Ultimate Umami Salmon

ULTIMATE UMAMI SALMON. YUMMMM.

Take a salmon fillet and, using a silicone brush, lightly brush on a thin layer of soy sauce then a thin layer of sesame oil on to the salmon. Then spread a thin layer of miso paste on to the fillet with a knife or the back of a spoon. Make a furikake crust by mixing some furikake with a tiny bit of canola oil in a bowl to just lightly moisten. Furikake is a Japanese rice seasoning that is usually made up of seaweed and sesame seeds. Sometimes it will have some other dehydrated things to add flavor (I think the kind I used also had some tiny pieces of dehydrated carrot, sweet potato, and a few other things). Basically... Furikake is AWESOME. Anyways... continuing.... take your furikake "crust" and press in to the to of the salmon then bake as you would with any normal salmon fillet! So easy and quick, but soooo yummy.

Carne Asada and Grilled Veggies

This is from a little while ago, but I thought I would post.... I've actually cut out all meat (except for fish) since then so this is definitely an old post...

I made some grilled carne asada and veggies a few weekends ago to take advantage of hanging outside in the last of San Diego's warm weather. YES, I know I'm a wimp when it comes to weather... It's 62 degrees F outside right now and I'm dying... The last couple mornings have been THE WORST getting out of bed with my heated blanket or out of the nice hot shower... Mornings have been about mid-50s... Don't hate me... I've lived in coastal San Diego most of my life and don't handle anything outside of the range of 73-78 degrees very well... My house doesn't have central AC or heater (well we have a heater but it doesn't really work and we've never really cared) because we rarely ever need it... Until this year.. OH MAN this year sucked for weather in San Diego...

High is FIFTY EIGHT for Thursday and Friday??!? Oh man.... How am I going to handle this...

ANYWAYS.... getting off topic... I chose flank steak for my carne asada because it's a nice healthy cut of beef that handles marinades very well. Carne asada marinade has a lot of acid, so it needs a cut of meat that can hold up to it without getting too mushy. Also flank steak just has great flavor and can have a great texture also if it's marinated well. Flank steak and carne asada marinade are perfect for each other!

I like following Tyler Florence's carne asada recipe with my own adaptions: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/tacos-carne-asada-recipe/index.html

Here is his Mojo recipe (carne asada marinade) with my own twist:

• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 orange, juiced
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• zest from 2 limes
• zest from 1 orange
• chili powder
• cumin
• chili flakes

"In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together. Toss thoroughly. Let it sit for 15 minutes hour to allow the flavors to marry."

• Add chili powder, cumin, chili flakes, salt and pepper to suit your own taste preferences. Feel free to taste the marinade to adjust seasonings as long as it hasn't touched any raw meat yet! I usually add about a nice big tablespoon of chili powder, a few teaspoons of cumin, and a pinch of chili flakes just because I love cumin and spice.

Then marinate your flank steak with this!! Put the steak and marinade in a large ziploc bag to marinate in the fridge for 1-8 hours - turn bag over and massage in to meat once or twice during it's marinating time.

Marinating flank steak!

"Grill (or broil) the steak for 7 to 10 minutes per side, turning once, until medium-rare." I like to baste mine with the marinade as I'm grilling. This way I can spoon some of that yummy garlic, zest, jalapeno, and cilantro chunks on to the steak and let it form a nice little flavorful crust. "Remove the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes to allow the juices to settle. Thinly slice the steak across the grain on a diagonal."

No matter how good this looks, don't touch it until you've given it time to rest so you don't lose all those delicious juices!

Now time for the veggies!! I pretty much took a bunch of veggies I happened to already have at home, seasoned them up, then grilled them.

Delicious healthy veggies

I had sliced white onions, green onions, broccoli, red bell pepper, and jicama. I squeezed some lime juice over all of them, sprinkled some cumin, chili powder, lemon peper, salt, and black pepper, then drizzled everything with a little olive oil.

Raw veggies seasoned up!

For grilling veggies (or other small things), it's nice to use a grill pan, so that your food is able to drain any liquids that come out in the cooking process and can get a nice char without losing your food to the barbeque by them falling through the wide grill grates... so sad when that happens!

