Mel's Meals - Quinoa Salmon Salad

MEL!! I’ve been so busy I’ve been putting your meals off for ages. Unfortunately today’s meal isn’t even well documented, but I figure since it’s SUPER easy to make, you’ll get the idea by the finished product! This meal is extremely healthy, and tastes delicious! You can switch up the Salmon for trout, Halibut, Sole or whatever floats your boat! So here’s today’s meal; Quinoa Salmon Salad. The beauty is this makes enough salad to last a couple of days. You can either eat this fresh out of the oven, or cold the next day for lunch.

Quinoa Salmon Salad

1 cup of Quinoa

1 Cucumber, quartered

3 Green Onion, sliced

2 Grape Vine Tomatoes, diced

1 Medium sized Filet of Salmon

1 fresh Lemon

Olive oil

Preheat oven 400

 Step 1 - Cook the Quinoa, and refrigerate immediately to cool down.

 Step 2 - Prepare fish in baking dish with salt, pepper, olive oil and half the lemon cut in thin slices. Bake for 20-25 minutes (or until its flaky).

 Step 3 - While the fish is baking, prepare the cucumber, tomatoes & green onions, add to the Quinoa with a sprinkle of olive oil, salt & pepper. Refrigerate until fish is cooked.

 Step 4 - Place the filet of Salmon on the bed of Quinoa and drizzle a touch of olive oil & fresh lemon juice.

Enjoy!

Cheers!

Mel's Meals - Stuffed Baked Chicken Breast

Mel! Today's meal is extremely delicious, it seems like it would be difficult, but it's actually super easy to make! I'm not sure if I ever made this one for you, but it's definitely one of my favorites! I originally discovered this combination at restaurant "Sunny's", about 3-4 years ago, but of course like any recipe, I played around with it, and made it my own!

I basically took a chicken breast, slit it in half, added sun-dried tomatoes, pesto and kalamata olives, and then topped it with goat cheese. I then close the chicken breast and add salt, pepper and a little drizzle of Olive oil. I normally like to pair it with an oil and garlic pasta, but I decided to go with rice tonight. It's also good with a fresh spring salad, or really any roasted or steamed vegetable.

Stuffed Baked Chicken Breast

Ingredients;

1 Chicken Breast

5 Kalamata Olives, chopped

1 Tbsp Sun-dried Tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 Tsp Pesto (fresh or store bought)

1 & 1/2 Tbsp Goat Cheese

Salt, Pepper

Olive Oil

Preheat oven at 350 degrees

Start by chopping up the olives & sun-dried tomatoes. Combine in a bowl with the pesto and mix all together.

Cut the chicken breast almost all the way through, creating a slit.

Add the filling to the center of the chicken. Sprinkle the goat cheese on top of the bed of olives and tomatoes.Close the chicken breast.

Add salt & pepper to the chicken breast and drizzled with Olive Oil

Bake at 350 degrees, for 25 minutes!

 

Remove from oven, and serve with your choice of side dish!

Enjoy!

Cheers!

Mel's Meals - Roasted Garlic & Onion Hummus

Mel today's recipe is a little different. It doesn't exactly qualify as a meal, but more as an appetizer dip or sandwich spread! Humus is extremely easy to make, and quite healthy for you! It's great with veggies and pita, but also is great with chicken or as a mayo replacement in sandwiches.

Roasted Garlic & Onion Hummus

Ingredients

1 Medium to large sized Onion, halved (leave skin on)

5 Cloves of Garlic (leave skin on)

1 Can of Chickpeas

Juice of 1 fresh Lemon

1/3 Cup Chicken Stock

1 Tbsp of Tahini

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Preheat Oven at 350. Place the onion, and garlic cloves in a baking dish.

Drizzle with Olive oil and pour in the 1/3 of chicken stock

Bake Onion and Garlic for 50 Minutes

While the garlic and onion is cooking, drain the canned chickpeas and rinse in a strainer. Put the chickpeas in the food processor and leave aside.

After the onion and garlic is fully cooked, let cool. Once cooled, unskin and place them in the food processor.

 Combine the chickpeas, roasted garlic and onion, Tahini and lemon juice in the food processor.

Add salt & pepper and start on medium speed. Slowly add the olive oil (about 1/4-1/2 of a cup, until it's reached the right texture)

Note that you can play around with the salt and pepper to achieve your desired taste!

and done!

*Note that you can use a blender or hand blender if you do not own a food processor.

