Pesto Pasta

Whole grain pasta with pesto, peas, and ground lamb.

BBQ Tofu & Fruit Salad

BBQ Tofu and Fruit Salad

Barbecued Tofu is a comfort food for me and one of my favorites.  I grew up eating BBQ Tofu on brown rice.  It's delicious!

Use extra-firm tofu, cube it, marinate it in the BBQ sauce, and then bake it in the oven on parchment paper.  When it seems like its near done, broil it to brown.

I grew up on homemade BBQ sauce and the storebought stuff is just not the same.  Here's how to make delicious homemade barbecue sauce:

1.  Put ketchup in a bowl.  BBQ sauce is mostly ketchup.  If you end up adding too much soy sauce and make the sauce too thin, you can always add more ketchup later.

2.  Add in some soy sauce (or shoyu, or Braggs, etc.).  When you mix it, it should become the right thickness, color, and taste.  This is the base of your BBQ sauce.  If you end up with too much of everything below, you can add more ketchup and soy sauce to dilute the other flavors.

3.  If you want to, add in a dash of worcestershire sauce, tempura sauce, fish oil, or anything of the like.

4.  Add in a bit of olive oil.

5.  Add in sweet and sour.  Keep in mind the ketchup is likely already sweetened.  I used honey, freshly squeezed lemon, and a dash of apple cider vinegar.  Depending on your mood any sweetener and any citrus or vinegar will do.

6.  Add in seasonings (garlic and onion can be fresh, dried, or both):  minced garlic, minced onion, pepper, a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg (optional), a dash of mustard, some heat if wanted (e.g. jalapenos, crushed chili flakes, etc.).  Note: I do not add salt because soy sauce is usually already pretty salty and ketchup usually already has salt in it as well.

Voila!  You have delicious BBQ sauce.

Salmon with Sweet Potato Fries and Sauteed Broccoli

Salmon with Sweet Potato Fries and Sauteed Broccoli

For the fish:

I got wild salmon from Captain's Catch in Northern Delaware.

First I rubbed the salmon with a mixture of cumin and zatar.

Next I heated a pan, heated coconut oil in it, and then pan-fried/seared the salmon for a couple minutes on both sides.

Then I took the salmon, put it into a glass baking tray sprayed with oil, poured freshly squeezed lime juice on top, and put it in a preheated oven to bake so the middle could cook more and to keep it warm while the rest of dinner finished cooking.

Finally I heated a bit of butter in a saucepan until it browned and when I removed the salmon from the oven I poured the butter on top of the salmon before serving it.

For the sweet potato fries:
I cut raw sweet potatoes into fry shape.

I tossed them very lightly with olive oil.

I laid them out on a baking tray on parchment paper, sprinkled them with cinnamon, sea salt, and hot red pepper, and then baked them. Once the sweet potato fries were cooked through, I turned the oven to broil to brown them a bit and give them a firmer texture.

For the broccoli:
I sauteed it with a little big of Bragg's (like soy sauce), Ginger juice (grated squeezed ginger), minced garlic, and sesame oil.

A cutting trick I learned at the Natural Gourmet Institute regarding broccoli is that one should use the stalk but only the less tough parts.  If you cut a bit off the sides from each part of the stalk and make it into a rectangular prism (kind of like if you were peeling it but taking more off), you will get rid of the tough part and will only have stalk left that tastes great as part of the stir fry.

Turkey Soup

Turkey Soup

In the past when I've had fresh stock I like a simple soup of ground turkey, spinach, and cannelini beans.  I also like a Pistou soup with vegetables, pasta, and beans with a tomato-basil broth.  I had pesto on hand and no homemade stock so I decided to combine the recipes for a hearty and tasty stew.

1.  Cook ground turkey with onion and garlic.

2.  Boil stock.

3.  Add ingredients, giving each some time to cook:
potato, carrot, leek, whole wheat orzo, kidney and garbanzo beans, yellow squash, corn, spinach, ground turkey mixture.

4.  Stir in pesto and tomato sauce.

Baked Ziti

Baked Ziti

Italicized ingredients are not optional
1.  Cook noodles
2.  Cook ground beef or other protein with onions and garlic.  Cook broccoli florets.
3.  Mix beef and broccoli with ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, tomato sauce, peas, kalamata olives, parsley.  Mix with the pasta.
4.  Grate cheese - I used mozzarella, cheddar, and jack.
5.  Layer noodle mixture and cheese, with cheese on top, and bake in the oven.

The second photo was of the leftovers.  I froze the remaining ziti.  After defrosting it, I mixed in quartered turkey meatballs and more tomato sauce and then topped it with grated smoked cheddar cheese before rebaking the ziti.

Chicken Fingers

Chicken Fingers

This is also the same recipe to use for Fish Sticks.

1.  Cut your protein to the correct size (pound/cut chicken, cut fish, etc.)

2.  Coat in flour, dip in egg, coat in herbed/spiced breadcrumbs.
(I used ground cereal instead of bread this time around).

3.  Bake in oven until done; serve with your favorite dipping sauce!

Mexican Dip

Who doesn't love Mexican dip???  Pictured above is a simple one: refried beans, salsa, sour cream, cheese, avocado, olives.


What I like to put in my Mexican dip depends on what's around the house and the time I have to make it.  Refried beans, cooked beans, ground beef (with taco seasoning), Spanish rice, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, corn, onion, cilantro, shredded cheese, onion, olives, peppers, etc.

I froze the leftovers with an added can of refried beans.
When I defrosted it, I used the mixture for tacos, adding sour cream, avocado, and salsa.

Mac & Cheese Casserole

Pictured above is a Mac & Cheese Casserole with whole wheat noodles, ground bison, peas, and four cheeses:  cheddar, mozzarella, colby, and feta.

I grew up eating Tuna Casserole.  This is an adaptable recipe that is delicious.  It's also the best way, in my opinion, to make Mac & Cheese (if you leave out the other ingredients), better than the cheese sauce method.

Layer the ingredients in a baking pan. Cooked noodles, shredded/grated/cut cheese, a protein like canned tuna or ground beef, vegetables like peas and corn, spices/herbs like minced onion, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, mustard, paprika, etc.  Adding a little bit of tomato sauce is optional.  Finally, bake and serve - for a special treat, crumble potato chips on top.

Baked Chicken

Baking chicken requires little prep time and but cook time with bones is not too quick.

The chicken here was baked with some herbs and barbecue sauce.