With all the seafood goodness from Groomer’s at our disposal, we’re already eating fish for half the week, so last week we decided to go the distance and avoid meat the whole week. We had a really great week, coming up with some great flavor combinations and refining our approach to our frittata. Continue reading
We made a slaw from some shredded cabbage, red onion and red bell pepper, which we dressed with a mixture of soy, rice wine vinegar, a touch of sesame oil, siracha, garlic, Yuzu, the zest and the juice of a lemon, pepper, some green onion. Then we tossed in some sautéed Calico scallops from Groomer’s.
After making ourselves some Kimchi Chicken for dinner one night, we had some leftover chicken that was really moist and yummy. How to reuse the remainder in a way that complemented the flavorful chicken without drying it out? First, we stir fried some vegetables in a little bit of olive oil: zucchini, broccolini, red and yellow bell peppers. When they were about half done, we added the chicken and some of the leftover brine from making the kimchi. The addition of the liquid kept the chicken from drying out as it reheated while the veggies finished cooking. Voila! A yummy one-pot meal from leftovers!
We took some cleaned, peeled shrimp, tails removed, and rubbed them with some chipotle powder and salt and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours. Heated up some oil in our trusty dutch oven and sautéed the shrimp until they were done and served them over our Braised Veggies. Spicy!
If you find the heat of the chipotle to be a bit too much, add some more of the broth from the braised veggies and mix together well. The result looks a little like a cioppino and the additional liquid helps cut the intensity of the chipotle, though your mouth will still be aglow!
This is tagged as a one-pot meal, because we first prepared the veggies in the dutch-oven, then pulled them out and put them aside.
This is a great accompaniment to any number of proteins and can even be used to make soup or cioppino-inspired dish, like our Chipotle-Rubbed Shrimp, which we served over this base.
We started by dicing our vegetables into uniform size pieces. We used zucchini, fresh tomatoes, and red & yellow bell peppers.
Sauteed the tomatoes and peppers in a little bit of olive oil, added the zucchini and a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, with some garlic and a couple of tablespoons of water, salt & pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes or so to let the flavors mingle.
Groomer Seafood is a wholesale fishmonger on McCullough Avenue in San Antonio (map). They supply fresh fish to many restaurants here in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas. Lucky for us, they also have a retail counter. We’ve made it a habit to visit Groomer’s every Saturday morning when they open at 9:00.
The entire operation is visible through a bank of windows, in front of which a crowd usually gathers. Just inside the windows lies a selection of fresh, whole fishes. Behind that, a few rows of tables at which fish are being cut to order. Unlike the fish section at most markets, you don’t see any pre-cut steaks or filets. Instead, you place an order with the staff, and you can watch the butchers cut it fresh off the fish for you. Continue reading
Brilliant! Freeze your fresh herbs in olive oil for winter!
Source: Facebook Share by Mama Earth Organics
This piece by Dr. Dean Ornish, published in the New York Times earlier this week, really resonated with me. It drove home an important point that our health coach has been making, which is that the program we’re following is about more than losing weight. It’s about making choices that lead to optimal health.
While we were certainly drawn to the program by the promise of losing weight, the reality is that the weight loss is a happy by-product of making healthier choices, which have myriad other benefits. In other words, the real takeaway from our program is not the weight loss, per se, but feeling better in our bodies, improving bodily functions, creating conditions to optimize longevity and, yes, looking better in the process.
The passage that really drove all this home for me was this astounding statistic near the end of the piece:
About 75 percent of the $2.8 trillion in annual health care costs in the United States is from chronic diseases that can often be reversed or prevented altogether by a healthy lifestyle.
Makes me that much happier that we’re following the path we are.
Salmon is a favorite fish of ours. Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, it is classified as an oily fish, which puts it on the “lean” list, meaning we get a 5-ounce portion and we add no additional fats in its prep or cooking. Leftover salmon lends itself beautifully to a cold salad — lovely on a hot summer day!
This photo shows some salmon we had grilled the night before flaked over a bed of spinach with some tomatoes and cucumbers. We tossed the salad with some balsamic vinegar (not vinaigrette) before plating it and flaking the salmon on top. No cooking, just assembly!