Chile and cilantro stuffed tilapia

**This is not a gluten-free recipe and was posted before I eliminated gluten from my diet. However, gluten-free bread crumbs could be easily substituted.**

If I haven't already convinced you to visit my blogging mentor Julia's site, Grow. Cook. Eat., hopefully this will twist your arm. Last weekend I was thinking about cooking the rest of the tilapia that was hanging out in my freezer, but I couldn't decide on a recipe. I've tried a few, but none have turned out as good as a simple saute. I wanted to do something new and different, though, and was incredibly excited when I woke up the next morning to find that Julia had just posted a tilapia recipe.

Chile and cilantro stuffed tilapia (adapted from Grow. Cook. Eat.)

1 tsp chopped jalapeno

1 green onion, chopped

1 tsp parsley, minced

1 tsp cilantro, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup bread crumbs (I toasted and crumbled a piece of homemade bread, but Julia used panko crumbs, which sounds even better)

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

3 small tilapia filets

salt and pepper to taste

1 lime

Combine jalapeno, onion, parsley, cilantro, and garlic in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix bread crumbs and oil together. Season fish with salt and pepper and place it on a baking sheet. Squeeze lime over the filets, spread jalapeno mixture over them, and then sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for about 12 min, or until flaky. Serves 2-3.

This was fabulous. The flavors were great, but didn't overwhelm the fish (I love a good pure fish taste). I'm glad I didn't cook my tilapia last week... but a little freaked out that Julia can read my mind :).

Lentil soup with spinach

I know, I know... it's not soup weather anymore. I've been wanting to make lentil soup for about 5 months, though (and hey, it's still cold in my apartment!). This will probably be the last soup for quite a while, although I do have a zucchini recipe that may make an appearance in a few months :).

Lentil soup with spinach (adapted from "The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook")

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 small carrot, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups chicken or veggie broth

1/2 cup brown lentils

1/3 cup brown rice

1/2 tsp cumin

pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup diced tomatoes

5 oz spinach

Heat oil in medium pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot, and saute until tender (about 8 min). Add garlic and let cook an additional minute. Stir in chicken broth, lentils, rice, cumin, salt, and pepper. Let the soup come to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 min. Add tomatoes and spinach and let cook for an additional 5 min (or until lentils and rice are tender). Serves 3.

I LOVE lentil soup. That and black bean are rivals for the top on my list of favorite soups. They're so simple, yet so filling and hearty, and I loved the addition of spinach. I don't know if I'll enjoy it as much for lunch tomorrow because my office is like a sauna (sometimes I swear that I'm having hot flashes), but life could be worse :).

My blogging mentor (Julia from Grow. Cook. Eat.), flowers, and farmers

It's been fun trying to figure out the whole blogging thing, but I know that I still have a lot to learn and can make the process more enjoyable for my faithful readers (thanks to those of you who keep up with my adventures!).  I was excited to read that Kristen at Dine & Dish was putting together a third round of Adopt-a-Blogger, a program in which she pairs experienced food bloggers with newbies like me.  I was very excited to be paired with Julia from Grow. Cook. Eat.  Julia has a lot of professional cooking experience and is now a food consultant.  She also creates cookbooks for CSAs that highlight the produce specific to that farm.  Her blog is somewhat different from most food blogs because she manages to include fabulous recipes, updates from her garden, and interesting tidbits on food and wine.  I'm very excited to have her as my mentor because she has a great blog and an immense amount of experience in the food world, and I'm sure that I can learn a lot from her.  Because I don't have room for a garden of my own (other than the tomato plants that I'm hoping to grow in containers on my patio), I'm looking forward to reading her garden updates this summer and learning more about the whole experience for when I can finally have one of my own. I highly recommend that you check out her blog!

Speaking of growing things, I'm happy to report that flowers are finally blooming in Michigan!  These are tulips right outside of my apartment, and there are enormous beds of them next to my building on campus.  I don't remember there being so many around the city in previous springs, but perhaps I'm paying more attention after the severe winter that we had to endure.  I doubt that I'll be able to make it to Holland, MI this year for the tulip festival, but it looks like we're having one of our own in Lansing :).

