Top Model Tilapia...

...which is to say, I had so much fun messing around with these recipes that I forgot to watch America's Next Top Model. Probably for the best. What follows are recipes for a tasty tilapia dish and two veggies sides, all super easy, pretty healthy, and yum. This evening of simple and improvised eating was brought to you by love, sweet love. Yes, the kind of love where a girl goes weeks and months without cooking three of her favoritest, healthiest foods, all because her darling boyfriend despises them, leaving her bereft, and craving them all, right now, at once!

Happily, new roomie was down to try the goods. We chomped, and I chased the whole shebang with a Heine and some chocolate ice cream :)

The Menu
Tilapia in a Confetti Cream Sauce
Maple Mustard Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli Soup with Cheddar

Tilapia in a Confetti Cream Sauce
1/4 white onion
2 cloves garlic
kernels from one ear of fresh corn, boiled
1/2 red pepper
1/4 c. fresh parsley
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. half and half
2 Tbsp. corn meal
ground black pepper
ground sea salt
ground red pepper flakes
1 lb. tilapia

1. Process everything except the fish until you get a thick, greenish, and generally unappetizing looking goo. I'm curious to try this and keep the consistency more like a salsa or salad, but creamy and a little vomitous is how it went (and worked!) on the first go.
2. Place tilapia fillets in a baking dish (I used glass. Thanks, dishwasher!). Cover with the veggie cream sauce and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Maple Mustard Sweet Potatoes
1 large sweet potato
2 Tbsp. creole mustard
2 Tbsp. grade B maple syrup
1 Tbsp. olive oil
ground sea salt
ground black pepper

1. Wash potato thoroughly, then give the skin a good rub down with some olive oil. Cut in half, then in quarters, then into thin, french-fryish slices.
2. Place slices in a narrow baking dish and add remaining ingredients. Mix well until potatoes are coated.
3. Bake at 350 for at least an hour. At 35 minutes, remember to pop in the tilapia.

Broccoli Soup with Cheddar
1 16oz container Imagine Organic Broccoli soup
fresh broccoli
Cheddar cheese, grated

1. This barely qualifies as a recipe, but hey, why not? Make it about 5 minutes before the other two dishes are finished.
2. Heat soup in a pot, add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Steam up the broccoli. I do this in a white-trashy sort of way involving a moist paper towel and a microwave, but you're probably a little classier. Put a few big pieces of the steamed broccoli into a pair of small bowls (I used ramekins).
4. Pour the heated soup over the fresh broccoli and top with Cheddar.

Final note: Don't be afraid to overspice these babies. Tilapia, sweet potato and broccoli are mild and gentle, and a little heat is required to bring them onto the dance floor.

(Leftover Chicken) Curried Chicken Salad

Okay, so maybe sometimes I actually *buy* a pre-cooked rotessire chicken in order to make this supposedly "leftover chicken" salad. But, whatevs. The point is that it's awesome:

Curried Chicken Salad

2-3 cups pre-cooked chicken breast, chopped
3-4 celery stalks, diced
1 cup halved red seedless grapes
mayonnaise to consistency (some like it dry, some like it sloppy)
Creole mustard to taste (Dijon works just fine)
small dollop naturally flavored vanilla yogurt (to cut down on the mayo, if desired)
Curry powder to taste - I use at least a teaspoon
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper

Mix all ingredients together until well-blended. Add spices and mayo/mustard/yogurt as to get to your desired consistency/taste. This is fabulous served very cold with sliced cucumbers and lettuce on a tortilla or wrap.

Blue Ribbon Vegan Cornbread?

No, really--it's actually pretty damn good! I made this with a pot of vegan chili with a few adjustments, namely: substituted some grade B maple syrup for some of the sugar, used olive oil instead of canola oil, and added a Tbsp or so of pre-made salsa. The recipe as I freestyled it below, though all credit goes to young Dana Sly.

Surprisingly Good Vegan Cornbread

2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
6 tablespoons water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/8 cup sugar
2 Tbsp Grade B maple syrup
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup soymilk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp salsa

1. Preheat oven to 425°F
2. Oil an 8-inch-square baking dish.
3. Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan.
4. Add the ground flax seed, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer the ground flax seed in the water for 3 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well-combined.
6. Add the ground flax seed mixture, soy milk, and canola oil to the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth (do not overbeat.)
7. Turn into prepared baking pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool until warm and serve!

Turkey Burgers a la Improv

NOTE: This is a special guest entry by Maura, who will be contributing more delicious and chomptastic ideas soon...I ate some of her turkey meatballs made with what sounds like a similar entry several months ago--tangy and yum. Enjoy!

Turkey Burgers a la improv

1 pound ground turkey
4 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sharp Cheddar cheese (or much much more if you really want to feel the cheese)
2 generous Tbsps Alouette cheese (it's a creamy spread. This version contained dill and Q-cumber)
1 Tbsp honey mustard
2 Tbsps mango chutney
Breadcrumbs to taste (garlic flavor)
Fresh Savory to taste, coarsely chopped

Smoosh it together with hands or your butt. Then, shape it into patties. Pan fry until you think they're done. Note: I thought about adding Nuts or beans or dried fruit like cranberries or cherries.

Sweet Potato Banana Bread

I made this improvised treat over Christmas, when I suddenly decided to whip up several mini-loaves of Mom T's classic banana bread for some of the office staff at my school. After I'd already begun mixing things up, I decided to double the recipe on the fly. All good, except--I didn't have enough bananas. So, I did what any new Southerner would do--opened up the fridge and pulled out some baked sweet potatoes I had frozen a week or two earlier to take for lunch! This addition lent a bright color, some vitamin A, and a new variant of sweetness to an already fabulous recipe. Well, at least I thought so. The native New Orleanians never did comment...

Sweet Potato Banana Bread

¼ cup butter softened at room temp
½ cup brown sugar (or raw sugar)
1 beaten egg (room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup oatmeal
3 mashed overripe bananas
1 large baked sweet potato, mashed
1 1/12 cups flour (Mom T uses 2/3 wheat to 1/3 white, and for the white she takes one Tbsp. out of every cup and puts in wheat germ instead)
½ teaspoon each cinnamon and ginger
A very scant 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a breadpan or muffin tin. It’s annoying, so get it over with first!
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together ‘cept for oatmeal…make them sit off to the side while you do the fun wet stuff!
3. Cream butter and sugar together, then blend in egg and vanilla.
4. Blend in oatmeal and mashed up bananas and sweet potato.
5. Invite the dry ingredients to the party! Blend it all together, but don’t over work it .
6. Put the dough in the loaf pan, bake at 350 for one hour…check for doneness at 50 minutes. If you're making muffins, check them after 25 minutes for doneness.

So delicious in the morning with butter and coffee, and the muffins freeze really well for later breakfasts. Yay NOLA influenced family classics!