Spring Rolls from Thug Kitchen

My brother in law got me this hilarious cook book for Christmas. It's all healthy, vegetarian food but the descriptions are all riddled with cursing when talking about things like oatmeal. It's great. I made the spring rolls the other night. They're so fresh and the ginger and dipping give sauce have such a great kick. A perfect healthy treat/light dinner/appetizer. 

Thai Chicken Soup

This is a really light and flavorful soup. I recommend making your own stock, but store-bought is fine, too. 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 lemongrass stalks, 1-2 hard outer layers discarded

2 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced 

2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced 

2 tbsp vegetable oil 

2 quarts chicken stock

1 14oz can diced tomatoes, drained but reserving juice

2oz tamarind paste

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 Serrano chiles, thinly sliced

A little lime zest

Adobo Fish Tacos

I already teased the picture here in my tortilla post, but these tacos were fabulous. (And gave me a chance to use my lovely bass.) The adobo sauce is pretty simple - you just need the peppers - but it gives the fish a really nice flavor. It's healthy and tasty, especially served with some chopped jalapenos, pineapple salsa, radishes, and chipotle salsa. 

Ingredients:

2 dried ancho chilis

3/4 cup water, for blending

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 garlic clove, peeled

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp oregano

pinch cumin

1 tbsp oil

2 pieces of firm fish such as striped bass

juice of 1/2 a lime

Coconut Quinoa

This is a great South Asian inspired way to make quinoa. I served it with fish and it was really tasty. Takes about half an hour and is a great side. It also made good leftovers for lunch prompting a few "that smells great"s at the office. The coconut makes it creamy and steeping it with lemongrass and habanero gives it extra flavor and a little heat. 

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 cup coconut milk (I used light)

1 stalk lemon grass

1 habanero

A few strips of lime zest

2 crushed garlic cloves

1/2 tsp sugar

Big pinch salt

1 tsp fish sauce

1 cup quinoa

1 tbsp coconut oil

Handful of cilantro, chopped

2 small scallions, thinly sliced

Juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 tsp minced jalapeño or serano pepper

Squid with Watermelon and Basil

After a long weekend of lots of food, Jamie and I wanted something fresh and healthy for dinner. I saw this recipe in Simple, Fresh, Southern and immediately started drooling. Watermelon just sounded so refreshing and nice, and I love fresh calamari. It's pretty simple - you just need to have an hour or two so it can marinate. It's pretty with bright pink and green from the watermelon and basil and it tastes great. Put in more jalapeno to give it a bigger kick.

Serves 2, double it for 4
Ingredients:
kosher salt
1 lemon, halved
1/2 lb cleaned squid, cut into 1/3" rings and tentacles cut in half
4 oz seedless watermelon cut into 1x1x1/4" tiles (about 1 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 a jalapeno, finely chopped
a little less than 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
leaves from 2 sprigs basil, roughly chopped

Chicken Chili

I love chili. Nothing better on a rainy, awful night like last night than a big bowl of spicy chili to warm you up. So I had my friends Alice and Elaine over for a chili night. I made chicken chili to be healthy, and it's so tasty and satisfying and I only used 2 tablespoons of oil in the whole thing. All of the different beans make it colorful and have great flavor and texture and the chipotle powder gives it a little bit of smokiness. Next time I may double the recipe so there are more leftovers! (This recipe serves 6)

Ingredients:
1 package ground chicken (turkey is fine too)
1 28 can whole tomatoes, chopped or torn up w your hands, juices reserved
1 can red beans
1 can white beans
1 can black beans
2 tbsp canola oil
1 1/2 yellow onions, diced

Summer Rolls

After a very fun weekend in Seattle full of eating and dancing and sightseeing at the wedding of our friends Charley and Andrea, we needed something healthy and veggie-full. Light and crunchy and fresh, summer rolls sounded perfect. I found a tasty recipe and whipped some up. They're not very hard, except it takes some time to assemble everything. They were so good that we ate them two nights in a row. I even found rice paper at the grocery store. They're colorful and full of fresh flavor and the spicy peanut sauce is amazing.

Ingredients:
Sauce:
3 tbsp finely chopped yellow onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp water

poached chicken with blood orange, avocado salsa

After my superbowl indulgence, I thought I needed something fresh and not wrapped in bacon. My go-to healthy dinner is poached chicken breast with a blood orange and avocado salsa. It's super tasty and the salsa I could just eat with a spoon. It's sweet, tangy, and a little spicy. Poached chicken can be a little boring, so I put orange and lime zest, onions, hot sauce, the interior of the oranges (after I segment them), salt, and anything else I have around/think might inprove the flavor (chili powder, pepper, cumin, dried red pepper/red pepper flakes). It's healthy, but it's really good so you don't feel like your missing out.

Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken breast
blood orange
lime
red onion
avocado
jalapeno

Directions:
Put the chicken breast in a small pot and just cover w/ water. Add in zest, sauce, whatever's in your kitchen etc to flavor it (a bouillon cube is also fine). Bring to a boil, turn to a simmer and let simmer, partly covered, for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let it sit in the water for about 15 minutes,
Meanwhile, segment the blood orange (throw the remainder in the water) and chop into chunks. Finely chop red onion and jalapeno and cut avocado into chunks. (I find it easiest to do this while it's still in its shell - just draw criss crosses through it and scoop it out). Sprinkle w/ salt and lime juice to taste. Add more jalapenos if you want it to be hotter.
Slice the chicken breast, or serve whole, and top with the salsa. It tastes fresh and bright and the flavors are complex (and tasty) enough that you're not craving more food after.