Tilapia is a favorite around the WellDone household.  For a white fish, it’s tasty, it’s inexpensive, and it’s healthy.

It was that last part, the healthy party, that basically forced me to wrap it in bacon.

Bacon Wrapped Tilapia

This recipe is done in two parts.  The first involves slightly cooking the bacon, just so it gets crisp and starts to render out a little of its fat.  I did this because of too many Top Chef episodes where Tom called out a chef for having bacon that was not crisp and was still fatty.  I figured the easy solution to this was just cook the bacon part way through.  That way it starts to crisp, but can finish rendering in the oven, which only does wonders for the flavor of the fish.

You will need:

• 6 strips bacon
• 2 tilapia fillets
• Salt and pepper
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons butter
• (optional) Splash white wine
• (optional) 1 teaspoon capers

Preheat oven to 350.

Put the biggest skillet you have over medium-high heat, start cooking the bacon.  Cook it for 5-8 minutes or until it begins to turn crispy.  Push the bacon to the sides of the skillet and drain all but a tablespoon or so of oil.

Sprinkle the tilapia with salt and pepper on both sides and put it into the skillet with the lemon juice.  Cook the fish 1-2 minutes on each side, then wrap the bacon around the filets.

Put the fish into the oven and bake until cooked all the way through, at least 6-8 minutes.

When the fish is done, add the butter and let it melt.  Optionally add the wine and capers.

Enjoy!

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Crepini Cafe Crepes with Alouette Cheese

So, a couple times now you may have noticed me talking about Crepini Cafe‘s crepini, which aren’t quite a crepe and not quite a blini, but they’re filled and they taste good.  (You can check out my reviews for Crepini Cafe Greenwich Spinach and Four Cheese and Basil elsewhere on this fine blog.)  Well, I also asked to try just some of their crepes by themselves since I figure I’ll probably never own my own crepe cooking device.

(This is due in no small part to the fact that I am cheap and my wife hates crepes.)

Also, the good folks at Alouette sent me some coupons to try their cheese spread.  Since I was in an experimentin’ mood this weekend, I thought I would blend them and make a Mexican style crepe using Crepini Cafe crepes instead of tortillas.

How Was It?

REALLY good.  Despite the fact the Crepini Cafe crepes have been in my freezer for a while now, when I baked them for a few minutes in a 350 degree oven, they were still pliable and chewy.  They also tasted great and they went very well with the Alouette, which had great flavor and complemented the vegetarian topping very well.

Mexican Crepe Recipe

This recipe is very simple.  The veggies are actually my wife’s quesadilla blend and make great taco filling or nacho toppings.  It also goes well with some sauted chicken.  However, when making this recipe, the one thing to be careful of is not to overdo the Alouette.  I think when Alouette cheese was first invented, it was designed to stand on its own (which it does very well, but a blog post on Alouette and crackers would be lame.)  However, this makes the Alouette a little salty if you use to much.

All things in moderation (except reading this here blog.)

You will need:

• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup black beans
• 8 Crepini Cafe crepes (about 1/2 a package)
• 4 tablespoons Alouette cheese

Preheat your oven to 350.  As you are cooking the vegetables, you can bake the crepes for 1-2 minutes each.  Once they are done, stack them on a plate in between pieces of wax paper or put them on plates 2 at a time.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Then saute the onions until they start to turn brown.  Add the corn and black beans and continue stirring until hot.

Spread 1/2 tablespoon Aloutte on each crepe and then top with the vegetable mixture.

Roll and serve.

Enjoy!

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Grilled Pizza

I know, we came to this one a little late since grilled pizzas are showing up everywhere, but that’s okay.  While I will never be confused as being cutting edge, I do tend to make a mean dish once I finally hop on the culinary bandwagon.

And I have jumped on this bandwagon with both feet.

Grilled Pizza – The Beginning

To begin my initiation, I stopped by Whole Foods and picked up some of their regular pizza crust (regular as in note whole grain.)  My wife makes a mean pizza crust, but frankly both of us had had long weeks. Thus we made the not-terribly-difficult decision to pay the $3 and let the fine folks at Whole Foods take care of all our crust needs.  Plus,  Whole Foods pizza crust is pretty darn good.

When I got my crust home, I figured we’d want to have pizza with caramelized onions, so I got them started.  Then, I divided the pizza dough into four smaller balls, rolled them out flat, and let them rest.

