Grilled Mahi Mahi with Avocado Corn Salad

This is an awesome recipe for lazy cookers. It's simple, not a ton of ingredients. Hard to mess up. And it's clean and yummy. And I want to put this avocado corn salad thingie on everything.

Avocado Corn Salad
1/2 of a 15oz can of salt-free corn OR 2 fresh ears of corn, shucked and removed from cob
1/2 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)
1 ripe avocado, cubed
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
1 Tbl sugar
1 Tbl white distilled vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix, taste, adjust seasoning if needed, cover and put in fridge.

Grilled Mahi Mahi 
4 Mahi Mahi filets (4-5oz each)
2 Tbl olive oil
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat grill to medium high heat. In small bowl, combine the olive oil and seasonings, and mix well. Brush onto both sides of the Mahi Mahi, and place on grill. Cook fish on each side 4-6 minutes, depending on thickness, or until cooked through. Serve with avocado corn salad.

One of the many reasons I love this dish is that if you have any leftover salad, you can store it in a tight container and it should keep overnight in fridge so that you can serve it with something else (tortilla chips!) or leftovers. The vinegar keeps the avocado from turning brown.

H.E.A.L.T.H. Boats

I'm really proud of the fact that I named these HEALTH boats because each letter stands for one of the ingredients. I think I'm pretty creative right now. Or bored I guess. Or hungry.

H.E.A.L.T.H. Boats

H.E.A.L.T.H. Boats
Hummus
Eggs (hardboiled, sliced)
Avocado, sliced
Lettuce (Romain hearts or butter lettuce best)
Turkey (low sodium or nitrate free)
Hot Sauce (optional)

Turn lettuce into a taco boat. Put full slice of lettuce on plate, tope with sliced turkey, then hummus, sliced avocado, and sliced hard boiled egg. Season with salt/pepper and top with hot sauce (optional).

If you really wanted, you could also put all this stuff in between some bread for a sandwich. Or another of my favorite variations is to eliminate the lettuce and put the toppings on a brown rice cake. Pretty much any vessel you want uses to get avocado, hummus, eggs, and turkey into your mouth will work.

My Favorite Breakfast EVER

I wish I had a better name for this but it's more the combination of ingredients that I love together so much. It's a great "clean" breakfast, full of fresh ingredients. Love love love. I have it at least 3 times a week.

I prefer this two ways: A) on a toasted tortilla, preferably corn, so its gluten free, as a breakfast tostada. And B) a breakfast stack on top of a slice of tomato. Either option are amazing, and it just depends which I have in the fridge.

Breakfast Stack or Tostada

Breakfast Stack or Tostada
(Single serving)
1 corn tortilla, taco size, OR 1 slice of beefsteak or on the vine tomato
1 egg
1/4 avocado, sliced
1.5 Tbl hummus
1 Tbl crumbled goat cheese
Salt/Pepper
olive, avocado, or coconut oil
hot sauce (optional)


If making a tostada, first step is to warm and slightly crisp a tortilla in a frying pan over medium heat. Then set aside. For either the tostada or stack, heat small amount of oil in fry pan over medium/low heat. While oil is heating, put either tortilla or tomato slice on plate, and top with slices of avocado (maybe salted if like), then layer of hummus. Fry egg to your preference in oil, season with salt/pepper, then place egg on hummus. Top with crumbled goat cheese and hot sauce (if using). Voila!

This recipe is soooo yummy and I love how clean it is. And you can use super fresh ingredients. A couple great variations are to add a slice of low-sodium deli turkey, or baby spinach/kale (shown above)! Or both. But the above ingredients are the core and so amazing every time.

Egg "Muffins" and Guac

Egg "Muffins"

These little gems are great to make on a Sunday night or Monday morning, and then you can easily warm them up when needed as a grab-n-go breakfast. PS there are hundreds of recipes for these on Pinterest if you don't like mine.

This is a pretty loose recipe for ingredients. The ingredients used below are those that I tend to have laying around at any given time OR whatever leftovers I have from dinner night before. Whenever I make chopped veggies, I cut extra to throw in eggs or salads at another time, and store the in plastic baggies in fridge so they are ready to go for the next meal.

Egg "Muffins"
Makes 12 small "muffins"

10 eggs, beaten -OR- 8 eggs plus 1/2 cup of "milk"
* coconut, almond, soy, skim, 2%, whole, heavy cream...it all works!
3/4 cup pre-cooked chicken sausage, finely chopped
* can substitute cooked chicken, steak, whatever meat you have leftover from dinner night before
3/4 cup Veggies, finely chopped, and sautéed
* typically used: onion, bell peppers, mushrooms
6-8 grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced into 2-3 pieces
shredded cheese or crumbled goat cheese (optional)
1/2 sweet potato, cubed, and cooked (optional)
* I add this if I have left over from dinner night before
Fresh salsa or guacamole (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. In small fry pan, add 1 Tbl olive oil over medium-ow heat, and then add veggies and sauté for 3-4 minutes (skip this step if using leftover veggies like broccoli or asparagus or whatever from dinner night before). Grease muffin tin. In each muffin compartment, add some cooked meat, veggies, and potatoes (if using). Add in beaten egg or egg/milk combo, filling each compartment to about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Add a couple chopped tomatoes, and then stir each cup to mix ingredients into eggs. Top with a little cheese (optional). Put into oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes up clear when stick it in middle of egg muffin. Let cool a little before trying to take out of tin. Recommended serving with salsa or guacamole.


