Fish Tacos, Black Bean Salsa & Spicy Slaw

I love tacos, pretty much any kind of taco.  There's a place here in Columbia that even has brisket tacos... YUM.  This is one of my favorite taco recipes for fish tacos, here I have adapted it from Baja Fish Tacos Recipe from Cooking Light.  The best part is the only thing you have to cook is the fish so this can be ready pretty quickly and most of it like the slaw and salsa you can make ahead of time.
In the South, catfish is very abundant and easy to find at most supermarkets.  I love this recipe with catfish but realize that it might be difficult to find if you are in another part of the country.  You can try this with pretty much any firm white fish like tilapia or mahi mahi.

Here are the three recipes for the slaw, bean salsa and fish in that order.

Ta-da! My assembled taco laid flat out.

Spicy Slaw
Makes about 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups coleslaw (I buy the packaged kind in the lettuce section)
1/4-1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup non fat plain yogurt
1/2 lime juiced
3 green onions chopped, white and green parts
salt & pepper to taste (and I add Tony Chachares)
2 small jalapenos seeded and chopped (optional for spicy)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Refrigerate for several hours before eating.  You can adjust the sour cream and yogurt amounts depending on how you like the consistency of the slaw.  Please note it is SPICY with the jalapenos so adjust that accordingly as well.

spicy slaw

Often times I'll just make things right in the Tupperware because I know I'll have leftovers... someone needs to design cute Tupperware!

Black Bean Salsa
Makes about 4-5 cups

Ingredients:
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1 can corn drained
1 large tomato chopped (I left seeds in but you can leave them out if you want)
3/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon chili pepper
1/2 lime juiced
lots of salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Now how easy is that!

Tupperware again...

I told you I made bean and corn salsa A LOT!


Fish Tacos
Ingredients:
1-1.25 lbs fish (as mentioned, I used catfish).  You can leave the fish whole and cut after cooking or cut into bite sized pieces prior to marinade.
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning
1 lime juiced
1 Tablespoon orange juice
shredded cheese
tortillas

Directions:
Place fish in a freezer bag.  Add taco seasoning, lime juice and orange juice.  Marinate for about 1/2 hour or up to a few hours.

This time around, I decided to try to grill the fish and it was wonderful! Other times I have just cooked on the pan.  Either way, cook fish through until it's done.  If you've left the fish whole you can cut it up into pieces or let people just cut apart the pieces they want.  Assemble tacos with cheese, bean salsa and slaw.

Cooked catfish

Chickpea & Salmon Orzo

I know a recipe is a keeper when the hubby says mid chew "you should put a star next to this one", meaning, make this again.  You know, not every meal gets those high remarks - heck once I actually threw out a whole thing of soup because I couldn't even eat it... I digress, bottom line: this one was a hit! If you like dill, you will love this.  You can easily make it a vegetarian dish or side dish by leaving out the salmon, you can even leave out the salmon & orzo if making as a size dish.   The amount can also be adjusted as it's easy to scale up or down the ingredients.  Adjust to fit your needs! Without further ado, here's the recipe.  Side note: I went a little picture crazy while I was making it... you'll see what I mean below.

Finished product - delightfully yummy!

Chickpea & Salmon Orzo
Serves 4-6
Adapted from Cooking light Orzo Salad and Salmon, Asparagus & Orzo Salad

Ingredients:
1 cup orzo
1 lb salmon (you'll cut it up later so it doesn't matter if it's one large piece or small pieces)
3 large green onions chopped, green and white parts
1/3 cup red onion finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh chopped dill
4 oz or 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 1/2 lemons juiced (use more or less to taste, I used one when I made it and had to add more - see pic and note below on juicer)
1 19oz can chickpeas drained
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste


Directions:
Turn broiler on.

Cook orzo according to package directions.  I've read before that you shouldn't rinse pasta after draining - but I've found that orzo particularly sticks and clumps together after cooking (not sure why) so I make sure to use oil in my boiling water and rinse after draining. 

While orzo cooks, chop ingredients and combine all ingredients green onions through salt & pepper in a large bowl and set aside.  Line a baking sheet with foil, place salmon on baking sheet and season it with salt & pepper.  Broil in oven 5-10 minutes (depending on size of piece) until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Cut salmon into bite sized pieces as best you can.  The fish flakes and breaks apart so don't worry about uniform pieces.  Add salmon and cooked orzo to bowl and toss all together, here's where you can adjust the amount of lemon, salt and pepper. That's it - now enjoy!!! I served with garlic bread which was really just hamburger buns I needed to use up :-)  Oh, and another thing - you can serve the dish warm or at room temperature.  I even like the leftovers cold the next day - but I like cold leftovers and will eat just about anything...

And now for the pics!

Green onions - because they are pretty

Beautiful piece of salmon.  It was a little over 1 lb so it took about 10 minutes to cook through the thick end.  I bought it with skin on one side and the skin came right off once cooked.

My juicer - seriously, if you don't have one, think about getting one.  Makes juicing lemons and limes super easy and you don't have to worry about the seeds (most of the time)...

Mixture without orzo or salmon which you could also serve as

 a side dish.

Cooked salmon - YUM!