But what to do about toppings?

Grilled Pizza and Laughing Cow Cheese

A long, long time ago the good folks at Laughing Cow cheese sent me a coupon for a free sample, which, of course, I accepted.  Because I am kind of a big dummy, I never actually used the darn thing, but that’s okay since my wife keeps a pretty steady supply in the house.  (Sorry for the anecdote, but for FTC purposes, I wanted to say something.  I mean I did receive free product, I just never really used it.  Silly FTC.)  Anway, she loves the stuff and puts it on toast, crackers, tomatoes, etc.  Edit: that never happened.  It was Alouette and Chavrie that sent me coupons.  They’re obviously much better for it.

I wasn’t even thinking about it at first.  As I was trying to figure out how to top my resting crusts, I settled on doing a balsamic/caramelized onion jam and goat cheese pizza.  The problem: no goat cheese!  But, as stated above, we did have Laughing Cow Swiss cheese. 

You know, sometimes it’s okay not to have all the ingredients you wanted…

Grilled Pizzas with Laughing Cow Cheese and Caramelized Onion Recipe

Grilling pizzas is a four step process: roll out the crusts, gather the toppings, grill the crusts, grill the pizza.  They’re not difficult steps, but you definitely want all your toppings ready or else you can easily burn your crusts.

You will need:

• 2 tablespoons of butter, cut into tablespoon sized chunks
• 2 onions
• 1 teaspoon pepper and salt
• 2 leaves fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic
• 1 store bought pizza crust
• Flour to use as bench flour (about 1/4 cup)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 sections Laughing Cow cheese
• 4 teaspoons dried basil
• Parmesan cheese

First, make the caramelized onions by following the directions in this recipe for caramelized onion gratin.  The onions, ideally, will need to cook for at least an hour.  Add the balsamic at the end and let it cook about 5 minutes.

After about 30 minutes of cooking the onions, cut your pizza crust into four equal balls.  Find a clean area and spread the flour on it.   Roll each ball into a round that is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick on that flour.  Let them rest until the onions are done.

Turn your gas grill to high or build a hot fire in your charcoal grill.  Close the lid and let it get heat for about 5 minutes.

Coat one side of each round in just enough olive oil to cover it (you may not need all 4 tablespoons.)  Place the pizza crusts on the grill and cook for 2 minutes and then flip.  Cook another 2 minutes.  Then flip again, this time orienting the pizza 90 degress towards the way it was orginially cooked and grill 1 more minute.  Flip a final time and cook for a minute.

Take the pizzas off the grill and spread 2 pieces of Laughing Cow cheese, 1 teaspoon of basil, a good tablespoon of caramelized onions, and some shredded Parmesan cheese on on each crust.  Put the pizzas back on the grill, close the lid, and cook until the Laughing Cow is warm and melty (about 4-5 minutes)

Let the pizza cool for a minute or so and enjoy!

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Cajun Chickpea Mash

What is Cajun Chickpea Mash?  Well, quite frankly it’s one of those dishes that got created one night because I had leftovers and a hungry family.  (A hungry family that, as it just so happens, loves chickpeas.)

To make the cajun mash, I basically started off doing exactly what I would have done if this were a jambalya.  That meant starting with a trinity (carrots, onions, celery).  However, I didn’t want just another rice dish, so I added potatoes, a few dried peppers , a little tomato sauce, and finally, some chickpeas.

All in all, it turned our pretty darn good.

Cajun Chickpea Mash Recipe

The good news about this dish is that is a one-pot meal.  I used my ceramic Dutch oven to saute the vegetables, hold the broth, rehydrate the chilies, even boil the potatoes.  Which is perfect, since I hate doing dishes.

You will need:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 potatoes, halved and cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 3 dried chilies
• 1 tablespoon cayenne
• 6.25 oz (1/2 normal can) tomato sauce
• 1 cup chickpeas
• Parsley, chopped

Place a Dutch oven or soup pot over a medium-high flame.  Pour in the olive oil and wait for it to get hot.  Once hot, add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic with a pinch of salt.  Cook until the onions are translucent.

Next, add the potatoes and give them a stir.  Wait about a minute and then add the broth, chilies, and cayenne.  Bring the liquid to a boil, then cover and continue cooking until the potatoes are fork tender. 

