In Cod We Trust

(Sculpture by Howard McAvoy as seen over my kitchen sink)

As you may or may not know, the American Heart Association recommends that we eat fish (preferably oily fish) at least twice a week.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that finds this challenging.  I was discussing this matter with my Brunch Girls (we'll be getting to my food groups in the near future) and the consensus was that seafood is expensive and we don't always know what to do with it.  In my house we have made an effort to have fish once a week and try to squeeze in a second round when we can.  Salmon is the fish of choice.  Until recently my kids would only eat salmon and only if prepared with soy sauce and ginger (they have sophisticated palettes I suppose.   Not really, they love fluff and hot dogs also).  While this is a satisfying meal, especially when served with rice and veggies, it can get a little boring having it every week.  I'm doing my best to widen our horizons and here is a recent attempt at switching things up a bit- Linguine with Tuna Puttanesca from (you guessed it) Food TV Magazine's cookbook.

This recipe calls for canned tuna but that happens to top my list of most disliked foods so naturally I went another route.  Nelsy happens to have his name on an e-mail list at a local fish store called Fins and Tails (I'd link you there but they don't have a website).  He got an e-mail last week that the tuna steaks were on sale so it was the perfect time to try this recipe.  One piece goes a long way when you're cutting it up and tossing it with pasta.

I guarantee that this nice looking steak smells nothing like opening a can of tuna...thank goodness.  So if using the good stuff, put a little olive oil in a pan and a clove or two of garlic and sear your tuna over medium heat on both sides until cooked through (it will turn white when cooked).

Doesn't that look delicious? The first time we gave the kids fresh tuna, they thought they were eating chicken...just something to keep in mind (chicken of the sea!).  Give that bad boy a good squeeze of lemon. 

The sauce is a snap to throw together.  A can of tomatoes, a few olives and capers (I do love a recipe that includes capers!) and of course garlic make up the sauce.

Toss it all together and there you have it.  This meal takes 20 minutes to throw together, can't beat that!

Linguine with Tuna Puttanesca

kosher salt
12 oz linguine
2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced or thinly sliced
1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 TBS capers, drained
1/2 cup roughly chopped kalamata olives
1 28 oz can plum or whole tomatoes
4 basil leaves torn, plus more for topping
1 5oz can albacore tuna, packed in olive oil (or Fresh Tuna!)
freshly ground pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook linguine according to directions until al dente.  If cooking fresh tuna, saute this at the same time with a little olive oil, garlic and a squeeze of lemon.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring until slightly toasted, 1-2 min.  Add the capers and olives, fry 2 more min.  Crush the tomatoes into the skillet with your hands (with care so they don't squirt all over the place) and reserve the juices.  Cook until the tomatoes are slightly dry, about 2 min.  Add reserved tomato juices, the basil and salt to taste and cook until sauce thickens, 1-2 min.  Add the tuna with its oil, breaking it up with a fork, and season with salt. (If using the fresh tuna, roughly chop it and toss it in). 

Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking water and return it to the pot.  Add the sauce and cooking water and toss.  Season with salt and pepper and top with fresh basil.

*Although puttanesca is the Italian word for prostitute, it is highly unlikely that this recipe will invoke promiscuity. 

Call Me Caprese

Since the hilly 4 mile race I signed up for is just 13 days away, I thought I'd better get running today.  I've been getting exercise lately by doing DVD workouts but I have not done much running lately.  Mostly because I hate it.  So I headed out on a chilly, windy, semi-hilly (got to ease into these things) 3 mile run and it pretty much sucked.  I was kind of slow (35 min but my hip was getting sore, I feel old...) but when I got done I felt good and was glad I forced myself into it.  Now, let's get to the good part of this story...the lunch I had when I got home!  Being a little out of breath and a lot tired I didn't want anything too heavy or too involved.  I had all the fixings for the perfect lunch.  Open Faced Caprese Sandwich.  It's one of my faves.  So easy (took about 3 min) and so flippin tasty.

I was pretty lucky that Nelsy had busted out the bread machine again over the weekend but any crusty loaf or even an English muffin will do.

I happened to have some of that delicious fresh mozzarella left over from making Skillet Lasagna recently and tomatoes and fresh basil are almost always on hand at our house.  This is a perfect example of how a few fresh foods thrown together can taste so fantastic.  Toast up your bread, slice some tomatoes and cheese and chop up a little basil (you can use a few shakes of the dried stuff in a pinch).  When the toast is ready, drizzle a little olive oil on it, lightly sprinkle with garlic powder.  Layer the cheese, tomatoes, basil on the bread, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and hit it with a little salt and pepper.

