Salad Dressing Flounder

I know, it sounds gross.  But there really aren't many good flounder recipes out there, even though flounder is pretty cheap and can be quite delicious.  I did that thing where you go to Costco and think, "oh, I need fish" and then get home and find out in fact, you have fish.  Twice.  So we are working through three bags of flounder.  Since fish cooks so fast, I like to have quick and cheap recipes in my back pocket.  This one was really good. 

Ingredients:
4 fillets flounder
1 bottle of creamy salad dressing (I used a low fat parmesean peppercorn ranch)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
parmesean cheese (optional)
olive oil in a spray bottle (or other spray oil)

Procedure:
1. Heat oven to 425.  If you have a pizza stone, heat it up in the oven. 
2. Mix breadcrumbs and parmesean cheese
3. Once the oven is hot, take out the stone (or skip that step and just put it on a pan) and spray with olive oil. 
4. Put the fish on the pan, squeeze about 2 tsp of salad dressing on each piece of fish and spread evenly over fish.
5. Cover the top with breadcrumbs, pressing into the dressing, until well coated. 
6. Spray with a little more olive oil.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cooked through. 

Something fishy...

I was at the local My Organic Market a few weeks ago and they had the usual sampler table.  I walked over to check out what it was, and I saw it was a tuna salad.  I almost immediately turned away because I hate tuna and I hate mayonnaise.  But then I realized something was missing - that horrible tuna smell!  I've never been able to take the smell of tuna, I don't know why, but canned tuna is just...repulsive to me.  I was intrigued, and when I looked at the salad I realized it was also mayo-free, so I took a chance.

It was delicious!  It was olive oil, capers, spices, and tuna on a cracker.  I immediately started talking to the demonstrator about what kind of magical tuna was in the tuna salad.  Tuna that didn't smell like tuna!  Tuna that tasted like fresh tuna!

Source

So he told me about the tuna that they carry, that it is fresher and lower in mercury than your traditional canned tuna.  It is expensive enough to make tuna a delicacy in our household, when normally canned tuna is viewed as a cheap way to get some protein, but my poor husband has been tuna-free for way too long since I can't bear it in the house, so he was really happy I found a type of tuna that I find edible at all.  Now I'm excited to try making tuna noodle casserole, so bring on the suggestions for things to do with tuna! As long as they don't involve mayonnaise.

Honey Mustard Flounder

I really don't care for mustard.  I think it's pretty disgusting, really.  However, on fish?  It's delicious.  Especially when mixed with honey.  I made this last night, and both Mr. Barefoot and I thought it was really tasty.  The best part was, the whole thing took about 15 minutes.  Served with a side of garlic mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.

Honey Mustard Flounder

• 2 (or more) flounder fillets, thawed if using frozen.
• some mustard (I would guess I used about 2 tbsp)
• some honey (I would guess I used about 1 tbsp)
• Cooking spray

Recipe:

1. Mix honey and mustard together.  Preheat oven to 425.  
2. Spray pan. Put fillets on pan.  Put honey mustard mixture on top of fillets.  
3. Bake for 15 minutes.  

Actually, it's embarrassing to type that and call it a recipe, but I'm working and commuting these days, so we've been doing a lot of quick, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants cooking and this will probably be a meal we turn to more and more (as long as we remember to thaw the fish.)

Cookbook Project: 350 Big Taste Recipes for the 1 1/2 Quart Mini Slow Cooker

There are almost no cookbooks out there for the mini crockpot, and I got tired of scaling the 4-6 crock recipes back, so I asked for this book for Christmas.

It's a terrible cookbook.  All the recipes in it are made for people who do not know how to cook, and are missing their tastebuds.  It's also poorly written.  For example, the recipe I made from it includes garlic on the ingredient list but does not say when to put it in.  A lot of the recipes are high in sodium, since they involve canned ingredients, but supposedly this book has an "emphasis on healthy cooking."