By this time, the chilies should be rehydrated.  Remove them from the pot, remove the stems and seeds and roughly chop.  Add back to the pot.  (Okay, so you have to use a plate for this, so it’s not really a one-pot meal, but you get the point!)

Lastly, add the tomato sayce, and the chickpeas.  Cook until the chickpeas are warm.  Top with parsely and enjoy!

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Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna Fish

Let me start off by saying that I despise this dish.  Yeah, I know, I should keep it positive, but seriously, bleck.  And I mean bleck from the bottom of my heart.

However, my son loves the stuff, which as far as I am concerned, is as good a reason as any for a paternity test.

With that aside, you might be wondering how healthy mac and cheese with tuna fish can be.  It’s a fair question.  A lot of mac and cheese comes from a box and tuna is pretty high in mercury.  Also, unbleached flour isn’t exactly fantastic for kids.  Plus, there’s a lot of cream and butter in mac and cheese and that’s not so good.  And if you are wondering all that, you have a lot of nerve.

Still, I have solutions to all of these issues.

Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna Fish Recipe

Okay, so in order the objections were:

1. Processed food (mac and cheese in a box.) We’ll make it ourselves in about 30 min.
2. Tuna high in mercury. Switch the fish types or only serve this dish once a week.
3. Unbleached flour in the noodles. We’re making this ourselves, so we’ll use whole wheat noodles.
4. High in Fat. We’ll skip the butter and use whole milk to lower the fat content.

Oh, one other thing.  I am a big believer in crunchy toppings for my mac and cheese, so we’ll use baked chips for the crunch.

Ready for the recipe?

You will need:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 12 ounces fun whole wheat macaroni shapes (Cars and Mickey Mouse are big around here.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• (optional) 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 4 oz tuna fish
• Bag of baked potato chips
• (optional) Paprika as a garnish

Preheat the oven to 350.

Put the milk and garlic powder in a sauce pan over high heat and bring to a boil.

Immediately afterwords, get the well-salted pasta water boiling for the macaroni.  Drop the macaroni when the water starts to boil.  Remove when just al dente.

When the milk starts to boil, add the cheese and the optional mustard and stir to melt the cheese.  You should have a nice, thick cheese sauce.  If too thick, add a little milk or chicken stock.

In a bowl, add the macaroni, cheese sauce, and tuna fish.  Mix well, probably with your hands (sounds like a kiddo job, doesn’t it?)

Spread out the mixture into one even layer in a greased baking dish.  Top with the potato chips and bake until 20 minutes or until bubbly.  Sprinkle paprika on top.

Enjoy!

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Hegan Thursday Seitan Kebobs

So, you’re probably wondering what “Hegan Thursday” is.  Well, for the first time today, I was exposed to the term “hegan,” which is a man who has adopted the vegan lifestyle for health reasons.  Mrs. WellDone doesn’t care for the term, but I think it’s brilliant since there are far fewer male vegans than female.

Plus, I like hegan since it evokes all sorts of manliness and grunting and all that good stuff.  As far as I am concerned, if you’re going to go vegan, intense manliness is just a good a reason as any!!  (Second only to perhaps health benefits.)

Anyway, since I’m always devilishly trendy (or not, depending on your definition of trendy), I’m going to do my best to support all the hegans out there with man food done meatless.  Like today’s kebobs.

Seitan Kebobs Recipe

(Quick note: seitan is a highly glutinous dough made from vital wheat gluten and other whole grain wheats.  It’s delicious and a great replacer for meat.)

With this recipe, my first thought was to give a brief tutorial on how to make your own seitan, how to flavor it so that it tastes perfect for this recipe, etc., etc.  Then I realized that hegans don’t have time to make their own.  They’re too busy watching sports and grunting.  (In all seriousness, it takes about 2 hours to make it.)

Instead, this recipe will use store bought, which has about the prefect texture for kebobs.  On the other hand, we’ll need to get some flavor into it since most store bought seitan is a flavor sponge and has little flavor on its own.

You will need:

• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 2 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 packages store bought seitan (look for lumps, not strips)
• 5 ablespoons olive oil (divided)
• 1 onion, cut into 1/2 inch squares
• 1 green pepper cut into 1/2 inch squares
• 1 red pepper cut into 1/2 inch squares
• 4-6 whole button mushrooms

You will also need bamboo skewers.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet over high heat, bring the broth to a boil.  Add the garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, and 2 teaspoons of salt and then add the seitan.  Lower the heat to medium-high.

