BF Cook-along: Butter Garlic Herb Tilapia w/ Squash and Cheesy Cauliflower

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I really enjoy doing these cook-alongs on Facebook. It holds me accountable to cooking lunch for the week and gives you guys a look into my warped thought process!

So this week I got some beautiful stuff at the farmer's market, including HUGE zucchini (I always overbuy), some yellow squash (my grandma called them "crook-necks"). Since I had such an abundance I decided to start my cook-along there.

Indulge me a memory. As a kid my now late mother (who I call "Mama Foodie") did not believe in kitchen machinery. Food processors offended her sensibilities and a mandolin slicer? Get outta here! Nope. Instead...she had me.

Now when I was younger I resented this, especially because my brothers got to watch tv while I was being forced to chop veggie after veggie after veggie. But the good part about this (for you and for me) is that I can chop darn near anything, any way, really fast! These days I do so to honor my mom's memory. It almost feels like we're still cooking together.

S'anyway, that's all to say that when I looked at the whole squash and zucchini, in my mind's eye what I saw was this:

And I knew that I wanted to do a "flavor build-up" as I call it. In my world, this is where you layer flavors so that when they cook in an oven they all come together in a glorious marriage of nummyness! To start I made the world's simplest butter garlic herb sauce:

Nik's "Really Simple" Butter Garlic Herb Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter (if you don't use butter...use what you use)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp Herbs de Provence (if you don't have this French herb blend handy use the herbs you like. Italian seasoning also works!)
• Salt/pepper to taste
• Optional (but I used) A splash (I'd estimate about 2-3 tbsp) white wine

Directions:

Set a pan over a medium flame and add your butter.

Once it melts, throw in the garlic and herbs and mix it with a whisk or a fork.

After it gets to a simmering boil, add the wine and cook an additional minute or two.

NOM! Once I tasted it I poured it over my veggies and I knew just what protein I wanted to stick on top. TILAPIA!

I love tilapia although I don't eat it very often (don't ask me why, there is no good reason!). So I put a few frozen filets on top of the veggies and seasoned them with salt, a generous dose of black pepper (I am a fan) and a sprinkle more of Herbs de Provence. And into a pre-heated 350 oven they went for 35 minutes! It came out looking (and smelling!) lovely. Check it:

Now, I'm all into eating healthy but I also whole-heartedly believe that every meal should have some little indulgence. One might argue that the butter in the fish is indulgence but considering the butter made up 200 calories, split among four portions, I think I have room to play with my food!

I had a bag of cauliflower I'd thawed then promptly forgot about it so I needed to use it. I wanted cheesy mashed cauliflower but my original recipe calls for more cauliflower than I had and, frankly, I didn't want to get stuck eating it for two weeks! So I worked out a quickie version.

Nik's Quicky Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 shredded cheese of your choice
• 1 bag cauliflower florets, cooked and mashed
• An additional sprinkle of cheese over the top

Basically you make a simple pan cheese sauce by letting your milk come up to a slow simmer in a pan. Add the cheese once the milk is hot and stir well. I used the same pan I'd made the butter garlic herb sauce so I had that good pan crud (and residual butter!) working for me. You may have to stir a few moments to get it to melt down completely but eventually it should look like this:

Transfer your cauliflower to a pan (I used an 8x8) and pour the cheese on top. Sprinkle a little extra cheese on top (and to keep with the Herbs de Provence theme, I sprinkled some of that on too). Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or until cheese on top is browned!

Who stole a bite???

I love these kinds of dinners. They confuse my kids because it feels like they have had a starch when they have not! But it's still good! 

If you wanna join in on the cook-along fun, be sure to tune into Bariatric Foodie's Facebook Page on Sunday nights. That's when I usually do a cook-along. If I do one during a different time I usually send out an event invite.

Until then, keep playing with your food!

Playing with my Squash!

I love squash. I love yellow squash. Zucchini squash. I love acorn squash and butternut squash and spaghetti squash. By far, for me, squash is about the easiest vegetable to get down. It's full of water and lends lots of color and flavor to any dish!

So last night I made myself an Egg Burger for dinner and wanted a side. As you all know I am the owner of the ORIGINAL Wonder Pouch™. Which means I can eat more than most of you ever want to be able to eat. And I figure it this way. I can use this skill for good or I can use it for evil. MOST days I choose the former, using my enhanced capacity to get in veggies that most of us just don't have room for!

Anyhoo...I'm in the kitchen..playing with my veggies and I came up with a spice/herb combo for my squash that was out of this world! (And I do NOT use terms like "out of this world" lightly!)

Nik's Sauteed Squash Medley

Non-stick cooking spray OR a small pat (like 1/2 tbsp) butter
1 medium sized zucchini, sliced into thin rounds
1 medium sized yellow squash, sliced into thin rounds
1/4 tsp. garlic salt (I used McCormick Roasted Garlic salt - NOM!)
1/4 tsp lemon pepper
1/4 tsp Herbs de Provence (it's a blend of French Herbs that is amazing but if you can't find it, Italian seasoning works too)

Directions:

If you are using non-stick, spray your pan generously and let it get hot. Use a non-stick pan as well. The pan in the picture was NOT non-stick and guess what? It stuck! Anyhoo...once the pan is hot, drop the heat down to medium.

Throw the zucchini and squash rounds in the pan and cover with the spices. Cover the pan and allow the veggies to cook, stirring occasionally. About 5-ish minutes. Usually while this is happening I'm doing dishes.

