Baked Mahi Mahi with Fruit Salsa and Coconut Rice

I have to apologize in advance for this one! 

I didn't pay any attention to measurements while making this. 

This dish has a delicious tropical flavor to it!

Ingredients:

4 Mahi Mahi Filets (I used Full Circle Wild Caught)

Fresh Pineapple

1-2 Mangos

1 Red Bell Pepper

A Bunch of Cilantro

2-4 Jalapeno Peppers

1 Avocado

1/2 Small Onion

A Couple Limes

/Lemons for Squeezing

Salt & Pepper to taste

Coconut Oil (optional)

Coconut Rice:

1 Cup Organic Brown Long Grain Rice

1 Cup Coconut Milk (replace water on Rice Package Directions)

1 Teaspoon Salt

3/4 Teaspoon of Sugar

A small amount of Chopped Cilantro

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees

2. Peel and cut Mango and pineapple into chunks. Chop up remaining fruits, onion and cilantro into pieces (whatever size you prefer for your salsa).

3.  Reserve approximately 1-2 cups of mango, pineapple and Jalapeno from salsa mixture.  Put in a blender or food processor and puree mix.

4.  Mix remaining fruits together in a bowl, squeeze lime juice and salt to taste.  Cover and put in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  (The flavors need time to blend together)

5.  Wash and season Mahi filets, pat dry with paper towel and season with salt and pepper.

6.  Prepare baking pan(s) by lightly coating bottom and sides with coconut oil. (Or whatever oil you choose)

7. Place fish in the pan and top with Mango/Pineapple Puree.  Cover dish(s) and bake for 20-30 Minutes depending on your oven.

8.  Fluff Coconut Rice with fork when finished and add cilantro.  Place a scoop on each plate, top with fish, drizzle a little extra puree if desired and top it off with the fruit salsa!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Mmmmm..These are delicious!  For me one of the hardest parts of cooking is measuring and creating recipes!  I love to pull food and spices out and just go to town!  Sometimes I will accidentally create something great for dinner and then have a friend ask for the recipe.  Uh-oh!  "I believe it was a little of this" or "about this much of that" and my favorite phrase is "just to taste."  For me a great way to remember what I put in a dish is to take a picture of all the ingredients together!

(like this!)

Okay So here is my makeshift recipe!

1 lb. of Organic Grass Fed Ground Beef

Organic Long Grain Brown Rice (according to package for 4-6 servings

(4) Each Red and Green Bell Peppers

1 Small Sweet Onion

3-4 Cloves of Garlic

1 Jar of Spicy Arrabiata Sauce

Freshly Grated Parmigiano

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Olive Oil or Butter (for Saute)

Fresh Thyme

Fresh Basil

Salt and Pepper "to taste"

Directions:

1. Prepare rice according to the package directions.

2. While the rice is cooking finely chop up onion, one of each bell pepper, garlic cloves, basil and Thyme.

3. Grate Parmigiano and set aside.

4. In a skillet heat oil or butter and saute onion for 2-3 minutes, add bell peppers and saute until soft.

5. Drain onion/bell peppers and set aside.

6. brown beef in skillet, drain and return to the pan.

7. Add Garlic, onion/bell pepper mixture and stir.

8.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

9.  Add desired amount of rice to the mixture and mix well.

10.  Mix in cheeses, desired amount of sauce to coat, thyme and basil.

11.  Turn the stove on low and cover the mixture to allow the flavors to blend.

12.  Cut a circle around the stem of the remaining 6 bell peppers, cut and pull out seeds, be careful not to cut through the bottom or it will leak when cooking.

13.  Stuff each pepper and top with additional cheese if desired and replace each stem top.

14.  Pop them in the oven and cook for about 20-30 minutes depending on your oven.

Ready to go in the oven!

Fresh out of the oven!

                                   I like to slice them in half before I serve them!

                    I served it with a side salad and more arrabiata sauce for dipping!

Breakfast for Dinner

My kids little faces always light up when I tell them we are having breakfast for dinner...especially if I'm making pancakes!  Last night I made our favorite recipe for Apple Cinnamon Pancakes.  I doubled the cinnamon in the recipe and used slightly less milk.  These pancakes are so delicious and fluffy that you really do not need syrup!  For our family of four I scaled the recipe to 6 servings and that seemed to be perfect. 

I haven't ventured into making my own sausage yet so for now this is what I used: Chicken and Maple Breakfast Sausage which were very good.  I have experimented with other nitrite/nitrate free natural chicken sausages and hated them!  I would definitely recommend this brand!  I have this new found love with green onions, so I chopped up a few along with a few sprigs of fresh organic thyme and tossed them in with the scrambled eggs along with some grated Asiago cheese, salt and pepper!  These eggs were full of flavor!  The potatoes were simply grated and tossed into the pan with some olive oil, salt pepper, red and green bell peppers and cooked until tender and browned.  Very simple but very good!

