Spiced Cod with Broccoli Quinoa Pilaf

I felt like I was on such a roll there for awhile getting my blog updated and caught up on back posts. Then things got crazy. This past week I was completely overwhelmed getting Boy #2's bedroom switched from baby room to big boy room. I never painted when we moved into our house a year ago, and I wanted to get his room painted before his new furniture came, so I spent literally every free moment this past week working on his room. I decided a striped accent wall would be a good idea. It wasn't. His room in our old house had tone on tone stripes (flat and glossy paint in the same color) and it was a BITCH. I knew stripes would be bad, but kind of like childbirth, I'd forgotten just how bad they were. Ugh. I was up until midnight Thursday night measuring and taping. Of course it didn't help that I measured the length of the room wrong the first time. Double ugh. But it's done and looks fantastic and he is now the proud owner of a bunk bed. No more crib for my little guy! Anyway, every aspect of my life was neglected this past week as I got his room ready. Plus my oldest has had swim lessons the past two weeks, so things have been nutty.

I told the husband that one of the things I want to do this weekend is get caught up on my blogs. I have seven posts I want to do for just this blog, so we'll see how far I get. I turned on some cartoons for my kiddos this morning (do you have Boomerang network where you are? Oh my gosh, I love it!! I love letting my kids watch the cartoons I watched on Saturday mornings when I was little.) and it's mostly keeping them entertained, except that they're boys and fight a lot, so I have to keep intervening.

Anyway, I don't even remember when we had this it's been so long ago, but it was tasty and pretty easy, so it's worth posting. I received it in a recipe email I get from Real Simple magazine. I had some cod in the freezer and thought it would be a tasty way to fix it instead of fish and chips. That's all I know to do with cod. Did you know that cod are actually a really mean fish? I had no idea. The husband and I were watching a show on octopus awhile ago, and apparently cod fish eat octopus. Crazy, huh? I tell ya, I'm a wealth of knowledge.

Spiced Cod with Broccoli Quinoa Pilaf
Source: RealSimple.com

3 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
kosher salt and black pepper
1 cup quinoa, rinsed well
2 cups chopped broccoli
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup roasted almonds, coarsely chopped
2 scallions, sliced
4 6-ounce pieces skinless cod, halibut, or striped bass fillet
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and season with ¾ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the quinoa and 1½ cups water to the saucepan and bring to a boil; reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer gently until almost all the water has evaporated, 10 to 12 minutes. Fold the broccoli and raisins into the quinoa, cover, and cook until the quinoa and broccoli are tender, 8 to 10 minutes more. Remove from heat and fold in the almonds, scallions, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Season the cod with the paprika, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook until opaque throughout, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Serve with the pilaf.

Nutritional Information
Per Serving
Calories 464
Fat 16g
Sat Fat 2g
Cholesterol 65mg
Sodium 833mg
Protein 37g
Carbohydrate 44g
Sugar 7g
Fiber 6g
Iron 6mg
Calcium 109mg

*****

I haven't used quinoa very much, but I really liked it. Actually this may have been the first time. I tried to make quinoa stuffed peppers one time, but it didn't go over well, and I don't think they were ever eaten. This time we all really liked it. I love that it's high in protein. Did you know that technically it's a seed, not a grain? See, wealth of knowledge. I didn't have raisins in mine because for some strange reason we were out of them, but honestly raisins in it sounded kind of weird, so I wasn't that upset we skipped them. This dinner came together really quickly which was nice, too. This was a dinner I really liked and would readily make again. Note to self: find more ways to incorporate quinoa into our diet!

Sorry for the lame picture...the husband's iPhone camera was all I had available.

Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto

By this point, the husband and I have both just about given up on doing Phase One of the South Beach Diet (i.e. no carbs). He quit a few days ago, I decided once I hit my pre-Christmas weight I'd go back to having good carbs. However when I did my meal plan for the week, we were both still gung ho about no carbs. None of the recipes I had marked in my South Beach Diet cookbook sounded interesting to me (or not many at least), so I figured I might as well try some of my go-to recipe websites for low carb ideas. MyRecipes.com came through for me with a few ideas. I had recently bought some London Broil and figured I could substitute that for the Flank Steak called for in this recipe. The idea of a cilantro pesto--and a pesto that didn't have olive oil as an ingredient--intrigued me.

Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto
Source: MyRecipes.com

3/4 cup fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted
1 tablespoon chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 garlic clove, chopped
3 tablespoons plain fat-free yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 (1-pound) flank steak, trimmed
Cilantro sprigs (optional)

Prepare grill.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a blender; process until finely chopped (about 15 seconds). Add yogurt and juice; process until smooth.

Grill steak 6 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices. Serve steak with pesto. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Nutritional Information
Calories:209 (47% from fat)
Fat:10.8g (sat 3.9g,mono 4.9g,poly 0.8g)
Protein:24.6g
Carbohydrate:2.4g
Fiber:0.6g
Cholesterol:57mg
Iron:2.5mg
Sodium:152mg
Calcium:36mg

*****

This was ridiculously easy. The only difficult part was grilling the london broil. It's such a thick cut of meat I wasn't realy sure about the cooking time. I think the first side went about eight minutes on the grill, and the second side was around six or seven. It actually could have been on there a little longer because the middle was pretty rare. Of course, it didn't help that it was dark out and I couldn't tell how done the meat was. Note to self: invest in some sort of grill light.