Mel's Meals - Tuna Pesto Penne

Well Mel, today's meal can't get any easier. It's flavorful, light, and is ready under 20 minutes! It's a perfect dish for when you get home late, and aren't in the mood to cook up a storm. The left overs work great for lunch! This Tuna Penne is packed with bold basil and sun-dried tomato flavor! I found this recipe in a magazine and played around with it a bit! Enjoy!

Tuna Pesto Penne

Ingredients:

1 Can of Tuna in vegetable broth & oil (Do not drain)

1/3 Cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

2 Tbsp Pesto (fresh or pre-made)

2 Cups dry Penne Pasta

1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Boil Penne until al dente, meanwhile chop up 1/3 cup of Sun-dried tomatoes.

Drain pasta and add the Pesto & Sun-dried tomatoes

Add in can of Tuna, do not drain! The oil & broth will add to the pesto sauce.

Top with Parmesan Cheese & serve!

Mel's Meals - Baked Tilapia

Mel! It's been awhile it seems since I've posted a recipe! Today is one that I've made for you before, I tweak it every time I make it, depending on what's in the fridge. It's yet again a really easy, healthy, and inexpensive dish to make. Tilapia is a very light tasting fish, it almost has zero flavor, and therefore you can really play around with it. For someone who isn't a fish fan, this white fish is the perfect dish to win them over!

Baked Tilapia

Ingredients:

1 Filet of Tilapia

8 Cherry Tomatoes, halved

1/3, chopped (any onion will do)

2 Cloves of Garlic, chopped  

1/4 of a Yellow Bell Pepper, diced

1 tsp Fresh Thyme

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Preheat Oven 350 degrees.

Prepare fish toppings. Dice pepper, chop onion & Garlic. Halve the Cherry tomatoes

Salt & Pepper the filet of Tilapia and cover the fish with all the ingredients from step one.

Add the fresh Thyme and pour olive oil over the fish.

Bake fish for 25 minutes, until flaky & pulled easily apart with a fork.

Serve with rice or salad & Enjoy!

Mel's Meals - Winter Greek Salad

Mel this recipe is as easy as the other meals, and works great as a side dish (i'd have it with chicken and rice) but it also works as a hearty vegetarian meal on rice. It's super healthy and delicious! As you probably know Mel, I'm a huge Greek salad fan, however I find I don't eat as much of it during the winter. I find I'm much more playful with salads in the summer. I decided it would be fun to put a spin on the classic greek salad, by making it into a warm salad. This time of year I tend to stick with hot meals, seems more comforting on a cold winter night! 
Basically I roasted all of the veggies in the oven, added olives about half way through and once out of the oven I placed a piece of feta on top and let it warm up by covering the dish in tin foil for 5-10 minutes. I was surprised with how well this turned out! I really think you would enjoy this one Mel! The key is to roast the vegetables, as apposed to frying them.

This feeds 4 people as a side dish, or 2 as a meal.

Winter Greek Salad

- 6 Cloves of Garlic

- 1/4 yellow, Red, Orange, Yellow peppers

- 1 head of Broccoli

- 10 Cherry Tomatoes

- 6 Kalamata Olives

- 1/4 tsp fresh Thyme

- 4-6 Fresh Basil leaves
- Feta Cheese (any kind will work, I used sun-dried tomatoes)

- Olive Oil

- Salt & Pepper

Preheat Oven 400 degrees.

 

 Step 1 - Cut off one side of each pepper. Should be about 1/4 of the pepper. Cut the piece of pepper in 3 equal pieces length wise and then in half. Cut Broccoli in half and place the vegetables including the cherry tomatoes in the glass baking dish.

 Step 2- Add the 6 cloves of Garlic, keep the skin on as I find it gives a better cooking result. Pour enough Olive Oil to lightly coat the vegetables. Add 2 tablespoons of water to the bottom of the dish. Now add the fresh basil, thyme and salt & pepper. Mix all together.

Mel I know you're a salt addict, but go easy on it at this stage, as the feta will add a good amount of salt flavor to the dish later on.

Step 3 - Place the dish in the center of the oven and let bake for 25 minutes.

Step 4 -  After the 25 minutes, take the dish out of the oven and add the kalamata olives. Return the dish to the oven and let it bake for another  35 minutes.

Step 5- Remove the dish from the oven and place feta on top of the veggies, cover in tin foil to heat the cheese.

Add to your dish or lay on a bed of rice!

Mel's Meals- Cherry Tomato Garlic Penne

For those of you who didn't read last week's Mel's Meals, basically Mel asked me to help out her cooking skills with weekly recipes.

