Dinner Cheat: Salmon Kebabs with Pesto Quinoa Salad

I don't know how the weekend flew by as impossibly fast as it did, but here it is Monday morning all over again. While the weeks have been whizzing by this year as well, I am especially excited for this week-it is EXTRA short because we are leaving for Honolulu on Thursday morning, hazzah! We are long overdue for a holiday.

That being said, between the nonstop weekend and the fact that we are about to be gone for 10 days, I didn't go too overboard or stock up too much at the shops during my weekly run, although I did buy a zillion pounds of greens. We'll be heavily salad based for the next few days, even though I should probably be doing a juice cleanse; somehow that didn't seem sustainable for crossfit.

I went through a phase in the winter where I would make a little more elaborate Sunday dinners since I had the time and it was colder out. Now that it is a zillion degrees and sunny, we've been taking advantage of our drinking pool and had some friends over to enjoy a lazy Sunday; unfortunately Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell couldn't make it. Regardless, this was a pretty lazy dinner.

I bought pre-made salmon kebabs from WFM, which were actually really good value for money at $6.99/each. I whipped up a quick batch of pesto quinoa (grains! for the first time in a long time!) and a dijon vinaigrette for the salad and we were off!

For the salmon kebabs, they really only needed a few minutes on the grill, maybe 7 tops. This was fresh atlantic salmon and the fat content is a little higher, making it more forgiving on the grill. Put them on after you've started your quinoa, since you can kindof ignore it while it bubbles away.

Once you've got your quinoa and your kebabs on, you can make your salad dressing too and throw together your salad. I used mixed greens, golden cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, and toasted almonds in mine, but throw in what you like and what you have around. Honestly you could easily do this meal during the week as well; it came together in about 30 minutes.

Pesto Quinoa Salad

3/4c quinoa, rinsed

2tbsp pesto

1/2 bell pepper, any color, diced

fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the quinoa to remove the saponins, which tend to make the grain a bit bitter. You can toast the quinoa in a dry pan before you start to cook them, if you like but I skipped this step.

Add the quinoa to a saucepan and add 1.5c water (the ratio for water to quinoa is 2:1 for future reference) cover, and bring to a boil. Give a quick stir once the grains are boiling, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally as you want the quinoa to be fluffy.

Once cooked, toss with pesto, bell pepper, parsley, and salt and pepper.

Basic Dijon Vinaigrette

Inspired by Jane

2tbsp dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, minced

1tbsp honey

2tbsp red wine vinegar

1tbsp black cherry balsamic vinegar

2 to 3tbsp good olive oil

1tsp fresh or dried dill

freshly ground black pepper.

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously. This dressing is nice and tart from the vinegar but is mellowed out slightly by the honey and dijon. If it's too tart, add more oil, but I prefer to go easy on that condiment and always consider what you'll be dressing.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Roasted Red Pepper Frittata

This has been kindof a weird week for us for some reason; maybe because the excitement of my birthday was building up last week and the fact that we’re off to Hawaii next week hasn’t really sunk in yet. Whatever the reason, I’m very much looking forward to the weekend, even though it is a short one.

Tim was kind enough to remind me on Sunday that he had a work dinner the following night, which basically meant I was free to eat leftovers and yogurt for dinner after coming home from crossfit, score. Maybe I should have posted Tuesday night’s shrimp tacos, and the cake totally stole the spotlight from the quick sesame chicken I whipped up that will soon come into heavy rotation at our place. I’ll be sure to share that one when I’ve got a pretty picture to post.

Thursday nights are usually a bit of a crapshoot for us; sometimes it means we get to start our weekends early thanks to our work schedule, sometimes we go out, sometimes I grab prepared foods from WFM, sometimes I work with what I got.

In the fridge, we had 5 eggs, a carton of egg whites, some leftover mushrooms and some bell peppers. There’s more stuff in there too, but I wasn’t really planning on using the cranberry jalapeno jelly. I knew there was some spinach in the freezer too; sounds like frittata night to me.

