FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Spaghetti Squash Shrimp Scampi

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Spaghetti Squash Shrimp Scampi

There’s something about organizing kitchen cabinets at home and presenting in front of a first-time crowd at work that put an extra pep in my step today.  I borderline skipped to Whole Foods this evening, enjoying the slightly crisp air and an even more crisp mind.

Shrimp

The last thing I wanted to do was fog everything up with a heavy dinner.  I wanted light and flavorful.  Seafood, fresh veggies, and herbs would do the trick.  Seafood, fresh veggies, and herbs… always do the trick.

Shrimp Scampi

Add music, breeze-filled windows, and quality time in the kitchen – it was the best weeknight I’ve had in quite some time.  I got to cooking to the tune of this album.

Spaghetti Squash Shrimp Scampi 2

And when it was all said and done, I was left with the exact dinner I had in mind sitting front of me, ready to photograph.  It was lovely.

Array

Simple Nut-Crusted Fish

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I’m fairly certain that nut-crusted fish is one of those dishes that’s supposed to be difficult and unhealthy.  But if blogging has taught me anything, it’s that difficult and unhealthy are two things I am fully capable of transforming into easy and healthy.  And over time, I’ve found that the easier I make a recipe, whether it be by taking out ingredients or reducing steps, the healthier it becomes.

Baking over frying and almond meal over flour were the two major changes I made to what I can only assume a restaurant recipe would be.  Baking the fish turns cooking time from active to inactive, drastically reduces clean-up, and eliminates the need for excess oil.  Almond meal adds protein, fiber, and several vitamins, whereas regular flour just adds… white?  Ohhh just kidding, regular flour, if enriched, adds a teeny amount of vitamins.

FoodFash Walnut Crusted Halibut (yields 2 servings)

2 halibut fillets

1/2 cup California Walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup almond meal

1 egg

your favorite fish seasoning to taste

Place oven rack on the 2nd highest level and preheat to 400 degrees.  Mix chopped nuts and almond meal in a shallow bowl.  Beat egg in a separate shallow bowl.  Remove as much moisture from the fish as you can with a paper towel.  Dip one fish fillet into the beaten egg until well coated.  Gently place the egg coated fish in the nut mixture.  Flip the fish to coat the other side and gently press nut mixture into the fish to ensure that it is evenly coated.  Repeat.  Spray a foil lined cookie sheet with olive oil spray.  Place nut crusted fish fillets on the cookie sheet and sprinkle with seasoning.  Bake for 15 minutes or until fish is completely cooked and nuts are browned.

Adding nuts to fish makes for a protein-a-licious dinner.  And since nuts are inherently crunchy, the baked nut crust gives the illusion that you’re eating something breaded and fried.  An illusion that would also hold true with pecans, almonds, and coconut or another fish/chicken.

Weekday Eggs

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I am way boring when it comes to weekday breakfast.  Greek yogurt or flax oats have been my staple sit-at-my-desk-and-eat-while-I-work morning meal for entirely too long.  And since I’ve cut out Greek yogurt in an effort to get back to the land of non-dairy (gasp!), I had to come up with an oatmeal alternative, stat.

I dabbled in weekday eggs a few months ago, but baking breakfast (along with dinner) every other night and dirtying up a ton of Pyrex dishes is about as far from realistic as it gets.  But now that I finally have a muffin pan again, it dawned on me that weekday eggs can be a thing.  An awesome, un-boring, AM veggie kind of thing.

FoodFash Weekday Eggs (yields 4 servings)

14 ounces of veggie sausage (or 1 lb of turkey sausage)

6 eggs

1 cup of broccoli floretts, chopped (or any green veggie)

hot sauce to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice sausage into 12 equal parts and smoosh a piece into each muffin hole.  Bake until sausage is cooked all the way through (about 10 minutes).  Remove sausage from oven and set aside.  In a medium sized bowl, beat eggs.  Add veggies and hot sauce, noting that salt is unnecessary due to the saltiness of the sausage.  Spoon about 2 tablespoon of eggs over each piece of sausage.  Place back in oven and bake for 15 minutes or until eggs are cooked all the way through.  Put three frittatas to a sandwich bag and store in the refrigerator.  Reheat for 30-45 seconds in your office micro and enjoy!

If you’re looking for a way to make your co-workers and Instagram followers drool in a jealous stupor, eating these bad boys for breakfast will surely get you there.  And a bonus?  I found myself much more energized during my lunch-hour spin class.  I can see myself making these weekly, subbing with other greens and “meats” to keep it interesting.

What veggie/meat/non-meat combo would be your favorite?

A FoodFash Best

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I had no idea how much goodness I was getting myself into tonight.  I had some leftover dip ingredients and frozen salmon fillets and thought “why not?”.  If you follow me on Instagram, surely you could sense my hesitation when I posted this picture.  But boy was I wrong!

FoodFash Salmon Cakes (yields 1 – 425 calorie serving)

6 oz. salmon fillet, thawed

1/2 small avocado (the 99 cent size)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup fresh parsley

2 green onions, chopped

salt to taste

nonfat plain Greek yogurt for garnish

In a food processor, puree avocado, lemon juice, and half of the salmon fillet.  Add the onions, parsley, salt, and remaining salmon and pulse a few times until all of the ingredients are mixed, but the salmon is still chunky (see below).

Heat frying pan over medium heat.  Spray with olive oil (or a high heat oil may work better).  Remove all of the salmon mix and form into a patty with your hands.  Cook patty for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, flipping gently so the salmon cake stays in tact.  If a small piece breaks off, gently form back together with the spatula.  Dollop with Greek yogurt and serve.

I’m going to try my hardest to use a word other than wow to explain what was going through my mind as I ate every last bite.  The tartness of the lemon, the slight texture of the chunk salmon, the crunch of the green onion, the coolness of the Greek yogurt…  It all came together more perfectly than I ever could have imagined.  And the avocado?  The avocado just did it’s little glue-like thing in the background.