Roasted Salmon w/ mushrooms and truffle oil

From "my Life Runs On Food" with my little twist.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb. salmon; cleaned and seasoned with 1 tsp. truffle oil, sea salt, fresh black pepper, crushed red pepper, lemon juice
1 green garlic; thinly sliced or 1 to 2 minced garlic cloves
10 oz. white button or bella mushrooms
1 tsp. truffle oil
A generous drizzle of olive oil
Sea salt, crushed red pepper, and fresh black pepper; to taste

Dill

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Butter an 8x8x8-inch baking dish.
3. Toss mushrooms, garlic, olive oil, sea salt, and peppers together in the baking dish.
4. Layer salmon on top of the mushrooms.

5. Drizzle the top of the Salmon with Truffle oil and sprinkle dill to cover all the fish.
6. Depending on the thickness of the salmon, bake for 10 to 20 minutes until tender.

Serve with roasted potatoes

Lentil soup (Pressure Cooker)

From Food.com

This recipe is really really easy and came out great!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dry lentils, rinsed and picked
2 bay leaves

DIRECTIONS

In your pressure cooker, sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent.
Add the carrots and celery and saute for a minute or two.
Add the ground cumin and stir well (I used crushed cumin seeds)
Add the vegetable broth, lentils, and bay leaves, close the pressure cooker, and bring up to pressure.
Cook for 20 minutes.
Open the pressure cooker via the quick release method (see your cooker's owner's manual!) or let the pressure come down on its own.
Remove the bay leaves.
Season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Roasted Rosemary Carrots

From Janet Wages

These can be done with regular carrots cut into sticks, way faster with baby carrots.

INGREDIENTS

1 bag (16oz) peeled baby carrots
1 ts dry Rosemary
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 Lemon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oaven at 450 degres
Toss all the ingredients in a bowl and spread evenly on a baking sheet.
Roast for 35 min aprox until carrots are soft.
Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon right before serving

Turkey Ricotta meatballs in chipotle sauce

These have the be the fluffiest meatballs ever! I make them in Chipotle sauce (recipe on link) but they can be in any other sauce you want, tomato sauce for example.

From Food.com

INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground turkey breast
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Combine ground turkey with the other ingredients in a bowl and then shape mixture into about 18 meatballs.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Coat pan with olive oil.
Add meatballs, and brown on all sides.
Once browned  add the chipotle sauce and let the meatballs cook through in the sauce for about 15 minutes or until done.

Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

From EATZ with my tweaks in ( ) because of availability in my kitchen

INGREDIENTS for the sauce

 1 small shallot (1/4 yellow onion)
4 whole black peppercorns
3 fluid ounces white wine
1 fluid ounce white wine vinegar (Apple cider vinegar)
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
8-12 ounces clarified butter
Cayenne pepper as needed (white pepper + paprika)
salt s needed

DIRECTIONS for the sauce

In a small saucepan, combine the shallots, peppercorns, wine and vinegar. Reduce over low heat to about 1 tablespoon. Strain the reduction.
In a stainless steal bowl, add the egg yolks and shallot reduction. Using a whisk, whip the mixture until "ribbon stage" (it will look pa;e yellow and slightly thick). Whisk over a "bain-marie" until the mixture has just thickened. Do not scramble the eggs, control heat by removing and returning bowl from "bain-marie". Slowly drizzle in the lukewarm clarified butter 1 ounce at a time. When consistency has reached a velvety smooth texture, add lemon juice. Season with a bit of cayenne pepper and salt and serve immediately, sauce keeps thickening and does not look as nice ;-)

DIRECTIONS for the asparagus

Put asparagus in boiling water for about 12-16 min depending on size and thickness and transfer to iced water for a minute or so. Drain water and serve.

Blue cheese Buffalo chicken breasts

From foodnetwork.com courtesy George Duran w/ some tweaks

INGREDIENTS

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 pound blue cheese
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup hot sauce (salsa buffalo)
2 tablespoons white vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a sharp knife, cut a pocket into each chicken breast. Stuff 1/4 of the blue cheese into each breast. Secure the openings with toothpicks and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a nonstick, oven-proof skillet over medium heat and sear the chicken on both sides until browned, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Put the chicken into the oven until it is cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes.