Time to eat! See my burger bun garlic bread? I'm a big proponent of using what ya got :-)

Italian Stir Fry

Veggie stir fry (quinoa pic is below)

I love to make what I think of as an Italian "stir fry".  There are so many different variations you can try.  Here, I used quinoa as the grain but you could use any kind of pasta (bowtie, penne), or brown rice, anything you feel like.  For the ingredients my favorite protein to use would be chicken sausage but again you can sub out another protein.  As for the veggies, the options there are endless!  Here's the recipe for the version I made this week.

Italian Stir Fry

4 Servings

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup cooked quinoa (cooks just like rice, I used 1 3/4 cups chicken broth to cook it)

Note: see pics, I tried to show what quinoa should look like when cooked.  The outer edge basically becomes transparent.

1 cup onion chopped

2-3 cloves of chopped garlic

olive oil

1 pkg chicken sausage sliced 1/4 inch thick (I used sun dried tomato this time but you can use whatever flavor you like)

1 can diced tomatoes with oregano, basil & garlic

1 medium zuchini chopped

1/4 bag of frozen mixed vegetables

1 package sliced mushrooms

1-2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning 

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for about two minutes in large pan.  Add zucchini, sausage, mushrooms and frozen veggies to pan.  Cook until veggies are tender and sausage is cooked or heated through (make sure to read package as to weather sausage needs full cooking or not).  Add diced tomatoes and season with Italian Seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve veggie mixture on top a scoop of quinoa, top with Parmesan cheese.... mmmmmm.

Quinoa

Chicken & White Bean Chili

Last night I set out to make a white bean chili.  The end product although very yummy, turned out to be more of a soup.  Alas, sometimes what I have in mind turns into something slightly different... This recipe was a lot like the chicken tortilla soup I made about a week ago with a slightly different kick to it.

Poblanos, onion and garlic smelt divine when cooking

To make things a lot easier on myself since I wanted to put this soup together very quickly, I bought a whole rotisserie chicken and picked all the meat off the bones and stored in a Tupperware in the fridge until ready to use.  When looking through different variations of white bean "chili", there were options to cook your own beans or buy canned.  Again in efforts to save lots of time, I opted for canned.  Without further ado, here's the recipe!

Chicken & White Bean Chili
Servers 4-6

Ingredients:
1 small onion chopped
2 poblano peppers chopped
4 tsp chopped garlic
1 Tablespoon olive oil
5 cups chicken broth (I always use less sodium kind)
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
1 Cup frozen corn kernals
1 can Navy beans drained
1 can Grean Northern Beans drained
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1-2 teaspoons Chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional if you want more spice)
Salt and pepper to taste 
About 1/4 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled apart into bite-sized pieces
Chopped green onion for garnish/serving
Sour Cream for garnish/serving
Jack cheese for garnish/serving
Tortilla Chips for dipping!


Directions:
Saute onion, poblano peppers and garlic in olive oil in a large dutch oven or pot until soft.  Add remaining ingredients through chicken and bring to a simmer.  You can simmer for as long as you like or enjoy once hot.  Super easy, right?!

I know... looks like tortilla soup!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Soup is usually at the very bottom of my go-to list this time of year.  The sweltering heat of the south definitely does not make me want a steaming bowl of hot liquid.  For whatever reason, last week I wanted tortilla soup.  I find that 90% of the time when trying to think of what to make, something in the category of Mexican Food comes to mind.  I can't help it! Mexican food is the BEST!!!

Anyways, there are so many different variations of tortilla soup.  This is one I just kind of made up with what I had on hand and thought would taste good!

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breast
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion chopped
1 medium zucchini chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped garlic
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped (or leave some seeds in for heat)
2 tsp chile powder
2 tsp ground cumin
3-4 cups chicken broth
1 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 can Rotel tomatoes & green chiles
2 cups corn (I used frozen)
1 can black beans drained and rinsed

Directions:

Cook chicken breast and shred or dice.  I cut raw chicken into bite sized pieces and cooked in the pan with some olive oil.  Set aside cooked chicken.

In a pot with the olive oil, saute the onion, zucchini, garlic and jalapeno until veggies are soft.  Season with cumin, chile powder, salt and pepper.  Pour in chicken broth, tomatoes, Rotel, corn and black beans.  Stir in cooked chicken breast.  Heat mixture to a simmer.  You can simmer for a bit if you want or enjoy right away.  Super easy, right!? Oh, don't forget to see below for what to serve it with. 

For garnishing/serving: sour cream, sliced avocado, shredded cheese, tortilla chips

Weekend Egg & Cheese

During the week, my breakfast sometimes leaves something to be desired.  I generally will have some combination of yogurt, fruit, granola and cottage cheese.  Getting my daily dose of dairy and keeping it healthy.  Now the weekend is a little bit different.  The weekend calls for some kind of delicious dish using eggs.  Yesterday, being a holiday, I raided the fridge for whatever ingredients I thought would appropriately spice up an egg and cheese sandwhich.  The result: one heck of a cheesy egg sammie with a twist! 

What's in it, you ask? Well... layered between a toasted whole grain English Muffin is a layer of Pimento Cheese, sauteed red onion slices, 1/2 piece of pepper jack cheese, one slice of Canadian Bacon and one over easy egg.

Make sure you enjoy with plenty of napkins on hand, this one is a messy good weekend treat!