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

Strawberry Almond Oat Muffins (and pups!)

These are my Valentine’s Day muffins of Love :) Ok, well they aren’t really “Love” muffins, but strawberries are red and sweet and that’s good enough for me to declare them V-day appropriate!

I was pretty psyched when, in the dead of February, Whole Foods had strawberries on sale! 2 quarts/$6! I decided to buy 2 and declared that I would bake with them (and eat the rest).

But first, the day started with some group dog training at the beach! We’ve been taking Bromley to dog training class every Thursday night. Well, the woman who runs the program also offers “off-leash” training days on weekends. Lots of her current and former students gather with their humans and go for a long walk. The experienced dogs are off-leash and the newbie's are on long leashes and when they travel in the big pack the rookies learn from the veterans!

This was our first time to off-leash training. We met up at Nahant beach…and man was it cold!! But its all for our little furballs.

We all had a great time and it was good to use our training skills outside with lots of distractions.

Thankfully we bought Bromley a new fleece…definitely needed it today! It was in the high 30’s (which actually is pretty good for right now, but the sun was no where in sight and it was WINDY!)

One of those Basset’s is in our class and possible Bromley’s new girlfriend ;) They LOVE to play!

Sit. Stay. Good Dog!

Two hours later we were frozen and he was tired.

Perfect excuse for some baking!

My bff, gave me a muffin she made a few weeks ago. It was a cranberry oatmeal muffin and I loved it! I wanted to make a version using the strawberries that were now in my possession so I asked where she got the recipe. She took this Cooking Light recipe and heavily tweaked it (added oats, no OJ, used milk, added almond extract…etc). So I read it, and made my own version!

Strawberry Almond Oatmeal Muffins

pre-heat oven to 400.

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg (I used 1 flax egg – 1T ground flax seed, 2T water, let sit for 10-15 min)
• 1 cup buttermilk (I used dried buttermilk, therefore added 4T of dried buttermilk powder to dry ingredients and 1 cup water to wet ingredients) or use skim milk
• 3T canola oil
• 1 tsp Almond Extract
• 6-8 strawberries, chopped
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Combine dry ingredients in 1 large bowl (oats to salt, including dried buttermilk powder if using). In a separate bowl combine egg, oil, buttermilk, almond extract. Add wet ingredients to dry, then fold in strawberries, almonds, and chocolate chips until combined.

Spray a 12-cup muffin in with cooking spray. Divide batter among the 12 cups. Optional: Sprinkle muffins with raw sugar, or oats, or sliced almonds.

Bake for 14-16 minutes.

Run a knife around the edges and carefully remove from pan and place onto cooling rack.

These smell sooooo good!

Hope everyone has a great Valentines day :) This is actually the first year we kind of let the day slide under the radar. We almost made some dinner plans but the places we wanted to go all had prix fix menu’s…and I HATE that! Well, specifically Valentines prix fix menus. So I’m thinking a rain check til next weekend.

Wear Pink and Eat Chocolate today!

Boston Cream Cupcakes!

But first…did I mention how much I am loving this meatloaf??  Seriously.  I had it for lunch Tuesday and yesterday and now I am truly sad it’s all gone.  Must.Make.More.

Leftovers for lunch:

Now on to the sweet stuff!

For Superbowl Sunday I decided to contribute a dessert to my friends party!  I didn’t know what to make, but I was thinking cupcakes…but what kind??

Then I had a random craving for Boston Cream Pie.  I hardly EVER have BCP, but once in a great while it just sounds so good.

I scoured the interwebs for some recipe ideas. 

I ended up at the Sugar Plum blog and My Sweet Life

For the cake, I used the recipe from Sugar Plum.  I even had meringue powder on hand from back when I made cookie favors for my friend’s bridal shower!

I HIGHLY recommend getting that dried buttermilk you see above.  It just stays in your fridge and you always have buttermilk on hand when you need it…even if you just need a little!

I really loved this cake.  It reminded me of that quintessential “cake batter” cake!  Vanilla-y and delicious!!  It was a very moist cake too, and more of a sponge cake consistency.    

Cake (source)
(my quantities are approx. 1.5 times the original)

1 7/8 cups all purpose flour (so basically a little under 2 cups)
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoons meringue powder (optional, but recommended)
1/4 + pinch teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (scant)granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup sour cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat 1 12-cup muffin pan and 1 24-cup mini muffin pan with cooking spray or line with paper liners.

In a  mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, meringue powder and salt. In another bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer),  on medium speed, beat together butter and sugar until creamy - about 2-3 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined - about 2 minutes. Beat in buttermilk and sour cream until combined -about 1 minute. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Divide batter into muffin cups;

Bake regular size cupcakes for 13-15 minutes or until cupcakes are well risen and cake springs back when touched.  Minis take 8-9 minutes.

Cool on wire racks.

Of course I made regulars and mini’s!  My adjustments to the quantities  yielded 1 dozen regular cupcakes, and a full pan (24) minis!  Perfect amount!