I loved the flavors of the pesto. So did the husband. I don't think the kids tried any of it. We agreed it would be really good smeared on tortillas and then the meat used like fajita meat. This is definitely something I'd make again--low carb diet or not--because it came together really fast and was super tasty! Plus the pesto ingredients (aside from the jalapeno) are all things I generally have on hand.

Some pieces of meat may have still been mooing...


Cilantro-Almond pesto...yum!

Holiday Brie en Croute

As I mentioned in my last post the other dish I made for our Christmas Appetizer Feast was baked brie. Normally I just throw a round or wedge of brie onto a sheet of puff pastry, fold it up, put an egg wash on it, and then bake. I had gone to the Pepperidge Farm website for something recently and saw this recipe on the main page. To say the least, it looked freakin' awesome. Since I had planned on doing baked brie anyway, I figured I'd go for this dolled up version!

Holiday Brie en Croute
© 2009 Pepperidge Farm, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved

1 egg
1 tbsp. water
1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
1/2 cup apricot preserves or seedless raspberry jam
1/3 cup dried cranberry
1/4 cup toasted sliced almond
1 (13- to 16-ounce) Brie cheese round

Heat the oven to 400°F. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 14-inch square. Spread the preserves on the pastry to within 2 inches of the edge. Sprinkle with the cranberries and almonds. Place the cheese in the center of the pastry. Fold the pastry up over the cheese to cover. Trim the excess pastry and press to seal. Brush the seam with the egg mixture. Place seam-side down onto a baking sheet. Decorate with the pastry scraps, if desired. Brush with the egg mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Let stand for 45 minutes. Serve with crackers.

*****

I made this with apricot preserves because I just thought it sounded better than using raspberry, which is kind of weird because I don't like apricots. I guess I can appreciate their flavor, though. This was warm and gooey and cheesy and oozy...everything awesome that baked brie is supposed to be. There wasn't a whole lot of this left when the night was done. I did have some for lunch the next day; my mom said it was even good cold, so I figured I wouldn't be doing anyone justice if I didn't try it that way to report for myself. And of course she was right, but really my mom and I like just about anything cold, so it wasn't a big surprise.

I had planned on making baked brie for my friend Jen B's baby shower in a few weeks, and I think I might make this version because it was so good. Assuming, of course, that she approves of it.

Picture to come! (I think anyway...I might not have taken a picture...guess I'll find out.)

Dream Dinners' Almond Chicken

Well, we're back from our week at the beach. How I wish I could afford to live in San Diego. I love the city, it's so temperate...I could easily live there if it wasn't so stinkin' expensive. We had a great time with Jen B. and her son and my mom, then my brother came down for the weekend from Seattle. It was a great time--we fit A LOT into a week. I'm still trying to recover. We got home late Sunday night, so yesterday was spent doing laundry and trying to get everything back in order. I wanted to stay home all day because the poor baby had been in his carrier basically for four days straight (Legoland on Thursday, San Diego Zoo on Friday, Knott's Berry Farm on Saturday, and driving home on Sunday. I said we did a lot--and that was only the last half of the week!), and I thought I'd have a baby mutiny on my hand if I tried to take him anywhere. The husband and I are also going to be leading a small group from our church, and we were supposed to have our first meeting tonight, so I needed something that didn't require a trip to the store and would be easy and fast since people were coming over at 6:30.

Luckily my MOMS Club went to Dream Dinners recently so I had some dinners from that stuck in my freezer. Dream Dinners is a genius idea, and frankly I kick myself for not thinking of something similar. You go to their store, which is basically a big kitchen with several stations, and prepare a bunch of meals to stick in your freezer. They provide all the ingredients, and everything goes in either Ziploc bags or disposable pans. Smart, huh? It's even fairly reasonably priced. They require you to order a minimum of 36 servings, and all entrees come in three or six serving sizes. Some of my friends and I went in together to get to the required 36 servings. That way we all got to try some of the dinners but didn't have to fork out all the money it would cost to do it yourselves. The dinners were between $11 and $14 dinners I think for the three serving sizes. If I worked I would definitely consider doing this on a regular basis, but since I normally have a well-stocked pantry and grocery shop based on what's on sale, it's not really a money saver for me. I would go in with friends again, though, as I like the idea of having some "go to" stuff in the freezer.

Almond Crusted Chicken
Adapted from: Dream Dinners

3 chicken breasts
1/4 cup of egg substitute or separated egg whites
3/4 cup of Panko bread crumbs
3/4 cup of sliced almonds
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
Cooking spray
2 gallon sized zip top bags
sweet and sour sauce for dipping(optional)

Place chicken breast in a large zip top bag with egg substitute (or egg whites). Seal bag and turn until all chicken is well coated and set aside. In a separate bag add: Panko, almonds, salt, and pepper. Shake to combine and set aside. Now, take chicken bag and drain off excess egg mixture and remove the chicken. Then, add chicken pieces to the second bag with the Panko/almond mixture (discard the first bag that had the raw chicken and egg in it). Seal bag and shake to coat chicken.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Place coated chicken on cookie sheet and place excess breadcrumb/almond mixture on top of each piece of chicken. Spray tops of chicken with additional cooking spray. Cook chicken for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked (internal temp. of 165 degrees F). Serve with sweet and sour sauce on the side, for dipping (optional).

*****

This was pretty good. Really easy to make and put together, even if you hadn't done it ahead of time and stuck it in the freezer. We had some couscous and green beans on the side. Unfortunately my camera was upstairs because I had uploaded all 573 pictures I took from our trip and forgot to bring the camera downstairs. And my point and shoot camera had an unfortunate run-in with the ocean when I was saving my son from nearly drowning and being swept out to sea.