Posts Tagged: make this tonight

Make This Tonight: Walnut-Crusted Tilapia

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I love nothing more than going out to dinner, but ever since we spent all of our life’s savings (only slight exaggeration) on food in Hawaii, I’ve been trying to cook more at home. I’m always looking for recipes that are easy, healthy, and cheap, and this one totally fits the bill. Tilapia is not very pricey, and it’s relatively good for you. Also, walnuts are way healthy, or so I hear. I don’t know, guys. I’m not Prevention magazine, you know? I’m not going to start talking to you about Vitamin E. Basically, this tastes good and it’s quick and it (probably) isn’t going to make you die any sooner than you would otherwise.

I found this recipe from A Beautiful Mess, but I subbed in walnuts for pecans because that’s what I happened to have. Still great! It looks a little weird in the picture, but that’s no fault of the fish. It was dark outside, I had to deal with the gross overhead light, and H. had already loaded his plate up with an ungodly amount of rice. What can I say; the man loves carbs. We served this with roasted sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts, but I think some sauteed green beans or a simple salad would be great, too.

Walnut-Crusted Tilapia
(adapted from A Beautiful Mess)

2 tilapia fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
3-4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 cup walnuts
salt and pepper

Mince the garlic and set aside.
In a food processor or blender finely chop the walnuts.
Prepare three plates, one with flour, one with the egg whisked in with a tablespoon water, and one with chopped walnuts.
Season your fillets with salt and pepper.
Dip each fillet in the flour (coating both sides) then in the egg and then in the walnuts. Set the prepared fish aside. It’s going to look kind of gross.
Ew.
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In a large pan heat the olive oil over medium. Cook the garlic for 1-2 minutes, until it begins to become very fragrant.
Now lay in the tilapia fillets and reduce to heat to medium/low. Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes (note: my filets were actually a lot thicker, so I had to cook them longer. Just cut into the filet after 3-4 minutes on each side to check for doneness)
Remove to a plate and be sure to scoop out any leftover garlic butter bits to lay on top of the fillets.

Super easy, super quick, super delicious! I feel like I should show you guys a more appetizing picture, so here’s what it looked like on A Beautiful Mess.
tilapia a beautiful mess
See? Much better. Apparently “being a good photographer” makes a big difference.

Make This Tonight: Joy the Baker’s Coconut Pineapple Banana Bread

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Banana bread isn’t always the most interesting baked good. People tend to make it only when they have rotting bananas they don’t want to waste, which isn’t exactly an auspicious beginning. But adding something else to banana bread makes it a little more exciting. Kind of like when a romantic comedy heroine looks frumpy, but then she removes her glasses and lets her hair down and all of a sudden dudes can’t resist her.

So I’ve been thinking a little too much about banana bread. You got me. But, as usual, Joy the Baker managed to make a pretty perfect recipe that’s unusual without being complicated. Adding pineapple and coconut to banana bread gives it a little something extra. Maybe it’s even sexy? Okay, so that might be taking the romantic comedy analogy a little too far. Banana bread is never capable of being sexy. But it is delicious, and vegan, which is great if you realize all the eggs in your fridge expired weeks ago. Not that I would know from experience.

Coconut Pineapple Vegan Banana Bread
adapted from Joy the Baker

makes one 9×5-inch loaf

2 large or 3 small very ripe bananas
1/4 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas really well. Add the sugar, pineapple, and oil and whisk briskly to incorporate.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined. Fold in the coconut.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and sprinkle with extra sugar if you’d like. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes (I did 45 minutes but it was still a little too soft in the middle). The top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted through the center should come out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before transferring out of a pan and onto a wire rack to cool completely. Ta-da! Delicious!

Make This Tonight: Double Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

coconut oil trader joes
I have some advice for those of you who might be planning weddings: elope.

Okay, so I’m kind of kidding. But also? I’m kind of not. Most people who give me wedding advice say some variation of “Girl, do you!” And I’m trying. But it’s proving a little harder than I suspected, and even though I vowed not to let planning a party stress me out so much, here I go, getting stressed out.

Enter stress-baking.

Sometimes, when you’re annoyed and exhausted, the best thing to do is bake something delicious. You may have noticed that this is my solution to most problems, but you know what? It works.

This week, I whipped up a batch of double coconut chocolate chip cookies. The coconut double shot consists of toasted coconut AND coconut oil. I was late to the coconut oil party, I’ll admit, but now I’m into it. I saw it all over the internet and I ignored it. Then Jordan suggested I try it and I was like, “Maybe!” And finally, Mama W. and I were at Trader Joe’s and she was like, “Look, there’s coconut oil. Didn’t you want to try it?” and I was all, “How did she KNOW?” because I always forget that she regularly reads my blog and then makes no mention of it as if I’m not going to know (Hi Mom).

Long story even longer, I bought that coconut oil and I’ve been using for every. damn. thing. in the kitchen. Sauteeing? Don’t mind if I do! Smoothies? Why not? Opening the jar and just smelling it every once in awhile? Sadly, yes.

And now baking!

The internet tells me that coconut oil can be subbed for butter in most recipes, so I decided to use it in chocolate chip cookies. The best part is that you can totally pretend these are good for you because, you know, healthy fats. Just ignore all the sugar and focus on the healthy fats.

