Fish with Tahini Sauce

Fish with Tahini

My high-school calculus teachers bribed us with candy bars. Every time we passed a test we were rewarded with a Butterfinger. I took calculus when I was a junior in high-school and was the youngest person in the class. Additionally my school didn't offer the class so I had to walk across the street to the much bigger high-school where I knew no one and had to have the principal walk me to class for the first two weeks. There are many things that I don't remember from high-school, but I remember those candy bars. They made a less than ideal experience a little less stressful.

Fast forward to this week. My oldest son had his first report card for second grade. He is very smart, but hates doing all the worksheets. So his grades for organization and completing tasks weren't so great. He seems to have the same problems that my husband and I had in school, we tested off the charts, but didn't work as hard as our teachers expected. In high-school I graduated first in my class, but got c's for effort. Apparently I was supposed to be working twice as hard for the same grade, a theory that never made sense to me. So I'm using bribes for my son. Yep, I'm that parent. It worked with me all the way through high-school and I ended up doing very well in college and graduate school. We have a new chart with rewards and last week was a complete change around. He took his reading tests, he turned in his work and he sat and did his work book without complaints. So the bribes will continue until he is able to use his own incentives to complete his work (which is how I did very well in college and to this day to finish the dishes etc.).

Today's recipe came about from having way too much tahini in my cupboard. My husband's godmother is Lebanese and buys us huge vats of tahini. I use it a lot, but the huge container was begging for something other than my usual recipe rotation. So I tried a new recipe for Fish with Tahini Sauce.

Rotary Park Huntington, WV

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 5 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, since I could only find farm raised Tilapia I substituted wild caught Mahi Mahi. Having worked in the fisheries dept as an undergrad you really want to buy wild caught fish (and know the country of origin where the fish is caught). Plus I love Mahi Mahi, it's one of my favorite types of fish. The only other change I made was to double the sauce since my fillets were on the small side and I had a number of pieces to cover. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Rotary Park Huntington, WV

My husband and I loved this recipe. The fish cooked perfectly and the tahini sauce was delicious. If you aren't a fan of Mahi Mahi or Talipia the recipe would also work well with cod or any other flaky white fish. You could also caramelize the onions first and then add them to the top of the fish. This would work especially well if you aren't a fan of crispy onions.

For the recipe go to Fish with Tahini Sauce.

Fish with Tahini

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

An easy recipe for oven cooked fish with a delicious tahini sauce. Simple and a great way to add fish to your diet!

Preparation Time: 0h, 5m

Cooking Time: 0h, 40m

Total Time: 0h, 45m

Yield: Serves 6

Recipe for Grilled Chicken Salad with Tahini Yogurt Dressing and Fresh Mint

Grilled Chicken Salad with Tahini Yogurt Dressing and Fresh Mint

With the weather getting warm this week grilling season is definitely coming. My husband still has our charcoal grill in the basement with the promise that he will be fixing it up soon. Since it has sat downstairs for two years I am beginning to think that he is lacking motivation. Of course I could work on it, but my to do list is long enough that adding anything to it just wouldn't happen. Since my outdoor grill is out of commission I utilize my indoor electric grill or my stove top grill pan. Both are great options and I use them frequently. The beginning of summer in my household also means cold salads and sides. I love combining grilled meats and cold salads into one recipe. This week I tried a new recipe for Chicken Salad with Tahini Yogurt Dressing from the June 2013 issue of Food and Wine magazine.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I used 2% Greek yogurt instead of whole fat yogurt. As I talked about in the intro I used my indoor electric grill to make the grilled chicken thighs. I am not a fan of hot chicken salad, especially in the warmer months so I allowed the salad to sit in the fridge for 15 minutes before serving. This allowed the chicken to cool and made for a better flavor. Finally, I served the salad over white rice. It would also work well with flatbread.

Yogurt dressing is always popular in my household. We also are big fans of grilled chicken. However, this recipe only received an okay from my family. The thighs were almost too moist for the rest of the salad. There was a lot of flavor in the recipe, which I liked, but it didn't stand out from other chicken with yogurt sauce recipes. I would suggest increasing the amount of chipotle, adding a small amount of cumin and serving the salad with Naan or pita bread. Making it more like a wrap or sandwich would help the recipe be even better.

For the recipe go to Chicken Salad with Yogurt Tahini Dressing.

