Category Archives: No-Cook Meal

Dose of Veggies, Global Flavor, No-Cook Meal, Seafood, Side Dish, Uber Healthy, Vegetarian

Vegetable “Ceviche”

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Guys I have been digging the heck out of vegetables recently. Don’t get me wrong, I love veggies of all kinds, and even tried to make them the center of the plate at least a few times a week. But, I’ve really concentrated the past month on making them more of mainstay in our diet than red meat and even chicken or pork, and I’m loving it.

This bad boy from Food & Wine magazine was PERFECT. I love the ceviche style preparation and the colors and flavors were out of this world. Seriously, look at this…

Ceviche

This is great for end-of-summer/back-to-school parties as I think kids and adults will dig it, plus the vegetarians will love you! David, who is from the East Coast/Canada is our in-house fish expert, had been wanting to make me his “fish fry” for some time. It’s basically fish (we used Tilapia) coated in Saltine cracker crumbs, salt and pepper, dredged in egg and fried in olive oil. It was light, delicious and a nice balance to the intense flavors of the Vegetable “Ceviche.” I’m definitely making this again before the summer runs out. I can’t believe summer is almost over but you know what that means? COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Squee!

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Dose of Veggies, No-Cook Meal, Seafood, Side Dish, Uber Healthy

Here Fishy, Fishy

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It must be all of this cursed indulgence the holidays provide, but as I was menu planning last week I wanted something light, healthy and delicious. So, I laser-focused on salmon and lots and lots of vegetables. Food & Wine, I love you. I tried three amazing dishes this week and as I’m sitting here typing this we are eating the last of this AMAZING Crunchy Cabbage Icebox Salad.

 

Crunchy Cabbage Icebox Salad (Photo by Jenn Louis)

Let’s start with the beginning of the week. I made this delectable Slow-Roasted Salmon with Tarragon and Citrus and Cumin-Braised Swiss Chard for dinner. Ooooh, this was SO GOOD. I love slow roasting salmon since it tends to bring out its sweeter side and the blend of tarragon and citrus juices on top were perfect. To be honest, I chose the swiss chard dish because I really wanted a nice healthy green but hadn’t given it too much thought. Umm yeah, yowza. This was so amazing. For a side dish? Really? I could eat this every day!

Slow-Roasted Salmon with Tarragon and Citrus (Photo by Floyd Cardoz)

So I saved some salmon for the next night’s meal which was the infamous icebox salad. Poodles, you need to make this for your next dinner party. First of all, it’s stunning in the bowl, second it’s so satisfying with its crunch and mixture of textures, three it’s quite healthy, and four, if you do like I did and add salmon you will be sending me thank you cards. 😉 Definitely give all three of these a try as soon as you can or in the New Year, when those resolutions kick in…cue dry heave.

Dose of Veggies, Global Flavor, No-Cook Meal, Quick and Delicious, Soup, Uber Healthy, Vegetarian

Tasty Gazpacho

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I do love me some gazpacho lambs. Something about the aroma and all the flavors chilled together make it a perfect soup. We had tropical storm Hermine making out with Central Texas earlier this week so I was happy at the notion of making a simple and comforting soup to watch as the rain and thunderclouds passed by.

I chose this Tomato and Pepper Gazpacho with Sherry created by Chef José Andrés in the new Bon Appetit (let’s talk about the cover burger recipe later poodles WOW right?).  I don’t think anything could be as easy as chopping up tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumber, blending in a food processor and chilling. Two notes, I ran out of fresh garlic (yeah that’s weird I know) so I used two tablespoons of garlic powder and didn’t have sherry (that’s not weird I don’t think?) so just used the sherry wine vinegar.

Tomato and Pepper Gazpacho with Sherry
Photo by: Elinor Carucci

I made all of the garnishes – easy peasy – and bam, some really, really good gazpacho on the table and awesome leftovers. I served this with some simple cantaloupe wrapped with prosciutto and black pepper sprinkled on top.

The rain kept going but sadly our gazpacho experience didn’t last long. Make this for a simple, quick and delicious meal at home and enjoy for lunch the next day!

Asian, No-Cook Meal, Quick and Delicious, This may contain fish sauce or anchovies

Thai Me Over

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As a part of the ongoing no-cook meal week I chose Cooking Light’s Thai Beef Rolls and Chef Jamie Oliver’s Thai Mango Salad for a little Tuesday Thai night.

The Thai Beef Rolls were extremely simple to put together and the sauce is what made this dish. First of all, I love fish sauce. Similar to the saltiness that anchovies provide, fish sauce lends a perfect bite and balance to the sugar, lime juice, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. Plus we heart roast beef so this was a winner for sure.


On to the Thai Mango Salad. Um, this rocked. We didn’t make the prawns since we had the roast beef in the rolls but I can see how they would be an awesome addition. This salad was so fresh, colorful and delicious I made enough for leftovers the next day, but once I started picking the unripe mango out of the rest of the bowl we heaped the rest onto our plates and nom, nom, nomed. Plus you can’t feel too guilty about eating an extra helping of bell peppers, mango and cucumbers can you? I didn’t have fresh coriander (or cilantro, thank you Nicole!) but used ground instead and it worked perfectly.

This meal was fast, full of fresh Thai-inspired flavors and that salad is going to be a go-to staple from now. Thanks Chef Oliver, you are such a poodle!