Baked Salmon with Mushrooms

I love fish and I love making fish at home.  But I think it's one of those things that people tend think is hard to make.  This way is really easy and has very little clean up involved.

Recipe:
1 fillet of salmon (about 1/3 pound)
1/2 tablespoon butter
1/2 lemon (or 1 tablespoon of lemon juice)
6 - 8 baby portobello (crimini) mushrooms (or other vegetable), sliced
Thyme
Basil
Sea salt

Preheat oven to 350°.  Line a sheet of foil with parchment paper.  Place salmon, skin side down, on the parchment paper.  Squeeze lemon juice over salmon, season to taste with herbs and salt.  Cover with sliced mushrooms.  Slice butter into slivers and place over mushrooms and salmon.  Fold and seal the foil and parchment paper.

Place the packet in a baking dish and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  Serve.

The fish came out very tender and flavorful.  You really can't go wrong with a little lemon, butter, and a few herbs on fish.  I had fresh basil on hand, and that really complimented the mushrooms, as well as the lemon.

As a bonus, the whole meal is in one packet that can then be easily disposed of or reused.  And if you wrap things up right, you don't even have to wash the pan afterwards.  I think this could also be assembled in advance, so all you'd have to do is preheat the oven, put the packet in a dish, and pour yourself a glass of Riesling.

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!

Marinara Sauce

Here's a quick and easy, single serving marinara sauce, that is also hCG Diet friendly.  For those not on the hCG protocol, it's still a great single serving marinara sauce, that could easily be modified to your tastes -- start by browning a little ground beef or sausage, toss in some extra veggies, or however you like your sauce.

Recipe:
1 tomato, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
Water or chicken broth
Basil (I also used some Italian Herb Mix)
Sea salt, pepper

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add tomatoes and garlic.  Cook for 1-2 minutes and add about 1/4 cup water or chicken broth.  Add basil and other seasonings to taste.  Simmer 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add more liquid if necessary.  Serve.

Quick and easy!  And very tasty.  I had mine over sliced baked chicken breast for a diet friendly chicken marinara.

Just as a reminder, you can now follow Uncanned Foods on Facebook!

Chicken Chili

One of the things I miss, being on the hCG diet, is big cooking projects.  Things that take at least a few hours to get really good, and fill the house with amazing cooking smells.  Cooking small quantities of things doesn't take much time at all, and there's not always time to develop the big, bold flavors that you find in things like chili or pot roast or stew.  But that's one of the things I've been working on, and here's my latest: a diet friendly chicken chili with plenty of heat and rich flavor.

Recipe:
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons chili or taco seasoning (I used chicken taco from Penzey's)
1 teaspoon regular chili powder (I like chili 9000 from Penzey's)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3 oz. chicken, chopped

Heat a skillet or shallow pan over medium heat.  Chop tomato and add to pan.  Stir in jalapeno and garlic, cook for about 3 minutes.  Stir in chicken broth, vinegar, and seasoning and cook for 5 minutes.

Add chicken.  Simmer, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes.  Serve.

I used leftover pulled chicken in this batch, which added some nice barbecue smokiness to the chili.

This came out really well - it has a rich flavor, a fair amount of heat, and it really felt like a hearty chili.

Grilled Baby Bok Choy

I'm fairly new to bok choy.  I've had it before, certainly, but I haven't cooked it myself very often.  The other day I picked up a few baby bok choy because a) I wanted to try something new-ish, b) there's just one of me, so the baby bok choy seemed more manageable than a full-size bok choy, and c) they're super cute.

Looking around online, it was hard to find a way of cooking them that would be diet friendly, so I improvised.

Recipe:
1 baby bok choy
1-2 teaspoons Bragg's Liquid Aminos (a versatile and delicious natural alternative to soy sauce)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sea salt

Cut the baby bok choy in half lengthwise.  Fill a bowl with cold water and place both halves in the water, soak for about 5 minutes.  Remove from water and pat dry.
Meanwhile, pre-heat an electric countertop grill or sandwich press.
Squeeze lemon juice over both sides of the bok choy halves.  Sprinkle liquid aminos over the cut side (so it goes in between the leaves).
Place on the grill, cut side down.  Cook for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottom.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt and serve.

These still had good crunchiness, but were nicely warmed through. I paired this with a piece of steamed haddock, and the wilted leaves were very tasty with the fish.

The bok choy itself has a nice flavor, so it was really good with just the lemon juice and liquid aminos.

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.

Crab Cakes

This is another hCG Diet version of a dish.  This is tasty, easy, and only took a few minutes to throw together.

