Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Lemon Tilapia

For dinner the other night I cooked tilapia for the hubby and myself. It has to be my favourite fish other than the fresh water fish I catch at the cottage. It is very easy to cook and hard to screw up which is good for beginners. I generally buy fish fresh at the grocery store as I find frozen tilapia can be a bit fishy. I payed about $6 for two large fillets of tilapia at loblaws. Here is the recipe, if you are generally not a fish person I recommend this type of fish as its flaky and has a subtle flavour. 
 
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

Tilapia fillets - one fillet per person (fresh preferred)
1 clove garlic
1 lemon
1 teaspoon of butter or margarine

1. Heat a medium sized cooking pan at medium heat
2. Melt the teaspoon of butter or margarine on the pan, reduce heat to medium low
3. Run the fish under cool water and rinse
4. Once the butter is melted, place fillets on the pan
5. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon onto the fish 
6. Mince the garlic and add it to the fry pan
7. Cook on the one side for 4-5 minutes, you will start to see the fish cooking through
8. Flip and cook for 3-4 minutes, the fish is cooked when it is white all the way through 
9. Serve fish with your favourite veggies 

** For this meal I steamed broccoli and fried leftover brown rice I had with corn, onions and a scrambled egg! yum :)


Chef Denise

Monday, December 6, 2010

Cranberry, Banana Muffins and Tilapia

Decided I needed a break from writing papers and studying so I cooked cranberry, banana muffins and tilapia for dinner! So tasty! I will post these recipes tomorrow :)

Chef Denise

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Overripe, Brown Bananas? Make Muffins!!!

Overripe bananas... we all buy 5 or 6 bananas thinking we will eat them all before they get too ripe to eat but then realize a week later there are still 3 left! We dont want to waste the bananas, our hard earned money went into buying those! Why not make banana muffins? They taste sooo good especially right hot out of the oven! Try this recipe next time you have a few ripe bananas laying around :)
Banana Muffins

Prep time: 5 - 10 mins
Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1  1/2 cups flower
Pinch of salt
Chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large mixing bowl mashed the bananas and mix in the melted butter
3. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla
4. Add baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix
5. Mix in the flour and add the choc chic (optional)
6. Grease the muffin pan or use muffin liners
7. Spoon batter into the muffin pan 
8.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until tops are browned and toothpick comes out clean

Tip!*** To save some money, buy some of these ingredients in bulk @ the bulk barn or other bulk stores! I buy my chocolate chips and vanilla extract here.

Remember, the key to cooking is having fun :) Cooking can be very relaxing and can help to relieve stress. I seem to want to cook most when I am stressed.

Chef Denise

Friday, December 3, 2010

Fabulous and EASY Quiche

Here is a very tasty and easy quiche recipe that my mom has been cooking for my family for years and I cant get enough of it.... neither can my boyfriend or friends!! The best part is, you can add whatever vegetables you like and whatever protein you like! I cook it with imitation crab meat and it turns out wonderful. So here is the recipe, give it a try!!! :)

Momma's Quiche
 
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves: 3 - 4

Ingredients

1 - 2 cups of fillings of your choice (red peppers, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, crab meat, ham etc)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 cup milk
1 cup bisquick
4 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Grease 10'' pie plate 
3. Sprinkle fillings and cheese in pie plate
4. Beat the eggs, milk, bisquick, salt and pepper until smooth and pour into plate
5. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean (the longer you cook it the crispier it will be on the top)

 Chef Denise <3