I really like this grill pan because it has three different textures: one section with holes, so that liquid can drain through and everything can get a nice char from the direct heat by the flame; a crimped section if you still want to drain the juices, but don't want direct heat from the flame; and a completely flat section if you want to keep the moisture or for tiny things (like finely chopped garlic or onion).

I like to took advantage of the different grill sections to accommodate for different cooking times for each vegetable. First I cooked the broccoli over the section with the holes, then moved them over to the half with no holes to stay warm as I cooked the jicama. Then moved the jicama over with the broccoli and continued in the same pattern with white onions, bell pepper, and green onions.

Finished grilled veggies all mixed together

Final plated dish!

Plate the sliced carne asada and grilled veggies and finish with some fresh chopped cilantro and a final squeeze of lime juice. I had mine with Casillero Del Diablo Carmenere - one of my fav wines that is easy to find anywhere and isn't too expensive ($8 per bottle). This wine has a nice body and some spice that complements spicy steak very well! I also like that it has notes of chocolate and lot of berries in it, so when I don't finish the bottle with my dinner, it still goes well with some dark chocolate for dessert!

Today's lunch

Mostly leftovers from a Christmas party this weekend...

- a little bit of leftover tempeh that was marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and lots of curry powder then grilled
- a GIANT tupperware full of raw veggies (jicama, cucumber, bell peppers, and celery) and a little bit of Trader Joe's Spinach Kale Greek Yogurt Dip
- part-skim mozzarella string cheese

Souplantation Express

LOVE that one of the few Souplantation Express that exist is right by my office! When I don't have time to pack my lunch, it's perfect for staying healthy on a busy day at work because I can place my order online in advance. When it's ready, I just head over there, walk to the front of the line, pay, then bring my lunch back to the office to eat there if it's busy and I need to work through my lunch. It's only $6 which is a pretty good price for buying lunch considering the size of the salad (it's huge) and all the ingredients seem pretty fresh (don't taste like they've been sitting out for a while).

Today I had a salad made up of spinach, spring baby lettuce mix, celery, mushrooms, cucumber, cabbage, bell pepper, black olives, hard boiled eggs (for some protein and fat), edamame (for some protein), pepperoncinis, tofu (for protein), sunflower seeds (for healthy fat), avocado (for healthy fat), red onions, broccoli, red chili flakes, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. When I'm super hungry or if I know I won't have time to eat a real dinner later that evening (my situation today), I try to make sure I add a good amount of ingredients rich in protein and healthy fats to keep me full longer.

Today was also the first day that I saw they had their Asian ginger broth as one of the options for a soup - I've only seen this in the actual Souplantation restaurants before. It's only 50 calories for a cup of broth and tastes sooooo yummy, so I also grabbed a cup of that to go with my salad. I added tofu, green onions, and red chili flakes to the broth and it was sooo yummy. And I'm not even done with my food, but I'm super full right now! :)

Emergency lunch

I always have ridiculously busy weeknights and a lot of nights I'll get home late without getting a chance to prepare lunch for the next day. And I'll also wake up too late to prepare it. So I try to always leave healthy snacks and emergency lunch supplies in my office desk and fridge to prevent myself from eating out for lunch or even prevent myself from starving all day and end up binge eating a bunch of bad food at night... I usually try to make sure I leave some nuts, Trader Joe's instant miso soup, string cheese, yogurt, spinach, and salad dressing in my desk or fridge at work. My company also started providing healthy snacks for the office - usually fruit and granola bars. I try to always opt for the fruit since the granola bars have a lot of added sugar. I also like to keep a good stash of really yummy teas that I bring in from home (to have in addition to the teas my company provides for the office) because sometimes I'm not really hungry but I just have a craving to taste something yummy in my mouth - tea TOTALLY satisfies that craving for me. Btw, current tea obsession = Chocolate Yerba Mate, rose petal tea, and Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile mmmmmmmmm.