These were awesome, and I made some without chocolate chips for H. so they’d be 100% dairy-free. And then I ate all the extra chocolate chips on my own. Don’t judge me. Also, please don’t judge this terrible picture. It’s winter and there’s no light around here.
double coconut chocolate chip cookies

Double Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Cheeky Kitchen

about 1/3 cup shredded sweetened (or unsweetened, whatever) coconut
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspon baking soda
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toast the coconut by stirring it around in a hot skillet until it turns brown. But be careful, because it burns easily! Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together coconut oil, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla until very well mixed. Add the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour, mixing together until all are incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips and toasted coconut. Roll into golf-ball sized balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or just until the outside of the cookies have browned ever so slightly around the edges. Cool them on a cooling rack (or wherever, if you don’t have a cooling rack) and then make your fiance take them to his friends’ place so you can get them out of the house.

Coconut oil image via The Kitchn

Make This Tonight: “Party” Meatballs

Believe it or not, I’m a pretty healthy eater most of the time. I’m actually pretty obsessive about my vegetable consumption, and I monitor my protein and fiber intakes. I buy organic when I can, and I just got a subscription to Clean Eating magazine. So what I’m saying is that I know how human beings are supposed to eat for optimal health. I understand it. But I’m still going to tell you about how I made these totally gross, totally great meatballs for a party this weekend.

When I mentioned H’s and my upcoming Christmas party last week, you guys gave me some great suggestions for appetizers! When Jayne mentioned meatballs, I tried Googling a quick recipe for sauce, but as soon as I typed in the word “meatballs,” the words “grape jelly” popped up. Naturally, I was intrigued.

It turns out that meatballs in a grape jelly/chili sauce mixture are a super common party food. How did I not know about this? An acceptable sub for the grape jelly is canned cranberry sauce, and there was actually a display for the recipe at the grocery. Does this recipe sound disgusting? Yes. Is it full of preservatives and things that are terrible for you? Totally. Is it, against all the beliefs I hold dear, kind of awesome? You bet.

Healthy eating is great, but sometimes you just want to eat cheese dip made of Velveeta, or a casserole made with canned soup, or meatballs with a sauce that utilizes an entire 32 ounce jar of grape jelly. That’s life.

And for the record, people loved these meatballs. You know why? Because meatballs are wonderful. And no one asked me, “By the way, do these meatballs happen to have grape jelly in them?” They just tasted like they were covered in a hybrid of sweet and sour sauce and barbecue sauce.

Make them for a party, but maybe don’t tell people what’s in them. They aren’t necessarily “classy,” but anyone who eats meat will probably like them.

Grape Jelly Meatballs
adapted from Cooks.com

2 12 oz jars chili sauce (Heinz makes a popular one, but I used the store brand)
1 32 oz jar grape jelly
1 2 lb bag of meatballs (give or take. Mine actually had about 2.5 pounds)

Place meatballs in a crockpot and cover with the chili sauce and grape jelly. Stir things around, but don’t worry if the jelly’s lumpy. It will thin out once it starts heating up. Heat on high for a few hours, stirring occasionally and checking to make sure the meatballs aren’t getting overcooked and falling apart. Your crockpot might take less or more time. Basically, just make sure the meatballs are heated all the way through and you’re good. Serve them out of the crockpot. Boom! Cooking dish and serving dish, all in one! You can also make this on the stove top…just heat the meatballs until they’re cooked through. It’s the easiest thing ever.

Make This Tonight: Veggie Chili

You know how in romantic comedies, the lady always falls for the “bad” guy? The one who makes her feel terrible about herself, isn’t good for her at all, and is a real jerk? And, meanwhile, the good guy has been there all along and she’s just never noticed him?

That’s kind of what this veggie chili is like. Sometimes I think I want fast food that’s going to make me feel disgusting and greasy and awful, but what I really want is this chili. I tend to forget about it, but the ingredients are always there, waiting for me, in the cupboard. I’m not saying you have a perfect boyfriend in your cupboard. I’m hoping, for all our sakes, that you don’t. But, basically, am I saying this veggie chili is just as satisfying as the ending of a great romcom, when the main characters are kissing and there’s some sort of romantic, retro music playing? Yes. I am saying that.

Adam Sandler IS veggie chili.

I got the idea to make veggie chili one night after reading about it on A Beautiful Mess, but I modified the recipe to use what I had at my place. Originally, I saw this as a sneaky way to get some vegetables into my boyfriend’s diet, as I’m always afraid his body is going to fall apart because of his poor, Pop-Tart-centric eating habits. But, as it turns out, he absolutely loves this veggie chili and I didn’t even have to be sneaky about it. So now we have it about once a week and it’s great.

Here’s how I make it. It’s super, super easy and I’m sure you could make it “fancier” if you so choose, but why? I mean, really, why? It’s almost winter, we’re all tired, let’s just enjoy some easy veggie chili.

Veggie Chili That Will Love You Forever (Just Like Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer)

an onion
1 can of black beans
1 can of whatever other kind of beans you want (the sky’s the limit! As long as the sky is full of beans!)
1 can of corn
1 can of petite diced tomatoes (with jalepenos or not)
spices to taste: chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cinnamon if you’re into that

Sautee the onion for a few minutes, then add in the spices and stir those around for a bit. Dump in the tomatoes, with juice, and cook for a few minutes. Then add in the (drained) beans and corn. Cook it for at least 20 minutes to let things really meld together, but if you have less time than that, fine. I mean, I’m not going to track you down and make you cook it longer.

That’s it! The world’s easiest veggie chili! H. will only eat this on or under a bed of Fritos, as you can see in the picture. Honestly, it’s pretty great that way, even if it does remind me of my high school cafeteria and their concoction called a “Frito Flip.”