I love the simplicity and versatility of the frittata. It can be savory, it can be eggy, you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sometimes when I get my shizz together, I make one for  the week as a pre-workout snack; they pack really well. It also takes all of 20 minutes to make, start to finish, IF you have veggies to chop.

The first time I made a real frittata was under the supervision of this recipe from Cooking Light for  a smoked trout and asparagus frittata. It was so delicious, filling, simple, and loaded with good for you fish, greens, and eggs. I remember thinking this would be a great base to manipulate to anything I had in the fridge.

I encourage you to do the same-take this base recipe and run with it. Go for goat cheese and peppers, if you’re into that sort of thing. Wild mushrooms and gruyere with fresh herbs would be spectacular. Be creative and resourceful and use whatever is in your fridge or pantry.

Lastly, this particular frittata weighs in at 564 calories….for the whole frittata! If you’re a boy, that’s probably a decent sized dinner. If you’re me, one serving (a fourth of the dish) reaches for 150 calories while still packing a decent 12g of protein. So split the frittata with your better half, toss up a quick salad, and drizzle with a bit of pesto and a grate of fresh parmesan and enjoy a quick healthy meal.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Roasted Red Pepper Frittata
adapted from Cooking Light

First things first, roast your pepper. Place the pepper on a foil lined baking sheet or pan directly under the broiler in your oven. If you’re lucky enough to have a gas stove, you can also do this directly on the burner; it will char much faster this way and you can keep an eye on it.

5 eggs

1/3 c egg whites

1 bell pepper, roasted

1c frozen spinach or 2c fresh spinach

¾c baby portabella mushrooms

½ onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic

While your pepper is roasting, put a cast iron or oven proof skillet on medium high heat and add a bit of olive oil to prevent sticking. Slice your onion and garlic cloves and add to pan. While those are sautéing, crack your eggs and add the egg whites, and whisk well to blend and increase the fluff factor. Salt and pepper the eggs, I also added some dried oregano but if you’re working with fresh herbs add them here too.

Once your onions are soft and slightly browned, add the mushrooms and sauté for another 2-3 minutes, until they have released their juices and are slightly browned. Add the spinach and let thaw/wilt.

Pull your pepper from the oven and wrap loosely in the foil to let sit and steam for a minute or two, then run under the sink to remove the skin and seeds. Slice lengthwise. Add egg mixture to skillet, top with peppers. Let frittata cook stovetop for 2-3 minutes, just until the edges start to set.

Turn the oven down to 400F, and place the frittata in the oven for about 8 minutes. While the frittata is in the oven,  you can whip up a mixed green salad to serve with. Pull the frittata from the oven; the middle should be firm but springy. Slice into 8 wedges and serve with salad. I topped Tim’s with a healthy drizzle of pesto and snowdrift of parmesan.

Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream: The Remix

Last year for Tim's birthday, I sent him to work with a cake to share with his project team; I think it was a vanilla pound cake with raspberry filling and buttercream but it was a long time ago and I've had many cocktails between now and then, so I can't be sure.  

Tim has since asked me to make other baked goodies for his project team, which I am happy to do, because a number 1) I love to bake, and b number 2), its much better for me and my pants if I can bake something and then give it away.

Last night, at Tim's request, I baked a birthday cake for his lovely admin, J. When birthdays are involved, I have a go-to chocolate cake recipe that always delights and is super easy, courtesy of Ina Garten. I've done this cake many times; following her combination of chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream exactly; serving it plain with a dusting of powdered sugar; a quick infusion of grand marnier into the frosting. They have all worked.

Last night, however, as I was making the cake, all I could smell was oil. All I could taste was oil. I started to wonder if maybe I had carelessly used the wrong size measuring cup because surely vegetable oil can't go rancid? It can. And it did. I couldn't serve this disaster to J for her birthday! I had to start over.

