Pan-seared Tuna & Steamed Veggies ... simple!!

I love tuna, and this is so easy to make! This is another 8-minute meal, including prep time, with a total cost of under $5 bucks per plate!

Recipe

1 - Sushi-grade tuna steak (I bought from Sprout's)
2cups broccoli
1 lemon
pepper to taste
coconut oil

Steps

1. Heat 1tsp coconut oil to high heat in iron skillet, takes about 3min to get nice and hot
2. Season tuna with a little pepper (I don't use salt, but you do what you like here)
3. Put broccoli in microwave steamer, cooking time will vary. Mine takes about 3min to nicely steam 2cups of broccoli
4. Sear tuna on high heat about 90 seconds per side, then let stand about 3 min 
5. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice to taste if desired

The tuna will be nice and pink in the middle, almost appearing raw - this is sushi-grade tuna, and this is how it's supposed to be. If you like it cooked through a bit more then do about another minute per side, depending on thickness of the tuna, just don't over-cook or it'll be tough. That's all there is to it  Enjoy!

Easiest Brisket Ever

 

I am a huge fan of Costco. They always have great meats on the cheap and the quality is usually top-notch.  This brisket is great, and it's about 10 bucks for 3lbs, comes pre-sliced, and only has paprika for seasoning. No sugar, chemicals I can't pronounce, or anything else that I don't want in or on my food.

Basically, you really have it made here. 

Preheat oven to 350, remove brisket from plastic, place in a pan with 1/2 cup water, cover with foil, bake 15min per pound. Be careful not to over-cook so you don't dry it out.

Arguably the best leftovers ever = bonus!

Flax Bread Focaccia

 

Chris, on my EPOC team, sent this out for us to try. It's really quite good, especially with some almond butter or sun butter!  I made the bread pictured today, 2/6, and the smells in my house are wonderful - can't wait for it to cool down!!

Origninal recipe source

This is called "focaccia" because it is baked in that style -- flat on a sheet pan, and then cut up into whatever sized pieces you want. It works for toast, sandwiches, and other bready uses. It is "rough" in texture like heavy whole grain breads. Since it isn't made with wheat, it doesn't have the same kind of grain as wheat breads, but the carb in flax is almost all fiber. Flax is very useful on a low carb diet, as well as being amazingly good for you.

Ingredients:
2 cups flax seed meal
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 Raw honey (note: recipe calls for 1-2 Tbs sugar equivalent from artificial sweetener, which I don't use)
5 beaten eggs
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare pan (a 10X15 pan with sides works best) with oiled parchment paper or a silicone mat.

1) Mix dry ingredients well -- a whisk works great for this.

2) Add wet to dry, and combine well. Make sure there aren't obvious strings of egg white hanging out in the batter.

3) Let batter set for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken up some (leave it too long and it gets past the point where it's easy to spread.)

4) Pour batter onto pan. Because it's going to tend to mound in the middle, you'll get a more even thickness if you spread it away from the center somewhat, in roughly a rectangle an inch or two from the sides of the pan (you can go all the way to the edge, but it will be thinner).

5) Bake for about 20 minutes, until it springs back when you touch the top and/or is visibly browning even more than flax already is.  Note: I find that it takes closer to 30min in my oven set to 350...maybe my oven is off.

6) Cool and cut into whatever size slices you want. You don't need a sharp knife; I usually just cut it with a spatula.

Nutritional Information:
Each of 12 servings has less than a gram of effective carbohydrate (.7 grams to be exact)
5 grams fiber
6 grams protein
185 calories.

Pan Seared Orange Roughy - 8 minutes to make!

 

I'm a huge fan of the Orange Roughy. It's a very easy fish to cook in a variety of ways, and doesn't have that overly fishy flavor. Actually, it has a really nice buttery taste that most people like. The following took me a total of 8 minutes to prep, cook, and sit down to eat. In my opinion, it tastes freakin' great! It's so easy to make, too. Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 - Orange Roughy fillets

Coconut oil

Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning

Heat skillet and coconut oil to medium-high heat. Lightly coat fillets in the seasoning. Once pan is hot and coconut oil is melted, sear fillets for three minutes each side -- could take more or less depending on how thick your fillets are. Just cook until it's flaky and has a nice crust.

Shrimp Stuffed Baked Salmon

This is a first attempt, and though it has really good flavor, I was hoping it would look a bit less bland. Anyway...enjoy.