Anyways.... today was one of those days where I didn't have time to pack a lunch. Luckily, I have all my snacks and emergency lunch supplies in the office!! As I was leaving the house, I looked through my fridge and found a boiled egg to eat as my mid-morning snack and part of some leftover avocado to add to my salad. I also found an almost empty container of fat-free cottage cheese, so I added a spoonful of sugar-free jam to the container so I can have a protein-rich afternoon snack that will satisfy my sweet craving. I grabbed all of these quickly and ran out the door this morning.

Here is what I threw together for lunch!

Salad made of spinach (stored in my fridge at work), avocado (grabbed from home this morning), Trader Joe's hummus salad dressing (stored in my fridge at work), and some red chili flakes (I found one of those little packets of chili flakes you get with pizza that someone in my office had saved). I also had a reduced fat cheddar cheese stick (stored in my fridge at work) and some Trader Joe's instant miso soup (stored in my desk at work)

Lunch!

Salmon baked with lemon, dill, and capers; roasted brussel sprouts; baby lettuce mix with red wine vinegar and olive oil; and celery with spinach and kale greek yogurt dip

Awesome Beach Weekend (and yummy gazpacho)!

The weather in San Diego this weekend was ridiculous.... San Diego's real summer is usually  mid-August through October anyways, but this past weekend was BAD. 105 degrees even along the coast... WHICH NEVER HAPPENS IN SAN DIEGO. When you live and have grown up in San Diego in a neighborhood that is only 2 miles from the ocean, the only bearable temperatures are from about 73-80 degrees. Also, Carlsbad (the city I work in which is also along the coast) reached record high temperatures this past weekend.

Of course, when you live so close to the beach and you can't stand to do anything at home but sit and sleep in front of a fan (I've never lived in a house with AC because we've never needed it), so of course we must spend our weekend at the beach.

My regular beach spot is Del Mar Beach because it's the closest to my house and always so clean and pretty, but I knew this weekend was going to be crazy crowded there.... Luckily, I learned of a lesser known beach just a little north of Dog Beach in Del Mar. It has a little hidden away parking lot (that still had lots of empty spots!) and there weren't that many people over there either! And the beach was warm but still had a pretty nice breeze. It was PERFECT.

Not too many people!

Look what I found! Part of a lobster tail shell

We set up a mat and some umbrellas and spent our day boogie boarding, walking, reading, and napping. We packed a couple giant frozen water bottles, sliced celery and cucumbers, lemon cilantro hummus, baba ghanouj, nuts, and fruits. I also made a cucumber mint gazpacho the night before that we brought to the beach. It was so refreshing and perfect for the hot day! I made it by basically blending up some peeled cucumbers, plain nonfat yogurt, jalapeno, red onion, mint, olive oil, and a little water to thin it out to the consistency I wanted. I let it refrigerate overnight for the flavors to come together, threw it in the freezer for an hour before we left for the beach, and topped each of our cups of gazpacho with grape tomatoes and mint. Definitely making this sometime again on another hot day.

Adventures later that night included Louisiana-style boiled shellfish at Crab Hut (I was craving crawfish from finding that lobster tail shell haha) and a cigar lounge with my boyfriend. New discovery: cigar lounges are actually kind of fun. Even better discovery: a cigar, coffee, and dark chocolate taste AMAZING together.

I got a short little baby cigar haha. My boyfriend laughed at me because I'm pretty short and the cigar is called Short Story...

I felt bad for my dog because she was locked up in the hot house by herself while we were at the beach - we did leave the windows open and fans on for her though - so we took her to dog beach the next day :)

Then we took her to lunch at Station Sushi in Solana Beach after. Dogs are welcome on the patio!

Zoey likes going out to eat too!

HUGE protein roll - no rice! MMMMM

Emergency planning for unexpected sweet cravings

Emergency sugar-free sweets for when I have serious cravings for sweets!

- sugar-free jello

- sugar-free fat-free vanilla instant coffee mix

- low carb chocolates (a peppermint pattie one and an English toffee one)

- chocolate Yerba mate tea (not exactly a sweet but I do love this stuff and it does have a hint of chocolate which will help when I have chocolate cravings)

- and a bunch of carbmaster yogurts

Note: I didn't buy these just to have on hand and eat a bunch of them regularly, but I got them just to have when I get cravings for sweets - which I've been having a lot of lately. If I have sugar-free sweets available then I'm less likely to give in to sweets that are more unhealthy.