Recipe:
3 oz. Crab Meat
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1-2 teaspoons Lemon Zest
2-3 teaspoons Parsley and other seasoning (an Italian mix or other herb blend is good)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.  Combine crab, garlic, lemon zest, and seasoning.  Carefully form two patties and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake 15-18 minutes, until lightly golden on top.  Sprinkle with parsley and lemon juice and serve.

Forming the patties was a little tricky, since there's nothing to really hold them together.  But once they were formed they held up really well.

These were very good, and really felt like a treat!

Coleslaw

So here's another hCG Diet friendly version of a classic side dish.  This is a great refreshing salad and pairs very well with hot and spicy things.

Recipe:
6-8 oz. Cabbage
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
Salt, pepper, and seasoning

Slice or shred the cabbage.  Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste.  Toss to coat.  Add any desired seasonings (I like to add a little of Penzey's Mural of Flavor or Fox Point seasoning).  I also like to add a little stevia.

Yum!  This makes a nice change from lettuce salad, and it pairs very well with spicier things since it's cooler and a little bit sweet.

Waldorf Salad

This recipe is pretty much out of the booklet I got when I started the hCG diet.  It's quick, easy, and pretty tasty.

Recipe:

2 ounces Chicken (cooked)
1 stalk Celery
1/2 Apple
Sea salt, lemon juice, and seasoning.

Chop the chicken into small pieces.  Dice the celery.  Chop the apple.  Combine the chicken, celery, and apple together, sprinkle with sea salt and lemon juice, season as desired.  Mix until well combined and serve.

Tasty!  And a good way to use up chicken leftovers.  I have a container that I put all of my little extra bits of chicken in when I'm measuring out my mealtime portion, so I had chicken from 2 or 3 different occasions in there.  But, chopped up fine and mixed with other things, it wasn't really noticeable.

And again, for mixing, I just put everything into a lidded bowl and shook it, so this took less than 5 minutes to throw together.

Fish Chowder

I recently made the mistake of buying some frozen cod fillets.  Now, I love fish.  I love all kinds of fish and I love fish prepared all kinds of ways.  I even like cod, which isn't the most flavorful or interesting of fish.  But these were just...subpar to say the least.

Instead of being flaky, tender, and flavorful these came out tough, dry, and bland.  There were 3 of these things and they always came out bad, no matter what I did to them.  So with the final one I made soup, and it's actually not bad and I'd like to try it again with higher quality fish.

Recipe:

1 Tomato (or 1 can of diced tomatoes, do not drain)
1 cup Chicken Broth (omit if using canned tomatoes)
1 fillet of Cod (or other white fish)
Sea salt and seasoning

In a medium saucepan, bring chicken broth (or canned tomatoes) to a boil.  (If using a fresh tomato) Peel and seed tomato, chop roughly, and add to hot chicken broth.

Using a blender (immersion or otherwise) puree the tomato and chicken broth.  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, simmer 5 minutes and serve.

Considering the poor quality of the fish I had to use, this was actually pretty good.  The cod gave a good flavor to the broth, and the fish itself didn't really detract from the soup, although there were a couple of larger pieces and those were tough and dry (in soup even!).

Again, this was good in general, and I'll try it again when I get some better fish.  And I'm sticking to fresh.

Celery & Shrimp Salad

Here's something I made for myself for lunch recently.  It's super easy, especially if you have precooked shrimp around.

Recipe:

3.5 oz. (approximately 9) Shrimp (I used precooked)
2 oz. (1 large stalk) Celery
1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
Sea salt
Herbs/seasonings (I used Mural of Flavor)

Dice celery.  Add apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, sea salt and desired seasonings.  Toss to coat.
Chop shrimp, add to celery and toss to coat.

I have a set of lidded prep bowls so I just threw everything in one of those and shook it, so this whole thing took about 5 minutes.  For those not on the hCG diet, this would make a nice refreshing side salad.

I really enjoyed this, it has a nice mix of textures with the shrimp and raw celery, and as far as the flavor you can pretty much do whatever you want with this.  I decided I wanted something citrusy and sweet, which is why I went for the lemon juice and an herb blend.

So, a tasty lunch in less than 5 minutes and under 100 calories.  Woo!

Grilled Tomatoes

There are going to be some changes around here.  For the past 2 weeks, I've been detoxing, and now I'm starting the very low calorie phase of the hCG diet.  It's a change that I'm feeling really good about, and as far as food goes, I'm sticking to the diet and being very strict with myself.  I packed up all my olive oils and balsamic vinegars and put them in a box in the basement, cleaned out the fridge, and stashed away anything not on the diet that I might use inadvertently.

So what does this mean for the blog?  Well, I'm not turning this into a diet blog, and I really don't intend to write about the diet very often.  The agenda is still the same: to share food and recipes.  It'll just have a different focus for awhile.