But last week we had extra shrimp, so I made this recipe.  We got rid of our 1.5 qt slow cooker when we got a rice cooker, and since this was a rice recipe, I used the rice cooker settings.

Ingredients:
1 lb medium shrimp
1 1/2, cups instant long grain rice (I used parboiled)
1 1/2 cups hot tap water
1 small onion, diced (1/2 cup)
1 can tiny spring peas (I used frozen peas)
1 tsp garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Process:
Oil the crockpot; add rice and onion.  I also added the garlic at this time.  Let cook for 2 hours (or cook on rice cooker setting.)

Fluff the rice, add the shrimp and cook for 45 minutes; add the peas and cook for 15 minutes more.  (I added the shrimp and the heat from the rice cooked them almost instantly, so I added the peas at that time.)

If you do make this, add some hoisin and soy sauce.  Once we did that, it came out pretty tasty.  I do feel like I cheated more than usual on this one by using the rice cooker, but there is nothing about this dish that being cooked more would have improved.

Chili Salmon

We've been eating a bit more fish in the Barefoot household lately.  Mr. Barefoot loves strong flavors, like chili, and I like milder things, like cream sauces, so I tried this recipe from Fitness Magazine for chili salmon with cilantro cream.

Verdict: It was good.  Usually I do salmon with chili powder and breadcrumbs, but this was really tasty without the added hassle of crumbs.  I made a few alterations, like taking out the poblano pepper and using greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  I also only made it for two.  Here's my recipe:
Ingredients:
2 limes (or one lime and some lime juice, which is what I used)
4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped up, or fed through a garlic press
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp olive oil (I actually used canola and it was fine)
2 4oz salmon fillets
1 cup frozen corn kernels (don't need to thaw)
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt (I use fat free)
bunch of cilantro washed and pulled off the stalks

Procedure (preheat oven to 425):
1. Put juice of one lime, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and 1 tsp olive oil together in a prep bowl
2. Put salmon in a marinating bowl or on baking sheet, coat in lime/garlic/chili mixture.
3. Combine red pepper, corn, onion, 1 tsp olive oil, and more chili powder and ground cumin together in a mixing bowl.  Stir until evenly coated.
4. Lay the corn out flat on a baking sheet.  Put salmon on baking sheet.
5. Cook both for 10 minutes.  The salmon may need a little longer.
6. While cooking, combine greek yogurt and cilantro in blender/mini food processor.  I used the immersion blender and a bowl because I didn't feel like cleaning the food processor.

Mustard Salmon

I'm not a big mustard person, but I do love mustard salmon.  It somehow has just the right blend of flavors, and it's amazing.
Tonight my husband made this - the original recipe is here, he added the breadcrumbs and they totally make the dish.
Salmon Glazed with Honey and Mustard
1 1/2 pound salmon fillet with skin (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches thick)
1 garlic clove
3 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard 
2 tablespoons mild honey
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds, crushed
Panko bread crumbs
Preheat broiler. Line rack of a broiler pan with foil and lightly coat with oil. 
Pat salmon dry and put, skin side down, on pan. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. 
Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt, then stir together with mustard, honey, vinegar, caraway seeds, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. 
Spread mustard mixture evenly on top of salmon, sprinkle panko on top of that, then broil 5 to 6 inches from heat until just cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. 
Transfer salmon to a platter with 2 large spatulas. 

