Archive for October, 2008

Menu Plan Monday: Pears

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

I was torn between pears and cinnamon for this week’s menu plan ingredient.  Both are such autumn foods.  I love pears, and their lush, juicy sweetness.  The Farmer’s Market is overflowing with pears, and I plan to make a pear cake this week.  If it works, you’ll hear more.  If not…

Speaking of things that worked and didn’t, I’ve been busy in the kitchen this week.  As I’m now officially grains and sugar (and honey) free until further notice (phooey!!!) I decided not to attempt an apple cake for Rosh Hashana. Instead made agave caramels sauce to dip my apples in.  It was tasty, but not perfect, and I’m still tweaking the recipe.

Ricki, from Diet Dessert and Dogs, is putting out a cookbook soon called Sweet Freedom.  Ricki’s been kind enough to let me be a “recipe tester”, which has been great fun.   Just check out this Gluten Free, sugar free, soy free buttercream frosting… and since it’s vegan, that means no dairy or eggs, either.   Yahoo! I’ll post more about it soon.

We had actual food this week, too, and I posted one of my favorite recipes for tilapia which is quick, easy, healthy, and totally delicious.

Last, but not least, I’ve got raspberries again, so I’ve been working on a raspberry chocolate cream filling, and here’s the latest effort.  I’m still working on getting the creaminess, but oh, it was yummy.

Funny, I didn’t realize how many treats I made this week until now!

Monday

Grillin’
Turkey Garden Burgers
Herb-y grilled red peppers

Tuesday:
Vegan
Basil pesto with quinoa

Wednesday:
Here, fishy fishy
Orange roughy baked in packets with Old Bay spice and peppers from my garden

Thursday
Leftovers!

Friday:
Kalyn’s Grilled Chicken with Rosemary and sage and grilled onions

Saturday:
Vegan
Arugala salad with avocado and pine nuts

Kitchen projects:
Pear skillet cake, a grain free riff on one of my absolute faves, my Nana Skillet Cake
we shall see if it works!
Slow roasted tomatoes

From my garden:
Raspberries. Yes, they’re back!
garlic shoots
peppers
lemongass
tomatoes
basil, thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary

From the market:
apples
pears
kale
tomatoes

One more thing: If you are a US citizen, please GET OUT AND VOTE! Or get out and register. Here in VA, you can vote already. I think we all owe it to ourselves/our family/future generations to get educated and get out there. I’m stepping off my soap box now…

So what’s everyone else having?
Well, Kim of Gluten free is life has a busy week with her children, and so she’s got some quick and easy things planned, and even a breakfast as dinner. I hear talk of snickerdoodles!

Karen of Gluten Free Sox Fan is resolving to get more organized and make her health a bigger priority. Yay Karen! She doesn’t have pears on the menu, but apples are a close enough cousin. She’s going to let us know about her Beef Wellington soon, too.

Sally of Aprovechar graces us with a seasonal, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and egg-free menu. Since I avoid all of those things too, I’m always a big fan! It looks like she has a busy week of fun outings and delicious foods, and I’m glad to hear of her vegan lasagna success.

Sea of Book of Yum just helped celebrate her DH’s 30th birthday, and she made him a feast! She’s got her veggie pot pie planned for this week, and I’ve been eyeing it for months now. Looks delish!

Manda is on her newly engaged cloud of bliss. Congrats, Manda! I certainly understand, and share, her passion for feeding other people, but I do draw the line at using gluten. She has a fun week of international foods planned.

Let’s give a warm welcome to Lori, of the Gluten free week. She’s got Szechuan peanut noodles with broccoli planned–YUM!!!

Kim at Living free is now officially on the SCD diet and feeling much better. Go Kim! She is working on learning to make yogurt, too.

Ginger joins us, too. She teases me with talk of a pear almond tart, and I hope too hear more, soon! She’s got a lot of locally grown and raised foods on the menu, which is just wonderful. As usual, she checks out a bunch of cookbooks for inspiration.

Sarah at Everyday GF has the double challenge of GF on a budget AND GF on the road. I’m looking forward to seeing her suggestions, and her tomato soup sounds great.

Last but not least we have Angela and her crew over at Angela’s Kitchen. Boy has she got a busy week! The forbidden chicken and the quinoa pilaf both sound great, and she has info on GF coupons, too.

Menu Plan Monday–Pears!

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

I’m the happy host of this week’s MPM, and our special ingredient will be pears.  I’ll have my menu up tomorrow, and you can leave me a comment or email me your link at cheryl (at) eharrishome (dot) com

Parchment Tilapia, lazy style

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

The criteria for a good weeknight recipe are: yummy, easy, quick, and main meal and veggie all in one.  This tilapia is all of the above!  I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for a long time.  It’s an old standby, perfect for when I’m not going to be home and I can just put everything together quickly and have DH pop it in the oven.  It also makes good use of the lemongrass from my garden, and is perfect for green peppers that just are too harsh tasting to have raw.  I freeze some of the long lemongrass stalks to make this recipe in the winter months.

Lemongrass is used as an herb, but it’s actually a grass. Usually, it’s not eaten and just added for flavor, but if you have tiny pieces in a dish, it’s certainly edible. It’s commonly used in Thai and other East Asian dishes. If you have a cat and intend to grow lemongrass, beware. Not only will they devour the whole darn plant, but then they will regift you with the lemongrass, pre-chewed. Do not ask how I know this.

From a nutritional perspective, tilapia is a wonderful source of omega 3 fatty acids, and garlic and ginger are both fabulous anti-inflammatory herbs.  They also freeze really well, and I chop them when I have the time, and then thaw mini cubes of chopped ginger and garlic when needed.

I used to make fish wrapped in foil, and it takes a heck of a long time to wrap them individually in tilapia and then re-wrap in foil.  There’s a simple solution, though: make one big foil envelope, and save the trouble!

4 tilapia fillets
5 bell peppers, sliced in rounds
2 Thai peppers, minced
1 inch of fresh ginger, minced
6-7 cloves of garlic, minced

2-3 chopped green onions
4-foot long green outer leaves of lemongrass, finely minced (I’m sure you can use dried, but I never have)
2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, OR a splash of soy sauce
1.5 tablespoons maple syrup, or 3-4 Tablespoons fruit juice, or a pinch of stevia
sesame seeds (optional)

Line a 9X13 pan with foil, and then also line with parchment paper, if desired.  Put tilapia in the dish.  Combine ginger, garlic, chopped lemongrass, salt, oil and sweetener, stir to combine.  Pour over fish, sprinkle peppers on top.  Cover pan tightly with a second piece of foil and crimp the edges.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until done. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, serve and enjoy.

I’m serving up this tilapia as an ode to lemongrass for this week’s edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, the brainchild of Kalyn’s Kitchen. Our hostess this week is Valentina of Trembom, English Version