Oh man, I have a really difficult time not using expletives in describing how good this was.  A perfect light lunch, it's simple, easy, quick and so freakin good.

Meat Me At The Table

The more I think about it, the more I feel the need to share this recipe.  Once again from Food TV Magazine, Beer-Braised Country-Style Pork Ribs are really tasty.  At first I was reluctant to share because it did require a fair amount of attention and I am trying to get people to cook more not turn them off.  This is a perfect winter weekend dinner, you'll want to get it started earlier as it takes about 2 1/2 hours to cook. I'll be trying this recipe with chicken thighs next time.

Get yourself about 4 lbs of bone-in country-style ribs and season them up with salt and paprika.

Brown them in batches in a large Dutch oven on the stove. (Don't they look good already?)

Once the meat is browned on both sides, brown some onions in that same Dutch oven, season with salt and paprika. So far so good right?

Now you get yourself a nice bottle of amber.  If there's beer involved chances are I'm going to like it.  It only takes one bottle so you might want to crack one open for yourself while you're at it.

Go ahead and dump that beer right in there with the onions. Scape up all that cooked on yummyness with a spoon while bringing it to a boil and reducing by half. Then you're going to toss in some herbs and chicken broth. Put the meat back in the pot and place in a 425 oven for an hour.  Now you can work on that laundry you've been meaning to get to.

So they will come out of the oven, have a fabulous sauce added, go back in the oven and back out again.  Perhaps you're annoyed by all this back and forth business but I assure you, the only annoyance you will experience while eating these is that you didn't make them sooner.  My parents are going to LOVE these.

Beer-Braised Country-Style Pork Ribs

4 lbs bone-in country-style ribs
Kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp hot (or regular) paprika
3 TBS olive oil
3 med onions, peeled and cut into wedges
1 12oz bottle of amber ale
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs thyme
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 TBS honey

Pre-heat oven to 425.  Pat ribs dry and season with salt and 1/2 tsp paprika.  Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the ribs in batches and cook until browned on both sides.  Remove to a plate.  Add onions and cook until browned, about 10 min.  Add remaining tsp of paprika and season with salt.

Add the beer; bring to a boil and cook until the liquid is reduced by half, about 8 min, scraping the up the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.  Add broth, bay leaves and thyme.  When the liquid begins to simmer, return ribs to the pot and transfer to oven.  Cook uncovered, turning ribs once or twice, until meat is almost tender, about 1 hour.

Mix the vinegar and honey in a measuring cup.  Remove pot from oven and place on the stove top; bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Add the vinegar mixture, bring to a boil and then return the pot to the oven (again).  Continue to braise uncovered until ribs are tender, about 15 to 20 more min.  Return pot to stove and transfer ribs to a plate.  Bring sauce to a boil over med heat and cook until thickened (skimming off the fat) about 10 to 15 min.  Discard bay leaves and thyme, return ribs to pot until warmed back up.  Eat up!

Serve these up with some roasted carrots and potatoes, maybe a green veg of choice.  Plan on one or two ribs per person and load up on healthy side dishes.  They really are delish!

Wicked Good Lasagna

This is no joke.  I freakin love this lasagna.  It's simple, tasty, lighter than your average lasagna and pretty easy to make.  You really must try it.  Many of you will be looking for some meatless meals in the up coming weeks.  Try it.  Some of you do meatless Mondays.  Try it.  We find it to be so darn yummy, we don't give meat a second thought.  No need.  This Skillet Lasagna is from Food Network Magazine's cookbook.  The only changes I have made is using part-skim ricotta (why wouldn't you?) and when it isn't the heart of tomato season (which in CNY is almost never is), I use canned crushed or diced tomatoes.  Check it out:

I highly recommend prepping before you get going because once it's time to assemble it goes pretty fast.  So gather up the goods.  Mince some garlic and if using fresh tomatoes, chop them up.  Heat about 2 TBS olive oil (actually the recipe calls for 1/2 cup but that is unnecessary) and saute the garlic.  Give it about a minute to turn golden and throw the tomatoes in.  while this is cooking get your other ingredients ready.

Mix your ricotta, parm, egg and herbs together with some salt and pepper.

Use your peeler to make ribbons of a carrot and zucchini, they will be nice and thin and cook perfectly. 