And here I am on day 2 of the low calorie diet, and I find myself thinking more about seasoning (not that I didn't before), and texture (again, I've always been big on texture), and I'm thinking more creatively about vegetables.  So tonight I decided to have a tomato as my dinner vegetable and I was just going to slice it up and sprinkle it with salt, but then I remembered the grilled tomatoes that are usually part of an Irish breakfast and decided to try something like that.

Recipe:

1 fresh Tomato
Sea Salt
Fresh Basil, chopped
Pepper

Heat a frying pan over high heat.
Slice tomato in half.  Rub sliced side with sea salt and chopped basil.  When the pan is very hot, place both halves, sliced side down, in the frying pan.  Reduce heat to medium.  Cook for 5-8 minutes.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

These were so good!  The acidity of the tomatoes paired very well with the fish, which is halibut pan seared with Tuscan Sunset seasoning.  They're still quite firm, but they're warm all the way through and have a nice herb-y/saltiness and the fresh pepper at the end adds a little kick.

Carrot Ginger Soup

So finally, it's starting to feel like fall!  Fall is my favorite season - I love the cooler weather, the changing colors, the smells...and of course the food.  So here's one of my favorite cold weather soups to kick off the season!

Recipe:
1 large Onion, chopped
6-8 large Carrots, cut into large slices
Garlic, to taste
2 handfuls Cashews
1-2 inch piece of fresh Ginger, chopped
Sea Salt
Butter
Water

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pan.  Add chopped onions and cook until transparent.  Add carrots, garlic, and ginger, cover with water and cook until the carrots are tender.

In a small fry pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add cashews.  Cook, stirring frequently until lightly toasted.  Add to carrot mixture.

Puree soup, adding water as needed, until smooth.  Return it to the pot and add salt to taste.

Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt (I prefer Greek yogurt).

Here I sprinkled some chopped fresh cilantro into it and that was pretty good.  This is a nice spicy soup, it's not an immediate hot-and-spicy, but the ginger packs some heat that kind of builds up slowly.  The spicy ginger and the sweet carrots are great together and the cashews add a nice earthiness.

This soup also gets surprisingly creamy, even if you don't add sour cream or yogurt to it.

Like I said, this is a great cool weather soup - it's warming, easy to make, and look at how cheerful that color is!

Tuna Steak

I love tuna steak.  It's like a magical combination of fish and red meat -- two things I love.  It has an amazing texture, and it's very easy to do well.  I threw this dish together in under 15 minutes, and it came out fantastically, if I do say so myself.

Recipe:

Tuna Steak (The one used here is about 4 ounces)
8-10 Crimini (Baby Portobella) Mushrooms
2-3 tablespoons Malt Vinegar
1 cup Red Wine
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Olive Oil

Stir together malt vinegar, wine, and seasoning.  Slice mushrooms and add to wine mixture. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet, and add mushrooms and all of the wine mixture.  Bring to a boil, and simmer 5-7 minutes until the wine is reduced.  Remove the mushrooms and reduction to a separate bowl.  Set aside.
Return the skillet to heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Add tuna steak and cook on medium heat for 3-4 minutes.  Flip the tuna steak, turn the burner off after 1 minute, and remove steak from pan after 2 more minutes.
Serve tuna steak and mushrooms.

I had this over udon noodles that I tossed with basil infused olive oil and sea salt.  The earthiness of the mushrooms and the meatiness of the fish worked very well with the sour tang of the malt vinegar and red wine, and the noodles with basil olive oil provided some needed sweetness.

If you don't like rare meat or fish, cook the steak a little longer.  I like mine rare to medium rare, and the time I used in this recipe will get you this:

Mmmmmm...perfect.

Cheese

That's right, I made cheese.

This wasn't exactly planned.  I opened my milk yesterday and found that it was well on it's way to being curds and whey.  Now, this was almost a full half gallon of organic milk, less than a week old, and only one day past the sell by date.  So I was positively cringing at the idea of tossing it.

So, I consulted the internet and gave it a whirl, figuring that if nothing else, I'd be entertained for the morning.


Step 1: Curds and Whey


I heated the milk, which was chunky to begin with, until it separated completely.  Appetizing, I know.

Curds and Whey

Straining

Step 2: Straining

I got one of my mixing bowls, put the colander in it, lined the colander with cheesecloth, and secured the cheesecloth with clothes pins (because, apparently, I'm the kind of person who has cheesecloth and clothespins on hand).  Then, I poured the curds and whey into the cheesecloth, where the whey drained from the curds.

I let this sit for about an hour, so the whey could drain.

Step 3: Whatever You Call This

Whatever You Call This

Basically, I gathered up the edges of the cheesecloth and tied it around a wooden spoon and let it sit for about 2 hours.  Then when it wasn't dripping whey anymore...

Step 4: Unveiling

Voila!