I managed to come across this recipe from the food network site for a One Bowl Chocolate Cake. At 11pm, this sounded like the best case scenario-one bowl, baked in 30 minutes and then I can go to bed? Perfect. The buttercream was already ready (and delicious, I might add) so I went for it.

The batter had a wonderful consistency and fantastic cocoa smell; the cakes covered up the oily stench of the previous failures wonderfully. I pulled these babies out of the oven 2 minutes early to let them cool overnight while I crashed upstairs.

Lesson learned: much like a car, your cooking oils too need to be changed!

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

adapted from Jamie Deen

2c flour

2c sugar

1c high quality unsweetened cocoa powder (I used ghiradelli)

2tsp baking soda

1 1/4tsp baking powder

1tsp kosher salt

1c buttermilk

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/2c warm water

3 eggs

2tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease two 8" or 9" round cake pans; if you want to get fancy and put in a sheet of parchment at the bottom, it makes removal super easy.

Sift flour and add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment and mix on low speed until combined. Turn the mixer up a notch and add your eggs, one at a time, then the rest of the remaining wet ingredients. Whisk until well blended; your batter will be nice and thick.

Divide batter evenly among your two cake pans; tap the bottom the cake pan on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean-mine were perfect after 28 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Level cakes so that they are even, then frost generously with a spatula and top with sliced strawberries or other fruit.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Courtesy of Yossy at Apt2B

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 lb sifted confectioners sugar

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1T vanilla extract

large pinch of salt

Cream butter in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until smooth. Add the sugar and salt and beat on high until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla bean and extract, then slowly blend until all elements are well incorporated. 

*This buttercream will keep in the fridge for a week at least, but it will need to be room temp to spread without destroying your cake.  

Choco Banana 'Ice Cream'

It would seem cruel to talk about the lovely choco banana 'ice cream' and not share the goodness. For one thing, frozen bananas are awesome on their own, but tend to get even better when gussied up with chocolate, nuts, coconut, whatever.

When you freeze bananas, the creamy texture impersonates ice cream really well. Add to the fact that they have tons of natural sweetness and you've got a simple healthy dessert at the press of a button. Assuming you have a food processor.

I used some Navitas raw cacao powder and a few Enjoy Life chocolate chunks to top it off. This is a truly wholesome and delicious dessert. You can just keep it as banana if you like to really be pure, but cut yourself some slack every now and then.


1 banana, sliced and frozen
2tsp raw cacao powder
Chocolate Chunks
*Almond milk, other non-dairy milk, regular milk, as needed


After your banana has frozen, pull from freezer and allow to sit for a few minutes to soften. This will help in the process of ice creaming. Add banana slices to a food processor and process until smooth. You may want the help of some form of milk here if your food processor is wimpy and little like mine. Once the consistency looks like ice cream, add the cacao powder and process again until blended.


Top with chocolate chunks (or shredded coconut, or nuts, or whatever) and enjoy with a spoon!

Burger Night

For those of you that may not know, Tim is a dude. A car loving, motorcycle riding, carnivorous Australian to be exact. Naturally this means his favorite foods are burgers, pizza, and since his transplant to Texas, fajitas. But that's another story.

We like to have burger night pretty regularly around here; Tim fires up the grill and whips out his Bar-B-Mate and even has converted our American-issue Weber into the Aussie style half-grill half-hot plate configuration. This is fantastic for caramelizing onions and frying eggs; you'll soon see why this is important.

Back in February, I decided to jump on the gluten free bandwagon. Then I started doing crossfit and have been trying paleo for the past few months, although I do still have a cheat day so that I don't lose my mind and can enjoy the phenomenal restaurants that have decided to invade our neighborhood.

As such, Tim and I generally configure our burgers differently; maybe that's not so abnormal. I suppose everyone has their "go-to" burger build, depending on venue, mood, weather, whatever. We had some leftover pesto and mozzarella at home from dinner the night before, so I was inspired to make Tim a "Caprese Burger."

