What's in your fridge?

That's what I asked myself this morning when I woke up and needed to make some food/snacks for work today (Okay, I ignored the leftover salmon and spinach salad...I wanted a change). Here's what I had:

Ingredients:

-Can of tuna fish

-3 eggs

-Mustard

-Pesto (mmm...garlic/olive oil/basil/pine nuts)

-Greek seasoning, salt, pepper, minced onions

What did I make? (Recipe):

1. Hardboil eggs. Place eggs in boiling water for about 14 minutes

2. Open can of tuna. Mix with a dab of mustard, a tablespoon or two pesto sauce, and spices to taste.

3. When you eggs are done, take off the shell, and cut in half. Pull out the egg yolk and mix in with the tuna mixture.

4. Scoop all the mixed ingredients back into the egg. Deviled eggs with tuna and pesto. Delicious and healthy!

Easy Peasy Mussels

Okay fine, the title is misleading...no peas in this recipe (gross)! What I mean is this might be one of the easiest/quickest recipes to pull together and quite healthy.

Now, I'm not going to lie, I've not been feeling well the past few days so I'm taking a major shortcut on this one! I typically add fresh veggies/aromatics/tomatoes etc to my mussel sauce and let simmer and get all yummy before adding the mussels (I've even done a white wine/garlic sauce), but I went straight for the store bought sauce this time.

I went with a no sugar added, organic tomato sauce. Definitely not as good or thick as when you throw in individual ingredients, but it sufficed for the night.

Ingredients (for this recipe):

-1 lb fresh/wild mussels

-1/2 Jar favorite tomato sauce (24oz Jar)

Directions:

1. Pour sauce in a big pan on the stove, heat up

2. While sauce is heating, de-beard and wash your mussles with cold water. You'll want to throw away any that are open or cracked as these are already dead. Keep on ice once cleaned.

3. Once the sauce is hot, put your mussels in the pan, cover, and let simmer for about 3-5 minutes. Once they open up they are cooked!

4. Pour into a bowl and serve with a clean bowl for the shell pieces.

5. Enjoy

Lemon Dill Salmon and Cauliflower Rice

Sometimes you just need to switch it up, so tonight I went out on a ledge and made a veggie I've never cooked with before, and only tried once...and hated it. So back on the horse to give it another go - this time, with my own twist.

Lemon Dill Salmon:

-Salmon Fillets (of your choice)

-1 lemon

-Fresh dill

-4 cloves of garlic

-Olive Oil

1. Rub a few tablespoons of olive oil over your salmon fillets. Massage it well into the fish

2. Now crush/chop up the garlic and rub that on your salmon, leave any chunks on the salmon

3. Sprinkle some fresh dill on the salmon, and squeeze 1/2 a lemon on each.

4. Marinate for a few hours (if you have the time).

5. Set the oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 15 minutes.

Here's what the marinating salmon looked like prior to cooking.

Onto the next [fun] one.

Cauliflower Rice:

- 1 head of cauliflower

-3/4 cup of Chicken Stock

-a few pieces of bacon

-1 sweet onion

-Olive Oil

-2 Tablespoons of butter (I use Kerry Gold)

-Salt and Pepper

-Garlic Salt

-Herbs de Provence

-Small package of mushrooms

-5 cloves of garlic

1. Cut the cauliflower up into manageable pieces and try and remove most of the stem. Pull out your food processor and pulse the cauliflower in there until it's the size of rice/couscous.

2. In a pan, saute the chopped up garlic, onions, and mushrooms with the olive oil. (I honestly only added mushrooms because we had leftovers we needed to use)

3. Cook the bacon in a neighboring pan until desired crispiness. (Alternatively, you can just throw it in with the garlic and onions). Bacon makes everything taste better - hence it's presence in this dish.

4. Combine bacon with the veggies. Continue to cook.

5. Add in your "rice" cauliflower and the chicken stock. Mix, and bring to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes on the stove.