Slice up some fresh mozzarella.  I do NOT recommend substituting regular mozzarella.  I think the fresh stuff has a lot to do with just how fabulous this dish is.  Trust me on this.  By the time you're done with the prep your sauce is probably done.  Pour it in a bowl and hit it with (my favorite kitchen tool) the immersion blender.  This can be done using a food processor or blender as well (use caution when blending hot liquids in a blender!).  Once the sauce is blended you are ready to assemble.  It's a cinch when you're all prepared.

No joke.

Skillet Lasagna

2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

4 cloves garlic, sliced or minced

1 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes diced or 1 28oz can crushed or diced toms

4 TBS fresh basil (and parsley if you got it) chopped

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1 Cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1 large egg

2 TBS grated Parmesan

6-8 sheets no boil lasagna noodles

1 carrot, peeled into ribbons

1 zucchini, peeled into ribbons

3 1/2 cups baby spinach (the grown up stuff works too)

1/3 lb fresh mozzarella sliced thin

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat.  Add garlic and cook until golden.  Add 1 TBS herbs, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until saucy (or until prep is done) about 5 min.  Transfer to a blender and puree (or to a bowl and use immersion blender).

Reduce heat to low and return one cup of sauce to the skillet (enough to cover the bottom).  Mix ricotta, egg, parm, 3 TBS fresh herbs, 1/2 tsp salt and fresh pepper to taste in a bowl.  (you can do this while the sauce is cooking)

Place 2 noodles over the sauce in the skillet (I usually break up another to fill in the spaces).  Layer half of the carrot, half of the zucchini on top; drizzle with a touch of oil and season with salt and pepper.  Cover with half of the spinach, half of the ricotta mixture (plop spoonfuls randomly around) a few slices of mozzarella and top it with a ladle of sauce.  Repeat layers ending with noodles.  Top with remaining sauce and mozzarella.  Cover and simmer until cooked through and cheese is melted. About 25 min (you may want to cook a few min uncovered if it there is a lot of liquid).  Let rest before slicing and top with fresh herbs.

With my minor adjustments and the fact that the book calls this 4 servings (It's more like 6), This recipe is about 400 calories per serving.  If you had lasagna at The Olive Garden you would easily double the calories and almost triple the sodium.  Make this for your loved ones.  You will be a star.

The Juicy Details

I was never a fan of giving my kids juice when they were little.  They never had it it when they were drinking from a bottle and by the time they were on to a sippy cup they only had a cup with breakfast.  For the rest of the day it was water or milk.  The more I read up on childhood obesity, the happier I am that I made that decision.  Even now that they are 7 and 9 years old, they have a cup of juice with breakfast and a small juice box with lunch (only at school, at home they have skim milk). 

According to the USDA Dietary Guidelines for 2010, childhood obesity is up from 4% in the 70's to 20% in 2007-2008.  They attribute much of this increase to sweetened drinks.  Yikes!  Juice is a problem because its full of calories  (110 per 8oz serving) and the little ones get filled up sipping on juice and don't have much of an appetite for real food.  The older kids don't get full from the juice but chances are they're drinking a lot more than 8oz at a time, and that's a lot of extra calories.  If you were to eat an orange instead, you would get about half the calories and feel more full. 

I think it is wise to get your kids off the juice and get them used to drinking water.  I did a little comparing on some dietary websites and found two major brands of juice (Juicy Juice and Minute Maid) each had 110 calories for an 8 oz serving, 26 sugars and no fiber.  If you gave your kid a cup of chopped apple they would get 65 calories only 13 sugars and 3 grams of fiber.  Which looks better to you?  Grape juice is even worse.  8oz of unsweetened grape juice has 152 calories 36 sugar and 1 gram of fiber (about as much as coke but with some healthier properties of course).  These numbers are much improved (62 cal, 15 sugar, 1 gram fiber) by eating a cup of grapes. 

Soda of course is another problem.  In our house, its a special occasion beverage.  The kids can have a can of soda (one) if we're having a party, or entertaining.  Once in a great while they have it with pizza for dinner. (Milk with pizza is way under rated if you ask me, I think they go great together!)  A regular coke has 140 calories and 39 sugars.  The grape and orange soda's that kids love are even worse.  If you were to drink one regular soda a day for a year, you'd be looking at 15 extra pounds!  No thank you.

So then there's the question of diet soda.  No calories, no sugar, not bad for you? Not so much.  Apparently artificial sweeteners cause hormonal responses that can stimulate appetite and increase cravings for carbs.  Great.  The American Heart Association has shown a correlation between diet soft drink consumption and obesity or factors that lead to obesity. 