Lentil Sliders with Sesame Sauce

 I took the Christmas tree down yesterday and put away all the decorations. As soon as the holiday is over I like to box up all the decorations and get back to normal. I have always been like this. Growing-up my mother would keep our tree up until well into January and it would drive me nuts. I like to get things over with and move on, Christmas is one of those things. Don't get me wrong I like Christmas, but all the dust from the decorations and the lack of space from the Christmas tree drives me nuts. So as soon as Christmas is over I get up the next day and put everything away. My living room is now back to the state that it the rest of the year and I am happy and content. I have survived another Christmas and things can start settling into the cold winter months ahead. Winter to me always means beans. I cook with beans a lot in the winter, I find them filling and comforting when the weather is cold and depressing. Last week I tried a new recipe for Lentil Sliders with Sesame Sauce from the January issue of Parents magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 8 sliders. I did have to go to multiple stores to find all the ingredients, but that is normal when I am looking for tahini. Be very careful when cooking these sliders, they have a tendency to burn if you follow the amount of oil in the recipe. Watch the sliders very carefully and add more oil if necessary. I served my husband and kids portions with pita, but I ate mine with just the sauce since I can't eat gluten. For the lemon juice I used fresh squeezed, the taste is better and lemons are inexpensive. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The sauce in this recipe was too sweet. I think it would be better if the honey was eliminated or there was a touch of crushed red pepper. As the recipe is written the sauce is just too mild and sweet. The sliders on the other hand were delicious and everyone in my family enjoyed them. My husband thought that they were actually better the way that I ate them without the pita.

This recipe is currently not available online, but can be found in the January 2013 issue of Parents magazine.

Chicken Shawarma

My two kids and I love sandwiches. I make homemade bread weekly and every week my kids and I fight over sandwich ingredients. We all have a major peanut butter craving and I am not afraid to say that peanut butter is probably one of my favorite foods. I have tried giving it up over the years, but I always go back. My peanut butter obsession seems to go back to when I was little and we had very little money. We had to stand in the line at the church food line and the best part of the experience was the peanut butter. It came in huge jars and I loved it. I would literally eat it out of the jar with a spoon, sometimes actually squirting honey into the jar to combine and eat. Now that I'm older, while I still love peanut butter I have forced myself to branch out and try new sandwich combinations. One of my favorite sandwich fillings is grilled chicken, so I was very excited when I saw a recipe for Chicken Shawarma in the March/April issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients and made no ingredient modifications. I chose to use whole wheat pita bread, I try to use whole wheat whenever possible. I found a beautiful tomato at the farmer's market which worked perfectly for this recipe. Since I used an indoor grill my total grilling time was closer to 4 minutes per side. I weighed out my chicken breast to ensure proper amounts, I encourage anyone that doesn't have a food scale to buy one. They really are worth the money and can make a huge difference in recipes! Normally I would have used fresh lemon juice, but I completely forgot to buy lemons, so I used bottled instead. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My three-year-old loved these sandwiches. I wasn't sure if he would eat the sauce or turn up his nose, but he ate his whole serving. At first I thought that the chicken was too salty, but once the sauce was added to the sandwich the taste was perfect. The recipe states that it makes four servings, but my family eats a lot of meat so this dish made more like 3 servings. I would suggest doubling the recipe if you have a meat eating family like I do or if you want leftovers. Overall, a popular new sandwich recipe in my house.

For the recipe go to Chicken Shawarma.

Martha Stewart Living Edamame Hummus

I'm a snacker. I've never been one to eat three large meals, instead I eat 6-7 small meals every couple of hours throughout the day. This has been the way I have eaten as far back as I can remember. Growing up I was heavily involved in dance and swimming so I got used to eating small meals to keep my blood sugar steady and my stomach from feeling heavy. I'm lucky that I have a high metabolism, but it also has the effect of making me want to snack all the time. It seems that my two sons have inherited my love of snacking and by the time my oldest comes home from school he is more than ready for a snack. I am always looking for snacking options high in protein and I was interested when I ran across a recipe for Edamame Hummus in a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

This recipe has 6 ingredients. It takes one hour and fifteen minutes, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 6 to 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I did add more than the suggested amount of Tahini, probably twice as much since I love the taste. Make sure to taste the hummus after it has been salted before adding more lemon juice. The salt makes a significant difference in the taste so wait to taste for additions until after the hummus has been salted. I allowed the hummus to sit in the fridge overnight to allow for the full flavor to come out. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The nutty flavor from the edamame is delicious in this recipe. My husband was particularly found of this recipe and ate more than half by himself. It was a great after-school snack for my oldest and held his energy and hunger until dinner. I liked that this recipe offered a different spin on traditional hummus and a great source of protein. This will definitely be a recipe I will be making again in the future.

For the recipe go to Edamame Hummus.