p on both sides)

1 vine ripe tomato chopped

1 medium while or yellow onion slices 

1 7.5 oz jar of marinated artichoke hearts quartered

3 cloves of garlic minced

3/4 cup freshly chopped parsley

1 lemon

1 tbsp capers

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter 

1 tbsp heavy cream (optional) 

salt and pepper (s & p)

In a skillet that is hot over medium heat cook onion and garlic in 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and butter. Cook for three minutes or until onions are translucent. Add your blanched asparagus and cook that for three minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add your jar of artichoke hearts including the juice - the juice will help make the sauce later. Finally add one or two tablespoons of your chopped parsley then let the mixture cook on medium until about half of the liquid has evaporated from the pan. Transfer the mixture into a separate bowl, cover and set aside. Add one tablespoon of olive oil to the pan still on medium heat and place the seasoned tilapia in the pan. Add the juice of half your lemon then place in the pan flesh side down. After three minutes of cooking add 1 tablespoon of butter in order to keep the fish moist and the bottom of the pan from getting too dry (you can add more or less olive oil or butter in order to prevent the bottom of the pan from burning). Flip the fish over after five to six minutes of cooking. Add the juice of the other half of the lemon directly over the cooked side of the fish. Add your tomatoes, capers and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Cook the fish for three minutes in a covered pan on medium to low heat. Remove lid and add cream if desired. Pour the fish and tomato mixture on a plate and add the asparagus mixture on top to serve!

 

Friday Favorites

Like many of the blogs I follow I decided to dedicate a day to point out a few of the things that are currently making me happy. They almost always have something to do with food anyways so I think I'm doing alright with staying on topic. One of my favorite bloggers Cupcakes and Cashmere does a weekly post of Five Things and as I was looking over it today I realized that there were a few things bringing my some joy today!

Here are a few of them:

 [some freshly cut strawberries to snack on]

[fresh parley in thrifted vases]

 [an old journal now used for keeping track of my recipes]

Happy Friday!