Voila!  Fresh cheese.  The texture is kind of like dry ricotta.  It's very mild and smells amazing, but has an acidic whey aftertaste that I find unpleasant.  It's not great for eating on it's own, but just fine for cooking!

The half gallon of milk ended up making about 1 cup of cheese, which I used to make Hungarian Open Faced Cheese Cakes.

Hummus

Hummus is so easy to make, and it's good on so many things.  Since I figured out how I like my hummus, I've been eating it with crackers, with veggies, and on sandwiches.  This recipe is basically a combination of a few different ones, plus I adjust the seasonings depending on what I'm in the mood for.

Recipe:
1 can Garbanzo Beans, drained
1/4 - 1/3 cup Olive Oil
1/4 - 1/3 cup Tahini
2 - 3 cloves Garlic
2 - 3 teaspoons Lemon Juice
Sea Salt

In a food processor, combine garbanzo beans, olive oil, and garlic.  Add tahini and lemon juice.  Remove mixture from food processor and stir in sea salt to taste.

Here it is with feta cheese and parsley.  If I have fresh parsley on hand I like to add some to the hummus itself (usually with the tahini).  It's also good with a little Greek seasoning, oregano, or cilantro.

Beet Soup

I love beets!  I think they have a great flavor, and they're versatile.  They're good raw, roasted, fried, baked, steamed...any way you cook a vegetable is a good way to cook a beet.  This is one of my favorite ways to cook beets, and it's from Nourishing Traditions, which is an amazing book.

Recipe:

4-5 Beets
1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter
Salt, Pepper
Water

Melt butter in large saucepan.  Peel and roughly chop beets, add to butter and stir to coat.  Add about 1 cup of water and cook beets until tender, 20-30 minutes.  Add enough water to just cover the beets and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and puree soup with an immersion blender (or regular blender).  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt.

This is great, it really showcases the flavor of the beets, and look how awesome that color is!

I just season this with a little bit of salt and pepper, sometimes some Penzey's Krakow Nights (Polish style seasoning), but mostly I like the beets to speak for themselves.  Any seasoning should just enhance the natural, amazing beet flavor, not cover or compete with it.

Burrito Soup

This started with a recipe that I found online, but then when I actually started cooking I totally ignored that recipe.  This is really a versatile soup now, basically whatever you like in or on Mexican food can go in or on this.

Recipe:
Olive oil
1 Onion, chopped
Garlic (to taste)
2-3 stalks Celery, chopped
2 cans Black Beans, drained and rinsed
Broth (vegetable or chicken)
1-2 cups Salsa
Chili powder

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add onions, garlic and celery and cook until onions are transparent.  Add black beans, salsa, and enough broth to cover them, bring to boil.  Remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender (or regular blender). Return to heat, add more salsa and season to taste.

You can also add browned ground beef to the soup (after it's pureed). It's good topped with sour cream or cheese, and I love it with Fritos.  And Guinness.

Jicama Slaw

So, in my ongoing challenge to try more vegetables (and more kinds of food in general), I picked up a jicama the other day.  Not knowing what to do with it, I went online and found this recipe, which I basically followed.

Recipe:
1 Cucumber
1 Jicama
1 tablespoon Honey
2 tablespoons fresh Lime Juice (or 1/2 teaspoon True Lime and 2 tablespoons water)
Sea Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

Cut cucumber into 3 inch lengths, cut sections in half and scrape seeds out with a spoon.  Slice thinly, lengthwise then cut into matchsticks.  Peel jicama, slice thinly, then cut into matchsticks.  Stir together cucumber and jicama slices.
In a separate bowl, stir together honey, lime, chili powder, dijon mustard, and salt.  Pour over cucumber and jicama and stir to coat.

This was a great, summery tasting salad.  Sweet, cool, a little tart, a little spicy...very good.

Jicama (if, like me, you've never had it before) tastes sort of like a potato, but more sweet and much less starchy.

Artichoke Tapenade

I was making bread this morning (from this awesome book) and decided I'd really like something to eat on it (other than butter).  And after looking online and through my cookbooks, I didn't really find anything that struck my fancy, so I made something up.  It's essentially a tapenade, but with marinated artichokes instead of olives, capers, and anchovies.

Recipe:
8 - 10 ounces Marinated Artichokes
4 - 5 tablespoons of the oil and marinade from the artichokes
1 tablespoon Sesame Seeds
Salt to taste

In a food processor, pulse artichokes, marinade, and sesame seeds to a spreadable consistency.  Salt to taste.  I also put some Greek seasoning and oregano in mine.

The tapenade on it's own

This was great on the bread!  It's tangy and delicious.  Plus, I wasn't really in the mood for a regular artichoke dip, with all the mayonnaise and cheese and everything.  This is much lighter.