Crab Stuffed Flounder + Panko Giveaway!

I love fish, but we don’t cook it at home nearly as much as I’d like to. Sunday was a big grocery shopping afternoon (after doggie time at the beach!), and one of our stops was Whole Foods. We can never just go to one grocery store…usually two, sometimes 3! This was a 3-store kind of day (Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Market Basket). They are all close-by so it’s not like we go out of our way, and well, I love grocery shopping :)

We usually only will buy fresh fish at Whole Foods. I know it’s good quality and it never smells fishy over in their fish department. It can be expensive, but if you try to stick to what’s on sale it really isn’t any more expensive than most other stores!

On Sunday, I also learned another fact which solidifies Whole Foods as my go-to supermarket for fish…Genetically Modified (GM) fish. I have to admit that I don’t read or listen to the news nearly as much as I should, so I had no idea that Genetically Modified fish was even an option?! However the nice guy working the fish counter at my Whole Foods was telling us that the FDA is close to approving the first genetically engineered salmon to be sold commercially! Whole Foods will NOT be selling any of these GM/GE fish, but they will also NOT be allowed to have signs labeling that their fish is NOT genetically modified!? I think this whole thing is just insane and can’t understand why anyone would want to eat this “engineered” fish?! Here’s a recent article I just found on the subject.

I digress. While browsing the fish selection, we saw that Flounder was on sale for $8.99/lb, so we opted to go for that! I had this Lemon Pepper Panko I’ve been dying to use and wanted a fish that would work well with it. The WF’s fish man asked what I planned to do with the flounder and I told him. Well he had a great idea of his own…stuff it with crab cake filling!! I purchased about $4 worth of un-cooked crab cake mixture (using blue crab), and that was more than enough to fill our 5 small fillets.

Talk about an INCREDIBLY easy dish that looks and tastes like something much more involved!

Steps:

• Rinse and dry fish fillets
• Spray a glass casserole dish with cooking spray or brush with olive oil
• Scoop crab filling onto fillet, I used about an egg-size amount of crab filling. You could use more, but I didn’t want to have trouble keeping the filet’s rolled up while they baked.
• I rolled the fish around the crab, overlapping the fish around the bottom and placing the rolls, ends side down, so they don’t unroll…make sense? Or you could use toothpicks to hold the fish together around the filling.
• I then brushed the rolled filets with olive oil and scooped the Lemon Pepper Panko on top.

These 5 baked at 375 got 12-15 minutes. They were thin, so it was easy to tell when they were done. The fish appeared noticeably more opaque white and just started to “crack” at the tops of the rolls.

We served ours with roasted Brussels and some jasmine rice. I normally would have preferred brown rice or potatoes, but all I had was white jasmine rice…good for a change though :)

This was DELICIOUS! And we had leftovers for lunch the next day. Fish dinner for under $5/person!

Giveaway Time!!

Chef Michael Chiarello (who I’m sure you’ve seen on the Food Network!)has teamed up with Progresso to spread the word about incorporating Panko into your dishes!

I know Panko isn’t exactly a “new’ thing, but until now I think I’ve only ever used it one other time! It’s a large flakey crumb, much coarser than regular bread crumbs, and this Lemon Pepper flavor smells divine as soon as you open the box, and it really adds a nice punch of lemon flavor to your dish.

Along with the box of Panko, I received a big beautiful cookbook! I LOVE adding to my cookbook collection, so I was especially giddy about this book!

Michael Chiarello’s Bottega cookbook has a plethora of amazing-sounding recipes from his popular restaurant in Napa Valley.

Now I can giveaway a prize pack including a box of the Progresso Lemon Pepper Panko and an autographed copy of Michael Chiarello’s Bottega!

How to Enter:

Leave me a comment about your favorite fish, fish recipe, or another way you would use the Panko!

Additional Entries: (Leave a separate comment for each!)

1. Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/YogurtBerries)

2. Tweet about the contest! Be sure to mention @yogurtberries and
also the hash tag #myblogspark

3. Add Yogurt and Berries to your blogroll

4. Mention this giveaway on your blog! Or if you don’t have one, tell a
friend and have them enter and then comment letting me know!

This contest will end Sunday February 20th at 12:00 PM EST

Good Luck!!

Disclaimer: The products and giveaway were all provided to me from General Mills through MyBlogSpark, however all opinions are my own.