As my excitement about flowers was building, I also knew that this meant that my wait would soon be over.  Today was the opening day for the Meridian Township Farmers' Market, and I've been patiently awaiting this day since it closed in late October.  This market is less than 2 miles from my apartment and is the best one in the Lansing area.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get much today because I was heading straight to campus to help with the Michigan Science Olympiad, and knew that I could only buy produce that could withstand sitting in the car for 9 hours.  That ruled out the strawberries - they looked amazing but incredibly fragile - so they will have to wait until next week.  I did get asparagus and spinach, and just ate the best spinach salad I've had in a long time.  I also got good info about tomato plants, which I hope to buy from one of the vendors in the next couple of weeks.  More than anything, it was great to see everyone (both vendors and patrons) excited about being back at the market.  I missed the sense of community that I feel every Saturday during the summer and fall, and I'm so happy that I have it back!

Kale and onion saute with soy sauce

While passing by the MSU Student Organic Farm stand on my way to seminar the other day, the kale jumped out at me. I'm not sure why - they had lots of delicious looking greens and other veggies - but I went with my craving. I wanted to take advantage of its freshness and cook it the day it was picked, but I was feeling somewhat lazy, so I decided to modify one of my favorite spinach recipes.

Kale and onion saute with soy sauce

1 tsp olive oil

1 large onion, sliced thinly

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped

1 Tbsp soy sauce (use wheat-free tamari for gluten-free)

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until they begin to brown (about 10 min). Add garlic and cook an additional minute. Stir in kale, cover, and let cook until thoroughly wilted (about 5 min). Stir in soy sauce. Serves 2.

So easy and so delicious. I love soy sauce and greens together, especially with the slightly bitter twang of kale. And it took virtually no time to make!

Chicken and corn maque choux

May is one of my favorite months... not for any one specific reason, but because of a conglomeration of fabulous things (flowers blooming, the beginning of softball season, sunny days, the first festivals, the opening of the farmers' markets, etc.). So, for May's cookbook I've decided to choose a good all-around book, The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook. Before I collected a ton of cookbooks and began reading food blogs like a fiend, CookingLight.com was one of my primary resources for recipes. This book combines some of the best ones from the website.

After picking the new book, I began to leaf through to see what looked interesting. One recipe screamed out at me, and I knew this had to be the first of the month. I've used this book a lot in the past, and I don't know how I overlooked it before. The story begins with a trip to New Orleans with my parents when I was 12. One night we ate at a cajun restaurant (if I remember correctly, it was Paul Prudhomme's restaurant K-Paul's). I liked the sound of the shrimp and corn maque choux, but I had no idea how to pronounce this for the waitress. We had fun trying to figure it out, and Dad, jokingly, decided that it should be pronounced ma-kweek-a-chex. The waitress finally informed us that it's really mock-shoe (which sounds far too much like a sneeze, if you ask me). I don't remember much about the actual dish, but this discussion is one of my most distinct memories about that trip (that and drinking red hots from the Tabasco factory out of the bottle).

Chicken and corn maque choux (adapted from "The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook")

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 slice of bacon, chopped into small pieces

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

kernels from 3 ears of corn

1/2 cup diced tomato

1/3 cup whole milk

pinch of salt

Mix first 7 ingredients and put 1 Tbsp of mixture on a plate (reserve the rest). Set plate aside. Render bacon fat in large skillet over medium-high heat. When bacon is crispy, remove pieces with a slotted spoon and set aside. Dredge chicken in spice mixture on plate and add to bacon fat in skillet. Brown chicken on each side (about 2 min per side) and set aside. Add red pepper and onion to skillet and let cook on medium heat for 5 min. Stir in corn, tomato, milk, salt, and the reserved paprika mixture, and let simmer uncovered for 10 min. Add chicken pieces back to skillet and let cook uncovered for 25 min or until done, turning once half-way through cooking. Remove chicken, shred, and return to skillet. Sprinkle bacon on top. Serves 2-3.

I love cajun food, and this was great. The spices are perfect, and the pairing of chicken to veggies was exactly what I was looking for. My only problem is that I didn't have enough bacon fat, and some of the corn mixture was slightly burnt on the bottom by the time the chicken was done. It wasn't a huge problem, and I preferred to think of it as blackened :). After years of thinking about this dish, I'm glad that I wasn't disappointed! But, I'll still call it ma-kweek-a-chex :)