Something fishy...

I am a pretend fan of fish. I like it, as long as it doesn't take too much like fish, which is just all sorts of ridiculous. I do have one recipe, however, that I don't need a gallon of tartar sauce, cocktail sauce or butter to mask the flavors. Instead, I use Cajun seasoning. And Tilapia. I call it: Cajun Tilapia. (surprise!) I will only eat Tilapia this way. It took me at least a dozen different recipes to mask that "muddy" flavor that Tilapia sometimes has. If I taste that at all, I freak out. Every time I take a bite, I imagine this ugly little bottom-dweller fish just eating gallons and gallons of mud. (You're welcome) But I don't have that incredibly weird problem with this recipe: 

No mud please.

I serve the Tilapia with a creamy dill dipping sauce. It helps balance the smoky and spicy flavor of the fish and it really helps make the dish what it is. This is so easy to make, you'll wonder why you haven't made it a dozen times already. This is what you will need:

For the fish:

6 Tilapia Filets (I made that number up, make as many as you want)

Cajun Seasoning (I use the McCormick one, it's my favorite)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon melted butter

For the dipping sauce:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1-2 tablespoons of dill (I use dried, and sometimes I use a lot)

Like I said, this is super easy to make. Preheat your oven to 375* and slap your Tilapia on to baking dish. Drizzle the melted butter over the fish. Sprinkle your garlic powder evenly over them. Now, add your cajun seasoning to the Tilapia. The reason why I didn't specify an amount, is because it depends on how spicy you like them. I prefer to coat them so well all you can really see is red (like the picture above).  Keep in mind the sauce does help "tame" them! Stick those bad boys into the oven and cook them for about 15-20 minutes or until they are firm, but still flaky. 

Mix up your mayonnaise, lemon, garlic powder and dill and put a big dollop (seriously, use a big dollop. Everyone in my family always runs out and requests more) on the place with your Tilapia when you serve it. On this particular occasion, I sauteed some onions, zuccini and yellow squash to have on the side. I've also served this with brown rice and corn. It's adaptable! Plus, once you realize the fish is so delicious, you won't care what else is on your plate!

You'll like this one.

I am extremely excited to share this recipe! It turned out so delicious and was incredibly easy to make. Both my kids really enjoyed it, too. Both. That might not mean anything to you, but if you knew my kids (mainly my two year old) then you'd be really impressed. Once you realize that it's a healthy, low calorie dinner, you'll be super impressed. These are Quinoa Pizza Stuffed Mushroom Caps:

Hello beautiful.

Like I said, these are very easy to make and they do taste remarkably like pizza, only without the crust. My seven year old loved them so much he immediately insisted I have my own cooking show. These are the only ingredients you'll need:

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 small onion

1 cup baby spinach

1 1/2 - 2 cups red pizza sauce

a good handful of turkey pepperoni, roughly chopped

1 1/2 cup low fat mozzarella cheese 

5 large portobello mushroom caps.

Bring your water to a boil and add quinoa. Boil the quinoa in the water for about 10-15 minutes or until the water is absorbed. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for about 5 minutes. While all that's going on, cook the onions in a saute pan with the olive oil until the onions are nearly translucent. Add your baby spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted nicely. Now mix your cooked quinoa, onions and spinach together along with your handful of chopped pepperoni, the pizza sauce (adjust the amount of sauce based on your particular taste. I liked using more), and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese.  

Prep your mushroom caps by scooping out the ribs and removing any stem that might remain. They should look like adorable miniature cups. Spoon the quinoa mixture evenly into each one - mine made about 5 mushroom caps, and I stuffed them quite full. Depending on the size of the caps, you may be able to make more. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the tops, place them on a baking sheet and bake at 375* for about 20-25 minutes. 

The great thing about this recipe is that it is completely customizable based on what you and your family love. I bet they'd be delicious with black olives and sausage, loaded with vegetables or with extra cheese!  

I made a cake...

Kind of. 

I was at the grocery store the other day and for some reason I just had to have a can of blueberry pie filling. I'm not certain why. I don't make blueberry pies. But, I did have this great idea to make some sort of blueberry cake. Since I just really wanted to make (and more importantly, eat) cake but didn't want a ton of hassle, I just grabbed a box of white cake mix and left the rest to fate. Guess what? It was good. This, my friends, is my blueberry sour cream swirled cake:

Hello, Swirly.

