Caprese Salad

I threw this salad together the other day, and it was delicious!  The light flavors are so refreshing, perfect for spring and summer.

Recipe:
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 - 2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt

Slice tomatoes in half.  Add cubed mozzarella and chopped basil.  Drizzle olive oil over all, and stir to coat.  Add sea salt to taste, and stir again.
Garnish with some fresh basil and serve.

I picked up some Perlini Mozzarella at my local store.  They're tiny fresh mozzarellas, and so cute!

Quick and Dirty Chicken Paprikas

I've been in the mood for comfort food lately.  I think it's the weather - it's chilly out and that makes me want to curl up with a cup of tea and a plate of something familiar and delicious.  Chicken Paprikas (Paprikas Csirke) is an old Hungarian family favorite, so I improvised a single-serving version that's quick and diet friendly.

Recipe:

1 chicken breast
3-4 cloves garlic
3-4 teaspoons paprika (I like Penzey's smoked paprika)
1-2 ounces yogurt
Sea salt

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a skillet, add 1 teaspoon of paprika to water.  Pierce chicken breast in several places and insert garlic cloves into the chicken.  Rub chicken with paprika.
Simmer chicken breast for 10-15 minutes, turning occasionally.  When chicken is done, remove from heat, and take the chicken out of the pan.  There should be 1/2 - 1 cup of liquid left in the skillet, if not, add a little water or chicken broth.  Add yogurt to cooking liquid and stir until smooth, add more paprika if desired, and salt to taste.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

Delicious!

Salsa with Roasted Jalapenos

Today I decided to throw together some salsa.  I can mix vegetables now on this phase of the hCG Diet, which is exciting, and I've been wanting some kind of sauce or topping to put with things, but store bought stuff usually has sugar, which I'm still avoiding.  So, homemade pico de gallo style salsa!

Recipe:

3-4 Tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 Jalapeno peppers (I roasted mine, see below)
1/2 Onion, diced
3-4 coves Garlic, minced
Cilantro or parsley
Lime juice
Salt

Dice tomatoes.  Carefully seed jalapenos (I wore gloves until I was totally done handling the peppers) and dice.  Dice onion and garlic.  Mix tomatoes, jalapenos, onion and garlic.
Stir in 1-2 tablespoons cilantro or parsley, juice from 1/2 lime, and salt to taste.

This makes about 1 pint of salsa.

Voila!  Yummy fresh salsa.

This ended up being about medium-hot to my taste, which is fine with me.  For milder salsa I would either add more tomato or less jalapeno.  And this ended up being nice and garlic-y with only a hint of onion, which is about as much raw onion as I like.

And it pairs quite nicely with thin sliced beef.



















About the jalapenos:

I roasted my jalapenos, using my handy kitchen torch (in a skillet, because I didn't want to set my cutting board on fire).  You can also use a broiler or an open flame on a gas stove.  Basically, you want to get them evenly blackened.

Then, while it's hot, put it in a plastic bag and seal it up.  The bag will quickly fog up with steam from the pepper.  Let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

Take the pepper out of the bag and use a paper towel to scrub off the blackened outside.  You should be left with a nice, roasty smelling, skinned pepper.  Take the seeds out and you're ready for anything!  Well anything you'd want to do with a jalapeno.

Be careful when handling the peppers.  I wore gloves until I had washed the knife and cutting board, because getting pepper juice in your eye is one of the worst things ever.

Fish Soup

So this is a retry of this subpar fish soup and it is, of course, vastly better.  The recipe is mostly the same, but I used really good fish, and I'm now of phase 3 of the hCG Diet, which means I can mix vegetables and eat a small amount of good fat (cheese, avocado, olive oil, etc.)


Recipe:
1 Tomato, peeled and seeded (or 1 can of diced tomatoes)
2 cups Water
6-8 oz. Halibut
3 oz. Cabbage, shredded
Sea salt and seasoning


In a medium saucepan, bring water and tomato to a boil.  Using a blender (immersion or otherwise) puree the tomato and water.  Return to heat and season to taste.

Place the fish in the broth and simmer for a few minutes.  Remove fish from soup and flake it apart.  Return fish to broth, add cabbage, simmer 8-10 minutes and serve.

I used leftover fish from a night or two ago, so for seasoning I used what I initially used on the fish (which was Greek).  I also added a little pepper and smoked paprika.


This totally looks like food from the Old Country.  It's delicious and comfort food-y.