6. Season - add in your salt, pepper, garlic salt etc. It's up to you how you'd like to pull out the flavor.

7. Remove from heat and pour into a large bowl - add a dab of Kerry Gold garlic and chive butter on top.

8. Enjoy!

Here's what the cauliflower looked like in the processor.

Sauteing veggies and bacon!

VIOLA - salmon and cauliflower rice!

Paleo Meatloaf

Meatloaf! Sounds (and tasted) so good after a long workout. This is perfect recipe to put together in about 10-15 minutes, pop it in the oven for awhile (go run errands etc), then take it out and devour!

Paleo Meatloaf

-2lbs of meat of choice (we did grassfed beef)

-2 loaf pans

-2 eggs

-1/2 cup almond/coconut/gluten free flour (we used gluten free)

-1 bell pepper

-4 cloves of garlic

-small carton of mushrooms

-salt and pepper, garlic salt

-spices of choice

-bacon

-tomato sauce ***

***Tomato Sauce

-2 6oz cans of tomato paste

-1 tablespoon agave nectar

-1 tablespoon spicy mustard

-3 quick dashes Worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat your over to 350 degrees

2. Chop your pepper, onion, mushrooms, and garlic and throw in a big bowl.

3. Mix in meat, eggs, flour then season with salt and pepper and any other spices (I'd suggest some cumin, oregano etc)

4. Pack your loaf pans with the meat. Top with bacon! (nom nom)

5. Pop the meatloaf pans in the oven on the middle rack. Set the timer for 80 minutes.

6. Wait. Time to make the tomato sauce. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside for the timer to go off.

7. When 80 minutes is up, take the meatloaf out of the oven, spread the sauce on top and pop back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

8. After an hour and a half you've got two delicious meatloaf pans!

9. Slice, Serve, Enjoy!

Paleo Coconut Shrimp + Kale Chips

Tried my hand at 2 new items tonight, thought it'd be a good way to start the page! Below are the two recipes I used. I burnt the kale a bit....and the shrimp...but I guess it's better to be over-cooked then under-cooked. Monitor your heat settings. I used coconut oil - feel free to sub in olive oil or avocado oil etc.

Kale Chips

-Kale

-Olive Oil

-Spices (garlic salt, oregano, pepper, Greek seasoning)

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees

2. Wash and pat dry kale

3. Chop into smaller pieces (leaving the woody stem to throw away). I used bagged kale so mine was pre-chopped. Note** The kale will shrink in the oven as it cooks

4. Drizzle with olive oil, coat the kale, but don't soak it

5. Season with preferred spices.

6. Spread out on a baking sheet, make sure the kale isn't too thick

7. Bake for 10 minutes, check, shake it up/flip them over. Check again in 5. They burn quickly, so take them out when they start getting crispy.

Here's a few pictures of how mine looked before cooking, after cooking, then on my plate (yes, I used my iphone...subsequent blog pics will be prettier - promise!)

Coconut Shrimp

-12-15 Shrimp (This was a little less then a 1/2 pound)

-2 Eggs

-1/2 tsp salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder

-1/2 cup almond flour

-1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

-Coconut Oil or Olive Oil

1. Peel and devein shrimp. (Lessen learned, this is time consuming have a big glass of wine nearby). Rinse and place on paper towels

2. Beat eggs and spices together in a bowl

3. Combine coconut (I shredded mine a bit more in a food processor) with almond meal. Mix well and put in a shallow dish/plate

4. Dredge. Shrimp --> eggs mix --> flour combo --> plate (to later place in pan on stove).

5. Let the shrimp set for 5-10 minutes.

6. Put your oil of choice in the pan, cook for about 2 minutes on each side (I tried 3 and my place almost burnt down). Flip

7. Set on a clean plate and let cook for a few minutes. Serve with your favorite (if you want), dipping sauce. I used this sweet and spicy sauce. A little bit goes a long way as you've got good flavor from the coconut, almonds, and spices.

8. Enjoy!

Inception!

I finally made it - a blog where I'll post recipes and pictures of my adventures in the kitchen! I can't wait to write my first full post!