Salmon with Red pepper pesto

Happy Saturday! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! I spent it with family in North Carolina, and had way too much good southern food. I cooked this recipe last week, but just now got around to posting it. I will be posting a few more this coming week, hope you're enjoying time with friends and family :) This is a fast, 20 minutes meal from Cooking Light.

Ingredients
4 6-oz fresh salmon fillets (Costco has the best prices right now)
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup chopped bottled roasted red bell pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
7 almonds
1 garlic clove

Directions
Heat grill pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle fish with 1/2 tsp salt. Coat pan with olive oil, cook for 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. In the meantime, you can prepare the pesto, which is so easy it should be banned ;) combine salt, bell peppers, and remaining ingredients in a food processor, and process until smooth. Serve pesto over fish. Saute garlic spinach and serve it with fish.

Enjoy- again, this is so easy you can make it in 20 minutes or less ;)
Beijos

Slow-cooker Chipotle Beef Tacos with Cabbage

This is a great Monday recipe, because you can prepare the ingredients the night before, leave it in the refrigerator, and put them all in the slow-cooker the next morning. For those of you who know me well, you know I don't like to cut or eat raw onions. For this recipe, I asked the hubbie- who happens to love onions- to cut it for me the night before, so I could add onions to the recipe. I got this recipe from my favorite magazine, Real Simple.

The whole house smelled like this wonderful roast, so I highly recommend. We even had a friend over for dinner that night and he enjoyed this dish very much. Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 lbs beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces ( Winco offers these for $8.88)
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 to 3 tbsp chopped canned chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
kosher salt
4 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges for serving
12 6" flour tortillas

Directions
In a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker, toss together the beef, onion, garlic, chipotles, oregano, bay leaves and 1 tsp salt. Cover and cook until the beef is very tender, on low for 8 hours.

Twenty minutes before serving, heat oven to 350. In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, cilantro, lime juice and 1/4 tsp salt. Wrap tortillas in foil and bake for 10 minutes.

Transfer the beef to a medium bowl, and shred, using 2 forks. Serve it with cabbage, tortillas, sour cream. I added a bit of shredded cheese for extra flavor. This recipe yields 6 servings, at 431 calories per serving.

Beijos,
Thais

Pear Prosciutto Pizza

Good Friday! I hope you're all enjoying the wonderful produce that is in season this time of year. I love pears, and think they make great additions to dinner dishes, so I was happy when I found this Pizza recipe from Cooking Light Magazine.

I have one shortcut: I did not make the dough: I bought it at Winco, as they have the best dough for $1.29 a ball :) If you live in Portland, Hot Lips Pizza also sells their dough, which is marvelous.

Hope you enjoy this recipe, there were barely leftovers with this one.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of Gruyere cheese ( I preferred this one over goat cheese)
1 tbsp of flour
4 cups of baby spinach ( I buy the organic kind at Costco)
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 roma tomatoes, sliced thinly
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
2 ripe Bartlett pears, cored and thinly sliced

Directions
Preheat oven to 450. Roll dough into a 14 inch circle on a floured surface. Brush dough with olive oil, and sprinkle the cheese. Place dough in a round stone, and bake for 13 minutes. In the meantime, mix other ingredients in a medium bowl.  Remove dough, place salad over the cheese, mix, and bake for additional 12 minutes.

I bought the prosciutto at Trader Joe's, which gave me a good excuse to buy a bottle of Pinot Grigio to go with this pizza. Each serving is at 393 calories, not counting the wine.

Enjoy,
Beijos
Thais

Chipotle-Rubbed Flank Steak

Happy Friday! I am so happy I have the menu all planned out for the month of November, and if you'd like a copy, just email me and I will send you the file and shopping list.

I am going to try to stick to a budget of $400 or less for food, for the month. So, with that in mind, this recipe is a super deal: 1 1/2 of flank steak was $8.88 at Winco, with Gorgonzola from Costco and a side of Brown Rice. Total overall prize was $20, serving 4 ( although we were hungry and there is no leftover). The cooking technique is broiling, which means your oven does all the cooking :)

Enough of the chit-chat. I got this recipe from Cooking Light, but modified it slightly. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 tsp ground chipotle chile pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 lb flank steak, trimmed
1 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp all-purpose flour
2/3 cup low-fat milk
1 oz of crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1 tsp butter

Directions
Preheat broiler to high. Combine first 3 ingredients. Sprinkle steak with chipotle mixture. Place on a broiler pan; broil 5 minutes on each side ( I did that and left a little longer for me. Hubbie likes his steak super rare, and I needed 5 more minutes on each side for a medium-well level). Let stand for 5 minutes, cut thinly diagonally, across the grain.

Start cooking the brown rice. For the sauce- which I must warn you, is pretty garlicky, but still awesome- heat the olive oil on a sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook for 1 minute or until lightly golden. Add flour, cook 30 seconds, stirring. Add the milk, boil. Reduce heat and cook until reduced by half. Remove from heat, add cheese and butter. Pour over the steak and serve with brown rice.

This is also a pretty light recipe- 240 calories per serving ( 3 oz of steak and 3 tbps of the sauce).

This also reminded me a bit of churrasco (Brazilian style steak), as the sea salt helps to seal some of the moist tenderness in the steak. This is for sure a new favorite.

Beijos,
Thais