Tag: healthy

How to Cookbook Cook on a Budget

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

Personally, I don’t follow recipes to the T because, well for one thing, it usually costs so much money and I’d rather utilize what’s in my kitchen. But, I love cookbooks. And when I say I love cookbooks, I mean I LOVE cookbooks. They’re incredibly inspiring and give me the foundation to make some great recipes of my own. I am currently flipping between Ina Garten’s “Cooking for Jeffery” and my grandmothers 50 year old Jewish cookbook. So here are a few tips to stay on budget while cookbook cooking:

  • Whenever a recipe calls for a type of mushroom, JUST GET WHAT’S ON SALE (don’t waste money on cremini mushrooms when button mushrooms are BOGO)
  • Find recipes that incorporate the ingredients you currently have in your fridge and pantry
  • If the recipe requires a pan/pot that you don’t have, TURN THE PAGE because there’s nothing worse than committing to a recipe only to find out that you need a dutch oven and do not in fact own a dutch oven

Cookbooking can be so fun and you can learn a lot about culinary arts just by having cookbooks from a wide variety of chef’s and I encourage everyone to have at least 3 different types of cookbooks. But following a recipe doesn’t mean you have to break the bank. What are some of your favorite cookbooks? Let me know in the comment section below!

Seafood Series: 1

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

If you’re wondering how to fillet a fish, I have no idea, I just have the guy at Publix do everything for me. But, I love seafood. Even though I am picky about the fish I enjoy eating, I could probably eat seafood every single day. Off the top of my head, I know I like trout, salmon, tuna, and sea bass. That’s pretty much it and it’s not a whole lot of variety. But up until recently, I only really liked sushi and not cooked fish at all. The photo I attached is of some salmon fillets I made last night. I don’t really use recipes or write them down, but here is my best guess as to what I used:

Wild Sockeye Salmon FIllets:

  • 1lb of salmon skinned and cut into 4 fillets
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 shallot
  • 1 bunch of fresh thyme
  • 1 bunch of fresh basil
  • 1 bunch fresh cilantro
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • juice of 2 limes
  • A dash of Pinot Grigio

So here’s the thing… I didn’t really have the ingredients I wanted to make the salmon dish I had in mind, but you make do with what you have because #ballinonabudget. The salmon was actually pretty thin, so I didn’t have time to cook the sauce with the fillets still in the pan. Instead, what I did was season the fillets with salt and pepper on both sides, cook them until they were nearly done, and then took them off the pan just slightly undercooked so that they could finish cooking in the sauce. I then added the chopped shallot, garlic, cilantro, basil, and thyme to the pan and let it cook for a couple of minutes. I added a little more salt and pepper just to enhance the herbs natural flavors. After about 2 minutes, I added the juice of 2 limes and a little white wine and let it cook for about 5 minutes. I then added the salmon fillets back into the pan letting it finish cook while absorbing all of the flavors in the pan.

It was a way of cooking salmon I have never tried before, but it actually turned out really good. I hear a lot of people don’t like cilantro but I think it tastes much better after it’s cooked. What are some of your favorite recipes? Leave a comment down below with some of your favorite seafood dishes and I’ll try to make it!

Grocery Shopping

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

Being a Florida girl, I shop at Publix and Publix only. I have dabbled with Sprouts, Fresh Market, and of course Whole Foods, but nothing gets the job done like Publix does. I used to do a lot of time consuming cooking because I genuinely love to cook. It’s my happy place. But when I started law school, I no longer have the time to put in chopping, prepping, and then cleaning. So my grocery list has changed along with my meals. I’ve never been much of a meal prepping person but I love to food prep and keep it all separately because I like to assemble my meals right before I eat them. Rule of thumb for us “health conscious” shoppers, shop on the outskirts of the store because the aisles are where you find the processed stuff that gets you in trouble. What are some of your favorite grocery stores?

Breakfast

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

The first meal of the day…. most of the time not the case for me. I love breakfast foods, and will often eat breakfast for lunch or dinner, but eating in the morning isn’t usually something I partake in. But when I do, I really do. If I’m going to eat breakfast, I’ll either make eggs, avocado, and potatoes, or banana pancakes with fruit, or a breakfast burrito, or a ginormous bowl of cereal, a smoothie bowl, maybe some pasta. Really, the possibilities are endless for me when it comes to eating breakfast at breakfast time especially since eating in the morning only really happens if I’m craving something. My first post was about cravings, well, when they hit they hit when I first wake up. The photo I attached was of something I made for breakfast not too long ago. I made an egg scramble with spinach, onions, red bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes along with some roasted sweet potato. Needless to say, I ate it all… and maybe had a second (smaller) plate of it. Let me know if you’d like any more of my breakfast recipes savory or sweet!

What to Do When Baking Doesn’t Go As Planned

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

When it comes to cooking, I don’t usually follow recipes. I read recipes all the time, but usually just for inspiration. And sometimes I get a little carried away and think I can bake without following a recipe, but that doesn’t usually work out. Take the photo I attached to this post for instance, I was trying to turn my banana bread muffin recipe into a paleo banana bread muffin recipe. But what I didn’t realize and therefore did not prepare for, was the difference in texture between regular enriched flour and coconut flour. The muffins came out really dense and liquid like at the bottom. Don’t get me wrong, they tasted great, but there was no way to store them or to keep them for a day without them falling apart. Since the recipe didn’t turn out how I wanted, I had no other choice but to add all of the muffins to a lined baking sheet, smash them together, and make failed banana bread muffin sheet cake. It turned out so good that there wasn’t even a chance to photograph it. I personally steer clear from baking unless it’s the holiday season because it doesn’t bring me as much joy as experimenting with different ingredients to make new and delicious meals. Do you have any recipes that didn’t turn out as planned but still made a great dish?

Are Salads Basic?

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

It doesn’t matter where you go, salads are everywhere. I love salads and eat them every day, but, I’ll admit that restaurant salads have always been super basic to me. When you think of salad, you probably think of a bed of lettuce with some tomatoes, croutons, and cucumbers right? I’d like to talk about the way I assemble my salads at home to be the most NOT BASIC SALADS EVER. So let’s start with what everyone knows to be the base of a salad… the greens! I personally do not like romaine lettuce for my salads, but prefer arugula, radicchio, spinach, or a 50/50 blend. Arugula is my favorite because of the nice and spicy bite that it has so I feel like theres some flavor to my greens before even having to put a dressing on it. Next, comes the crunch. I hate croutons with a passion and think they’re way too salty, so crunchy vegetables it is. Yes, I put cucumbers in my salads but I also put bell peppers, onions, and sometimes even green beans. I almost always put roasted sweet potato and roasted butternut squash in my salads because carbs are life and it adds a really nice sweet flavor. Then, I’ll add some cherry tomatoes and if I’m looking for my salad to be more of a meal, I’ll add some protein. A few common examples for me are chicken, salmon (smoked or seared), steak, or tuna. I usually add half of an avocado but that really depends on if Publix has good avocados on the shelf. My final step to making a really non-basic salad is my dressing. When I have the time, I like to make my dressings from scratch. I am all about eating my medicine so I try to always incorporate anti-inflammatories into my food so my staple dressing is a homemade ginger and turmeric dressing. I finely chop fresh ginger root and fresh turmeric root (and when I say finely I mean FINELY), then I chop some garlic, shallot, and sometimes cilantro. I then juice either lemons or limes or both depending on if they need to be used and then add some honey and I’m done. I give it a good whisk and pour it over my salad. I make vinaigrettes too but that’s less common for me to want to eat. If anyone wants some of my dressing recipes, let me know in the comments section and I’ll post them!