Crab Mac & Cheese

So there is a bar around the corner called Crazy Lil's. And they make crab macaroni and cheese. So I decided to try it. Considering how expensive a jar of crab is, it was actually more expensive than getting it at the bar (although it did serve four of us instead of just me). I made it for a post-tubing meal for my hockey teammates and myself today.
I did it in the slow cooker as my friend does not yet have a stove (but she has a gorgeous kitchen.) The recipe isn't perfect yet, but it was delicious and Mr. Barefoot has spent the evening eating the leftovers I brought home and there are none left.
Ingredients:

• 3 boxes cream cheese (you can use 1/3 less fat kind)
• 1 box pasta (I used elbow macaroni, but I think next time I'll use penne)
  
• cheese (I used 2 cups of yellow cheddar, but it actually wasn't that cheesy, so I would add some white cheddar as well)
• 1 1/2 cups half and half (try it with milk and let me know how that goes)
• 1 lb crab meat (buy it at Costco - the Phillips lump crab meat)
• old bay

Procedure:

1. Pour pasta into slowcooker (uncooked).
   
2. Add half and half or other dairy liquid. Add old bay.
   
3. Add cheese. And more old bay.
   
4. Add crab meat. And some more old bay.
5. Cook on high for 4 hours (our slow-cooker cooks so fast I actually cooked it on high for an hour and then I switched it to low for 3 while we went tubing.)
   

This was delicious. I was really surprised that the pasta cooked in the half and half and the moisture from the cheese/crab meat. But it did. I stirred about an hour into it, combining all the cheese and the crab meat (and added more Old Bay). It came out sticky and creamy and a delicious combo of crabmeat and cheese and pasta.
Try it. Play with the recipe. Get back to me on how you made it and whether that worked for you.

In which our intrepid hero attempts to eat her entire kitchen in three days....

Anyone who has ever moved more than 2 hours away knows the three Ps of eating down your kitchen before you move:
1) Prioritize
2) Perishables
3) Portability

1) Prioritize - the things that you cannot take with you or donate to a food pantry are the most important to eat. This is anything frozen and anything opened. This is why for the next three days, I will be eating a lot of salmon and also a weird pasta salad I made by mixing two boxes of pasta.
2) Perishables - perishables obviously must be consumed before the trip, but see rule 1. Potatoes should be less of a priority to eat than any kind of berries or grapes or other things that require refridgeration. Things like apples and any other eat-on-the-run snack makes a great road trip food, so take those with you and eat those berries.
3) Portability - this has been our biggest problem, not just on long distance moves but on short, half hour moves. Some foods are hard to travel with. Eat all canned beans. They are seriously heavy and tough to transport. Boxed foods can be very bulky and take up a lot of space. Baking supplies are usually fine to transport, and it makes no sense to throw away or donate a half-used can of baking powder.

My menu for the next few days? I dunno. But I'm apparently having salmon for every meal, because the frozen salmon I bought 10 weeks ago was a pack of 10 and not a pack of 4 as I had thought. It's going to be in the nineties, so I'm not sure how to cook it, except that cold salmon with a balsamic reduction is pretty good....also with brie, which I have. I was going to live off the cans of beans in the pantry, but I'm prioritizing the salmon and either taking the beans home or dropping them at a local shelter, space pending.
I have some fruit that I'll be eating down, and I'll be seeing what I can do with the rest of my foodstuffs to make road trip snacks for me and my mom (my mom is flying out to Cleveland and driving home with me). I have a bag of salad that I think I will eat in some kind of salmon with salad and balsamic vinegar.

Truthfully, I don't really want to eat any of these foods. When it is this hot out, all I can actually imagine eating is watermelon and grapes. But my shoulder has been hurting, so I think the increased fish intake will help with muscle repair, and who knows, maybe I can cook the salmon in the crockpot over night and chill it in the fridge during the day to have a nice cool salmon salad....