Just like it sounds, I added fresh mozzarella, some thick heirloom tomato slices, and a quick pesto mayo (literally pesto and mayo) to slather on the buns. Tim decided this burger needed a fried egg as well. I don't know that I would have gone that route, but I'm pretty sure a fried egg is one of those things that makes everything better.

I'm probably the only Texan that didn't grow up eating cow, so I never quite developed a taste for it. I tend to keep turkey burgers in the freezer for such occasions, cause who wants to watch their boyfriend eat a burger and not join in? I whipped up a sweet potato to serve as the base then topped my turkey burger with a fried egg, caramelized onions, and aussie BBQ Sauce, which I'm pretty sure its just ketchup and worcestershire, but its damn tasty.

Lastly, for dessert, a truly lovely treat of choco banana 'ice cream,' 100% vegan and paleo and 200% delicious.

Caprese Burger

1 6oz Beef Burger. Tim's preference here is the gourmet beef burger from WFM.

3 slices fresh mozzarella

1tbsp mayo (I use spectrum eggless lite canola mayo)

2tbsp fresh pesto

2 slices tomato

1 egg, fried

1 bun - your choice here

Heat your grill to medium and let it warm up for a few minutes. While the grill is heating up, mix the mayo and pesto and prep the toppings.

Cook burger to your liking; toast the bun on the grill. At some point, fry up your egg if you're having one, just make sure to keep that yolk runny.

Once the patty is cooked, assemble! Basic structure: bun, pesto mayo, patty, egg, mozzarella, tomato, pesto mayo, bun. Just to make sure you get your veggies, serve with a side salad; Tim got arugula and baby spinach with a drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of lemon.

Assembly: heap your plate with baby spinach and drizzle with olive oil. Structure: sweet potato patty, turkey burger, aussie bbq sauce, fried egg, caramelized onion. Throw some tomato slices on the side and you'll never know you skipped a bun. 

Far East Recovery Soup

Don’t be alarmed, no humans or animals were harmed in the days preceding this entry. Quite the contrary, in fact. We just spent the past weekend celebrating another 20something birthday for yours truly!

It was quite the perfect weekend actually-dinners out to fabulous meals, flowing wine and bubbly, and celebratory cocktails with my great friends. My Dad even came to town to partake in the celebrations, and I was quite impressed that he kicked on with us until deciding to catch a cab home at bar close.

 Generally, after a weekend of indulging, and always after returning from vacation, I like to make a big pot of soup – something hydrating and cleansing and detoxifying. By now,  you’re probably thinking I am legitimately a crazy person, making soup in July. But hear me out. This particular soup, which I’ve deemed ‘Far East’ to avoid any sort of incorrect classification of cultural cuisine, is light and summery and full of great veggies.  

For this soup, I used ginger and lemongrass to add some tangy-ness to the broth; as an added bonus ginger is delicious and great for digestion. Lemongrass, long used in Ayurvedic medicine, has fabulous anti-inflammatory properties in addition to be extremely tasty.  I also added some crushed garlic cloves because garlic makes everything better. The shitake mushrooms help to add a good dose of umami, and a few slices from the jalapeno plucked from my thriving plant helped give a bit more warmth to the stock.

For the greens, I used napa cabbage and bok choy; I love to use the baby variety but they were out so this was a first time for me. It still worked! The snow peas seemed like a good fit with the other veggies and fungi so I threw a few in for good measure. I finished off the last of the sambal olek decorating the soup and adding some last minute heat.

I’m pretty sure the mushrooms distracted Tim from the fact that there was no protein souce in the soup, but I heard no complaints. Bear in mind though, if you need something more substantial you can always add a protein; shrimp or tofu (or both!) would be really great here. Conversely, you can also make this soup fully vegan by using a vegetable broth instead.

