Jan 19, 2010 Posted by Lisa Milone on Jan 19, 2010 | 2 comments

Spice-Rubbed Roasted Salmon with Lemon-Garlic Spinach

I always get really nervous when I cook for a group of people. I’m really not sure why but I think it’s a combination of things – keeping all of the food warm enough until it’s exactly the right time to serve, hoping the meal will be impressive enough, worrying someone will absolutely despise one of the ingredients I decided to use, and so on and so on. I can say that without a doubt, this recipe is PERFECT for impressing guests. It’s simple, quick, and quite spectacular tasting.

The recipe came from Cooking Light. I changed a few of the ingredient measurements, and have one comment about the lemon-garlic spinach. If you aren’t one to like lemon-y things, just eliminate the lemon zest and juice from the spinach to better fit your liking. It still tastes wonderful without the lemon.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! I was very impressed with how this recipe turned out.

SALMON
Ingredients:
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 skinless salmon fillets
1 sliced onion
Olive oil to coat dish

SPINACH
Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (10-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Remaining Ingredients:
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare salmon, combine first 6 ingredients; rub spice mixture evenly over fish. Place onion in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with olive oil. Place fish on top of onion; bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

To prepare spinach, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic to pan; cook 1 minute. Add half of spinach; cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add remaining spinach; cook 4 minutes or until wilted, stirring frequently. Sprinkle spinach mixture with rind and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir in juice; remove from heat.

Place salmon on a platter. Arrange onions and spinach evenly around salmon. Sprinkle salmon with chopped fresh cilantro. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired.

Jan 18, 2010 Posted by Lisa Milone on Jan 18, 2010 | 4 comments

Homemade Apple Pie

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. This was the first truly relaxing weekend I’ve had since about mid-December. Friday night my friend Shelby came over to hang out and cook dinner. Sharing meals with friends is one of my favorite things to do.

We were making something pretty simple for dinner, so there was definitely a good reason to make dessert. I wasn’t sure what I was really in the mood for though – cake, pie, tarts, etc. It was down to pumpkin chocolate chip bread or apple pie. Apple pie won hands down. The pie was so delicious. You can’t really go wrong when you combine cinnamon, sugar, & fresh apples.

CRUST
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups GF Flour Mix
½ tsp salt
1 tsp organic cane sugar
1 tsp xantham gum
¾ cup coconut oil (room temperature)
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
About 7 tbsp water

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and xantham gum. Slowly add in coconut oil in small amounts until it becomes a course meal.

Add in the lightly beaten egg and the vanilla and mix with a fork until dough is formed. Note: Be patient, this takes a little bit of time.

Knead dough while slowly adding in water a tablespoon at a time. Once the dough is a good texture, stop adding water. If you add too much water, it will make the dough sticky and hard to roll.

Place dough on wax paper lightly coated with GF flour. Place another sheet (it might take two sheets layered) on top so that the dough is sitting between sheets of wax paper. Roll until the dough is flat and about a centimeter thick.

Peel the top sheet of wax paper off and flip the dough (still rolled out with the bottom wax paper on) over the pie dish. Peel the remaining layer of wax paper off and press the dough into the pie dish.

When I do this, the crust typically breaks. DON’T WORRY! If it does break, just piece the dough together to cover the dish. Trim any overhang off of the edges. You can probably tell in the picture I posted that I did this ☺ Crumble any pieces of remaining dough, mix in a little bit of sugar and cinnamon, and save for topping.

Using a fork, poke several holes in the bottom of the crust.

FILLING
Ingredients:
6 medium granny smith apples
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup organic cane sugar
2 tbsp melted coconut oil or GHEE
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice

Peel, core, and slice apples. Place in a large mixing bowl and add lemon juice. Stir.

Melt two tablespoons of coconut oil or GHEE. Mix this with the brown sugar, cane sugar, and cinnamon. Mix with the apples.

Spoon apples into the crust until the pie is filled to the top of the pie dish. Pour juices over the top and sprinkle with the leftover crust crumbles.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350, and bake for 20 more minutes.

Enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (coconut ice cream is my new fav!).

Jan 14, 2010 Posted by Lisa Milone on Jan 14, 2010 | 6 comments

BabyCakes NYC: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a confession to make. I have a sweet tooth and I think I always will. Baking cookies and cakes from ingredients that I had never heard of seemed like an expensive risk to take. I decided that instead of trying to create a recipe from scratch, I really needed to just find a great recipe to satisfy my sweet tooth. Luckily, my lovely co-worker Jordan told me about the BabyCakes cookbook! I immediately went out to buy it and was so pleased to find so many tasty recipes. It was honestly pretty difficult trying to only pick one recipe to make last night. I decided to go for something classic – chocolate chip cookies! If you don’t already have the cookbook from BabyCakes, click here to get the details. I highly recommend it! Also, be sure to visit their website for more information about the bakery!

Ingredients:
1 cup coconut oil
6 tablespoons homemade applesauce or store-bought unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1¼ cups evaporated cane juice
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free,
all-purpose baking flour
¼ cup flax meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons xanthan gum
1 cup vegan chocolate chips (I used the Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, applesauce, salt, vanilla and cane juice. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, flax meal, baking soda and xanthan gum. Using a rubber spatula, carefully add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until a grainy dough is formed. Gently fold in the chocolate chips just until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

3. Using a melon baller, scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the portions 1 inch apart. Gently press each with the heel of your hand to help them spread. Bake the cookies on the center rack for 15 minutes, rotating the sheets 180 degrees after 9 minutes. The finished cookies will be crisp on the edges and soft in the center.

4. Let the cookies stand on the sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely before covering. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

I can’t say it enough – I LOVE THESE COOKIES! My friends, family, and co-workers love them too. My favorite way to eat these is with a glass of chilled almond milk. It’s perfection! I hope you give them a try!