Delicious Fish Marinade

The flavors of soy sauce, orange and garlic make this teriyaki-esque marinade great, whether grilling, broiling, or pan-frying. My mom found this once upon a time. It's great on salmon, tuna, and other mild fishes.

Makes enough for 2 servings of salmon with leftover sauce for pouring overtop.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. grated orange peel
• 1 small garlic glove
• 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce (sriracha is good)

Mix together and marinate fish for 30 minutes to an hour.

Broil salmon: Coat sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean-up. Broil skin-side down on a rack 7-8 inches from the top for about 10-12 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Pouring too much marinade on the fish while it's cooking will end up burning off in the oven.

Make sauce with leftover marinade by bringing to a boil on the stovetop. After bringing to a boil, turn down to simmer. Mix 2 tsp. corn starch with cold water, and add slowly to thicken up the sauce.

Brie & Apricot French Toast

411 calories of delicious breakfast goodness. I'll admit, I've been on a little bit of a kick with apricot and brie lately. Every since I tried out brie-apricot crescent roll pockets and have had extra ingredients just lying around, it's pretty much all I can do not to eat it every day. And by lying around, I mean, I bought more brie to go with my jam. And by all-I-can-do-not-to-eat-it-every-day, I mean I have been eating it every day. 

The good news is, it's not as bad as scarfing down cookies.  The bad news hasn't been found yet. Especially not after this amazing go-be-jealous-now breakfast I just ate.

So, it's very simple. Make french toast, then throw some brie and apricot jam on it. If you're substituting your normal maple syrup, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how many fewer calories are in it, and this combo does actually carry other nutrients that delicious tree sugar does not. (Not to dis maple sugar, which if you buy locally may actually help alleviate some of your maple allergies!)

Ingredients:

2 slices delicious bread (I used 9 grain bread or homemade beer bread)

1 egg

splash of 2% milk (1/8 c.)

1 tsp. vanilla

Sprinkle of cinnamon

1 tsp. butter or coconut oil 

1 tbsp. brie

1 tbsp. apricot jam

What I did: 

My french toast is some form of wheat/grainy toast, this time around I actually used my homemade Beer Bread, but for the sake of figuring out calorie count, I used 9-grain bread.  For two slices of bread, use 1 egg and a splash of milk (I use 2%). If you use skim, go a little lighter on the milk as it makes the mixture more watery.  Throw in some vanilla extract - no more than a tsp. 

I used coconut oil to grease my cast iron pan - butter is factored into my calorie count though, so feel free to get buttery if you need to. 

Turn the heat to medium-medium high before you add the bread.  Dip the bread into your mixture, coating each side evenly and throw it into the pan. Sprinkle some cinnamon to the up side while it's in the pan. Turn to medium. Then flip and cook on the other side until nice and brown on each side.  

(Tip: If you have a little extra egg mixture left, right before you flip to the other side, pour the rest of the egg mixture onto the top of the uncooked side. It will seep into the bread a little more and you won't have any waste! It will be a little messy when you flip it, but it's worth it.)

While the bread is still warm, take a tablespoon of brie and spread onto the french toast until it's gooey. Microwave for 10 seconds for extra gooey-ness. Then add a dollop of apricot jam to the top, and you're all set. 

Calories: 411; 16 gram fat (6 saturated); 15 grams protein; 13 grams sugar.

If you look at the calorie breakdown (I'm obsessed with this pie chart feature in MyFitnessPal), then this meal is pretty spot-on with 48% carbs, 35% fat, 17% protein. MyFitnessPal goals are for 50-30-20 in those categories, so this isn't too shabby! 

Cut out the brie, and you've got 371 calories; 13 grams fat (4 saturated); 15 grams protein; 13 grams sugar. Calorie breakdown: 53% carb, 31% fat, 16% protein. Not bad!

Avocado Egg Tostada

In an effort to eat healthier, I've been searching for quick healthy recipes to make on Skinnytaste.com (thank you, Andrea), and unlike most healthy-eating-diet-skinny-food-fad websites and blogs, I find that Skinnytaste is the ultimate in appealing healthy foods because the author:

A. Sounds like a person that legitimately loves food

B. Doesn't sound crazy (there's not a lot of fad-talk here, which bugs the crap out of me).

C. Uses ingredients you might already have in your kitchen 

D. Doesn't use the fake versions of foods that don't consitute real food at all (looking at you, egg beaters)

So, in my book, this blog is a winner. 