Far East Recovery Soup

4c chicken or vegetable Stock
1 stalk lemon grass, outer layer removed
½” piece ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
½ small jalapeno, sliced
4oz shitake mushrooms, sliced
2c napa cabbage, sliced into ribbons
2c bok choy or baby bok choy
½c snow peas
1tbsp bragg’s liquid amino acids or low sodium soy sauce
1tbsp fish sauce
2tsp sambal olek, for garnish

Bring broth to a simmer over medium heat. Once you have removed the outer layer from the lemongrass, crush the stalk with the flat edge of your knife to bruise the grass and let the oils release. Slice diagonally and add to broth.

I personally like to use my mandolin to slice ginger; you can also just chop it up into chunks and toss into the broth. Crush the garlic and add to other aromatics and simmer while prepping the other veggies. Season the stock with the Braggs and fish sauce.

Slice the shitakes; add half to the soup now. Slice the white ends of the bok choy much like celery, while slicing the leaves lengthwise into strips. Add the whites to the broth to soften.

Slice the cabbage into wide strips and continue to let the broth simmer. Add the snow peas and shitakes, simmer for another few minutes, then the bok choy. Simmer another few minutes, then add the cabbage last, just before serving.

Garnish with green onions, sambal olek, or siracha if you like.

Slump in the Oven

Sundays are usually my day to "relax" so to speak; this really means sleeping until about 9, maybe going to yoga (though I'm trying to not exercise 7 days a week) and definitely the weekly Whole Foods run. Yes I know. I should go to the farmers market, but it tends to coincide with my yoga practice and I'm just not quite ready to wake up at 7am on a Saturday.

Regardless, I am spoiled for choice at my local WFM, who yesterday supplied me with tons of fabulous local produce and seafood. Can I just say Texas peaches are the best? Not to mention blueberries, watermelon, tomatoes, zucchini, and gulf shrimp. Fabulous! But I digress.

After picking up several pints of blueberries, I decided not only did I need to freeze about half of them, I should make something delicious with them. Behold the Slump, which I decided was the perfect Sunday dessert to serve with the Grilled Eggplant and Haloumi Pesto Burger I made for T. For those of you thinking I'm crazy to bake in the middle of the summer, we have an abundance of AC here in Texas, but if you use frozen berries this is a year-round dessert.
I'd like to thank the lovely people at Saveur for the inspiration and recipe, which I modified. It still tasted great, but I'll continue to tinker. I reduced the amount of sugar in the blueberry skillet by a considerable amount, which may have been why the slump turned out so juicy. Could have also been the berries!


Blueberry Slump
adapted from Saveur

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
4 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1 ¼ cups milk
2 pints blueberries
3/4cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Lemon Zest
Vanilla Ice Cream, for serving (optional)

Whisk together flour, ¼ cup sugar, baking powder, and ½ tsp. salt in a large bowl; add butter, and using your fingers, rub butter into flour until pea-size crumbles form. Add milk, and stir just until a moist dough forms; cover and refrigerate dough until ready to use. I used whole wheat flour here, and the biscuits were good but maybe a bit dense. I will try WW pastry flour next time.

Heat oven to 400°. Bring 2T  sugar and salt along with blueberries and citrus juices to a boil in a 10″ cast-iron  skillet over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove pan from heat, and using two tablespoons, portion and form chilled dough into 2–3″ oval dumplings, and drop them evenly on top of the blueberry mixture. Sprinkle dough dumplings with sugar, and transfer skillet to oven; bake until biscuits are cooked through and blueberry mixture is reduced, about 25 minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or greek yogurt (as I did) if you like.

I also sprinkled brown sugar on top of the dumplings to help give a little carmel-y action. In hindsight, I should have used less orange juice as well, it probably could have been omitted. Regardless, this was an easy summertime dessert to make, assuming you are willing to turn your oven on.

Uchi: Or, How I got Tim to eat Brussels Sprouts



The Inspiration



We are fortunate enough to have Uchi, a fabulous little gem of a restaurant, right around the corner from us. Transplanted from Austin, I don’t deign to categorize it as a sushi bar; while they do serve sushi, it is just so. much. more. than just another sushi bar. The raw offerings are edible works of art, thoughtfully plated, complex and simple at the same time. The composed dishes are equally fantastic, and while the stock menu leaves nothing to be desired, I am always drawn to the daily specials for something new and intriguing.

