2 point Tilapia!

SO! I’m trying to trim down a little... okay AND im trying to eat something other than creamy cream with a side of mayo – eating healthy for me, is SO PAINFUL! In case you couldn’t tell from my previous recipes hah. But my sister and man have both expressed how scared they are that im going to drop dead from clogged arteries enough that now im trying… I started Weight Watchers, which I highly recommend because it’s structured and rational and something to follow that motivates me to snack healthier instead of having a family-size bag of chip. Tilapia is 2 points per fillet. (that’s why the name of this entry is 2pt tilapia.. fyi) So this is me, trying to be healthy..

Step one: trying to like fish. Every time my tiny gorgeous little sister and I go out to eat, I get fried something and steak, and she gets a house salad and the fish entrée. I 100% need to work on that. SO here I am, trying to like fish. I found out that there are different types of fish (duh) and they each taste .. get this.. different! (duh?) I dunno.. I assumed all fish taste like fish. Then I heard that tilapia and halibut DON’T taste like fish. So I started there. - Im still afraid of raw meat of any kind.. so for fish ive started with frozen fish at publix. They are each frozen in their own plastic casing, so you defrost them. To defrost, I put the fillets in a bowl of tap water for like 20 minutes. Because the fillets are so thin, they defrost really fast (again, I realize for people who cook all the time, these are stupid obvious facts. But a mere year ago, I would read recipes that just said “defrost meat” and I would think ‘how? Where? How long is this supposed to take? Im gonna poison us..’ so AGAIN, this blog is for the NEW cooks. If you're seasoned and know everything already just read the bold ingredients below and skip all this crap lol)

So, I defrost the fish. Then you cut the little package open, rinse it and lay it on a baking sheet. Eventually im gonna broil the fish (broil is a setting on the oven btw.. I never knew that either. I thought it was like BOILING.. because .. mostly because they sound the same :/ im ridiculous) I think you need a specific pan for “broiling”something, but I just use my baking sheet. (if that’s terrible, someone let me know!) anyway then I season them and broil them. This fish, I’ve learned, takes on the flavor of anything you put on it. So its actually awesome. (oh unless you fry it, then it tastes like fish)

Stuff you will need:

For the Sauce: (this is PER fillet. So if you're making 2, you double this. 3 and you triple this lol you get it)

1 HEAPING tbsp non-fat Greek Yogurt (you can also do 1 tbsp (not heaping) yogurt, and then 1 tsp low fat or non-fat mayo.. the mayo changes the consistency of the sauce and obv the taste, but not really. You CAN do without it. I’ve made it both ways, and theyre REALLY similar)

1 lemon (you need half the juice for the sauce, and half for the actual fillet)

1 tbsp Cajun spices (if you look at my Cajun-cream pasta recipe, it has the Cajun spice mix there. But im putting it here too because let’s be honest, who has time to search for things: 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 ½ tsp paprika, ½ tsp cayenne, ½ tsp black pepper, ½ garlic powder. You can also make it in bigger quantities and use it on other stuff later- and I lessened the cayenne in this because it can get too intense w the fish)

For the Fish:

1 Fillet Tilapia (lol guess that’s obvious)

1 tsp EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil)

1 tsp Garlic salt

1 tsp Onion powder

1 tsp Black pepper

1 tbsp Parmesan cheese

Preheat: put the oven on Broil LOW (there are apparently two temperatures for broil. High and low. So for now, keep it on low.

Here’s what you do: take a little bowl and mix together your yogurt/mayo the spices and the lemon juice. Mix mix mix until it’s light pinkish and smooth :) and if you want it extra flavorful, throw more Cajun spice in there! Can’t really go wrong!

Put the fillet on the baking sheet and drizzle it with the olive oil. Then squeeze some of the other half of the lemon on it (save the rest of the lemon for the other side). Then sprinkle the fillet with half your garlic salt, onion powder and pepper. Then flip the fish over. On the other side, squeeze the rest of the lemon on it, then sprinkle the rest of your garlic powder and then onion powder and pepper.

THEN, take a spoonful of your sauce and plop it on top of your fillet. And spread it around.. you can spread it on pretty thick. It’s yogurt so it’s thick anyway, but when it’s all over the fish, you should only see yogurt, don’t make it so thin that you can see the fish underneath. I hope this makes sense… make it like ¼ of an inch thick LOL… this is more complicated than it needs to be haha..