Long story short, when I went to make this delicious looking Avocado Toast with a Sunny Side Egg  I was very disappointed when, having already mashed avocado and started the egg, I found that the loaf of whole-grain bread that had previously resided in the freezer was MIA. So, I had to revamp this recipe, which was perfectly fine for me, because tostadas (which is what I call any open face stuff-on-a-corn-tortilla-with-cheese) are what's up.

Here's the recipe, which makes a single tostada -- and which by itself is only 279 calories. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 corn tortilla (firm it up by toasted it in the broiler or in a hot pan)

1 oz. avocado (1/4 of a hass avocado)

Salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste

1 large egg

1 tsp. olive oil 

1 tbsp. queso (I used Carlita brand Monterey Jack Salsa Con Queso)

Handful of grape tomatoes, or thereabouts

What to do: 

1. Get out all of your ingredients first so that you don't do what I did with the Skinnytaste recipe and then realize I don't have the stuff (classic Hayley move). 

2. Mash the avocado, seasoning with salt and pepper, and a little lime juice to keep it from browning. (Keep the pit - avocado pits naturally prevent browning, so helps preserve leftovers a little better).

3. Heat your egg pan (I used a nonstick) on medium with the olive oil. Let the pan heat all the way up before adding the egg - this makes the egg cook perfectly. I left mine slightly runny. When I flipped the egg, I put the queso on top to let it get warm and runny. While the egg is cooking...

4. Toast the tortilla (I use the broiler - put it in for maybe 2 minutes per side to make it nice and durable).

5. Assemble!  Tortilla on bottom, spread about 1/4 of your avocado onto the top. Set the egg with queso on top, and sprinkle with cut up tomatoes. Pair with a piece of fruit and your morning coffee for a healthy fast breakfast. Nom!

Soft Buttered Pretzels

Soft Buttered Pretzels

These were ridiculously addictive. My dad and I made these together on a beautiful afternoon. Make sure you have people around to share these with so that you don't eat the whole lot of them by yourself!  We got this directly off of the flour bag - guess what brand it is? 

Prep time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Bake time: 10 minutes

Ready in: 2 hours

Ingredients:

3 to 3 1/5 cups flour

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 (1/4 oz) package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp) 

1 c. water

1 tbsp. vegetable shortening

6 c. water

1/4 c. baking soda

2 tbsp. butter

Coarse salt (kosher salt is best), seseme, or poppy seeds

What to do: 

1. Combine 1 c. flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a medium bowl. Blend well. Heat 1 cup water and shortening in a small saucepan to 100-110 degrees F. Add liquid to flour mixture. Blend at low speed with an electric mixer until moistened. Beat 3 minutes on medium. Stir in by hand an additional 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 c. of flour or until dough pulls cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. On a floured surface, knead in 1/2 to 3/4 c. flour, until dough is smooth and elastic.  Place dough in greased bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and a cloth towel, letting it rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees) until light and doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Spray 2 cookie sheets with non-stick spray. Punch down dough. Divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 16 inch rope. Form into pretzel shape like so (this took so long to get right - see photo above to see the only one that turned out perfectly hanging out front and center).

 Photo credit: 

http://unamericanaincucina.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/pretzel_shape.jpg

Place pretzels on greased cookie sheets. Cover. Let rise in warm place about 15-20 minutes. Adjust oven rack to top position and heat to 400 degrees. Combine 6 cups of water and baking soda in a shallow sided saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil. Slowly drop pretzels into water, one at a time, cookie 15 seconds on each side. Remove from water with a slotted spoon, return to greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with pretzel salt and/or seeds.

Bake for 8 minutes. Brush with melted butter. Bake 22 additional minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Brush generously with remaining butter, and serve warm.

Makes 12 pretzels.

And here's the original recipe from the flour bag:

Strawberry Oatnut Muffins

I went strawberry picking and decided to make muffins out of my berries that needed to be used up, which turned out to be a delicious way to use them. This is a mash-up of my favorite muffin - the Banana Split Muffin by the Flat Belly diet people and some oat strawberry recipe I found online. I got it into my head that oats needed to happen, and the addition of walnuts makes them nice and filling for a breakfast on the go. I found a website where I could plug the ingredients and measurements in for a recipe and it would spit out the nutritional facts, which are included at the bottom. So here they are!