In a small pot, add the butter, hot sauce, and white vinegar and cook over medium heat until bubbling. Pour half the sauce over the hot chicken and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove the toothpicks and serve with extra sauce.

Serve with Skinny mashed potatoes and salad.

Zucchini & carrot salad w/Feta Cheese

From Pinterest w/ some tweaks

INGREDIENTS:

1 large raw zucchini
1 medium raw carrot
salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

Wash zucchini and carrot and peel them.
After peeled, keep going with the peeler trying to make long stripes, add salt, pepper, vinegar, Olive oil and sprinkle with some Feta Cheese.

Serve chilled.

Pierna de puerco (Cuban Style)

From Bere Alvarez via "Alvaritos"


INGREDIENTS

1 6lbs bone in pork leg
1 garlic head
¾ cup of sour orange juice (naranja agria)
1 tbs of oregano.2 tsps of cumin
½ tsp of pepper
2 tbs of salt
1.5 lbs of onions



DIRECTIONS


Clean the leg and pierce in several parts with a knife.
Crush the garlic with the salt, oregano, cumin, pepper and add the sour orange juice and sliced onions.
Rub and cover the leg with this marinade and place in the fridge for 12 hours, at least.
Bake covered at 325 °F for 2 hours and take foil off 1 hrs before done, baste every 20 min or so.

(Think aprox 20min/pound or internal temperature of 160ºF-170ºF)

Best Chipotle Sauce and Tilapia

Best & easiest Chipotle Sauce!

Here with Tilapia, but can be used with pretty much every meat, fish or poultry.

INGREDIENTS

• 
  
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (You can use 2 frozen cilantro cubes)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 canned chipotles in adobo
• 1 tablespoon of low fat mayo
• 1/3 cup skim milk
• salt to taste
• 4 tilapia fillets

DIRECTIONS

Preheat broiler.

Put all the ingredients in a tall container and use an immersion blender until smooth.

Grill fish until just cooked through, 6 to 9 minutes.

Put fillet on the plate and then pour the sauce on it.

Serve with wild rice and tomato salad.

Poulet au vin Blanc (White wine Chicken)

VERY EASY!!!
From Darlyne Chauve


INGREDIENTS:

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 packet of lipton onion soup (I made my own soup)
2 cups white wine
One bay leaf
Black olives (I like green better)
Assorted chicken pieces (I used only boneless chicken breast)
One cup half and half

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven 350*F
Mix all the ingredients together.  ( except the half and half)
In a cooking pot that goes in the oven put the sauce and the chicken, cover with Tin foil
Bake in oven for 1.1/2 hours (30 min for boneless chicken breast)
After that take tin foil off, stir in half and half and continue to cook for another. 15 minutes (5 for boneless chicken breast)

Voila  Poulet aux vin blanc the easy way!!!


Serve over steamed potatoes or white rice.

Picadillo (Ground beef stew)

INGREDIENTS

1/2 kg lean ground beef
3 medium tomatoes
1 medium finely chopped white onion
1 cup assorted veggies (carrots, chickpeas, green beans, all vegies can be frozen)
1/2 cup cubed potatoes
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
1 serrano chile (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Add olive oil to a stew pot, add 1/2 chopped onion and then, once fried add the cubed potatoes, cook for 3 min and add lean ground beef cook for 3 more min and add 1 chopped tomato, cook thoroughly. Stir it a bit.

Add all frozen veggies to the pot, and stir them for 5 minutes.
While the meat is cooking, to a blender add the other 2 tomatoes, the stock and the other 1/2 onion.

Stir in the blended sauce and season with salt.

Cover and bring to a boil adding the Serrano chile if so. Add more stock if it gets too dry. Once boiled, reduce heat to low and cook for another 15 minutes until the meat is completely cooked. Picadillo must be a bit runny; not too dry or watery.

Serve over white rice!