Fish in Foil

Today I was inspired by the Crock-Pot Blog, but I didn't want to make a fish recipe that involved a mayonnaise sauce. So I followed the commentors and created my own recipe. Do not overthink this recipe - put a mess of stuff in, and food comes out.
Ingredients:

• 2 fillets of tilapia (its fine if they are still frozen, but you will have some excess water when you take them out)
• olive oil
• half a lemon
• vegetables of your choice (I used green beans and red peppers)
• 4 potatoes
  
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Oregano
• Basil
  
• Thyme

Equipment

• Cutting board & knife
• Crockpot (I used the 6qt)
• Aluminum foil

Procedure

1. Tear off two pieces of aluminum foil, larger than the fillets.
   
2. Chop up the vegetables.
3. Put half the vegetables and one fillet on each piece of foil.
   
4. Drizzle some olive oil and lemon juice on the fish. Add pepper, salt, and spices. Fold foil.
   
5. Chop up potatoes. Throw into crockpot with some olive oil and all spices.
   
6. Add foil packets on top of potatoes.
   
7. Cook on low for 3-4 hours, or, if your crockpot cooks everything on Maximum Hot on low, cook for 2 hours.
   

This was pretty good, but next time I'll make it with more spices and flavor, and less time - the fish was a little dry, and the veggies were a bit soggy. Definitely recommend for anybody looking for an easy way to cook fish.

Baked Salmon with Coconut or Chile Crust

Last night I was looking for a new thing to do with salmon. So I hunted on Allrecipes and came up with a recipe for baked salmon with coconut crust. I love coconut, but somebody I live with doesn't. So I changed the recipe.
Coconut Crust Ingredients:

• 1 6oz. salmon fillet (I buy them frozen from costco or trader joes, but fresh is probably fine too)
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/8cup dried coconut flakes
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• Cooking oil spray
  

Chile Crust Ingredients:

• 1 6oz salmon fillet
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• chile powder, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• Cooking oil spray

Equipment

• shallow pan
• nonstick cooking pan
• Oven at 400

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Combine bread crumbs, salt, pepper and dried coconut flakes or chili mix into a shallow container (I use a lid of a tupperware, a plate or something will work.)
3. Brush salmon with juice
4. Dredge salmon in crumb mixture to coat both sides. Place on pan. Pat extra crumb mixture over top of salmon. (Really stick it on there.)
5. Cook for 12-15 minutes until delicious.
   

Travel Cooking

My family likes to stay in places where there are kitchens when we travel, both to reduce the cost of food and to be able to make healthy meals. Right now we are staying in a condo in Hawaii with a full kitchen. Last night my sister and I cooked Marlin for the family to enjoy.
The problem with marlin is that it is extremely tough - a "game fish" and the chunks we got of it were very thick - which we did not cut down.
Marlin is not a common fish on the east coast, leaving me blank on how to prepare it - and even my father said he had never had it before - it wasn't terrible, but I won't cook it that way (see the recipe for Salmon) again. Instead, if you are going to cook marlin, I recommend:
1.) Not cooking marlin
2.) Pan frying small chunks of marlin and mixing them with some kind of tropical fruit salsa
as a topping

Salmon

So every once in awhile, I do make myself a piece or two of fish, because it is good for you and it is easier to be a vegetarian who eats fish - I still haven't managed to reconcile the two behaviors, and after four years of being a vegetarian, letting fish back into my life does not feel like too terrible a thing to do, because I do not eat it daily or even weekly. But either way, this delicious recipe from the Food Network's episode of the Paula Dean show - Dean Family Cookoff - comes out perfect every time and is so easy to make.
Ingredients

1. 1 lb piece of salmon (this is not important - if you use more fish, use more seasoning and butter, if you use less fish, use less)
2. lemon or lime juice
3. 6-8 thinly sliced pats of butter
   
4. salt
5. pepper
6. garlic powder
7. 2 tbs Olive oil

Equipment

1. Glass baking dish
2. Oven @350
3. Knife & cutting board

Procedure

1. Slice salmon into approximately 4oz pieces (it is most important that they be equal)
2. Pour olive oil into the bottom of the pan.
   
3. Place salmon skin side down on the pan.
   
4. Drizzle lemon juice over tops of salmon
5. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder on salmon to taste.
6. Top off with pats of butter, 2-3 per piece of fish
7. Bake in oven at 350 for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!
Really delicious served over rice or cous-cous.