Fun Recipes…

I often send you to my online magazine to check out all the cool recipes there. Soon after that, I get a ton of cool recipes sent back to me.

So, first of all, thank you to all those who are willing to share! And secondly, check out two of the  ideas sent my way! Feel free to share your fav recipe in the comment section below!

Michelle G’s Quinoa

I cook the Quinoa in a chicken stock (there is a gluten free instant broth and seasoning by McKay’s that is really good)

While that is cooking: I slice or shred up Brussels sprouts and place in a fry pan with a little evoo. Add a pinch of kosher salt (or sea salt, whichever preffered) fresh cracked pepper and nutmeg. Add in a handful of dried cranberries and sliced almonds. Add cooked Quinoa and serve. This is a great side dish/salad for any meal and is great hot or cold. I serve this at mother’s day for a group of about 30 where no one really knew what it was or had ever had Quinoa before yet it was the first dish to be finished off.
I hope you enjoy!

Tammy’s Spicy Garlic Shrimp
Yields 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 lbs. fresh or frozen medium sized shrimp
1 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. ketchup
1 Tbsp. Braggs soy sauce (this is what I use, so any brand one favors is good)
2 Tbsp. dry sherry or rice wine
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tsp. honey
1/2 Tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 Tsp. ground ginger or 1 Tsp. grated ginger root
1/2 sliced green onion
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 Tbsp. cooking oil or peanut oil
Hot cooked basmati brown rice (optional)
Fresh or frozen pea pods, cooked (optional)
Nutritional Info: Calories – 155, Protein – 8 gms, Carbs – 8 gms, Fat – 5 gms

Irene’s Salmon in the Dishwasher

It sounds strange, but it worked perfectly.  The salmon was moist and flaky.  Ok, here is how you do it.

All the recipes that I found talked about salmon fillets but I figured if the fillets could be cooked why not a whole fish?

We had two approx 3-4 pound salmon.  After gutting and cleaning the fish, I stuffed them with my homemade stuffing below. (the head had already been taken off at the store)

Using “heavy duty” foil, I cut off two very large pieces (enough to wrap each fish in).

I took a baster and painted each piece foil with oil … I used coconut oil because it has a high smoking point but any oil will do.

Next, placed the fish down on the foil.  I cut a lemon in half and squeezed the fresh juice over both sides of the fish.

You can put some pats of butter on the salmon or smear both it with butter, whichever method you’d like.

Then I wrapped each fish in a separate piece of foil.  I wrapped it really tight to make a nice sealed package.

Then I rewrapped both fish again in the “heavy duty” foil.  Now I had two foil packaged fish, doubly wrapped in foil.

I stood them up in the top rack of my dishwasher (only use the top rack), as there was no room to lie them down.

There was nothing else in the dishwasher (no other dishes/glasses/cutlery, and there was no soap or detergent either.

Put your dishwasher on the hottest wash cycle.  I had to clear my settings as I had it set for “energy-saver”.

On my dishwasher the hottest setting is “heavy wash”.

With the dishwasher set, I closed the door and turned it on.  It needs to run through a complete cycle; the dial has to go all the way around until it stops on its own.

My dishwasher took 1 hour and 15 minutes to run through the whole cycle.

I would love to do this for company and freak them out.

Ok now for the stuffing.

I basically looked in my fridge and thought, what can I stuff the salmon with that would taste good and what do I have in my fridge, and this is what I chose.

Ingredients:

one 312 gram (11 ounce) package of baby spinach leaves

one 8 ounce package of cream cheese (I used no-name brand), at room temperature

2 1/4 cup bread crumbs (I combined two kinds – regular ones that I made from all the crusts that I had in the freezer  approx. 1 3/4 cup (used up all the crusts in my fridge), and 1/2 cup or maybe a little more of Italian bread crumbs)

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (I think it was closer to the 3/4 cup)

3/4 cup melted butter (I cut off some butter which was in a package that didn’t have the measurements on it but when I melted it in the microwave in the measuring cup it was exactly 3/4 cup — amazing!)

I put about 2″ of water in a medium saucepan and placed a steamer basket into the saucepan.

I boiled the water and when it had come to a boil, I added the spinach and let it wilt (1 to 2 minutes or so) with the saucepan lid on.

Then I took the spinach out, squeezed out the water and then cut it up on a cutting board using two knives with a criss-cross motion.

I put the spinach in a medium bowl and combined it with the cream cheese and mixed them together.

I seasoned the spinach to taste with salt and pepper and a little nutmeg, just a couple of pinches — nutmeg compliments spinach very well.

In a large bowl, I added the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and mixed them together well.  Then I added the melted butter.

After mixing this all together, I mixed in the spinach-cream cheese mixture.

Then I stuffed the salmon.  I didn’t tie the salmon together after stuffing it, I guess you could, I just didn’t have anything to do that with.

I wrapped the foil pretty tight around the fish which kept the stuffing inside until it was cooked.

It was a wonderful dinner and the stuffing was amazing … so yummy.

For me, being a creative cook, recipes to me are merely guidelines.

.

Moist and tender with the stuffing perfectly done!

Bonne Appetite!