Continue to cook until it's at YOUR personal level of done-ness. Some of you simply like your veggies steamed through. I like to get a crust on mine. I'm weird like that.

Serve alongside any upstanding protein choice! Oddly enough, this tastes like pizza. I kid you not. Maybe it's the Herbs de Provence? Who knows? I take pizza tastes where I can get them and I don't ask questions!

It was so good I had it again today for lunch with some grilled chicken tenderloins:

Play with your food!

Dee Dee's Cheesy Squash & TVP Casserole

I just love it when you guys play with your food and let me know about it. It's so exciting to see what you're cooking up.

My pal Dee Dee sent this to me to show her first attempt at working with TVP ("What the heck is TVP?"). It looks yummy, vegetarian-friendly (correct me if I'm wrong) and easy to make! 

Thank you, Dee Dee, for this scrumptious recipe!

Dee Dee's Cheesy Squash and TVP Casserole

Ingredients:

• 3 zucchini squash, sliced thin
• 2 yellow squash, sliced thin
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin (you might want to go with a white onion since the veggies will sweeten up a bit from cooking)
• 1 c. Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)
• 1 c. + 1/2 c. whatever cheese you like (she used an assortment from her fridge that included cheddar, mozzarella, Italian blend and Parmesan)
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• Garlic salt & black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl (using one cup of your cheese) and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. This allows some of the water to come out of the veggies, rehydrating the TVP and allowing it to soak up the flavor of the veggies. 

Spray a casserole dish down with non-stick cooking spray (Dee Dee used an 8x8 dish) and transfer mixture into it. Bake for one hour. 

Turn off the oven, cover with another generous sprinkle of cheese and and allow it to remain in the oven as it cools. 

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo a la Nik

(Yesterday on Bariatric Foodie….)

You made a spaghetti squash. Possibly your first. Congrats! Now let’s translate it into a yummy meal.

I love spaghetti squash because it makes a great family type meal. The divas know (intellectually) that it is not pasta, but seriously? Anything covered in sauce is going to be good. The trick is to make it a health benefit as well.

We like Alfredo sauce. A lot. Unfortunately, it has a gamillion calories, so I have to make some concessions to make it all work.

First off, I make it into a casserole. What does that do? Casserole = finite amount of sauce. With a traditional pasta dish you tend to dump sauce on it and not think about how much. With a casserole you add sauce then reheat it, which infuses that flavor into everything in the casserole, removing the need for a lot of sauce.

I could write a book on this stuff (wink), but I think I’ll give you the recipe now:

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo a la Nik

2 yellow squash, diced
2 zucchini, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. chicken breasts, cubed
Yield of one spaghetti squash
½ c. skim milk
½ c. grated Parmesan cheese (you can get the shelf stuff but grating your own is so much better!)
Fresh ground pepper (to taste) and sea salt
½ a jar Alfredo sauce (I use Ragu reduced fat)
4 o 5 slices of Provolone cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray down a sautee pan with nonstick and cook chicken breast cubes thoroughly and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
In the same pan, sautee both types of squash and onions until just tender. Add garlic and mix well. Transfer to same bowl as chicken.

Turn burner down to low and add milk, scraping up the bits at the bottom of the pan. When the edges of the milk begin to bubble, add the Alfredo sauce, mix well and warm through.

Add spaghetti squash to the large mixing bowl and mix chicken and veggies completely.

Add parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and mix again.

Add the Alfredo sauce and mix into the veggie mixture thoroughly. Transfer to a 13x9 casserole dish.

Top with slices of provolone cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

This is a seriously yummy dinner. And here’s the kicker. When you give it to the kids…and they wolf it…you’ve snuck not one, but THREE veggies into their meal!

I let that fact slip to La Grande Diva a few days ago. Messed up her whole world.

And THAT...my lovelies...is what I call playing with my food!

Have a great weekend!

How to Make Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is one of those veggies where there are as many ways to prepare it as people to prepare it.

That is to say, my method isn’t the only method, just the one that works best for me. If you have another method, by all means share it with the Foodie Nation (in the comments section)!

Wait…let’s back up a minute.

If you’ve never heard of spaghetti squash, they look something like this:



When cooked the “meat” of the squash is stringy, much like angel hair pasta. Cooking one is probably about the easiest thing in the world. Here’s my four step process.

Step One:

Place your squash in a cooking pan and fill it up to halfway up the sides with water. Cover it with aluminum foil and pop it into a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes. The photo I used is cut in half. I usually don't bother to do that, though.

Step Two:

Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool completely before handling it. Seriously. I theorize 99% of spaghetti squash injuries are a result of skipping this step! When it's cool, fork test it. The fork should easily pierce the skin and go into the flesh.

Step Three:

Once it's cooled is when I usually slice it in half length wise (and might I say it's MUCH easier to do it at that point). See the center part that is sort of gooey with seeds in it? Yeah, scoop that out with a spoon, but JUST THAT PART.

Step Four:

Then run your spoon (or fork) just under the tough outer skin to extract the good stuff into a bowl. If you see any seeds, pick them out. Usually where there are seeds, there is more gooey stuff, so if you see it, get it. It’s not pleasant to eat!
Ok, so you’ve made your first spaghetti squash. Now what? You eat it! How? Tune in tomorrow to find out!