Cod with a summer grilled salad

Summer is here, we have the reddened skin and smily faces to prove it, and one thing I love more than anything in summer, is the light tasty meals that keep us content. We don’t need steaming hot bowls of soup or the comfort of stodge, it’d s great time to feel healthy!

This dish is a summer doozy, it’s the epitome of simple and its fresh zingy taste makes it a great lunch or dinner for a high temp day.

All you need to do is:

• Put the griddle on high, slightly oil your asparagus, chopped red peppers and Cod and when hot, griddle for about 3 minutes each side, turning everything in the pan for an even cook.
• Meanwhile, slice some fresh avocado and a lemon
• When the fish is cooked and the veg charred, serve it all together with a wedge of lemon and a drizzle of a sticky balsamic glaze.

Beautiful, refreshing and light!

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Salmon and Asparagus Supreme

And supreme indeed it is

What a delightful dish, a total all rounder! It’s filling, nutritious, creamy, fresh, tasty and even a little cheesy.

What is it? Well it’s pretty much just salmon fillets cooked with leeks, courgettes and asparagus in a creamy, but low fat, bachamel sauce. I could of easily eaten this on its own but I did add some couscous. It really was beautiful in taste, the soft salmon against the slightly sweet sauce was a heavenly melt in the mouth affair. 

It’s also a very easy dish to make, pretty much a one pot deal, in the oven, 25 minutes, bish, bosh, done!

*Recipe courtesy of the Weight Watchers Seasonal cook book (I don’t follow weight watchers, it’s an old book but contains some good, low fat material)

Trout, an ugly name but a beautiful taste!

Tonight’s dinner called for high protein (Minday night boot camp) with great taste (Just because Monday needs help to be good!) and so this tasty trout dish was on the menu.

Not only is it healthy and tasty but from start to finish it takes 25 minutes to prep and cook.


Simply….

1. Mix 20g butter with 1 crushed garlic cloves, 2 chopped shallots, 1 small bunch of chopped parsley and 1 tsp of Dijon mustard.
2. Score the skin of 2 trouts and rub the buttery mixture in
3. Peel 2 bulbs of chicory and lay on two individual baking sheets, place the fish on top of the chicory and fold the parchment into a parcel. Cook the fish parcel for 15-20 minutes in the fm oven at 180
4. Meanwhile boil some broccoli florets
5. Fry 2 slices of streaky bacon in 5g butter. When nearly done, add 20g pistachio nuts
6. If desired, cook 100g couscous and season with salt, pepper and ginger
7. When it’s all cooked, serve and enjoy 

*serves 2

If you are not overly familiar with Trout it’s a really delicate fish with a very light and fresh taste. It’s easy to over flavour but this dish offers a beautiful mix of bitter chicory, fresh fish and creamy nuts.

Paella, plain and simple

Paella isn’t my favourite dish due to its faffy nature. I don’t love getting my fingers dirty with food and especially not with fish as sometimes it can reduce my enjoyment, but every now and again I’ll relax my issues and I’ll tuck in. 

That time recently came and I put together a fresh, seafood filled dish which actually was really very good.

The rice was fluffy and deep in flavour and the meat was a bountiful array of squid, mussels and prawns. Fresh is the key word here and it really delivered on that front. 

 

Nommy nom nom salmon

Ummm ummmm ummm this sweet salmon with sticky coconut rice and fresh greens tasted soo good that I lost my ability to speak!

Easy, nutritional, healthy and quick…a fantastic post work out meal!

Simply make a marinade of:

• 1tbsp runny honey, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil
• 1tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 chopped garlic clove

And marinade the salmon for an hour if possible.

Boil 75g per person of basmati rice, when cooked add salt, pepper and 100ml coconut milk and cook for another 5 minutes.

Whilst the rice is cooking boil some broccoli and green beans for just 2-3 minutes, keep them fresh! 

Also grill the salmon for 4 minutes each side. Then serve!

A really light but supremely flavoured dish, the garlic and ginger really zing on your tongue and the creamy rice just takes off the edge. As i said…..nom!

  

CREO Burger (Crab-a-licious)

I take great pleasure in delving into the many burger recipe books I have but I always tend to lean towards the Beef variety (knowing that Gav likes these bad boys best!). So, now and again I force myself to pick a recipe which offers a little more adventure!

Last week I plucked out this little nipper (Crab….Do you get it? Ha) and it was a great pick indeed, adventure paid off!

After looking at the recipe initially I wondered how substantial this burger was going to be? I’m not greedy and I mainly have a balanced healthy diet but when I have a burger, I’ not really thinking “Health”…..I’m more along the lines of “Give me food!!!”

The actual burger ingredients didn’t look like they would produce anything more than a slither but how wrong I was. The pattie  turned out to be a huge chunk of a thing  which I was most pleased about! I popped it in a brioche bun and made some onion rings as a side.

It was filling, tasty and offered something a little different. A great Saturday night dish!

 

 

Some days I cheat….

Although I love to be in the kitchen, sometimes time doesn’t always pan out and today was one of those days.

So, to boots I went and a meal deal I got!

I love this little sushi salad, it’s a regular go to and although it looks small it’s decieving and filling!

The juice….it takes some getting used to. 

  
The boots meal deals are really very good value and tasty.

Chili con tuna?

This has been my dinner for the last two nights, it has very honestly been the result of a cupboard raid based on my lack of shopping!

It’s a typical chili dip with homemade tortillas but I lacked mince 

  and so opted for Tuna. Why not right?

Why not indeed. It was utterly delicious and presented a big punch of Protien!

Next time you do a chili, try the tuna!!!! 

Curry batter Seabass spectacular

I’m not really one for the fish and chip shop, I would say it’s been over 5 years since I stepped foot inside one but every now and again I’m partial to cooking up a home made version.

I’ve never battered a Seabass before but I will again! The fish cooked very quickly and remained moist and flaky.

The curry really pushed through the batter and overcame the oily taste that sometimes occurs and paired with the curried yoghurt, it really brought a freshness to an other wise heavy dish.

A great treat for a cold night!

  
   

Smoked haddock and Parma ham risotto

A perfect Sunday afternoon dinner.

Picture this. It’s brisk and bright outside and after sprightly, nippy dog walk, we come home to a toasty house. We crack open a bottle of Chardonnay (of course) and I whip up this scrumptious dish.

This is a great recipe for s number of reasons, it’s pretty fast for a risotto, it’s creamy and it has huge depths of flavor from the fish and ham. I highly recommend this dish, it’s wonderfully satisfying and rather filling.