Then grate parmesan on top of that sauce. – okay when I started this mess, I was like “FISH with CHEESE!? GROSS!”but its not. Its amazing. trust me. (I derived this recipe from like 5 other tilapia recipes that said to put parmesan on the fillet. I tried those first, all good.)

Take the baking sheet and put it in the oven on the top rack closest to the top of the oven. (I think that’s how the broiler works… I THINK.) so throw it all in there for 7-9 minutes and then put the broiler on HIGH for 2 minutes.

Take out, heat up some broccoli and rice and ENJOY :) also! Its awesome with hot sauce… specifically Cholula. Enjoy and lemme know how it turns out!!

(this pic is the tilapia with black-rice and cauliflower mash. fyi)

Holy slow cooker brisket Batman!!

It’s been a while ... but I finally made something blog worthy again :)

Lately I’ve been obsessed with brisket, and its expensive and hard to find a restaurant that serves a really good one.. so I thought I’d give it a go. also I’ve never used a slow cooker, but my cousin Nedda from Canada got me one, and she’s kind of a master chef, so I figure if SHE says it’ll work out, it must be worth a try.

Okay so I started off by going to Publix (again, our grocery store here in florida) and asked the Butcher lady for 3 pounds of beef brisket. She pointed me to the ground beef and said its right there.. duh. I didnt even look! But then when i came home, I realized I should’ve asked her to cut the fat off, because then iiii had to do it, and 1. It’s so gross. and 2. It’s freakin hard to do!! basically I hacked up the slab of beef pretty badly and it looked terrible :/ but it was my first time and whatever lol.. I figured out later that the meat looks better once its cooked, even if you do hack it all up. Also you’ll want them to leave SOME fat on, because lets be serious: fat = delicious, delicious flavor.

 

Moving on – Using a slow cooker is SUPER EASY! (as I wrote to my friend Audrey) it would’ve been super easy for me if I hadn’t babysat it for 6 hours.. I sat there and watched it, and smelled it, and fussed over it up until it had 20 minutes left – it was an exhausting day. Anyway, if I hadn’t been so obsessive, I can totally see how using a slow cooker is really easy. ALSO! I THINK, a slow cooker, and a crock pot are the same exact thing. I wish someone would explicitly said that somewhere, or at least not come up with 2 similar names for the same thing.. if there is a difference, can someone tell me please?

So I’ll get to it, it’s SO EASY you won’t believe it.

Ingredients you’ll need:

 

3lbs Beef brisket (this will feed 6 regular people. Or 4 boys)

1 yellow onion (cut coarsely- and if you love onions cut them bigger, you’ll be able to find them more easily lol)

2 cloves of garlic (I usually use the jarred already-minced garlic, but for THIS, I busted out the fresh garlic. Peel two cloves, and you can smoosh them, or you can mince them.. I minced because I don’t have a crusher)

2 cups of low sodium chicken broth

Spices to rub on the Brisket:

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Salt

Chili Powder

Basil

Oregano

Onion powder

So First things first, cut up the onions and garlic and throw them in the crock-pot/slow cooker lol. Then take the big slab of meat out and sprinkle it generously with salt and pepper. Seriously, one thing I learned from the saddest experience is that if you under-salt meat (especially red meat) it tastes terrible! So salt the crap out of it! And then rub the brisket with the other spices. I feel the same way about red meat that I do about chicken. Its super gross and I can’t touch it without making a face. So I have gloves. If you’ve already read my other blog entries then this is old news, but if you haven’t, then this is very useful! Buy disposable latex gloves basically anywhere (Publix, Safeway, Target, Costco, CVS…anywhere) and use them when handling meat. It makes the experience SO MUCH LESS disgusting.

After you rub the brisket down w the spices, put it in the crockpot with the onions and garlic. Then pour the chicken broth on top and set the pot to high for 6-7 hours!

….that’s IT. That’s literally it. You're done. Then you can go about your life for the day, and it’s amazing. One thing I learned: if some of the meat isn't covered by the broth, it’ll be okay, it still turns out moist and pull-apart delicious.

If you try this! Let  me know how yours turns out! :)