Another Giveaway! Meghan over at Travel Wine and Dine is giving away services for 2 hours towards a blog re-design! I really hope i win :)

Happy Wednesday

Sunshine Weekend

For a weekend that was supposed to have thundershowers, it turned out to be really nice!! I woke up to gorgeous sunshine on Saturday. Brian had left early at 6am to go fishing with his buddy, so I decided to go for a nice long walk. I'm still congested a little so I'm hesitant to do too much hard cardio. On my walk I realized it was Farmer's Market time!!!

I went to the ATM then hit up the market.Yellow Carrots!!
A fresh ball o' Mozzarella made that morning!! I decided that a caprese salad was definitely in order later that day!

I have a hard time resisting fresh baked breadThis was a prune walnut bread! A delicious bread with chunks of walnuts and prunes.

Later that day we set out to one of my favorite produce grocery stores...Russo's!

Ok so we (my roommate and I), may have driven by my reception site...you know to see if there was a wedding! They we're setting one up! FUN! Lucky biatch of a bride that day had so many Peonies!! MY FAVORITE FLOWER!! I'll admit I am SO bitter that they are not in season in Sept :(

So I had to buy some:
*sigh* so beautiful.

Remember that caprese salad I mentioned I wanted to make?
So fresh and delicious!

Well Brian caught 7 stripers but none were big enough to keep, but I asked him to come home with some fish anyways hehe.

He picked up 1.5lbs of Halibut...one of my faves!I placed it in a marinade of olive oil, fresh lime juice, lots of garlic, salt and pepper!

It cooked up perfectly on the grill. We also grilled fresh corn on the cob, and roomie made a delicious Bulgar salad!
For the corn, we husked it, brushed it with olive oil, and placed it right on the grill...rotating it a few times for about 10min total.

The Bulgar salad started with her wanting to make a quinoa salad, but I had a box of Bulgar instead :) We added:

• bell peppers - different colors
  
• red onion
  
• grape tomatoes
  
• chickpeas
  
• feta
  
• tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
• 

This was a perfect summer meal!

This morning the cooking (well baking) continued.

I made granola and muffins!
This granola contained:

• 2.5 cups thick cut oats
• 1/2 cups sunflower seeds
• 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup almond slices

Into a small sauce pan:

• 2 T canola oil
• 2 tsp. coconut oil
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1-2T honey (I had to use a small spoon to get it out so I don't know exactly)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Heat those ingredients until combined/thinned out. Pour over dry ingredients and mix!

Spread over sheet pan, bake at 270 degrees for about 45min, stirring once in the middle.

When you take it out, RESIST the urge to stir it around, let it just sit...it will clump together this way :)I enjoyed a little on a Blueberry Oikos

Banana Blueberry Muffins

• 1.5 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup APF
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1-2T flax
• 2 T Sucanant
• 1/4 c. unsweetened coconut
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg (would of added more next time)
  

wet ingredients:

• 3 bananas
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 T canola oil
• 1 T Honey (I recommend adding another 1-2 T of honey or another sweetener...these came out less sweet than usual, and my usual isn't that sweet to begin with)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla

Add wet to dry...stir to combine.

• 1 cup blueberries - place in a small bowl and sprinkle with flour, stir flour around onto berries (this will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins).

Fold in berries, place in muffin tin that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake for 18min at 375.

I made a mini loaf with the extra batter!These were delicious and moist!! As I said before, I'd add a tad more sweet to these next time, but I love them this way too.

New House Updates: Brian's first Mow!! He's been DYING to try out his new mower, and all this rain lately has NOT made that possible, until this weekend:
Beautiful lines ;) I love that he loves to mow the grass hehe.

And that's another weekend folks...back to work tomorrow :( Boooooooooo!

A Recipe Samping for Dinner

I had a bright and early start to my morning with the Hot Yoga class at 7:30, so you'd think I'd be out and about doing things all day...well not so much. I caught up on some blogs, picked up a tad, did two loads of laundry and then finally showered and got dressed...by that time I was hungry for lunch!!I made a mini pita stacked sandwich. This was a mini pita opened up and topped with:

• hummus
• feta
• grilled chicken
• red onion
• cucumber
• yellow and red pepper
• sprouts
• mixed greens
• more hummus
• then close!
  

