Steamed Clams + Pasta

These were on sale at FD for $0.49/each a while back, so I got a half dozen to test out cooking clams. I'd never done it before, and I think I'm safely far from pro. This meal ended up so-so, but I can easily blame that on lack of skill and not recipe fault. Hard to say. It wasn't that they weren't good - it was just less sauce than I expected for the pasta, and possibly I have no idea how to cook clams.

Of course I can't find the exact recipe I used, but having looked over several that seem similar and familiar, I think we can rough out what went on.  I'd say this recipe I'm looking at on Savory Sweet Life looks like a tempting one to consider, so we'll go with that and assume that's what I followed except I poured it all over pasta.

3 tablespoons butter
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry Vermouth
2 pounds of clams (Littlenecks or Manilla), rinsed and cleaned
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
*optional 1 small lemon cut into wedges

Melt butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes until garlic is fragrant but not burned. Add wine and increase heat to medium-high until wine is brought to a simmering boil. Add clams and cooked covered for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until clams have opened. Discard any clams still closed. Add parsley and give the pot a quick stir. Transfer clams and broth to a large serving bowl, serving with lemon wedges on the side.

paleo salmon salad

My friend, a rower/teammate who is now a workout trainer in Colorado, recently got hooked on the paleo diet. She posted about this salmon salad in her blog (about working out and eating paleo), and while it struck me as a strange combination of ingredients, she was really enthusiastic about it so I figured I'd give it a try. I didn't have blueberries or coconuts and subbed in dried cranberries for cherries, but man! It was delicious! I am impressed and very happy that I tried it. I'll be stocking up on canned salmon now so that this can be a go-to for me as well. Give it a try!

Apologies for the pictures - I snapped a couple on my phone, but the quality was sub-par (and worse than they normally turn out) plus the color scheme here was a bit rough to manage well. Don't let appearances fool you! You want to eat this.

1 can of salmon (wild salmon has a great omega 3 to omega 6 ratio btws)
½ cup blueberries [didn't have on hand]
¼ avocado
¼ cup unsweetened coconut flakes (the BIG kind, not the shavings) [I didn't have this]
2 Tbs golden raisins
2 Tbs dried cherries [I used cranberries instead]
dash o’salt, pepper, and onion powder
hefty drizzle: olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Basically, just mix it all together and enjoy! Also, I bet this would be pretty good if you put it on top of lettuce like a chicken salad or if you weren't paleo, mixed with quinoa or cooled pasta or something. I don't know, but it seems pretty flexible and is really just satisfying.

Nutritional Information (full recipe with my version of ingredients):
427 total calories
28.3 g total fat [but it's all good fat - salmon, avocado, olive oil]
0 g cholesterol
20 g total carbs
5 g fiber
10 g sugar
22.5 g protein

rainbow trout + asparagus + couscous

We made dinner the other night and, yet again, it was super delicious. We didn't use any recipes this time, but everything still came out really well. I LOVED the asparagus, and I think I would seriously forego most cookies to eat more of these asparagus. It's probably my favorite green vegetable, and adding cheese just seals the deal.

Rainbow Trout
2 filets rainbow trout
1 lemon
chopped walnuts
spices
olive oil
aluminum foil

I wasn't in charge of the rainbow trout, but I think I have a decent idea of what he did. The fish got olive oil, salt, pepper, dill, probably some other spices, chopped walnuts, and some lemon zest and juice. We put it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, I believe, until it was flaky.

Parmesan Asparagus
I made these, so I'm a slightly more reliable source for their recipe. I broke off the bottom of the asparagus spears and then put them in a bowl to mix with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some chopped garlic. I spread them on aluminum foil on a cooking sheet and then drizzled the rest of the mixture over it. I grated some parmesan cheese on top. That went in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. How long you cook this for really just depends on what texture you prefer.

Walnut Parsley Couscous
This isn't really a recipe, but I'll still tell you how it went. We made couscous (boil water, mix couscous and water in bowl, cover, and wait 5 minutes) and then mixed in some chopped parsley and walnuts (and salt because otherwise it doesn't taste like anything). 

sauteed tilapia with salsa

I have been wanting to use my new hand blender and all its accessories, so the other day I made some homemade salsa. It wasn't terribly exciting, I just threw some tomato, onion, cilantro, line juice, and salt into the chopper and let it do the work. It made it pretty small, so its was more pureed than most salsa. I think if I wanted it chunkier, I would need to do less pieces at a time and mix it up separately. But it did taste pretty good, though pretty simple for those of you that like more jazzy flavors. You could add mango or jalepeno or whatever else tickles your fancy.

Tonight I invited my sister over for dinner, and as she is a pescatarian, I decided to get some tilapia. My dad makes it pretty often considering that both his girlfriend and my sister only eat fish, and it is really easy to cook tilapia, in addition to it being pretty inexpensive. I went to Central Market to get some on my way home today and it was $7.99/lb and for one filet it was only about $3. I also made some zucchini fritters (posted earlier) to go with the fish and then lemon glaze muffins for dessert.

I didn't really follow a recipe for this. I looked up how to cook tilapia, but it seemed pretty foolproof, so I just decided to give it a try. I put about a tablespoon of butter in a skillet and then put in the filet of tilapia, cut down the middle, and then poured about a half cup or so of salsa on top. Then I just let it cook a few minutes on each side until it was white and flaky. Once I served it onto our plates, I spooned some more of the fresh salsa on top. We both really liked it!

As far as nutritional information goes, our tilapia filet was about 0.4 lb which is about 6 ounces. According to this nutrition website, an ounce of raw tilapia is 27 calories, 0 g fat, and 6 g protein. So my serving size of about 3 ounces plus some butter and homemade salsa is:

Nutritional info (3 ounces fish cooked in salsa and butter) [estimated]
150 calories
7 g total fat
15 mg cholesterol
5 g carbs
16 g protein