For the pastry cream I went to the recipe from My Sweet Life.  I liked that it used whole eggs (not just yolks) and the process was streamlined as everything went into the pot at once.

I also only had skim milk, but did have heavy cream so I made adjustments for that.

Pastry Cream (source)

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon  salt
2 eggs 
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup heavy cream 
1 teaspoon  pure vanilla extract

Stir sugar with flour and salt.  Lightly whisk eggs in a large saucepan then stir in sugar mixture until thoroughly combined.  Slowly stir in milk, making sure all ingredients are incorporated.  Place over medium heat.  Stirring constantly, bring just to a boil.  Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.  Place a piece of plastic wrap or buttered waxed paper directly on surface of cream. Cool to lukewarm

I was a tad skeptical as I’m used to the method of the recipe from Sugar Plum, but I treated this like pudding and just STIRRED STIRRED STIRRED over med/med-high heat until it thickened!

It WILL thicken, don’t worry, just keep stirring…you’re arm may get tired but the last thing you want is burnt milk on the bottom of your pan.  It will take 5-10 min, and I never really let mine “boil” but it was close, and probably would have if I stopped stirring…but don’t do that :)

Until you see this…

Now let that cool.

Then cut your cupcakes!  I used the method of cutting out a small cone shape piece from the top of each cupcake with a paring knife.  

Then once my pastry cream was at room temp, I placed it into a disposable pastry bag (or plastic bag), snipped the tip and filled them up!

   

I later went back and patted down those little “peaks” on the cream with a wet fingertip. 

Now for the chocolate.  I used the microwave method from Sugar Plum but added a 1/4 tsp of vanilla after it was melted.  

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons heavy cream

In a microwave safe bowl (I used glass), combine chocolate chips and cream. Melt mixture in the microwave for 1 minute, stirring every 20 seconds, until melted and smooth.  Stir in vanilla.

The ganache was delicious, I mean how is melted chocolate chips ever NOT delicious?? BUT I do think it was a bit too intense for these cupcakes.  I didn’t even use much, but could of used just a thin thin layer. 

I think next time I’d look for a different chocolate glaze for these, as opposed to the ganache-type icing that these had. 

They were still fabulous though…and so shiny :)

  Delicious.  And the leftovers kept very well in the fridge for days. 

Wish I had one right now :)

Weekend Waffle Remix

Let me tell you, it was SO nice to just RELAX this weekend!  After the past few weeks I really needed a weekend like this.

Saturday morning started off with: Waffles!

I’m not usually a “mix” person, but I had bought this to take to the Outerbanks back in August and never used it.  Finally remembered to dig it out of the pantry:

It’s a multi-purpose mix, and so I thought it was a great opportunity to break out the waffle iron collecting dust in the cabinet.

Waffles…

Those little craters are perfect vessels for chocolate chips and real maple syrup!

I even gave the syrup its own little pitcher

Ok, so it’s technically a creamer, but it made breakfast feel fancy :)

I was all out of coffee filters for the regular pot, and all out of espresso beans…which leaves this guy!

    

Thank god for options!  I need my coffee!

Mid morning snack:

The rest of Saturday consisted of an intense house cleaning session, lunch, shopping, and an impromptu dinner out!   Super Saturday.

Moving on…

Whenever I make a batch of pancakes or waffles I love cooking up a full batch (even for 2 people) and freezing the extra!  It’s like having gourmet Eggo’s in your freezer!

Sunday Morning:  Waffle Remix!

• 1/2 waffle toaster
• 1/4 topped with almond butter
• 1/2 topped with choc. chips
• Side bowl of 0% plain Greek yogurt
• Sliced strawberries
• top everything with maple syrup

 

Oh and we replenished the espresso supply on Saturday.  Oh foamy cappuccino how I’ve missed you!

Festive mug + saucer

After digesting I finally got in a great workout!!

20-25 min on the treadmill and it felt great to run!

Then Body Pump!  Man I was feeling the past 3 weeks!  I was wearing my HRM and noticed, during the squat track, that my heart rate was up where it was when I was running!  Damn! 

I love how weekend workouts are so much more relaxed.  It’s not after work where all I really want is to get home, or I’m rushing from work to make it to a class on time…plus its nice and sunny :)

Thankfully I had that great workout because Super Bowl Sunday = FOOD!  I had an awesome time at my friend’s apt in Brighton where 2 of my friends battled it out in the Buffalo Chicken Dip competition…I gladly participated in the judging ;) 

There were also these:

But they need their own post. 

Lastly, randomly, there’s dinner tonight.  I made Turkey Meatloaf!

I used this recipe as my base, but with no mushrooms (I just increased my carrots, lentils, and added celery).

I haven’t had meatloaf in ages and this was the bomb.  Especially with a fresh baked potato…hey if you’re baking the meatloaf for an hour, might as well throw a couple spuds in the oven with it.   

Can’t wait for leftovers!