We were really bad since we got back from vacation 3 months ago... Overall we were sticking with phase 2 but we would just go out a lot to eat (then of course we just get whatever sounds good) and drinking too. I started getting really bad cravings bc I remembered how amazing everything tasted! So we're jumping back into phase 1! We're a week in now, so hopefully I'll get over my cravings soon.

Egg with Kale

One of my favorite things to eat for breakfast is over easy or sunny-side up eggs and popping the yolk over some rice (filipino style!) or soaking it up with lots of yummy soft bread - both rice and bread are off limits for phase 1.... When I first started dieting, I discovered a new way to eat one of my comfort foods - egg with the yolk popped over sauteed kale!

I like using kale over other leafy greens like spinach or chard because it still holds some nice texture when it's cooked. Popped yolk on soft sauteed spinach or chard just sounds like it would be slimy and less appetizing... I like to sautee the kale with some garlic and top the egg with a little fresh oregano from my yard. I also, like to use just one whole egg with an extra egg white to add more protein and make it more filling without the extra cholesterol you would get from an extra yolk. That's why the egg in the photo looks a little strange... hahaha... the white is really big compared to the yolk because there is an extra egg white cooked with it!

More giant zucchini - stuffed!

Split another zucchini in half lengthwise and scooped out the large seeds then stuffed it with eggplant, tomato, garlic, parsley, basil, and Parmesan that was sautéed in olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar.

Workout at work!

I recently got the idea from my coworker to do quick work-time workouts! It's probably one of the best workout decisions I've ever made. I used to rarely ever take my two 15 min breaks the California law is required to give us - only when I was so tired and my brain couldn't function anymore I would step outside for 10 minutes and take a slow walk to clear my head.

My coworker brought up that he takes his 15 minute breaks even if he's not tired and just walks anyways. He sets his alarm for 7 minutes, starts walking, then when his alarm rings, he heads back to the office. If you take both of those breaks, that's already 30 minutes of walking! And even better if you speed walk! If you add in 30 minutes at lunch, that's a WHOLE HOUR! I didn't realize how much it adds up until I heard that! So I started doing it too and I feel awesome :) I'm much more energized, work more efficiently when I get back to the office, plus get a good amount of extra exercise for the day.

A lot of times I don't make it out to walk all three times every day, but I try. Most of the time I'll get only two walks in, but it still adds up!

Today I made the decision to add a few simple strength exercises in to my lunch time walk. So instead of setting my alarm for 15 minute to walk out during lunch, I only set it for 10 minutes then I stop to do some exercises before walking the 10 minutes back. I didn't want to get too crazy because I don't want to show up at work super sweaty, so today I did a 1 minute plank, 30 second side-planks on each side, and 10 push-ups. Then I speed-walked back to my office and ran up the three stories worth of stairs to my office two steps at a time, so that my heart rate was still up when I sat back at my desk. I only spent a little over 20 minutes out there, so I still have time to eat lunch at my desk and write a little post right now :P

I didn't want to do anything too crazy for strength today, but I think tomorrow I will have to add more. It was a little too easy. Maybe I'll repeat everything another time and add some tricep strengthening also - my triceps are WEEEAK.

On my way walking back to the office, I saw a food truck along the street called Epic Eatz. It's supposed to be San Diego Surf style foods. I saw they had halibut ceviche and ahi poki on their menu.... MMMMMM I think I need to try that when they are back next Tuesday.

http://epiceatz.com/

Also, I just ate a really yummy and simple salad that I brought from home! Mache lettuce with micro-basil, mini heirloom tomatoes, half of a part-skim mozzarella string cheese sliced thin, balsamic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. So yummy! That micro-basil really does it, I think.

For a mid-afternoon snack, I brought a plain brown rice cake (one of those crispy puffed rice cake things) with some of Trader Joe's flaxseed almond butter to spread on top

Yummmmm this stuff is AWESOME. http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=374

Giant Grilled Zucchini and Yellow Squash

A giant zucchini and yellow squash picked fresh two day before! (see previous post). They were so thick.. I HAD to throw these on the grill.

