Healthy Grits with Pickled Plum and Chinese Dried Pork

Sometimes in the morning you just throw together a mix and mash of stuff just because you're in the mood for it, am I right? Today was one of those days.

I mean the combination of yellow grits with some Chinese pickled plum (that blog towards the top) and dried pork (love the stuff) is fairly unusual, you'd have to agree. However, it's basically like eating it all with rice - which is the norm. The grits cuts the saltiness of the super salty pickled plum and somewhat salty dried pork, ending in a neutral balance in your mouth.

Plus, this is certainly healthier than other grits recipes out there - fried grits? cheddar cheese grits? grits with mounds of butter? No thank you. Read on for the recipe on how to make this healthier alternative. Enjoy!

Healthy Zabaione

Just a quick little blurb about this one. No pictures I'm afraid, so you won't be able to see how this came out.

I can see how this could work - I really can - I just must have done something wrong. It was probably too much of one thing or another. Or perhaps I adjusted the proportions down too much. Next time I'll make the full amount of zabaione instead of 1/4 of it. Since you only use the egg yolk, we made baked meringues out of the egg whites. Mmm!

The good (great) news about this is that it's healthy and low cal. You can't beat that in an Italian dessert. Hopefully, someone will be able to perfect this and share the secret with yours truly. Enjoy!

Cottage Cheese Yogurt

I don't know why I came up with this. I just wanted to get some of the lactose out of the protein-rich cottage cheese so that it might be even healthier and easier to digest. It turned out better than expected though. I thought maybe it would have the consistency of cottage cheese and the tartness of yogurt, but it's really more of a fine balance between the two. Creamy cottage cheese that is less salty and more appealing texture-wise.

It's uber simple (I always opt for the simple), and best of all it can be combined with a variety of toppings or addins. I added oats to mine the night before and a drop of tahini right before I devoured it for breakfast. Experiment with your own unique take on Cottage Cheese Yogurt. Enjoy!

Herb and Garlic Crusted Haddock with Oven Baked Ratatouille

Today we have a very special treat for you. Special guest chef J fancied up a beautiful Valentine's Day dinner for moi the other night. Though my horrible pictures do NOT do justice to the beauty and elegance that greeted my eyes that night, rest assured it was one meal I won't soon forget. I believe I'll have her make it as her specialty from now on.

So what ungodly bit of grub did she prepare? Herb and Garlic Crusted Haddock with Oven Baked Ratatouille. Simply amazing. For one there's this plump, juicy piece of white fish, lightly covered with just the right seasoning, texture, and mmm-ness. Then there's this behemoth of a dish - layers upon layers of vegetables (which I love) flavored like there's no tomorrow.

I cannot stress how tempting it was to consume the two other fillets and the rest of the rest of the ratatouille, but I had to save room for the dessert she also made. More on that another day.

Thank you for such an outstanding day. It was definitely worth all the trudging I did in the afternoon.

Simply put: try it. You'll love it. Enjoy!

Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

A gift just in time for Valentine's Day for all you sweet treat obsessed lovers out there. Way better than a box of chocolates, I say.

I have to admit...I was skeptical this would work. Not only because I didn't have an ice cream maker and had to use the plastic bag method, but because I didn't have (what seemed to me) a key ingredient for thickening up the ice cream. Yet I really wanted to make this so gosh darn badly that I persevered.

Basically, non-dairy greek yogurt replaced the creamer and arrowroot from the original recipe (featured below). And it turned out ok! In fact, it turned out great. The tart from the yogurt played really nicely with the vanilla. I can't even imagine how sweet this would have been if the yogurt was not in there. It's perfect for me (though my girlfriend is slightly less of a fan, but who cares?).

Next time, hopefully soon, I plan on experimenting further with my own homemade oat milk and making that into ice cream. I haven't yet decided on the final ingredients for that - maybe peaches or blackberries. We'll see. Enjoy!

Cajun Mac n Cheese

It's simple. It's basic. It's comforting. Mac n Cheese.

But this aint no mac n cheese like your mother made out of a box. This is deluxe. Next time you're in the mood for some of that comfort food from back when you were a tyke, consider this spiced-up edition. It'll have you asking "Why haven't I been making it like this all along?"

Mac n Cheese seems to be kind of a thing in New England (and maybe the Bay Area too), but this recipe was first thought up in the dry desert of Las Vegas. At least that's where I had it first. Full credit for this goes to my awesome cousin. Enjoy!

9 Spices Salmon (Baked or Grilled)

God I love salmon! There is something so comforting knowing I'm eating a healthy, nutritious piece of meat/fish/protein, and salmon always fits the bill (when we make it). We don't lather it up with tons of oils or nasty things like butter because, well, salmon already has a wonderful healthy oiliness to it, so why bother?

Most of the time I like to just toss on a little bit of cajun seasoning and black pepper with lemon, but this time we mixed it up a bit. This was also paired with my famous Asparagus Risotto. Mmm! To find out what makes this one special, you'll have to follow us after the jump. Enjoy!

Grilled Hot Turkey Patties

When you make so much Asparagus Risotto that you have 3 meals worth, yet you've eaten up the other sides (aka the salmon) that originally went with it, you run into the problem - or opportunity - of what else to eat with it. This was our problortunity the other night.

Since the risotto is on the creamier, less salty side, we turned our attention to spices and seasonings. But which to use? How about all of them! Seriously, we used every seasoning we had except for garlic powder. Don't worry though (I know you were getting worried) because they're used in such small amounts that it makes it flavorful without being like "OMG, are you trying to kill me?"

I really hope you enjoy this as much as we did (even though it came out drier than expected) because I made this up just off the top of my head without any help from our dear friend the internet. Enjoy!