Ghee and Thyme Salmon over Parmesan Kale Chips

Anyone else feel like they need to detox after the weekend? I did so I ventured for a super healthy dinner with my favorite combination- salmon and kale!

Wild sockeye salmon

Seasoned with fresh lemon juice, sea salt, lemon pepper, red pepper, fresh thyme and green spoons of ghee down the middle of the fish.

Baked at 400 for 15 mins

Kale chips

Washed, de-veined and chopped Kale on a foil lined cookie sheet.

Seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, lemon pepper and red pepper.

Baked at 400 for 15 mins, until crispy

When crispy, take out of oven, squeeze with Lemon and dust with Parmesan cheese and toss.

I like the salmon served right on top of the kale

Great combo!

 

Here's to a healthy week!

Shaha Mischi, Say What?

Shaha Mischi
pronounced, sha-ha-misch-ee ( if that even makes sense?)
Half of the fun of making this dish is saying the name....haha!
This is a traditional lebanese dish that I grew up eating and was one of my absolute favorites, probably because it features my favorite vegetable-Eggplant!  This was a big hit in my family on this rainy night and I am not even sure my girls realized they were eating eggplant, until I pointed it out and my oldest said she thought it was just really big zucchini slices! Try this recipe and hopefully your family will enjoy it as much as mine!

To start, you first have to make Humpsa.  Humpsa is a Lebanese meat dressing that we use in lots of different recipes.

I started by melting a spoonful of ghee, adding a chopped sweet onion, let it soften, then added 2lbs. of grass fed ground beef.  Cooked it until it was fully cooked. Seasoned it with salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper, red pepper and a generous amount of cinnamon. Finish it with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and toasted pine nuts. (we leave out the pine nuts because of my daughters allergy)
At this point, your humpsa is done.

 
You can use humpsa to make meat pies, my girls love it cooked on an open face biscuit, when they were little i would mix it with boiled pasta or any grain and some vegetables.

To make the shaha mischi, I lined a casserole dish with thick eggplant slices. 

 

Poured the humpsa on top

 

 topped it tomato sauce (in a bowl, i emptied 2 cans of an organic tomato sauce, seasoned it with fresh basil, salt, garlic powder and red pepper)

 

Then poured the tomato sauce over the humpsa

 

 I also added a little fresh basil on top of the dish. Covered dish with foil and baked at 350 for 45mins.

 
Served over syrian rice.

 

We had a nice little family discussion about mommys Lebanese heritage, in which my girls asked "what does that mean?" So it was a yummy meal, shared over some fun family talks learning about their family history! 

Making the most of leftovers

This morning while I was packing the girls' lunches and mentally planning out my day and thinking about what i was cooking for dinner, if I needed to thaw out any meat....I looked in my ice box and realized I had lots of leftover meat from our family grill out Sunday....so why cook more meat when we had plenty that needs to be eaten.  I hate throwing away food!
But leftovers are blah and boring and most people including me don't get excited about them.
I find, you got to kind of re-cook them, re-purpose them to jazz them up to make them appealing!

For lunch, it was pretty simple...
I just warmed up some leftover chicken kabobs in a skillet real quick and drizzled some tahini on top while it was hot, so it melted on top.  SO so good!!!



For dinner, I was supposed to make chicken skillet fajitas, but instead i used this leftover grilled flank steak and made skillet beef fajitas.

Now this leftover flank steak looks totally blah....not very appealing!

So I sauteed some onions and peppers in a spoonful of ghee

added the flank steak, squeezed juice of a lime...

Now that looks like a fresh meal!

Cut up a simple salad of romain, avocado, red belpepper and fresh parsley.

Seasoned with a little Tony's, olive oil, lemon juice and red wine vinegar and tossed!

Another way to jazz up leftovers is to create a new side! Look in your fridge and use what you have!

I had some pretty tri-color carrots, I cut into french fries, seasoned with a  little avocado oil, sea salt and pepper.
Baked at 400 for about 15 mins.
Came out toasted and super yummy...seriously tasted like popcorn to me???

Beef fajita salad with a side of carrot fries.

Beef fajita tacos!

Leftovers for the win!
Just repurpose them and make them appealing again...
as my Sittee would say, "you gotta sell it"

Halloween Night and Family Traditions

Holiday season is upon us and for most, the holidays are tied to family traditions and favorite family recipes.  Growing up, my mom usually made a big pot of red beans and rice with popeyes fried chicken or a big pot of chili.....either way it was a big pot of something! Best thing about cooking a big pot of something is that you usually start cooking it hours in advance, so its done ahead of time, it feeds a bunch! Family, friends, neighbors that pop in - you are prepared!
I have started the tradition of making my dad's 3 meat, 3 bean chili!
I serve it with steamed rice, fritos, avocado salad, cheese, greek yogurt (instead of sour cream) and sometimes cornbread.

Here is the recipe
http://amommawhocooks.blogspot.com/2013/10/happy-halloween-chilli-night.html

Hope everyone had a spooky and safe Halloween!
Make the holidays a special time with your family, marked with some special meals your children will grow to love and look forward to on those special nights!