It may be small, but it's FULL and very much a TWO hand sandwich. For "dessert" I had half of a container of 0% Plain Chobani, sliced strawberries, and some of my free sample of Bare Naked Granola!I liked this granola a lot! Very simple ingredients:

Whole grain oats, Honey, canola oil, almonds, Raisins (raisins, glycerin), Sweetened dried cranberries (cranberries, sugar, glycerin, sunflower oil), coconut, walnuts, pecans, maple syrup, oat bran, Ground flax seed, Toasted sesame seedsFinally Brian arrived and we set out on some errands. First we decided to try one of the route options from our wedding church to reception to see how confusing it may be and how long it took!

Then we hit up my FAVORITE grocery store that I have mentioned here before, Russo's!, it was more crowded than I have ever seen it. Lines went all the way to the back of the store!! The cashiers are pretty fast, but it made it very difficult to get around the store.

We braved the crowds because I had a few recipes I really wanted to make for dinner! The first came from my newest Food and Wine Magazine...
(it's actually the soup pictured on the cover)

I mean, how could you NOT make this!!!

This was very simple, first I cut in half 1 butternut squash, placed cut side down in a buttered baking dish, and baked at 375 for a little over 1 hour. This was then blended with 1/2 c. creme fresh, 1 cup water, and dash of cinnamon!
Mine came out thicker, more like a puree than a soup, but equally delicious. The best part of this soup, however, is the topping!1/2 cup of toasted pecans, chopped, and 1 banana, sliced...all mixed with 1 Tablespoon of real maple syrup!!!

This soup was the appetizer...in my new Athropologie bowls I got for Christmas!The soup itself isn't very sweet, but has a really great roast butternut squash flavor! I think this recipe could easily be made a tad lighter by adding less creme fresh and a little milk instead. I think I may add a bit more cinnamon and perhaps some other spices as well next time. The prep is SO simple though...and the combination with the topping is incredible.

For the main course I wanted fish and I recalled seeing a recipe recently on epicurious.com for a red snapped, simply baked in a foil pouch: Red Snapper with Thyme, Tomatoes, and Olives.

We went to whole foods to look for the fish. I was maybe going to get a different fish...maybe Halibut or trout, but they had neither. They did have WHOLE red snappers though! We bought 1 and had the fish guy remove the scales, head and tail. Since Brian is the fisher in this soon-to-be family, I let him tackle the filleting...ewww fish skin!! Yeah I can't say I am a fan of fishing!Not too bad if I do say so myself!No worse than I would of done :)

I prepared the fish per recipe, and let it sit in the fridge while I finished the soup and prepped everything for the side dish!

For a side I knew I wanted Kale

Then I perused some cookbooks and stumbled upon this recipe in my NEW Giada cookbook.Note the new cook book is in the new cook book holder :) You can also find this recipe online here!

Onions, green beans and mushrooms sauteing...I chopped the mushrooms up real small because I love the flavor but hate the texture!Added the kale!The final step was the add lemon juice (which made it so awesome), and Parmesan. Then I took the fish out of the oven, let it sit a few minutes and opened the packet!
Yummm!!! Plus you gotta love easy foil clean up when cooking fish. I think next time I'd add some capers to this mixture.

My first plate
I went back for a tiny bit more fish, and some more greens.

For me, the fish was great but the green beans and Kale were SO AWESOME!!! The veggies were just SO flavorful, and that last splash of lemon juice at the end really made it into an amazing side dish.

Even though there were many aspects to this meal, each portion was so simple that it didn't even seem like that much work...which I liked, obviously.

You know what goes great after a delicious dinner...

An amazing homemade dessert...yeah not so much. Sometimes I wish warm chocolate chip cookies would just appear. The roomie and I just sat there talking about delicious desserts that would taste incredible if we had them...

waffle sundaes, crepes with nutella, brownie sundaes...you know the usual.

We settled withFast mock-cheesecake/danish wannabes. Graham cracker, reduced fat Neufchatel cheese, and raspberry fruit spread!

I foresee myself falling asleep real soon because of my early morning. Tomorrow the roomie and I are meeting one of our other friends who is getting married and her maid of honor (roomie and I are bridesmaids), and we are trying on bridesmaid dresses! Then seeing Bride Wars!! There's nothing better than combining wedding related activities in the same day as wedding movies!!! I live for days like that haha.

Good Night My People!