1 c. oats
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. canola oil
1/4 c. yogurt
1/4 c. milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. almond extract
1 c. Strawberries, diced

Grease and flour 12 muffin cups or use paper liners. Set oven to 400 degrees.

Grind walnuts in food processor into fine meal. Add in oats, flour, eggs, milk, oil, and extract, and blend until oats are smooth. Transfer to bowl. Stir in sugar, baking powder, and salt until well blended. Fold in strawberries.

Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and tops spring back at touch.

Spinach Manicotti with Italian Sausage Marinara

Decided to make manicotti this go-round because I couldn't find jumbo shells at the store to make stuffed shells. Great results ensued from this off-the-cuff recipe, and I'm going to try to remember this for later. Hence, here it is!

A couple of things to preface this recipe -- the back of the manicotti package said that 15 oz. of ricotta would fill 8 manicotti. With the spinach added in to my 15 oz. ricotta, I ended up filling all 14 manicotti in the package, but I did underfill them a bit to stretch the mixture. But even underfilled, my husband and I were full after 2 manicotti each.  I cooked some tonight, and froze a casserole pan with the rest for later, so this will last us.

Spinach Manicotti with Italian Sausage Marinara

Ingredients:

• 14 manicotti, cooked according to package (about 9-10 minutes, al dente)
• 5 oz. spinach (frozen is fine-- thaw ahead)
• 15 oz. ricotta
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
• 1 jar marinara sauce
• 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
• Italian cheese to throw on top

What to do:

1. Cook manicotti according to package, and set aside.
2. Cook Italian sausage fully, drain. Pour in marinara sauce.
3. Blend ricotta, egg, garlic, spinach, and 1 c. shredded cheese in food processor until smooth. This is the filling.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Spread some marinara on bottom of pan to prevent sticking, and pipe filling into the manicotti (*see helper hints below). Pour marinara with sausage over top, and then cover with a nice layer of cheese.
6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

*Manicotti are annoying to fill. Pour the filling into a freezer bag, cut a SMALL hole in a bottom corner, and pipe it out. I emphasize small because I always cut it way too big and make a giant mess.  Another hint I
read online was to just slit the manicotti open, fill them, and then reseal them, but I feel like that defeats the purpose of having a closed tube pasta, and then it spills out everywhere when you go to eat it. I mean, it will taste the same, but doesn't hold together the same.

Other notes: Normally, I would be lazy and skip the food processor so I don't have to clean it. Don't do that! If you add spinach, it makes it such a nice texture and consistency when you throw it all in the food processor. And you can probably throw it into the dishwasher anyway.

Spirited Spirits

Stellar Mojito 

Makes 2 drinks:

20 mint leaves, plus mint sprigs for garnish
4 tbsp. fresh lime juice (2-3 limes), plus 2 lime slices for garnish
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 c. white rum
crushed ice
1/2 c. club soda

In tall glasses, combine 8-10 mint leaves with 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice and 1 tbsp. sugar. Crush mint leaves into the mixture. Add 1/8 c. white rum to each glass and lots of crushed ice. Top each glass with 1/4 c. club soda and stir. Garnish with mint sprig and lime slices and serve!

Watermelon Margarita

Makes 4 drinks:

3 c. chopped watermelon
Juice of 10 limes (3/4 to 1 c.)
1/3 c. sugar
2 cups ice cubes
1 c. tequila
1/2 c. Grand Marnier or triple sec

Blend watermelon, lime juice, sugar, and ice and blend until smooth. Add tequila and Grand Marnier/ triple sec and pulse to mix. Fill tall glasses with more ice and serve.

White Sangria

Makes 4 drinks:

One 750 ml bottle of dry white wine (sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio will do)
1/2 to 1 c. brandy, to taste
1/4 c. sugar
2 limes, sliced into wedges
2 lemons, sliced into wedges
1 orange, sliced into wedges
1 green apple, sliced
1 small bunch of white grapes and sliced in half
1 c. seltzer
ice cubes

Combine wine, brandy, and sugar in a large pitcher until sugar is dissolved. Add fruit and seltzer to the pitcher and let it sit for 1 to 2 hours in refrigerator before serving. Add ice before serving!


These are from 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know by Cindi Leive and the Editors of Glamour Magazine

Leive, C. (Ed.). (2010). 100 recipes every woman should know. New York, NY: Hyperion.