Avocado salad we topped the chilli with.

 

Chilli frito pies! 

 

My sweet girls were a prima ballerina and rainbow unicorn!

 

Greek night: lambchops and kabobs

Sunday is a great day to food prep for the week. Sunday night olive grilling a bunch and having leftovers to eat on for lunches for the week. Tonight I wanted to have a Greek night. We did lambchops, kabobs, lemon potatoes, roasted green beans, tzatziki sauce and salad.

Greek Lambchops

I had a rack of lamb that I sliced into individual lambchops

I marinated these with olive oil

Fresh garlic

Chopped fresh basil and mint

Sea salt, lemon pepper, red pepper

Rubbed it in real good and refrigerated until I was ready to grill it!

 

Chicken Kabobs

I had 4 chicken breasts I cut up into cubes as well as a purple onion, a red and yellow bellpepper

I placed it in a bowl with the chicken so I could marinate it all together.

Seasoned with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, worsteshire, Apple cider vinegar, sea salt, lemon pepper, red pepper and garlic powder. 

Refrigerated until I was ready to cook. I will skewer it right before I grill it.

 

 

It's not a Greek night without tzatziki sauce

 

Made with Greek yogurt, red onion, lemon juice, garlic, fresh mint and basil. 

 

Tonight we made lemon roasted potatoes, green beans and a big salad to go with it!

Seasoned with olive oil, ghee, fresh lemon juice, garlic cloves, salt, red pepper and lemon pepper. Baked at 350 for 45 mins.

 

Seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic, salt, lemon pepper and red pepper.

 

Big salad

 

Grilled and ready to eat

 

Mange!

Don't forget to follow me on instagram- AMommaWhoCooks 

I post videos and more dishes!

Tuscan Shrimp

This is a dish that came about by me not knowing what to cook and I started cooking bythrowing things I had in the fridge together and turned out to be yummy.

I'm gonna start by saying this is how I made it tonight but I made a mistake by adding my shrimp a little early. I was multitasking like most moms at 5pm and didn't think straight.... so learn from my mistake!

I am going to share how I made it tonight and then tell you at the end how I would do it next time! 

I started by peeling and deveining 2lbs of gulf wild shrimp.

 

Set aside

Start by melting a spoonful of ghee in a sautee pan with chopped onions and garlic

 

After they were soft, I added my shrimp (my mistake)

I seasoned my shrimp before I added them 

Seasoned with salt, lemon pepper and red pepper.

Once I added my shrimp to the pan I squeezed the juice of one big lemon (2 if it's a small lemon, want a good amount of lemon juice)

When my shrimp were cooked I added a head of chopped kale (take the rib bone out of the kale and will be easier to eat) and a bunch of cherry tomatoes and fresh basil 

 

Cover and stir occasionally and smash tomatoes as they cook.

 

That is it!

Now next time I make this, I would add my shrimp at the end so I don't over cook them! I would add my kale and tomatoes, once it was cooked down then I would add my shrimp.

For low carb, I ate it just like this 

 

For my husband and kids I boiled some egg noodles and mixed it with the pasta to make a Tuscan Shrimp pastas

 

Husband loves this dish!!!

Tonight I also made a really simple roasted squash fingers. I had some in the fridge and it needed to be cooked. 

I simply cut the squash into fingers and tossed in olive oil, lemon pepper and red pepper 

Baked at 375 for 25 mins

 

 Yum!

And just a tip for moms!

I know we all want our kids to eat their vegetables and sometimes it's a struggle. Here is my biggest tip-

Just keep trying and keep putting it on their plate whether they like it or not. I don't force my kids but I do make them at least take a bite. 

Tonight Jacquelyn decided she likes squash! She's 6 and never has before. She likes a lot of veggies but that  wasn't one, but if I hadn't kept trying she would have never discovered that she liked it. Kids only eat the veggies that we give them the chance to like! And we are their biggest role models- so eat your veggies! 

Fish Tacos

Taco Tuesday was fish tacos tonight!

I had a big filet of Mahi Mahi 

I cut it into long strips to be the right size for tacos.

Seasoned with salt, lemon pepper, red pepper 

Fresh lemon juice and green Tabasco

 

I pan seared them in ghee 

 

 

So I was conflicted....

Couldn't decide whether I wanted to make a chuncky avocado salad to top it or a slaw...

So I mixed it all together and made a salsa slaw ;)

I used 

 

 

Chopped half a head of cabbage, tomatoes, jalapeños, green onions, parsley and avocado.

Seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice and red wine vinegar and Tony's!

 

 

Mahi Mahi tacos topped with the slaw

Or low carb style minus the tortilla 

 

And real life.... this was a bit dry for me...

Feel like next time I make this a creamy cilantro dressing would make it a lot better!

Ill have to try and come up with that!

And a side note...be sure and follow me on Instagram - AMommaWhoCooks and watch the Instagram stories and follow me along as I cook dinner every night!