The seeds inside were huge. So I scooped out the centers, saved the seeds for roasting, and saved the meaty parts of the center to cook with some other things later.

Zucchini and yellow squash are probably a few of my FAVORITE things to grill. MMMMMMM. And eggplant. I love flavor the char adds to these veggies.

Such a fresh meal! The squash were picked just a few days before and my brother caught these fish earlier in the day, so we grilled those too! yum

Baked Salmon

I was at Fresh & Easy the other day and they had a really great price on wild, fresh, never frozen salmon fillets with the skin on! I hadn't planned anything for dinner that night yet, so it was perfect.

Once I saw that it had the skin on, I was immediately craving crispy, delicious salmon skin. Here's what I did to make this simple, quick, and yummy salmon!

Baked Salmon with Crispy Skin:

Ingredients:

- salmon fillet with skin

- 2 tsp capers, chopped

- 1 garlic clove, chopped

- 1 tsp dill

- lemon slices

- olive oil

- salt pepper

- lemon pepper (I used Trader Joe's lemon pepper grinder bc it also has garlic and onion in it)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and start heating a pan with a little olive oil and butter over high heat.

2. First step is to pat down the fish with paper towels. It is important to dry it, so you get a nice browned and crispy skin.

3. Rub a little olive oil over entire fish (both meat and skin side) and season with salt, pepper, and lemon pepper.

4. Start cooking the salmon skin-side down on the pan. You don't want to cook the salmon through. We are only cooking the salmon on the pan to crisp up the skin. Keep a careful watch on the salmon and remove from the stove-top once the skin is lightly browned. Do not flip the salmon over!

5. While the skin is crisping up, sprinkle dill, garlic, capers, and lemon slices on top of the salmon. Squeeze a tiny bit of lemon juice over the salmon (not too much because you don't want a lot of liquid in the pan) and do a final light drizzle of olive oil.

6. When the skin is nice and browned, throw the entire pan in to the oven and finish off the cooking in there! It will be done when the thickest part of the salmon flakes easily. I check mine often because I hate overcooked salmon.

Salmon and toppings in the pan after crisping the skin and before baking.

After baking... Look at all the delicious, healthy fats (the creamy-looking, white parts) that came from the salmon!!

These toppings/seasonings add nice flavor while still allowing the salmon to be the star. The salmon is moist and the skin is nice and crispy! Salmon skin is very healthy for you too - lots of Omega-3s!

Look what I found!!!!

Look what I found!!! South Beach Safe Soymilk!!!! I really shouldn't be THIS excited about it, but I am for some reason...

It's low-fat vanilla soymilk that is sweetened with Spenda instead of sugar. I'm slightly lactose intolerant, so I normally try to consume non-dairy beverages like soymilk, almond milk, rice milk, etc instead of regular milk. But now I can't have rice milk because of the low-carb thing, I can't have vanilla soymilk because it's always sweetened with sugar, and plain unsweetened soymilk really just tastes terrible. I've been resorting to using unsweetened vanilla almond milk because it still tastes good without added sugar, but I don't want to have it too much because it has a little more fat in it since it's made from almonds. And I just like the flavor of vanilla soymilk better anyways. Since this Soy Slender brand soymilk, is sugar-free I can drink vanilla soymilk again!!! Woohoo!!!

Trader Joe's trip!

Mostly all I've had in my fridge lately is lettuce, veggies that need to be cooked, and frozen chicken/fish that needs to be thawed then cooked, so I needed more foods that require quick prep and some healthy snacks. Of course, that means a Trader Joe's trip! Here's what I bought (and why):