2 - Fresh Atlantic salmon filets
10 shrimp, raw. Clean & remove veins
1/3 cup - extra virgin olive oil
1 cup - almond meal
1 lemon (for zest)
1 egg
Salt/pepper to taste (I don't use salt, but you may)
Coconut oil to grease baking pan

Prep
Preheat oven to 450
Clean shrimp, remove vein, and dice/mince as fine as possible
Beat one egg
Zest one lemon, need about 1Tbs

Slice the salmon fillet down the middle, lengthwise, so that there's a pocket for the stuffing to go in. Don't cut the fillet in half, just enough of a cut to allow stuffing to be in the middle. 

In prep bowl you beat the egg in, mix in almond meal, shrimp, lemon zest, salt/pepper as desired, and stir - a whisk works well for this. Next mix in olive oil until stuffing is fairly thick and pasty. You don't want it to have so much olive oil that it's runny. Spoon stuffing into the fillet and place in coconut oil greased baking pan.

Bake at 450 for 15-20min. May need more time depending on thickness of fillet. I checked at 15 min to ensure fish was flaky but not over-done, and found it needed about 5 min longer for the rather thick fillets I had.

Comments or ideas for improvement are always welcome.

Yes, you can afford to eat steak!

I've heard a few people say, from time to time, that eating steak just costs too much. Sure, if you eat at Ruth's Chris every day I may tend to agree with you. That's not realistic for most people, but let's get real -- if you can afford to go eat at McDonalds, you can afford to eat a steak dinner. Let's consider the dinner I made tonight for a perfect example.

1 Organic sirloin steak, 5oz, from Sprouts - $2.34
2 cups of frozen vegetables, also from Sprouts - $1.99
$4.33

Misc - Coconut Oil is about $10 per jar, I used about 1tsp worth and some pepper. Those two together may have a net cost of a quarter!

"But I am a terrible cook"

pfffffffff

Let steak sit out at room temp 30-40min, a bit longer if larger, then season with pepper (I don't use or like salt, but do what you like). Heat skillet medium-high heat, add coconut oil and allow it to melt. Cook steak about 2 min per side for medium rare. Your stove, skillet, thickness of the steak, etc will make this vary a bit. The coconut oil and pepper will put a really nice crust on the steak.

Vegetables...this is so easy! I use a vegetable and fish steamer. Just add water, vegetables, and cook in microwave for about 5-6 min depending on how powerful your microwave is.

Total time - about 8 min! Can you even get in your car and drive to get fast food that fast? Oh, and trust me, the food came out MUCH better than the photo :)

Almond crusted chicken breast with spaghetti squash

1 - egg
1/2 cup - almond meal (blanched skinned almonds)
2 - chicken breasts
1 - spaghetti squash
1 - jar Rao's tomato basil all natural sauce 
- Extra virgin olive oil
-Coconut milk, 1tbs
-black pepper


Cut spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise and remove seeds. Put 1/4" water in baking pan, place spaghetti squash cut side down (so it looks like an oblong dome) in pan, bake 40min @ 375.  Pull at 40 min, flip spaghetti squash over, and spray olive oil as desired all over the squash and add pepper to taste. Back in the oven for 40 more min. Pull and dig out all the yummy goodness into a large bowl - there will be a LOT of food here, depending on size of your squash.

Beat one egg with 1Tbs coconut milk then coat chicken breasts with mixture. Next, coat chicken liberally with almond meal. Bake 20min or so at 375 - check this depending on size of chicken so not overdone or undercooked. Pull chicken, coat with Rao's sauce, return to oven for 10 min. 

Simply heat Rao's sauce on stove in sauce pan to use on spaghetti squash. Time all the above so that it all comes out at once. 

Hawaiian Pork Shoulder

This is a first go at this. I will tweak and update this posting next time I make it.

 1 Pork Shoulder
1 Bell Pepper, sliced into strips
1 Cup Pineapple, chopped
1Tbs Coconut Oil
1/2 Cup chicken stock
Pepper etc to taste

Rub pork shoulder with pepper and any other seasonings you desire. Set crock pot to low heat. Cover the bottom of the crock pot with bell pepper strips, diced pineapple, and coconut oil. Pour in chicken stock. Place pork shoulder fat side up - this is important.  Cook in crock pot on low, 6-7 hrs depending on size of shoulder. My meat thermometer has a minimum internal temp of 180 for pork, so that's where I stopped cooking.

Pull from crock pot and place in pan, broil on high a few minutes to brown if desired. Do not leave in broiler too long, or it will dry out the meat.

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Any feedback welcome on how to improve this is definitely welcome.