Well Mel, today's recipe is just as easy as the last one. The ingredients are fresh and minimal, but pack a ton of taste. I came up with this recipe one night when I noticed I had a bag of tomatoes on the verge of going bad. I hate throwing out food so I decided to make use out of them by making a simple tomato pasta. The tomatoes I originally used were grape vine, however I am in love with cherry tomatoes, and had a dry pint on hand. Plus I find the sweetness from the cherry tomato, goes well with the fresh basil I use.

So Mel here it is! Remember you can play around with the quantities but this generally feeds about 3-4 people, which works well for me living alone, I freeze the left overs.

Cherry Tomato Garlic Penne

Ingredients:

3 Garlic Cloves

1 dry pint of Cherry Tomatoes

1/4 Cup Chicken Stock

5 Fresh Basil Leaves

1/2 Cup Cheese (any cheddar, mozzarella etc, will work)

3 Cups Penne dry Pasta

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

 Step 1

Chop up the Garlic and fresh Basil, wash tomatoes

Step 2

In a medium sauce pan, add a good amount of Olive Oil to cover bottom of pan, add garlic and cook till light brown, on Medium to High heat.

Step 3

Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock to the oil and garlic, remove the plan before doing this to avoid spraying oil.

Now Mel, garlic can be burned quite easily so really keep an eye on it. The chicken stock makes a good sauce, but it also prevents the garlics from cooking all the way through.

Step 4

Turn down to medium heat and add the tomatoes & basil. Add the salt & pepper and saute the tomatoes until soft enough to mash. (About 20 mins)

 Step 5

Once the tomatoes are cooked, lightly press on them with a fork to release the insides. Turn down to low heat and let cook for another 10 mins while you boil your noodles. 

Preheat oven at 350 degrees

Step 6

Add the pasta to the sauce, I kept 1 tbsp of the pasta water and added it to the sauce. Let cook for about 5 mins so that the noodles absorb some of the sauce.

Step 7

Place pasta in glass baking dish and sprinkle grated cheese

Bake on 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese is cooked.

& Voila! Add fresh basil to garnish and serve.

Mel's Meals - Cheesy Baked Mushroom Pork Cutlets

My long time friend Mel recently declared how much she misses my cooking. We used to live together and generally when I live with roommates, I naturally take on the "mother goose" role and cook up a storm for the house hold. I discovered my joy for cooking long before baking came into play. I've always been the type to create recipes rather than follow one out of a book! So to get to the point, Mel asked me if I would help her improve her cooking skills by adding a new recipe weekly, I said why not! This will actually help me document some of my recipes, because I almost never write them down.

So Mel, this week's recipe is an easy one that I've cooked for you I'm sure a handful of times. My mother introduced it to me and I'm 100% positive she didn't come up with it on her own, so I am not claiming any rights to creating this recipe! (for the record.)

Now I know how it is when you get home from work on a Monday night, or any week night for that matter, you're tired, hungry, and probably not in the mood to cook up a feast. This delicious dish is extremely easy and only requires a 15 minute preparation! It's funny as my friends know, I am not a mushroom girl at all, but I am in love with this dish!

Cheesy Baked Mushroom Pork Cutlets

Ingredients:

4 Pork Cutlets

1 Small Onion

1/4 Tsp ground Sage

1 Can low fat Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese

2 Cups of Minute rice (or whatever kind you have)

Salt & Pepper

Preheat Oven 350°

Step 1 - In a glass baking dish, place the 4 Pork Cutlets side by side leaving about half to a full inch a part. Sprinkle the cutlets with salt, pepper and the sage.

Step 2 - Dice up 1 small sized onion and leave a side, grate 1/2 cup cheese.

Step 3 - Empty can of soup into a mixing bowl or measuring cup. Add cheese and onion. Stir until all 3 ingredients are mixed together. Pour the sauce over the cutlets, with a spoon or fork make sure you cover all the cutlets evenly.

Step 4 - In a preheated 350° oven, bake for 35 minutes. While pork is baking, prepare rice on stove top or in the microwave.

Step 5 - Remove Pork Cutlets from oven and cover with tin foil for 5-10 minutes.

(By this time, your kitchen will be smelling delicious!)

Step 6 - Serve the Cutlet on a bed of rice, you can choose to slice the pork (which I prefer) and for sauce lovers, with a spoon add as much of the sauce to your plate as you desire.

ENJOY!

Tune back in next week Mel for another recipe, I'm thinking Italian!

Cheers!