- sugar snap peas: yummy, healthy snack with a satisfying crunch; probably one of my favorite veggies to dip into hummus
- hummus: for a snack with the sugar snap peas, of course =P ; also sometimes I will mix this with a little lemon juice and olive oil to thin it out and use as a protein-rich salad dressing
- kale: an awesome superfood!! for soups, sautees, massaged kale salads, and KALE CHIPS (my boyfriend's fav right now haha)! I like to buy it in the pre-chopped in the bag like this, so we can quickly toss it in olive oil and salt then throw it on a baking pan to quickly make some kale chips
- brussel sprouts: have lots of fiber and vitamins and taste AMAZING when roasted
- canned marinara sauce: just to have on hand to add to veggies, fish, or other meats I may be cooking
- sundried tomatoes: pretty much same as above... just to have on hand to add flavor to something I might be already cooking... it's important to me that my food still tastes really good or I wouldn't be able to keep this up!
- goat cheese with kalamata olives: definitely broke my rules on buying this.... because it's not reduced-fat.... but I LOVE goat cheese and I LOVE kalamata olives, so I thought I'd give it a try. I just need to make sure to eat very little at a time. I'll probably throw little chunks of this in to my salads.
- chicken sausages (I bought a pack each of spicy italian and andouille): this is just to add flavor and some lean protein to something I may already be cooking. I'm planning to stick to only using half a sausage chopped up per serving of whatever food I add it to
- steamed lentils: already cooked and ready to go! I love these lentils because of their texture - they stay more in whole pieces compared to when you cook them yourself. plus they are rich in protein, fiber, and vitamins. one of my favorite ways to eat this is to sautee it with garlic, onion, cumin, and cayenne then top with fresh cilantro - tastes kind of like ground taco meat!
- plain non-fat greek yogurt: I use this in place of mayo for tuna, egg, chicken salads, etc. or I just eat it plain (sometimes with a little splenda) for breakfast or a snack. I bought a few of the smaller sizes with added fiber, so I can take it to work and feel satisfied for longer.
- lemon pepper grinder: just because that stuff is awesome
- artichokes: one of my weaknesses... LOVE anything with artichokes.
- red wine vinegar: for salads
- peanut butter: all natural with no added sugar or weird ingredients... be careful when buying peanut butter!! most have a bunch of sugar in it!!! I honestly bought this JUST for making flourless peanut butter cookies... lol. I still need something to satisfy my sweet tooth! when I get to phase 2 and reintroduce fruits, I like to mix a little bit of peanut butter with some plain nonfat yogurt, vanilla extract, and a little splenda to make a peanut butter dipping sauce for apples. you still get lots of yummy peanut butter flavor, but not as much fat and calories compared to apples with straight peanut butter.
- pork florentine (frozen): bought this for nights when I don't feel like doing too much cooking. it's pork tenderloin stuffed with spinach, tomatoes, and a little cheese. it's not THE BEST thing to eat, but it's something that's still decent that I can leave in my freezer until I have a night where I want a meal with little effort. you pretty much just throw it in the oven - I think I remember it takes about 45 minutes to cook.
- canned salmon: bought this so I have some protein that I can easily just open up and throw on salads. I was also thinking of making a salmon salad type of thing (by adding plain greek yogurt, lemon zest, capers, and dill) then using that in lettuce wraps.
- low carb dark chocolate with almonds: to satisfy my serious chocolate cravings! this is still probably not the best thing to buy, but I know myself... and if I can't have at least a little bit of chocolate when I have a craving, I'm doomed... instead of sugar, it's sweetened with sugar alcohols - which are OK for South Beach Diet as long as you limit yourself to 75-100 calories per day. the biggest problem I have with these is limiting myself to just 2 little squares of chocolate (there's 12 squares per bar).
2 squares have 73 calories, 6 g of fat, and less than 2 g of net impact carbs.
- seaweed snacks!!!: in wasabi and plain flavor. LOVE these for when I just crave something salty with a satisfying crunch. there are 2 servings per pack and each serving is only 30 calories.

So that's it!! I usually go to Trader Joe's for more snacks or food that's fast to prepare. I get most of my produce from Sprout's and most of my fish and meat from Costco. I pretty much do all of my grocery shopping at these three places - I LOVE all three of them and luckily they are all close to or on my way home from work. Anyways, I just thought I'd post some yummy and South-Beach-Diet-phase-1-friendly foods that are good ideas to buy. Thanks for reading! :D

More fish.... My Mom's Grilled Pompano

You may have noticed my last several posts all involved fish. You might think this was all because of Lent, but nope... I just really love fish.