There are reasons why I went with a swirled cake like this and didn't make a dump cake. The main reason was: I didn't want to make a dump cake. I also didn't think taking the whole can of blueberry filling and mixing in directly with the cake would work out well. These were the ingredients I used:

1 box of white cake mix

3 egg whites 

1/3 cup butter

2/3 c. water

2/3 c. milk 

(you can forget about those last 4 ingredients and follow the box directions exactly if you'd prefer)

1 small can of blueberry pie filling

1/2 cup sour cream

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Mix the egg, butter, and milk together until everything is getting along smoothly (see what I did there?). Add the white cake mix and blend on medium speed for a few minutes (or if you're old school like me, just blend by hand). Pour the mix into a pan (I used 9x13, but you could use anything. Even a cupcake tin). Mix your sour cream, lemon and sugar together and set aside. Now, take large spoonfuls of the blueberry pie filling and plop it around in random places on the cake. Do the same with the sour cream. It should look something like this:

Mmm... gloppety gloop.

This is the fun part: take a butter knife and swirl everything together! Don't swirl too much or you'll just have a purple cake with blueberries in it. Bake your cake according to the directions on the back of the cake box. I think mine went in at 350* for a total of 28 minutes.

I served the cake with a dollop of whipped cream. It is incredibly moist, so I had a hard time cutting it. But it looks something like this (just imagine it looks prettier):

Why did I showcase the end piece?!

Simple can be a good thing!

Last week I found a pack of 6 chicken legs with thighs on sale for $4. I'm not a huge penny-pincher, but I had to get them. Do you ever look at something and have a "vision" of what your life would be like with it? Maybe it's a man or a cat or those awesome pair of boots you saw at the store? Well, I had that with these chicken legs. And it looked delicious. And simple. And also delicious. I know I said delicious twice. It looked that good. Here's what I ended up doing with them:

I've been dreaming of you.

If you would also like to eat this, you will need to gather these things:

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced

2 large carrots, also peeled and diced

1 large red onion, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced.

And don't forget the chicken. I used legs and thighs, but I think this would work well with any sort of chicken you have. Even a whole chicken!

Once you have diced, diced, sliced, minced and obtained poultry, these are the spices you need:

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon thyme

2 teaspoons paprika

1 tablespoon parsley (dried)

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Put the chicken in the pan and arrange the potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic around it. If you run out of room, like I kind of did, just add it on top. We don't need to be fancy here. Cover the pan with some foil and poke some holes in the top. Why? I don't know. It seemed necessary. I had a theory that it would keep some moisture in so the chicken wouldn't be dry, while also letting some moisture escape so the vegetables wouldn't get too mushy. Put it all in a 375* oven for about 45 minutes or until your chicken is cooked (depending on your type of chicken, times will vary). Voila! You have what I call "Rustic Chicken'. I called it that because it sounds better than "Chicken with potatoes and carrots and other stuff in a pan". You will also notice my tin foil theory worked out quite well. You're Welcome. 

I know this is simple, but...

I have a favorite side-dish. It's one that I could serve with almost any meal, my kids love it, and I have even eaten it on its own for lunch more times than I can count. So what is this deliciously mysterious side-dish that I'm blabbing on about? Why, it's this:

Yum!

Yeah, I know it's just carrots. But roasted carrots. With spices. And it takes me less than one minute to prep, which seriously can't be beat. So what makes these carrots so delicious? I think it's the combination of spices I use, along with the browning/caramelizing the carrots do while they're being cooked. Here is what you will need (and feel free to adjust based on the amount of carrots you're making):

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

baby carrots (or peeled and cut regular carrots)

1 gallon food storage zipper bag

I thought of this little trick a little while back. You'll never believe it. I took the food storage bag and... get this... put the ingredients inside of it. Insane, right?! I was so sick of putting the carrots on the baking sheet and trying to rub the olive oil all over them to make sure they were coated well and then attempting to sprinkle each carrot equally with spices. Nuts to that! Put the oil and spices inside of the zipper bag, add your carrots, close the top (this is an important step!) and shake what your Mama gave you. Also shake the carrots. Dump the carrots onto a baking sheet (I line mine with foil for less clean up) and bake at 400* for about 20 minutes. Then Om Nom Nom those carrots!

Welcome to The Om Nom!

Welcome to the very first post on The Om Nom. I am so excited to start sharing my food , recipes and other delicious-related things with you!

Seriously.