Herb Seasoned Cauliflower Rice

Hands down - new favorite side dish. I've already made it three times over the past week! 

If you haven't caught on to the cauliflower rice trend yet, now is the time. This recipe really makes you forget that you wanted rice and definitely doesn't taste like you are eating a veggie. Also, for anyone who might care, it is absolutely Whole30 approved. :)


The recipe I used from The Nourishing Home gave instructions for making this from a whole cauliflower and a food processor to create the "rice". I however, picked up a few bags of Trader Joe's frozen Organic Riced Cauliflower seen below. Highly suggest this because it takes about a whole 3 minutes to make this recipe with that!

 

So, now for the recipe:  

Ingredients: 

1 large head of cauliflower

2 tbsp ghee (or butter)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup fine diced yellow onion

3/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/3 cup homemade chicken stock

1-2 tbsp minced fresh parsley (see note below for more options)

 

 Instructions:

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, add the ghee, olive oil and onion. Saute the onion until it begins to soften and then add the salt, dried parsley, garlic powder and pepper. Stir well to combine seasonings with the onion and continue to cook another 1-2 minutes until onion is translucent. 

2. Add the riced cauliflower to the seasoned onion and stir well to combine. Continue to stir and combine until the cauli-rice is soft (about 2-3 minutes when using the TJ's frozen cali-rice). 

3. Remove from heat and add fresh parsley.  

I served mine with the salmon from my last post so here is that picture again!

 

Baked Salmon with Peach and Avocado Salsa

So I've been considering trying out the Whole30 diet with some of my coworkers who have had lots of good things to say about it. For those of you who aren't familiar it is similar to a Paleo diet, but even more restrictive. For one month, it completely strips away "hormone-balancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory food groups" considered to be grains, sugar, dairy, alcohol, and legumes. It consists of a lot of veggies and protein. You would be surprised how many things you use on a daily basis that have so much added sugar - ketchup, salad dressing (I thought I was being so good with my salads!) and yogurts. 

Since I am leaving for a business trip in Europe next week, I decided not to start until I am back from that. June 1st is the big day. Until then I decided to try out a few recipes that I found and so far I am loving them! This is the first I made and plan on making quite a few times during the month of June.

Thanks to The Roasted Root for this amazing and simple recipe: Grilled Salmon with Peach and Avocado Salsa! Their picture below is just so delicious looking (later on you'll get to see mine). I did modify the original recipe a bit because I don't have a grill, so mine is Baked Salmon with Peach and Avocado Salsa.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb salmon filet, cut into 3 or 4 portions
• 2 ripe but firm peaches, pitted and cut in half
• 1 avocado, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• sea salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 375
2. Place the peaches cut side down on the greased pan and baked until soft, but not falling apart (about 10 minutes). 
3. Chop the peaches into bite size pieces and place in a bowl.
4. Add the remaining ingredients for the salsa to the bowl with the peaches and toss to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use.
5. Cut the salmon filet into serving size pieces, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
6. Place the salmon on the grilling pan skin side down and bake until it is opaque and flaky (internal temp of 145, 10-15 minutes). 
7. Serve grilled salmon with peach avocado salsa.

Here is the final product served with asparagus and herbed cauliflower rice (another Whole30 recipe I tried and will be sharing!).

Lemon Garlic Tilapia

Here is another Pinterest find – sensing a trend here? I love Pinterest! I also love fish so a super easy fish recipe is a dream come true for me. My fiancé never really ate fish growing up so getting him to eat it makes me a little nervous when I try new recipes, but this one came out great and he loved it! He even asked for it specifically one time! I usually pair it with some rice and serve over a bed of fresh baby spinach. My fiancé prefers to have the broccoli over the spinach, but it is easily customizable!
 

What You’ll Need:
1 baking pan
small mixing bowl

Ingredients:
3-4 tilapia fillets (roughly about 4 oz. each — and I used frozen)
1 T. butter; melted
1/2 t. salt
1 T. minced garlic (or 1 clove garlic)
1 lemon; sliced
Broccoli or other frozen veggie (optional)
cooking spray






Instructions:

1. Lightly grease a baking dish and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place defrosted tilapia filets evenly on the bottom of the pan.
3. In the small mixing bowl, combine melted butter, salt and garlic. Then pour this mixture over the tilapia filets.
4. Place lemon slices over tilapia filets.
5. If you are using veggies, place them around the tilapia before placing in the oven.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Turkey & Spinach Meatballs

I’ve chosen this as my first recipe because meatballs are my favorite! It also happens to be a big hit with my fiancé! I learned to make these by taking my mom’s Turkey Burger recipe and adapting it to make baked meatballs. One batch will last us several nights. Pair them with pasta, or my favorite, Zucchini Noodles – Zoodles!

What you'll need:

1 baking sheet

1 mixing bowl

½ cup measuring cup

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground turkey

I envelope Lipton’s onion soup mix

½ cup ranch dressing

½ cup dried bread crumbs

½ bag pre-washed baby spinach

Cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and stir well.
3. Form balls out of mixture to desired size and place on the greased baking sheet spaced evenly and make sure they are not touching.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cut meatball shows no pink on the inside.(make sure to start checking around 15 minutes because all oven cooking times can vary!)
5. Serve with your favorite sauce & pasta!