Fish Tacos!

I really thought I was going to write this post last night immediately after dinner...so much for that.
Alright, let's get to it. I made fish tacos yesterday and found it to be a simple dish to make.

Ingredients:

1. 1-2 tbsp of Olive Oil
2. 1 pkg of fish - I used Mahi-Mahi (only $6.99 at the grocery!)
3. 2 tbsp taco seasoning
4. 1/2 cup water
5. 1/2-1 bell pepper cut in strips (use as much or as little as you like - I used 1/2)
6. 1 lime
7. Coleslaw (yes, you can use the pre-packaged kind)
8. Handful of Shredded Carrots (if you're feeling lucky)

Directions (for cooking on stove top):

1. Coat pan with olive oil
2. Put fish in pan and flip every 3 minutes for 10-12 minutes (this time will vary depending on how thawed out the fish is)
3. Immediately after putting the fish in the pan, add the 2 tbsp of taco seasoning and the 1/2 cup of water
4. Towards the end of cooking the fish, you'll want to flake apart the fish into smaller pieces
5. After doing this, add the peppers and carrots and stir
6. Add lemon juice
7. Serve with coleslaw as garnish

Okay so maybe the carrots actually provided a little color and crunch too.

Works great with Guac, so how about a quick guac recipe:

-Use 3 avocados, cut open and squeeze out insides (I've explained the technique in a previous post)

-Add some fresh salsa, like the jar you see in the picture above.

-Squirt on some lime juice throughout the bowl, to prevent browning and for flavor.

-Start off with a little salsa and add more as desired for the flavor you want...yes, you have to try it and see how it tastes!

Here's my plate, but I could definitely use some work on my plating abilities.

Look at this thing! You probably want one...and I don't blame you!

Note: Yeah, we used fresh berries as our fruit, which was delicious, but fish tacos would pair better with pineapple...I'll try that next time.

The First Supper

This was my first adventure into the untraveled frontier known as the kitchen. So bear with me as I explore and tinker with my postings..

About two weeks ago, I prepared part of dinner, but I really just want to talk about one dish in particular. I'm calling it a Shrimp Ceviche, but the name from the website says "Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad".

Ingredients:

1 lb jumbo cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined, chopped*

1 medium tomato, diced

1 avocado, cubed (see photo above - chunks are desired)

1 jalapeno, seeds removed, diced fine (add less then 1 if you don't want it so spicy)

1/4 cup chopped red onion (be prepared to cry - I learned the hard way!)

2 limes, juice of

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

salt and fresh pepper to taste

Prep time is dependent on how well you can cut the ingredients up and for a first timer, it took me longer than it probably will for most.

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix together the red onion, lime juice, olive oil, and pinch of salt and pepper.
2. Let this mix marinate for at least 5 minutes
3. In a large bowl, combine shrimp, avocado, tomato, and jalapeno.
4. Combine all ingredients together, adding cilantro and then gently toss.
5. Serve with your favorite chip (pretzel chips are one of my go-to's)

It's a delicious dish, and it's so good, I'm thinking about using it as the filling for fish tacos!


With time, I'll get more detailed and what not, but for now, this should do the trick.

Additional info about the recipe can be found by clicking here

Refreshing Watermelon Slush

Not messing around with this point, quick and to the point, just like this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups frozen watermelon cubes
• 2 whole limes, juiced
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Take a quarter of a watermelon and cut it cubes. (If you've never cubed a watermelon, click here) A quarter of a watermelon will yield a little more than the 4 cups prescribed.
2. Place the cubed watermelon in a Ziploc bag and freeze for at least an hour...and now we wait.
3. When you pull out the frozen watermelon, take note of how frozen it is. If it doesn't look all that frozen, I would use a cup of ice instead of water in order to get that slushie consistency. If the cubes are sufficiently frozen, use the 1/2 cup of water as instructed
4. Place the frozen watermelon, lime juice, and water/ice into a blender and blend until desired consistency
5. Add more water or ice if needed to achieve that perfect consistency!
6. Enjoy!

Need a quick, easy meal? How about Salmon!

If you've followed me on Facebook, you've seen I've now made two meals with Salmon...

Last night, I made salmon for my sister and I, which was about 1 pound of fish for reference.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F
2. Cover a broiler with foil and spray with olive oil/pam/etc
3. Rinse salmon with cold water and then pat dry
4. Put salmon on pan and season accordingly. I used a seafood blend that was delicious
5. Put in oven for 15 minutes (time will vary depending on amount of fish)

Boom, that's it!

This meal also includes some fresh cut fruit, some potatoes, and a fresh salad. Salad includes cucumber, carrots, green onions, yellow tomatoes, and bell peppers. Pair with your favorite dressing and you've got a great meal!

Total prep time is around 20-25 minutes!

Avocado Chicken Pesto Pasta

This meal started out in a group text with Don and Cate (my father and step-mom for future reference) with the good 'ol question: Whatcha cooking for dinner?

I suggested some kind of pasta and chicken dish and Cate went off trying to find one. We finally settled on an avocado chicken pesto pasta...

NOTE: This is from pinterest, gotta give credit where credit is due. I've copied the list of ingredients and directions below the image.

Ingredients:

• 1 box (12 oz) spaghetti nuoodles
• 1 cup pesto
• 2 avocados, halved and pitted
• Fresh lemon Juice (use 1/2 a lemon's worth of juice)
• 1 cup Sun-dried Tomatoes
• 2 cuups cooked chicken, shredded to bite size

Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions and drain
2. Mash avocados, lemon juice, and pesto together in a large bowl
3. Toss spaghetti with pesto, chicken, and sun-dried tomatoes
4. Serve

A few notes:

-In terms of timing, you probably want to start boiling the water first. 

-I grilled the chicken on the stove. Threw some olive oil in the pan, some salt and pepper on the chicken and in the pan it went. Very easy to cook this way.

-An easy trick for the avocados: Cut them open just like you normally would. But inside of spooning out the inside, just squeeze the outside and push the avocado out. Because the avocados will be mashed up with the pesto and lime juice, this method works well.

-I'm not a huge dried tomatoes fan, so I used fresh-cut tomatoes instead (out of a can).

-I found the pasta to be fairly heavy from the avocado/pesto mix, so in the future, I might try reducing a bit of each from the recipe. I'm gonna try half the amount of both the next time I make it.

Now check out my final product:

If you want to add a little heat, we added some cayenne pepper and it was terrific - I recommend it!