Marsala Chicken

This is one of my all time favorite chicken dishes!  There are so many variations to Chicken Marsala but I like this one because it is a little on the light side!  Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I LOVE mushrooms..I could eat them with everything!  Toss mushrooms in with my other loves of pasta, cheese, wine and chicken..Voila! A Kala favorite!  I used a variation of this recipe:  Restaurant Chicken Marsala.  I used all organic ingredients except for the wine!  Also  I added a ton of extra mushrooms.  I used Goat's Milk Mozzarella mixed with Grated Asiago Cheese to top the chicken with before broiling.  This was extremely delicious!! We all had second helpings and I had the rest for lunch the next day!  Serve it with your favorite pasta and a side of steamed broccoli topped with the Marsala sauce!  (or whatever you feel like at the moment!) Enjoy!

Gotta love it!

Vegan Vegetable Pasta

Growing up, my family has always been big meat eaters.  To this day my dad LOVES to BBQ any kind of meat.  It has always been the center of a meal.  Recently I have been trying to eat less meat after learning many un appetizing things about the care and hygeine that slaughter animals are given.  Not to mention all the hormones and antibiotics that are pumped into them..which then in turn get pumped into our own bodies.  Anyway, I have been trying to only buy free range organic and/or 100% grass fed meat.  That can be hard on a tight budget so I decided to cut out meat one night a week.  My husband isn't too crazy about this since he thinks he will be weak if he doesn't have meat every meal.  Slowly but surely he is coming around (just a little though) lol.  Anyway I forgot to set the salmon out Sunday night so Meatless Monday it was!  A veggie pasta is always delicious and you can make it differently everytime.  Last night I decided to try something a little different. 

Vegan Vegetable Pasta:

1/2 Box of Whole Wheat Organic Pasta (I used Linguine)
Olive Oil (at least 6 Tablespoons)
1 Sunburst Squash cut into bite size pieces (Preferrably Organic~No drugs in them)
6 Asparagus Spears, remove woody stalks and cut
1/4 Cup Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1/4 Cup Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1/2 Cup Grape Tomatoes, sliced
Fresh Garlic, finely chopped (To taste..I like alot)
1/2 of a small onion, finely chopped

6 Crimini Mushrooms, cleaned, peeled and sliced
1 Lemon with peel for zesting.
1-2 Oranges
1 Tablespoon of Ginger, Grated
Salt n Pepper to taste

(I know, I didn't show all the ingredients lol)

1. Cook Pasta according to box directions, do not overcook.  Add a little olive oil to pasta so it doesn't stick.
2. After chopping all vegetables, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a non stick skillet.
3. Add onions and saute for 1 minute.
4. Add red and green bell peppers, saute for another minute.
5. Add Asparagus and tomatoes and sautee for another 1-3 minutes, adding more olive oil if necessary.
6. Add squash, mix then add mushrooms and garlic.
7. Continue to saute just until asparagus and squash are tender.
8. Toss in pasta and mix well, adding remaining olive oil if you want. (I did..lol)
9. Mix in Grated Ginger.
10. Zest one lemon and then sqeeze the juice into the pan (I used a small lemon, you may want to use less juice if your lemon is large.
11. squeeze the juice of one orange into the pan and mix well.
12.  Add salt and pepper as you like and serve!

Ham Cups with Poached Eggs

The hubby and kids were having pizza, but after the pasta and white wine sauce the night before I figured I better go easy on the carbs since I didn't have any workout plans!  I quickly whipped this together, easy peasy!

Ham Cups with Poached Eggs

3 Slices of Homel all natural Ham

1.5 slices of swiss cheese (preferrably organic)

1 Cup of raw organic baby spinach

3 large eggs

Salt, Pepper and Cayenne to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees
2. Oil a large muffin pan and place a slice of ham in each (I used 3)
2. Place spinach leaves in ham.
3. Top spinach with half a slice of cheese (broken up if necessary)
4. Pop it in the oven and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes.
5. While the ham cups are heating up, poach 3 eggs.
6. Top each ham cup with a poached egg and sprinkle with desired seasoning!

Baked Salmon in White Wine Sauce

It isn't everyday that I can get salmon around here that isn't farm raised with color added or from China.  So when I do come across Wild Atlantic Salmon, I can't pass it up.  I usually dress it up with some lemon, butter and herbs, simple but delicious.  I wanted to try something different this time and came across a recipe for Salmon in White Wine Sauce.  I used a combination of these two recipes: Salmon with white wine and Salmon Linguine with White Wine.  I made the sauce base with the second recipe and add the herbs from the first.  I seasoned the salmon filets and baked them at 350 Degrees for about 25 minutes.   Top it with the white wine sauce and Voila! You can pair this with whatever sounds good to you, I made a basic salad and red roasted potatoes with dill! Delicious!

This sauce is so rich and creamy, I couldn't wait to have it again! So....I used the leftover salmon and sauce the next night.  I cut the salmon into chunks and heated it in a saucepan with the white wine sauce, tossed it with Linguine and sprinkled on some extra dill.  Wow! This was AMAZING!  I felt somewhat guilty for eating such a rich and high carb meal...but not guilty enough to stop at one serving! Bwahahaha!