Mahi Mahi Tacos

Ingredients:

• small corn tortillas
• salsa/taco sauce of your choice (we used the Trader Joe's bean and corn salsa)
• grated cheese (we used mozzarella but Mexican style cheeses would  probably be even better)
• mahi mahi (one steak per person)
• lemon juice
• seasonings: black pepper, hot red pepper, garlic powder, dried cilantro flakes

Start by slicing your mahi mahi steaks into strips of whatever size you would like to have in your tacos. Our steaks made three meaty tacos each. This is also a good time to prep your taco shells (as displayed below) so they can warm while you cook the fish. 

Season your pour your lemon juice over the mahi mahi and then add the spices on one side.

Spray a pan with cooking spray and toss the fish in with seasoned side down. Apply the seasonings to the top of the fish as it cooks so that both sides are seasoned. Depending on how spicy you like your tacos you may want to leave the hot red pepper off of the second side. 

Flip the fish after it has blackened and cooked about half way through. 

You will want to watch the fish closely so that you do not over cook it. Nothing is more disappointing than rubbery,dray mahi mahi. Just before the center of the fish is fully cooked, take it off of the stove and let it cool on a plate. The fish will continue to cook after it is out of the pan.

Just before you put the fish in the pan, you will want to put your taco shells into the oven to warm the tortillas and melt the cheese. Remember, this is NOT to cook the taco shells...these are soft tacos, the goal is not to have a crunch shell. Additionally, it is nice to warm the salsa so that you are not putting refrigerated salsa on warm fish tacos, thereby eating cold fish tacos. 

Bake the taco shells on low for 5-10 minutes. I did not let my oven fully preheat for this so I cannot tell you at what temperature it was, but suffice it to say that you are only warming the taco shells so keep an eye on them. 

Assembly of your tacos at this point is extremely easy. Just place the now perfectly cooked mahi mahi into each taco.

 A cold Mexican lager to drink, and a wedge of lime in hand to drizzle on the tacos are a nice touch to finish off the dish. Enjoy.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

While cleaning out the fridge today, we found a package of cream cheese that was due to expire in the next month. It gave me the perfect excuse to bake some type of cheesecake dessert. We don't currently own a spring form pan so I opted for something less traditional. I found a recipe for strawberry cheesecake bites.

Ingredients

1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12-18 large strawberries

2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs

between 1 - 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

First, rinse and dry the strawberries. Using a sharp knife, cut out the center of the strawberry. The more hallow you make the strawberry, the more cheesecake filling will fit into the strawberry.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. I was not using an electric mixer so I microwaved the cream cheese until it was soft enough to easily mix with a spatula.

Next, I poured the mixture into a Ziploc sandwich bag and cut off a piece of the end with scissors. Squeezing the bag, I was able to pipe the mixture into the center of the strawberries.

Next, dip the cheesecake end of the strawberry into the graham cracker crumbs.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave. I normally microwave the chocolate for 20 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted enough when mixed with a spoon. Dip the non-cheesecake end of the strawberry in the melted chocolate. Lay on a baking sheet with wax paper (aluminum foil works as well). 

If you want you can sprinkle some graham cracker crumbs or crushed nuts on the chocolate. Once the chocolate hardens the strawberries are ready to be served.

Enjoy!

Homemade Thai Curry

The trick to curry is the curry paste. Becca and I were lucky to find a brand we really like called Maesri. This recipe was done with green curry paste, but we have also used their red and yellow pastes, both of which are excellent

First we cubed a chicken breast and chopped some broccoli. 

We then simmered the curry paste in a pan of coconut milk for about 5 minutes with a lid on. We use Trader Joe's Light Coconut Milk. Our ratio is one can of coconut milk (14oz) to just less than a full can of curry paste (amount pictured below). This is just our preference  based on how much curry flavor and spice we like, so variations to this are fine. 

After the coconut milk and curry paste has simmered for 5 minutes throw in the broccoli and chicken. Continue to simmer with the lid on until the chicken is fully cooked. 

Remember, this recipe works great with any vegetable or protein that you may want to include. The night we did eggplant, broccoli, and tofu in yellow curry was particularly delicious. 

Lox and Asparagus Cous Cous Salad

Michael and I were brainstorming dinner ideas when we thought of an interesting combination of ingredients. It turned out so well that we are going to try to mix this into our regular rotation of dinner recipes. 

Ingredients

a package of asparagus from Trader Joe's

1 box of Israeli Cous Cous from Trader Joe's

goat cheese

smoked salmon

First, prepare the cous cous as instructed on the box. While the cous cous is cooking, saute the asparagus in a pan with oil (we used truffle oil and I very highly recommend it). Once the cous cous and the asparagus are cooked, toss them into a medium sized bowl and let them cool for about 5 or 10 minutes. Next, throw in some chunks of smoked salmon and some chunks of goat cheese and stir. Once ingredients have been mixed it's ready to be served.

Enjoy!