balsamic glazed salmon

My mom gave me a jar of Black Garlic in my stocking.  She said it was a new hip and happening food item and she thought I would enjoy trying it.  Well, I just used it for the first time in this recipe and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

Black Garlic’s website describes it as “a simple food with a wonderfully complex flavor. Black garlic is sweet meets savory, a perfect mix of molasses-like richness and tangy garlic undertones. It has a tender, almost jelly-like texture with a melt-in-your-mouth consistency similar to a soft, dried fruit.  Black garlic is all-natural. There are no additives and no preservatives. Ever. In fact, there’s only one ingredient—garlic. It’s aged for a month in a special fermentation process under high heat, where it develops its darker color, softer texture and sweeter taste. Amazing what a month can do.”

oh, sooooo amazing.

I served the salmon with my smashed roasted potatoes and green beans which I roasted in the oven (I sprayed them with a Misto filled with olive oil, sprinkled on salt and added 2 sliced black garlic cloves).  I’ve made this salmon recipe many times without the black garlic and it is fantastic.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
• one clove black garlic, diced
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 4 salmon fillets (6 oz. each)
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp. butter

Whisk together vinegar, juice, honey, black garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Add rosemary sprig.

Heat oil in a cast iron skillet until smoking.  Season salmon with salt and pepper and cook until browned and all but center is opaque.  Transfer to plate and cover with foil.

Decrease heat to medium and add glaze.  Cook until thick and syrupy.  Remove rosemary and whisk in butter.  Pour over salmon.  Serves 4.

Using the Weight Watcher’s Recipe Builder, each serving has 8 PointsPlus.

 

tuna patties

I recently received our health insurance quarterly magazine in the mail.  The article entitled “Eat Well When You Eat Out” caught my eye, but my jaw dropped with the first sentence. “One recent survey of dining behavior found that Americans eat five meals a week in restaurants”.  Wow.  If that’s an average, what’s life like for the other half?

Now, I do love my Pho.  I can walk into my favorite Pho restaurant and they ask “number 6?”.

“Why, yes, thank you very much.”

But something is being lost if we think cooking at home is too difficult/ time-consuming/ overwhelming.  It doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal every day of the week (if you only knew how long it has taken me to realize this!).  Sitting down around the family table, everyone eating the same home cooked meal should be the foundation of family life.

These patties are quick, easy, budget friendly, and versatile.  Put them on a bun or english muffin.  Top with cheese or tomato slice.  Serve with a cup of soup.  In the time it takes you to load up the car, drive to the fast food restaurant and come home, you could have made these and saved a ton of money and excess calories and sodium.

Tuna Patties

• 12 ounces water-packed tuna, drained and flaked
• 2 slices whole-wheat bread, toasted and made into crumbs
• 3 scallions, chopped or 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped drained pimentos
• 1/2 cup egg substitute
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• Misto filled with olive oil

Combine the tuna, bread crumbs, scallions, pimentos, egg substitute, Worcestershire sauce, and salt in a medium bowl.  Shape into 4 patties.

Spray a pan with the Misto, heat to medium.  Add patties and cook until golden brown on each side, about 8 minutes total.

Recipe from Weight Watchers.  4 Points Plus per patty.

 

bacon-corn chowder with shrimp

This is another instance when I wish my picture did the soup better justice.  I’ve had this recipe in my queue since receiving it in the August 2011 Cooking Light Magazine.  It is under the “Super Fast 20 Minute Cooking” section and they didn’t lie.  Fast and delicious, this one will be a keeper.  And you know it’s a winner when your husband takes one bite, looks up and says “this is REALLY good!”.

“What do you eat during the day?” is a question I get asked a lot.  Here is a break-down of yesterday:

Breakfast:  8 oz Fage 0% (3 PointsPlus), berries (0 PointsPlus)

Lunch:  Morningstar tomato, basil and mozzarella patty with a Bun Thin (6 PointsPlus), lettuce, mustard; one package of pre-cooked beets (0 PointsPlus) with small drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Snack:  4 Wasa crackers (2 PointsPlus) and 2 Light BabyBel cheese (2 PointsPlus)

Dinner:  1 2/3 cup Bacon-corn chowder with shrimp (8 PointsPlus)

Dessert:  diet hot cocoa (1 PointsPlus) with 10 mini marshmallows (1 PointsPlus)

(I know this only added up to 23 PointsPlus, and my target for weight loss is 26, but I felt like I ate enough )  And I did get a 35 minute walk with Marc and Charlie, the Westie.

Bacon-corn Chowder with Shrimp

• 6 slices lean bacon, chopped
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups frozen (or fresh) corn kernels, thawed
• 2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 lb. peeled and deveined medium shrimp, thawed
• 1/3 cup half and half
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add bacon to pan; saute until bacon just becomes crisp.  Remove the equivalent of 2 slices of bacon and set aside.  Remove bacon fat from pan.  Add onion, celery, thyme, and garlic to pan and saute for 2 minutes.  Add corn, and cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add broth, bring to boil, and cook for 4 minutes.

Place 2 cups of the corn mixture in a blender.  Remove the center piece of the blender lid (so the steam can escape), place lid on blender (why did I feel like I had to tell you that?).  Place a towel over the opening of the lid to avoid splatters and blend until smooth.  Return pureed corn mixture to pan.  Stir in shrimp and cook until done.  Stir in half-and-half and pepper.  Crumble reserved bacon over soup.  Yields 4 servings (serving size about 1 2/3 cup).