When the new location opened in February, not only did I attend a soft opening night (thanks ML!), I immediately booked a dinner reservation for the two of us and a few friends. This particular night, we ordered several of the cool tastings, several of the hot tastings, a sushi roll as recommended by our server, and an order of the Brussels sprouts. Mind you, this was just for the first round of eating, as we continued to add bottles of wine and specials to the bill.

Tim is a good sport; he always eats what I make for dinner, and only on two occasions has admitted he doesn’t like it (I overcooked some cod with apples and apple cider vinegar; it was a weird combo and the house smelled awful. Lesson learned!). He’s also fairly adventurous, but like everyone has some reserved hostility for certain foods. Brussels Sprouts happened to be one such food.

Our server brought out the order of Brussels, quickly 'tempura'ed' without batter, and tossed in a “fish sauce caramel” with chili oil and probably crack. The bowl quickly vanished between the five of us and we quickly decided we needed another order.

These sprouts were so fantastic. Crispy on the outer edges with still a firm bite at the core, caramelized or charred slightly by the frying process, and the sauce. Fish Sauce Caramel pretty much sums it up, and I found myself thinking about the best way to copy this dish at home. Do I oven roast the Brussels and coat them in a knockoff sauce? Do I pan sear them in the skillet and cook them in said sauce? Where do I find caramel fish?!

In the end, I’ve made this dish several more times at home, always with very good (not quite Uchi-caliber) results, as I don’t have a deep fryer. If you have more time and don’t mind steaming up the house, you can use the oven. This is also good if you’re making sprouts for more than 2.

The cast iron skillet method is quickly becoming a go to side dish, because its quick enough to pull off during the week and you can literally watch the sprout turn bright green and start to caramelize before your eyes. I will provide instructions for both methods, and you can decide which one suits your fancy.

Also, the folks at Uchi have published a cookbook, and I believe they provide you with the real recipe for these wonderful little sprouts.

Enjoy!

Uchi Brussels Sprouts

1lb brussel sprouts, washed, cleaned, and halved

2T Fish Sauce (I use the Thai Kitchen brand)

1T sugar

1T chili oil

1 lime

Neutral oil, such as grapeseed

In a skillet:

Heat a small amount of oil, no more than a tablespoon, in a skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add brussels sprouts. Stir occasionally. Do not be tempted to add more oil-the sprouts will absorb the oil and then release their liquids back into the pan.

Once the sprouts have started to turn bright green and start to get a little brown on the cut edges, add the fish sauce and sugar. Stir well to combine and continue to cook until the Brussels are  ‘al dente’-you want them to still have a bit of bite to them. Once cooked, remove from heat and add chili oil and stir to combine. Squeeze half a lime over the batch and serve.

The Knock-Off

Note: if you want more than a warm tingle on your tongue, add more chili oil. If you can find chili flakes in oil (which is what I use) you can add the flakes too for extra kick. Be wary of salting this dish as the fish sauce is already pretty high in sodium. Also, both the salmon and sprouts in this dish look a bit anemic, so I apologize. I clearly needed to move that salmon closer to the broiler, and let the skillet heat up longer for the sprouts.

In the oven:

Heat oven to 400F. In a large mixing bowl, toss the halved sprouts with oil until they are lightly lubricated; you don’t want them to burn in the oven. Spread on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil, and bake for about 20 minutes, until the sprouts start to brown.

In the meantime, mix the sugar into the fish sauce until dissolved. If you truly want to make a caramel, I would suggest doing this carefully over a low heat. Again, be wary of reducing the fish sauce too much; this will cause it to become even more salty.

Once the sprouts are done, toss with the sugar sauce until coated, then add the chili oil. Squeeze with lime, the acidity really is a nice balance with the salty fish sauce.