Fresh Guacamole
2 servings

1 avocado, chopped
1/2 lime
Cilantro
Salt/Pepper

Slice avocado in half, remove pit, slice inside length and cross wise, and scoop out avocado with spoon into bowl. Squeeze 1/2 lime worth of juice into bowl, add some chopped fresh cilantro, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Taste and adjust lime/salt/pepper if necessary, and serve immediately.


I love this dish because you can make it gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, paleo, etc very easily to fit your diet. But definitely grease the muffin tin before adding anything. Otherwise you will be throwing this tin away.

And I'm Back!

I'm back. To blogging recipes that is. And I have a new found love of yoga and health food. Not cardboard tasting health food, but amazing tasting, clean, homemade everything food. We've had a lifestyle change (for the better) in this house with working out, clean eats, and cooking and my new recipes reflect it.

I really started this blog so that I have a virtual cookbook of my recipes. So it's not so refined or for the masses. But it's me.

There is no general classification of my cooking these days. It's part Paleo, part Whole30, part Atkins, part farm-to-table, part gluten-free....but overall as clean and as fresh as possible. Check ingredients and make smart substitutions where necessary to make it work for you. For example: I eat wheat and flour sometimes. And recently I wanted tortillas, so I made my own. This way, I know exactly what ingredients are going in my body, and I am the one who chooses them. But you could use lettuce wraps, or gluten-free tortillas, or whatever works for you!

I'm going to keep the Cheese For Me Please title of the blog for now since, even though I eat much less cheese now, it was my love for cheese that starting my love for cooking. So there it is. For now.

I seriously welcome any feedback or modifications you have made and liked so that I can try them too!

xoxo

Not Yo Mama's Breakfast Burrito

Breakfast or Dinner Burrito

This is not yo mama's breakfast burrito. And it seems to be confused on whether it's for breakfast or for dinner (we had it for both), so you choose. I handmade tortillas for this, but they weren't my favorite so I will post that recipe separate once I perfect it.

(Not the best picture, but I was so hungry I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product before I ate it. So here is the burrito mixture pre-cheese and eggs.)

Burrito

Serves 4 hungry people

4 large burrito tortillas or 8 large taco tortillas (flour, wheat, gluten-free, whatever)

1 large sweet potato (white or orange), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 yellow or sweet onion, finely chopped

3 garlic gloves, minced

2 carrots, peeled, chopped

olive oil

Salt/Pepper

* Spices

0.75-0.85 lbs ground beef (85% lean if possible)

6 eggs

2 handfulls of spinach/kale mix, loosely chopped

1/2 cup monterrey jack shredded cheese (optional)

1 avocado

Pico de gallo or salsa

* Try to find a multi-spice that has cumin and cayenne in it. I used Oh My Spice: Sweet and Savory flavor. If you can't find a good one, make your own mix of cayenne, cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt in a little bowl. It will keep in a little tupperware with lid for a while too!

In large frying pan over medium heat, add about 2 Tbl olive oil. Then add garlic, onion, and carrots. Saute for about 3-5 minutes or until onion gets slightly translucent (make sure not to burn garlic). Add potatoes, and season entire mixture with 1 Tbl of spice mixture and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. Add more olive oil if needed). Saute for about 7-10 minutes, or until potatoes are soft/cooked through. While potatoes cooking, in a separate bowl, beat 6 eggs together and set bowl aside. Add ground beef to potato mix in pan, season with 1/2 more Tbl of spice mixture and additional 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper. Mix well and cook, stirring often, until ground beef is browned (do not drain, as the fat is needed to keep mixture together). Add in chopped spinach/kale mix, and stir, cooking until spinach/kale sautéed. Add cheese (optional), and mix in. Move beef/potato/veggie mix to one side of pan. On other half of pan, slowly add beaten eggs to scramble, while slowly mixing in the beef/potato/veggies to the eggs, until all the eggs and all the beef/potato/veggies are mixed together. Continue to stir and flip until eggs are fully cooked (it's kind of hard to tell so eyeball it and just try to see if no longer slimey). Turn off heat.

Wrap up mixture into burrito tortillas, or serve as tacos. Top with chopped avocado and pico de gallo or salsa.

Clean eats burritos. Bomb digity. 

Sauteed Spinach Medley

I swear my best cooking is when I think I have nothing to eat in the fridge. This was one of those concoctions and it turned out so good that I will make it on purpose again!


Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 1
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 2
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 2

Sauteed Spinach Medley
Serves 2
1 package (4-5 oz) baby spinach
10 grape tomatoes, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
extra virgin olive oil
salt/pepper
2 slices of red onion, cut in half
1/2 package of baby bella or button mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbl butter

In large saute pan, heat 1 Tbl olive oil. Saute garlic until softened and slightly translucent. Add butter, spinach, red onion, and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Saute until mushrooms cooked through and spinach and onions softened. Add tomatoes, mix well, and turn off heat. Serve immediately.


Let me reiterate that you should use a large saute pan because although it cooks down to a serving size, putting a whole package of spinach in a pan with other stuff takes up a lot of space.