Garlic Rosemary Fish and Potatoes

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe before, it is one of our very favorites, and definitely our favorite fish recipe.  It's also fairly simple.  Aaron gave it a 9, Noah and I gave it a perfect 10, and Owen gave it an 8, because he doesn't love fish.  This recipe comes from Marcella Hazan, and I love it.  Here's what I do.

1 lb tilapia
4 sprigs rosemary
4 garlic cloves, peels removed and smashed a little
4 gold potatoes, chopped
4 T olive oil
salt
1 T bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large pan, mix together potatoes, garlic cloves, 2 sprigs of rosemary, 2 T olive oil, and salt to taste.  Make sure potatoes are covered with the oil.  Cook for 20 minutes, then stir potatoes to ensure even roasting.  Bake for another 15 minutes, then if potatoes are done, remove the pan from the oven, place the fish filets in the pan, then cover with the remaining rosemary sprigs, breadcrumbs, 2 T olive oil, and plenty of salt.  Return the dish to the oven and continue cooking for another 15 minutes.  If fish is done, let rest and serve.

This makes four servings, and each serving is 354 calories.

Olive Oil Poached Halibut with Fennel, Rosemary and Garlic

I think this might qualify as the most expensive meal I have ever made.  Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough to make up for the exorbitant price I paid for the meal :(  Oh well.  This was good, just not worth the amount of money I paid to make it.  I found this recipe in Michael Symon's Live To Cook cookbook, and like all his recipes, it was good, flavorful, and everyone enjoyed it.  The boys gave it an 8, and I gave it a 7.  I love halibut, but it's hard to justify the price.  It's hard for me to assign calories per serving on this, since I can never figure out how much of the poaching liquid is used, and how many calories I need to count, but this is my rough estimate--255 for 3 servings.  This may be a little low, but it won't be more than 300 per serving.

1 quart extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 fennel bulb, quartered
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 shallot, quartered
2 T kosher salt
1 T crushed red pepper flakes
4 (I used 3) 3-oz skinless halibut fillets

Combine the olive oil, garlic, fennel, rosemary, shallot, salt, and red pepper flakes in a 2 quart pan and bring the oil to a temperature of 140.  Pull the pan mostly off the heat, maintain that temperature for about 20 minutes.  You want to infuse the oil with the aromatics and red pepper flakes without really cooking them by letting the oil get too hot.
Submerge the halibut in the oil and poach until the fish reaches an internal temperature of 110, 15-20 minutes.  Remove the fillets to paper towels before serving.

Crockpot Leg of Lamb

I love lamb, but unfortunately, not everyone in my family does.  Sigh...  We had this lamb for dinner on Sunday night, and it was worth it.  Yum :)  Aaron gave it a 6, I gave it an 8, Owen, Sean and Erin gave it a 7, and Noah gave it a perfect 10 :).  This is super simple, and I would've given it a higher score if I hadn't cooked it a little too long in the crockpot.  Here's what I did:

1 boneless leg of lamb
2 sprigs rosemary
2 lemons, juiced
5 garlic cloves, sliced
Salt and Pepper

Trim fat from lamb.  Cut slits in the lamb, and push garlic pieces into it.  Season generously with salt and pepper, rub with the rosemary, then put juice over it.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours (I cooked mine longer and it was too long), then serve.  I think some beef broth and tapioca added to the crockpot would give you some more moisture, and you could have a nice gravy at the end.  I'll try some more variations next time.

Chicken Bacon Wraps, Bean Salad, and Mashed Potatoes

For dinner we had some really great recipes. The first recipe, Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps from Paula Deen were such a big hit, they disappeared before I could take a picture.  These were delicious, fast to eat, and fun.  Look at the link for a picture, that's just what they look like.  Aaron gave them a perfect 10, the boys and I gave them a 9.  I wish I would've salted the chicken before wrapping it in bacon, but other than that I thought they were awesome.  The calories for the recipe the way it was written are for 24 rolls, about 63 calories per roll.  They are actually much less than that though, because I used maybe 1/4 of the brown sugar mixture, which would lower the calories quite a bit.  Fun and not too calorific!  We like that kind of food around here. :)

Next comes our veggie.  My parents brought me a bunch of veggies from their garden, so I looked for a recipe online that would use both zucchini and green beans, but wasn't a soup.  There aren't that many, surprisingly.  This Keeping up with the Beans salad was delicious, and uses tons of veggies, so we really liked it.  We gave it a 9, and the dressing was great.  I used less than it called for, especially less balsamic vinegar, because we're not huge fans of vinegar around here.  Anyway, this is a great salad to make for all those veggies coming out of your ears days.  The calories will vary based on what kinds of veggies you use, but for 10 servings, ours was 189 calories per serving, and they are big servings.

Last of all we had some garlic mashed potatoes.  They are Guy Fieri's Johnny Garlic's Famous Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes.  The boys and I really liked them, but Aaron said they had a funky flavor.  Go figure.  I'm not sure what was wrong.  The boys and I gave them 8, and Aaron gave them a 4.  Oh well.  I cut the garlic down to 4 cloves rather than 4 tablespoons of garlic, and I only used 1 T olive oil, and only 6 potatoes, rather than 5 pounds of potatoes.  We got six servings out of this, and each serving was 143 calories.  Hopefully you'll like these as much as the boys and I did, and not like Aaron did :)

Tomorrow we're having shrimp fried rice and fried zucchini.

Clam Chowder and Cheddar Muffins

We had some delicious clam chowder tonight and some White Cheddar Muffins to go with it.  Here is the recipe for clam chowder.  It's totally basic, a recipe I grew up with, and is as simple as you get.

Clam Chowder

1 6-8 oz can chopped clams with juice
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 medium gold potatoes, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 c chicken broth
6 T butter
3/8 c flour
1 1/2 c skim milk
1/2 c cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large pot, place potatoes, celery, onions, clams, chicken broth and clam juice.  Make sure veggies are all covered with broth, if not, add more.  Boil and simmer until all veggies are tender.  Make a white sauce with the butter and flour and milk and cream.  Mix the white sauce into the veggies and broth, and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve.

We love this recipe, it's so easy and satisfying, and we split this into 6 servings.  Each serving is 299 calories, and we gave this soup a 9.

The muffins were pretty good, but I felt like the rosemary overpowered the cheddar flavor.  I used extra sharp cheddar instead of white cheddar, adn the rest of the recipe I followed exactly.  I liked the texture of these muffins, but I think chives or onions would go better in these muffins.  We gave them an 8, and since I got 12 muffins out of the recipe the calories were 195/muffin.

Tomorrow we're having some chocolate muffins.