Cook the seitan for about 10 minutes or until the broth has evaporated.

Remove the seitan from the skillet and discard any unused broth.  Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet and let it get hot.  Add the seitan back to the skillet and cook long enough to brown both sides of the seitan, about 3 minutes per side.

Construct the kebobs by alternating seitan, onion, peppers, and mushrooms.  Drizzle the kebobs with the  olive oil and then sprinkle with the remaining salt and pepper.

Bake the kebobs in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the peppers and mushrooms are cooked through.

Serve over rice.  Enjoy!

Thanks to Martin LaBar for the picture.

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Egg Tostada

Okay, I’m back and it’s #meatlessmonday time!

Yeah, I know it’s been a few weeks and I feel real bad about it, but I shall make it up to vegetarians everywhere I promise.  But enough of that for now, on to

Fried Egg Tostadas!

I wanted to do something a bit fancier for tonight’s post.  For instance, at some point in time I am going to expose my version of Jasper Mirabile’s recipe for green lentil soup (or you know, I might just ask him for it).  However, quite frankly, things just didn’t go as planned tonight between forgetting to pack BWD, Jr.’s swimming trunks and the fact I hadn’t eaten much all day.  So I gave up on anything fancy and instead whipped up a little Mexican sauce, fried up some eggs and happily went to town.

By the way, I promise you, my food tasted better than that picture.  Tonight was all about rush jobs, even with the picture!

Making Fried Egg Tostadas

This is probably the quickest meal I’ve ever made… If it’s not, it’s right up there.  Which was a good thing.  I was starving.

You will need:

• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon epizote
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 4 inch corn tortillas
• 4 tablespoons refried beans

Open the can of tomato sauce and pour it and the spices into a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and stir occasionally.

Get a skillet very hot over medium-high heat.  Add the olive oil.  Crack the eggs over the skillet and fry them for about a minute.  Then flip and cook another minute.  Remove from the heat.  Don’t worry about pretty.  The eggs get covered up by the sauce.

Next, cook two corn tortillas thirty seconds on each side, just to get them soft.  Then assemble your tostada by spreading the beans on the tortilla, then adding the egg, and finishing with sauce.

Enjoy!

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Homemade Gyoza

Okay, last one I swear.  It’s just having to eat the same thing four days in a row really gets my creativity going.  So in this post for Thanksgiving turkey leftovers, we’re going to make

Homemade Dumplings with Leftover Turkey

So, I’ve got a rule when it comes to creating turkey day leftovers dishes: escape the traditional Thansgiving flavors.  On days four through twenty of Turkey Day leftover eating, the problem isn’t that we don’t love turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc.  We all still do!  The problem is eating the same thing from November 25th to December 25th is boring!!!

So, we are taking Turkey to the Orient with this recipe.  It’s just a simple dumpling recipe using storebought gyoza or wonton wraps.  No fuss, no muss.  Just a delicious turkey dish completely different than what you’ve been eating!

Making Turkey Dumplings from Turkey Leftovers

This recipe is easy, but I’m not going to lie.  Making the dumplings takes a little time.  Hopefully, you have a little family good will left and can talk the fam into helping you roll the dumplings.  Once that’s over, just steam or pan fry them, dip them in some soy and boom! you have a delicious dinner.

You will need:

• 4 tablespoons of broth
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• leftover turkey
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 egg
• gyoza or wonton wraps
• Oil for pan frying (you can steam if you prefer)
• Extra soy sauce for dipping

Okay, first thing to do is prepare the sauce you are going to cook the turkey in.  Mix the broth, soy sauce, tahini, garlic powder, and sugar in a bowl.  If that doesn’t look like enough to cover the turkey, double the recipe.

Next, break the turkey into small pieces.  You can shred it or dice it, but remember, this mixture will go inside dumplings, so keep it small.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, add the sauce and let it start to get warm, maybe 2 minutes.  Then add the turkey and stir until it gets warm.  If there is a lot of liquid left, mix the cornstarch in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of water.  Add to the skillet and stir until the sauce thickens.