This pompano, however, WAS for a Friday night meal during Lent. This is actually my mom's cooking, but I love it. In the last several months this has become one of my favorite things she makes.

She stuffs whole Pompano (scaled and gutted, of course) with tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and green onion then grills it on the barbecue until fish is cooked through and the skin is crispy and lightly charred.

Pompano already a pretty yummy fish, but what really makes this amazing is the dipping sauce my mom makes. I think it might be somewhat of a secret recipe of hers because every time I've asked her what is in it, she doesn't really seem to talk much. And when I tried to make it myself with what she told me, it didn't taste the same :( - it was still good, just not the same as hers. She told me it's a mixture of soy sauce, fresh calamansi juice (Filipino citrus fruit), fish sauce, fresh cilantro, green onions, and chopped tomato.

MMMMMMM I seriously LOVE this fish. I'm craving it now.... Flavorful fish with DELICIOUS crispy skin dipped in that awesome sauce... YUM YUM YUMMMMM I'M SO HUNGRY NOW. I hope she keeps making this often even though Lent is over - or at least REALLY teaches me how to make it :P

Simple Sole Fish with Beans Baked in Garlic and Wine

Another simple recipe made with things I happened to have in my fridge...

 Sole Fish with Beans

Ingredients:

- whole sole fish, scales and guts removed

- dry white wine (I used Chardonnay)

- several cloves smashed garlic (adjust depending on your taste)

- canned chopped tomatoes

- canned white kidney beans, rinsed

- green beans (I really have no idea what kind of beans I used... I know they're not exactly green beans, but I don't know what they were called... they were frozen from Trader Joe's, in a pack with both green and yellow beans, and are pretty wide sized beans)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Marinate whole fish in wine and several cloves of smashed garlic (I marinated for about an hour).

3. Place whole fish and all of marinade in a deep dish baking pan.

4. Lightly salt and pepper the fish.

5. Arrange the white kidney beans and green beans (or whatever kind of beans they are) around the fish.

6. Arrange canned chopped tomatoes on top of the sole fish.

7. Pour a little more wine into the baking dish so all of the fish and beans are sitting in a shallow pool of wine.

8. Salt and peper the whole dish and lightly drizzle with olive oil.

9. Bake until the center of the fish flakes easily.

10. Eat! Scoop out a little bit of fish, a little bit of the beans, and a lot of the yummy sauce from the bottom of the dish :)

This was one of those dishes that I surprised myself with. I just made it with things I already had and didn't expect it to taste that amazing, but it was pretty good. I had it with a grilled vegetable salad I had made a few days before - grilled eggplant, grilled zucchinis, grilled bell peppers, grilled tomatoes, lots of chopped fresh parsley and mint, a little fresh cilantro and oregano, red chili flakes, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Quick & simple, healthy meal: Blackened Hake Fillet with Seasoned Italian Squash

I used to make quick, simple, and delicious meals like this all the time in college. But for some reason, in the past few years I've started trying to get all complicated with my cooking. But a lot of times, simple meals made on a whim are the best - quick to cook, less cleanup, more time to relax, and still tasty food.

This was a simple meal I made with things I found in my fridge. My mom and I almost always buy frozen Hake fillets from Costco. They aren't the most tasty fish... just a pretty plain, white fish... but they're cheap (under $10 for a large bag of frozen and individually wrapped fillets at Costco; sometimes they have a coupon and it's around $7), have very low levels of mercury, easy to always have in stock (because they are frozen), and Costco always has good quality products. I blackened the fish (blackened as in the method of cooking rather than the typical spice blend) then lightly sauteed some seasoned squash in the same pan to pick up some of the flavor - plus easy clean-up. For some freshness, I topped the squash with fresh cilantro and the fish with pico de gallo salsa I found in my fridge (my mom makes AWESOME pico de gallo). Dinner done in about 10 minutes!! You can tell this was a fast meal because there's actual sunlight in the picture. I usually get home from work so late because of working extra and of a long commute.... then on top of that, long prep/cooking time = eating dinner late and dark, bad quality pictures (and these are all pics from my iPhone, so they already aren't the best).

