Summertime Tilapia

Rather than stick with my tried and true tilapia recipe tonight, I decided to try a new one, Summertime Tilapia. Mainly because I didn't realize I was out of parmesan cheese until the last minute.

Tonight's tilapia had a very different flavor. I thought it was due to the tequila (which I did use, this optional ingredient) but I think the red wine vinegar was actually the culprit. If I make it again, I think I'd try balsamic. Per reviewers' suggestion, I also did blend the marinade in the food processor to get a uniform texture -- I definitely recommend that.

Overall it wasn't bad. Steve and I both thought it was ok. Nothing to write home about but definitely a nice change. (the kids had no complaints about their fish sticks....)

Garlic and Basil Baked Chicken Thighs

I had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs on hand and I was going to make one of my standby thigh recipes that I normally use bone-in for, but at the last minute I decided to search for a new recipe. Which worked out well because I still had a bunch of fresh basil to use up from last week's Baked Mozzarella Chicken Rolls. I ended up trying Garlic and Basil Baked Chicken Thighs:

I basically followed the recipe, but used dried rosemary instead of fresh, and added some Mrs Dash (chicken) seasoning since it seemed like it would end up pretty bland. And... it was pretty bland anyway. Nothing special, but definitely edible. Steve, Camden and I ate it just fine. Gigi didn't love it but she still ate hers. Owen mysteriously became full pretty early in the meal. Definitely not a do-over but not terrible. It smelled really good when cooking!

Strawberry Avocado Couscous Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

This was not a dinner; I made Strawberry Avocado Couscous Salad with Lime Vinaigrette today for lunch for Camden and me. And it is goooooood!

Light, refreshing, tangy and delicious. I pretty much followed the recipe, but I did toast the pine nuts (and used about 5x more of them than called for). Highly recommend!

Crockpot turkey breast

Rather than heat up the house with the oven on this 85° day, I decided to try out turkey breast in the crockpot:

I threw it in with lo-sodium chicken broth and a bunch of seasonings (paprika, Italian blend, garlic powder etcetera). It cooked on high for about five hours and turned out pretty good. Very very moist and not at all dried out. Genevieve really liked it, as did Camden who was in eat mode and had 3 adult servings. Owen tolerated it. Steve thought it was ok, but he's not a big white meat person.

Baked Mozzarella Chicken Rolls

Tonight we tried Baked Mozzarella Chicken Rolls:

Similar in concept to Baked Chicken Stuffed with Pesto and Cheese, which I made a few months ago. Yet seemingly less work -- I am not sure why. Actually, I do know why. I cheated on tonight's recipe and bought raw thinly sliced chicken breasts, instead of having to pound out regular ones:

Taking out the pounding process made a HUGE difference in time required to prep everything. Plus the already sliced breasts were uniformly thin with non-ragged edges -- much easier to work with than my pounded alternative.

The recipe was delicious! The whole family ate it. I was all prepared to tell Owen that the "green stuff" (spinach) in the cheese filling was the italian herbs, but he didn't even notice/ask! He deemed the recipe "acceptable" (that's 5 stars coming from him judging a chicken dish). Gigi really liked it, as did Steve and I. Camden even found room to eat half a roll. Definitely a recipe we'll repeat.

I pretty much made it as outlined in the recipe, except slightly less spinach (anticipating the kids' protests that didn't happen); I used panko with herbs I added instead of italian breadcrumbs. Also didn't bother sorting egg white from yolk, used the whole thing. And used about 4x the garlic in the filling, and didn't have fresh basil for the top.

Slow cooker taco chicken bowls (wraps)

I was really glad today for the convenience of a crockpot meal, we were really busy and it was nice to have dinner magically ready at the end of the day. I tried out Slow cooker taco chicken bowls which we made into wraps:

I wish I could say they were delicious. They were just kind of meh. Certainly edible but more bland and mushy than you'd choose. I made my homemade salsa the other night instead of using jarred for this recipe... I don't know if that's why, but after cooking all day, when I pulled the chicken out to shred, it looked like there was way too much liquid in the crock pot so I ended up straining off over 90% of it before mixing the chicken back in. Again, meh. Nice idea but we weren't loving it.

Scallop corn chowder

It was a nice little cooking and blogging hiatus, as I was traveling in Ireland for the last 8 days. Now that we're back, it's back to the cooking grind. Inspired by quite a few really good seafood chowders we tried across the pond, I gave this one a try: Scallop corn chowder. Unlike the ones we tried in Ireland, this recipe is very low-sodium friendly.

(Note that we were so hungry and ready to sit down and eat, that I forgot to take a picture of a bowl of the chowder. That photo is looking into the pot, after Steve and I had had several servings and may or may not have fished out a lot of the actual scallops).

Really good! Steve took a bit of an Atkins break on our trip, but was back on the wagon today so he didn't eat a lot of the body of the soup -- namely the potatoes, corn, and carrots. So he wasn't as impressed by the recipe as I was, but the flavors and everything were really top notch.