Next, beat the egg in a bowl with a tablespoon of water to make an egg wash. This will be the glue that holds the wraps together.  Lay out the won ton wraps in a line.   Put about a teaspoonful of mixture in the middle of each wrap, then come back and brush the egg wash on two edges of the wonton wraps.  Finally, fold each wrap in half to close.

Lastly, heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and fry the gyoza two minutes per side in small batches.  Add more oil as needed.

Serve with soy sauce to dip and enjoy!

Thanks to WordRidden for the picture.

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Turkey Black Bean Soup

Ah…this recipe takes me back.  The first article I ever wrote for BIAO Magazine was a Black Friday special that used Thanksgiving leftovers for a quick, healthy meal you could fix after a long day of Black Friday shopping.  With that being said, this is not a revisiting of that recipe.  It is a reimagining!  I am tooking the same basic concept and using more spices and peppers for a Mexican-inspired flavor since, at this point, I do not want to eat anything that even vaguely reminds me of Turkey Day leftovers.

With that being said, if you have some leftover mashed potatoes, we’ll be using them as an optional thing little extra for the bowl!

Making Turkey Black Bean Soup

This dish is really easy and can use up as much or as little of that leftover turkey as you want.  Don’t overdo the leftover turkey since there are two more recipes I’ll be sharing (ha ha)!  Still,  in all seriousness you want the black beans to stand on their own and not have this turn into a turkey casserole.

You will need:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, finely diced
• 1 stalk of celery, sliced
• 1 poblano, diced
• 3 cans black beans
• 2-3 cups stock
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
• 1/2 cup cream (you can omit if you would like)
• Left over turkey

In a soup pot  over medium-high heat, add the onions.  Let them cook a 2 minutes and then add the red pepper, celery, and poblano.  Cook until all of the vegetables are soft.

Open the cans of black beans.  If you are worried about salt, wash away the liquid the beans came in.  If not, there’s good flavor in there!  Add the beans to the pot and pour in the stock so the beans are almost covered. 

Add the cumin and ancho powder.

You may need to lower the heat to medium to keep the beans from burning, but at this point, all you need to do is stir occassionally until the beans start to open.  This will cause the broth to thicken.  The thicker it becomes, the more you need to stir!

Once the soup has reached the desired thickness, add the cream and the turkey.  Continue to stir until the turkey is warm.

Serve with left over rolls or in bowls lined with mashed potatoes.  Enjoy!

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Pigs In a Blanket - Veggie Style

I really should be ashamed of doing this, but tonight we’re kicking it old school with

Pigs in a Blanket … Veggie Style

And when I say old school, I’m talking like kindergarten.  You want healthy vegetarian cuisine?  Not on this Meatless Monday, my friend.  Not on this Meatless Monday.

See, a while back I threw a big Christmas bash for some friends.  I put together a nice little spread with some spring rolls, some chicken skewers, some nice vegan bread pudding, and some pigs in a blanket.  Knowing that there would be some vegetarians in the crowd, I bought both regular hot dogs and some Smart Dogs, which are my favorite brand of non-meat hot dog.  I wrapped both the vegetarian and regular dogs in croissants and baked them in the oven according to the croissants’ package directions.

Easy enough.

The thing is…every one seemed to like the food.  However, the one thing I couldn’t make fast enough was those pigs in a blanket.  Funny thing was, NO ONE fessed up to actually eating them, but somehow they kept disappearing.

So, go ahead, make these little guys for yourself.  I won’t tell.  I promise.

Making Vegetarian Pigs in a Blanket

Really, you have the entire recipe already.  It’s so simple.  Serve with some fries on the side and maybe a salad if you want to inject some nutriets to keep the butter and oil company.  You will have a great meal!

You will need:

• 1 package of 8 vegetarian hot dogs, halved
• 2 cans of canned croissants (the generic kind taste best, don’t ask me why)

Preheat the oven to the temperature specified on the package.

Peel off one croissant from the roll and lay it flat on the table.  Normally, these croissants are like very long triangles and I’ll assume that that is basically how yours looks.  When you lay the croissant out, lay it out so the widest point is away from you.

Take half of the veggie dog and place it in the middle of the croissant so that the dog extends just past the widest point and wrap the other two edges of the croissant around the hot dog.

Place on a greased baking sheet and bake according to the croissant’s directions.

Serve with some ketchup and you have a great meatless meal.  Enjoy!

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