Blackened Hake Fillet with Seasoned Italian Squash (serves 1)

Ingredients:

- 1 hake fillet, thawed (or any simple, white fish)

- chili powder

- 1 yellow italian squash or zucchini, sliced

- taco seasoning blend (check for no sugar in the ingredients)

- a few stems of fresh cilantro, chopped roughly

- pico de gallo salsa

- olive oil

- butter (I used Earth Balance buttery spread with Olive Oil for a healthy option that still has the buttery flavor)

- salt

Directions:

1. Dry the hake fillet thoroughly with a paper towel. It is important to dry the fish, so you get a nice browned crust on the outside of the fish.

2. Season both sides of the fish with a little bit of salt and a generous sprinkling of chili powder. After sprinkling, press the seasoning in to the fish with your hands to make sure they stick well.

3. Heat a heavy, cast iron skillet to medium-high.

4. When hot, add a light drizzle of olive oil and a pat of butter. Move the pan around so that the melted butter and oil mix together and coat the pan evenly.

5. Put the fish fillet in the pan and cook until each side has a nice, dark-brown crust and the thickest part of the fish flakes easily. Remove from pan and set on a plate.

6. Add a little more olive oil in the pan and throw in the squash.

7. Season with store-bought taco seasoning and salt (if salt is not already an ingredient in the taco seasoning blend).

8. Sautee until squash is just barely soft, remove from pan, and add to your plate.

9. Top the squash with cilantro and the fish with pico de gallo.

Grilled Squid with Thai-style Dipping Sauce

OF COURSE I failed at posting in here... I've taken so many photos of meals I've cooked in the past few weeks meaning to post them here.... I was going through them today and honestly forgot what was in a lot of them... Oh well... We'll see what I can do...

I'm rarely ever home, so I never have time to sit down at my computer. I've downloaded the Blogger app on my phone, so I can try to keep up with this and do quick posts on the go :P

Anyways, here is one of the AWESOME dishes that I do remember. I remember everything that was in it because it tasted amazing and was so simple. My boyfriend came home with a GIANT squid to cook for dinner. Honestly, I was kind of scared of it.... So he gutted it for me and we sliced off the tentacles and cut the body into rings. I think this could also be done with smaller squid, but the large, meaty, giant squid did taste pretty good. :) We went for Thai flavors and served it with a dipping sauce similar to the flavors in Thai larb.

Grilled Squid with Thai-style Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

- squid

- dry vermouth (or white wine)

- fresh ginger

- fresh lime juice

- fish sauce (Thai fish sauce would be best)

- splenda

- serrano chili (or Thai chili would be better, I just had serrano already)

- cilantro

Directions:

1. Marinate sliced squid in vermouth (or white wine) and 1/2 to 1 inch of chopped ginger, depending on how much you like ginger - I love a lot. I marinated it for less than an hour.

2. In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Squeeze lime juice and mix with several dashes of fish sauce, a light sprinking of Splenda, 1/2 of a thinly sliced serrano chili, and a few leaves worth of chopped cilantro. This can all be adjusted to taste. If you want more saltiness or savory flavor, add more fish sauce. If it needs more freshness or something to cut the flavor, add more lime juice. This came out very, spicy - and I have a pretty good tolerance for really spicy food - so if you have a normal person's tolerance for heat maybe only use 1/3 or 1/4 of the serrano chili. If you know you have a weaker spiciness tolerance, then maybe only put a one or two thin slices of the chili.

3. Let the sauce sit in the fridge while you cook the squid to allow the flavors to come out.

4. The squid is cooked simply and in a healthy way - GRILLED! Make sure to stand next to the squid and check often for doneness while you grill. Squid cooks quickly and overcooked, chewy squid is probably one of the worst things ever...

5. EAT! Dip grilled squid in the sauce, so you get a very thin coating - the flavors are very strong, so you really don't need anything thick.

Since I actually have some free time today, I'll post a few other things that I can remember a little bit about  :) but this squid was definitely the most memorable.