So what can we take away from it all?  Juice and soda are just not worth it.  If your kids get hooked now its harder to deal with later.  As the grown ups in the house, it's up to us to keep these out of the fridge/pantry.  So lead by example and cut the sweetend drinks out.  It's a simple change that can go a long way.

Shredded Bliss

I'm all about shredding these days.  I do the 30 Day Shred DVDs by Jillian Michaels,  I play some mean guitar hero, and best of all I like shredded meats.  Mmmm.  Last night we had enchiladas for dinner and man, they were good.  The great thing about shredded meat is you can do it whenever you have time and throw it in the fridge and turn it into something later on.  This is how I do it.

In a little bowl combine 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp garlic, 1tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp salt.  This is enough spice mix for 3 chicken breasts.  Pat your chicken dry and season both sides.  Heat about 1 TBS of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat.

Lightly brown the chicken on both sides before adding a can or two of Rotel (the original has a little kick to it but they also make a mild version, either will do just fine).  I added a 1/2 can of diced tomatoes, because I only had one can of Rotel on hand. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lime in there.  Yum. If you feel it needs a little

more liquid to cook in, add a little water (maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 cup at the most).

                          

Reduce heat to low.  Cover and let lightly simmer for about 25 min or until cooked through.

Once cooked, remove chicken to a cutting board.  Using two forks, pull the meat apart until all is shredded.  Return the meat to the pan and let cook a tad longer if there is extra liquid that you want to cook down.  Now you can let cool and refrigerate for later use in tacos, burritos, tortilla soup, or what ever else you feel like.  Since Nelsy has had a hankering for enchiladas, that's what we had. In the past he has made some really good enchilada sauce from scratch, but that can be a little time consuming.  The canned stuff works just fine!

So you just warm your corn tortillas, put in a little chicken and a little plop of shredded cheddar (another shredded thing I love).

Roll those puppies up and put them in a baking pan.  Next, pour about 1 1/2 cans of enchilada sauce (enough to cover) over the top and sprinkle on some shredded cheddar.  Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 25-30 min or until it's a bubbling, lightly browned melty pan of goodness.

(I'm so happy there are leftovers in my fridge right now!)  Serve them with a little yellow rice if you like and a side salad.

Avocados and light sour cream are perfect with this meal, especially if you make them a little spicy.

See, who needs to go out to eat when you can make things that taste this good at home!  Dig in. (And now I'm going to do my shred video so I can have this for lunch today too.)  

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Sup Before Dawn

I'm not the greatest when it comes to using the Crock-Pot.  I think it's a fantastic concept, the whole "set it and forget it" thing (maybe that belongs to some other gadget but close enough), but I don't do it much.  I tend to get turned off by slow cooker recipes because it seems like there's always canned soup or ketchup involved.  No thank you.  I found a good one though in Food TV Magazine (of course) that you might like.  So I busted out my retro, circa 1978 hand me down Crock-Pot at 6am yesterday.  I do find it a challenge to start slicing and dicing the minute I wake up, but I will say this was much easier than browning a side of pork at 6am (like I did the last time I used this thing).

It is totally worth taking that time (approximately 25 min) in the morning and not having to deal with dinner later on a busy week night.  The one change I would make to this recipe when making it again, is I would use either a Thai style vegetable broth (Wegmans) or even chicken broth (I'm so not a vegetarian) instead of the 6 cups of water.  Even if you split it 3 cups water to 3 cups both it might just add that tiny extra bit of pizazz that I think it needs.  Again, I make a terrible vegetarian.

Slow-Cooker Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup

1 large sweet potato

3 med carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

3 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

2 leeks, halved lengthwise and and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (white and light green parts only, and be sure to rinse them well after cutting.  Those buggers can be REALLY dirty!)

3/4 cup dried yellow or red lentils

1 4-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated (your hands will smell great all day!)

1 + 1/4 tsp curry powder

Kosher salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 cloves of garlic, minced

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro

Combine first 7 ingredients (1 tsp of the curry powder) in a 4-6 qt slow cooker.  Add 6 cups water, broth, or combo and stir.  Cover and cook on low, undisturbed for 8 hours.

Now bust out the immersion blender if you have one (love that thing!).  If not, stir soup vigorously with a whisk to make a rough puree.

Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat.  Add garlic and 1/4 tsp curry powder, cook about 1 min until slightly toasted.  Stir curry mixture into the soup along with the lemon juice and cilantro and a little salt to taste.

This is a low-cal soup (257 cal if using water, and according to the recipe this is 4 servings!).  Let me know how you like it!