Using the nutrition stats supplied by Cooking Light, and inputting them into the Weight Watcher’s Recipe Builder, each 1 2/3 cup serving has 8 PointsPlus.

 

salmon chowder

My oven won’t be fixed until next week, so here’s another soup recipe!  I love to use this on Friday’s during Lent.  I just wish this picture looked better, because it doesn’t do the soup justice.  It looks so much better in person!  The soup uses fennel….don’t be afraid!!  Just dice the stalk up like celery.  It adds such a great flavor to the soup and complements the salmon so well.  If you’ve never tried fennel before, now is the time.

Salmon Chowder

• 2 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 fennel bulb, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 ounces russet potato, skin on, diced
• 1 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 lb. salmon, cut in 1/2″ pieces
• 2 cups fat-free half and half
• salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add vegetables, stirring well.  Add the bay leaf and broth and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat to medium and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the fish.  Add the half and half and bring up the temperature of the soup, being careful not to allow it to boil.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe from Kitchen Parade.  Using the Weight Watcher’s Recipe Builder, I calculated that each 1 1/2 cup serving has 5 pts+.

 

tilapia with tomatoes and capers

I have a handful of tilapia recipes in my recipe binder since I have a vegetarian and a Weight Watcher in the family.  Tilapia is easy to prepare and is done in minutes.  It’s low in fat, calories, and PointsPlus and high in protein.  I also use it in my fish tacos and in a dish with a coconut curry sauce.

Tilapia with Tomatoes and Capers

• 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 4 (6 oz) tilapia fillets
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 shallots, minced
• 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 Tbsp. capers
• 1/4 cup white wine
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Place tilapia on a broiler pan sprayed with non-stick spray.  Using a Misto filled with olive oil, or olive oil non-stick spray, lightly coat tilapia and season with salt and pepper.  Preheat broiler to low and place rack 8 inches from top of oven.

In a medium saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and shallots and saute for 4-5 minutes.  Add tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Add wine and saute until the wine reduces, about 5 minutes.  Add capers and stir for one minute.

Broil fish until cooked through, about 7 minutes.

Serve fish with tomato caper sauce.  Serves 4.

Recipe slightly adapted from Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes.

Using the Weight Watcher’s Recipe Builder, each serving has 6 PointsPlus.

 

shrimp cobb salad

We went on another bike ride (I know!  75 miles total in one week!  I’m obsessed.  I actually told my husband that I thought biking was a little known fitness secret.  His reply, in deadpan and as several bikers passed us:  yeah, not many people know about it.)

I’m just so happy to be doing something aerobic and not have my body hurt.  I have dealt with a  moderately herniated L4-L5 disc for the past 2 1/2 years.  Unrelenting sciatica and foot numbness 24/7.  FINALLY I am pain-free and ready to enjoy exercise again.  Walking is fine, but biking seems to be the thing for me.  Zero pain.  And if you bike 12 mph or over, you rack up Weight Watcher activity points.  I recently did a 100 minute ride and accumulated 21 activity points!  In contrast, a 60 minute walk adds up to 4 activity points.

So, we got back from our ride and had this salad whipped together in 20 minutes.  Its super yummy and super summer-y.

Shrimp Cobb Salad

 

fish tacos

I love this recipe. My family loves this recipe.  It is super fast and has minimal ingredients.  But what I love most is the sauce!  Since it is made with Fage 0% greek yogurt, you can pile it on and get tons of flavor for little WWpts+.

Fish Tacos

 

orange-glazed salmon kebobs

After a day of browsing the booths at Meeker Day’s in downtown Puyallup, our family needed a nice light dinner.  These kebobs are unbelievably delicious and super easy to make!  The marinade is so yummy….citrus and garlic.  The salmon cooks quickly under the broiler and my kids love eating it off of the skewers.  Try substituting chicken, beef or tofu for the salmon.

Orange-glazed Salmon Kebobs

 

grilled salmon salad

Today I decided that maybe if I acted like it was Spring, then maybe it would come true.  This is a delicious salad from Sunset Magazine.  I’ve had it in my recipe book for over 10 years and usually make it in the spring/summer when the Copper River Salmon is available.  So here’s hoping my mojo will work and we’ll be getting the sunscreen out soon!

Grilled Salmon Salad

 

tilapia with thai coconut curry sauce

I want to apologize for the lack of posts over the past two weeks.  I had a minor surgical procedure and have been on the mend.  But now I am back 100%!

This is yet another dish from Gina’s Skinny Recipes (www.skinnytaste.com).  I adore tilapia!  It cooks fast, is low in Weight Watcher points and my family loves it.  Look for my fish tacos soon!

The sauce is what makes this dish such a winner.  Don’t be put off by the amount of ingredients.  I like to have everything “mise en place” (a French term for having the components of your dish prepped and waiting for you).  Spend 5 minutes assembling a few custard cups full of your ingredients, and you will have a dish that comes together very quickly!  For this dish I would have separate custard cups for:

1. ginger and garlic
2. pepper and green onions
3. curry powder, curry paste, cumin
4. soy sauce, brown sugar, fish sauce
5. cilantro

p.s. one of the things I am learning with food blogs is to make sure your camera is ready!  I finished preparing this dish, reached for my camera and realized that I had left it on, draining the battery.  My husband was nice enough to snap this with his phone.

Tilapia with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce