Fishing for Reflections- Baked Mediterranean Tilapia

I started this blog during what is considered the easiest of clinical rotations.  I had the least amount of hours and did not have to take a national standardized exam.  It has been rather easy to maintain the blog, continue cooking and hold true to my goal of being present in the moment.  Starting tomorrow my schedule will flip and I will begin a rotation that only gives me 4 days off a month.

In trying to pack everything in that I could during my last weekend off, I felt myself becoming anxious.  I found it difficult to make decisions, wavered back and forth and then felt guilty about if it was the right one.  It was the anticipation of what is coming next that heightened my emotions- I was no longer feeling present.  I found that verbalizing my concerns to friends allowed me to reflect more quickly and redirect my thoughts to being in the moment.

It is a custom in my family to share the best and the worst thing that happened all week at dinner on Friday night.  I've continued this tradition at my own Shabbat (Friday night) dinners with friends.  Reflection out loud allows one to further internalize and understand thoughts, while bringing people at the table closer together.  It is one of my favorite traditions.

This week I hosted 7 friends for a meal filled with reflections, good food and good company.

The menu:
Pea Soup
Beet + Leek Salad
Roasted Brussels Sprout
Garlic + Sage Roasted Sweet Potatoes + Beets
Mjadera
Mediterranean Baked Tilapia
Gluten Free Peanut Turtle Cookies



















Mediterranean Baked Tilapia adapted from Jamie Oliver's Baked White Fish


This recipe is so easy and it makes the fish taste so yummy! Tilapia is cheap and readily available.  I did try to make this once with frozen fish and it was a bit too fishy so fresh fish is always preferred.




Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic minced
Small bunch of basil
Olive Oil
2x 400g can of plum tomatoes (with salt)
4 pieces of Tilapia (or any white fish)
Handful of Black kalmata pitted olives
1 tablespoon of capers (drained)

Baked Mediterranean Tilapia

Method
Preheat oven to 425
Make sauce:
1) Pick basil leaves and set aside while finely slicing the stalks
2) Add enough olive oil to coat a large pan and put on medium heat
3) Add garlic + basil stalks
4) Sautee until garlic is soft but not browned
5) Add canned tomatoes + simmer on low heat for 30 minutes
6) Break and mush tomatoes with wooden spoon

Prepare fish:
1) Pour sauce onto parchment paper lined roasting dish over the fish
2) Squash olives and cut in half
3) Sprinkle olives, capers and basil leaves over the fish
4) Cook in oven for 15 minutes

Dinner for one- Green Eggs and Hummus Wrap

Horseback Riding Through Ireland

There has been a lot published recently about the growing trend in our generation to live alone or remain single much later and longer than any generation before us.  The rhetoric has skimped along the sensitive area of you are single- why? to the I am single- what's wrong with that? Many have linked the growing trend to women's lib and how the independent woman no longer needs a man in a financial manner, or a technical manner now with the advent of IVF.  Others have begun to blame men for not being educated or hard working enough, remaining in a teenage state of mind beyond the time when most women are looking for serious committed partners.  I think we might be missing the boat a bit with these accusations.  Perhaps it is more related to our difficulty to connect with other people at the same level we once did.  Communities are beginning to dwindle as individualism is thriving.

We are now raising a culture where dating on the Internet is more normal than meeting at a party. People spend hours upon hours looking at people's profiles instead of going out and surrounding themselves with people doing activities they enjoy doing.  Now I am not one to ridicule online dating, many people I know have met their lifelong partners online.  But I am a proponent of more community building.  It is the communities of people I have surrounded myself with that have challenged me to be a better person.

Once a week I get together with my college girlfriends for a meal and discussion centered around something intentional.  I so look forward to this sacred time and hope to carry the tradition forward no matter where I live in the future.

But for the times when I am flying solo I find comfort in a simple dinner for one.

* After originally writing this the following article came out in the NYTIMES: The Talent Society. Funny how many of the same notions David Brooks wrote about...*

This dish was inspired by my roommate.  It's super easy, nutritious, easy on the wallet and light on the calories.  Perfect for the "I don't know what to eat tonight" kinda night.

Green Eggs and Hummus Wrap

Ingredients

Brown Rice Tortilla
(Trader Joes or Food For Life)
1 egg
a bunch of greens (Collard, Kale or Chard) broken into pieces
1/4 Bell pepper (chose color of your liking)
Hummus (I like Trader Joe's Mediterranean-Hummus )

Directions
1. Heat frying pan on medium heat
2. Spray Olive oil or put a drop to coat
3. Crack an egg (or two if you are hungry)
4. On the other side of the frying pan put the bunch of greens
5. Sprinkle with your favorite spices (garlic powder or all purpose work well)
6. Flip egg once it is cooked well enough to flip
7. Cover with tortilla and flip the whole thing after 1 minute when egg is cooked
8. Turn off heat
9. Put greens on top of egg in tortilla
10. Place bell pepper on top of greens
11. Finish with a dollop of hummus

Green Eggs and Hummus Wrap

12. That's a wrap!

Sick in Bed- Cauliflower Kale Soup

On a hike through the Amazon in Ecuador

I'm sick and have been in bed for 4 consecutive days.  This winter it seems I've been sick every few weeks for a week or so.  It is totally against my nature to be home in bed for hours let alone days on end.  So over the past two days I breezed through the book The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.  It's the next book my book club is reading, and just happened to address many topics I have on this here blog.  What I took away from it was the unfortunate waste of an unexamined life.  Now go too far with this topic and one might end up doing just the contrary of my goal to be in the moment- worrying too much about the future.  Just as most things in life are cyclical so are our thoughts.  Think too little or think too much and it might bring you to the same place.

I came across this blog entry at Lists of Note and found it quite suiting:
In 1933, renowned author F. Scott Fitzgerald ended a letter to his 11-year-old daughter, Scottie, with a list of things to worry about, not worry about, and simply think about. It read as follows.

(Source: F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters; Image: F. Scott Fitzgerald with his daughter, Scottie, in 1924.)

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things not to worry about: 

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about: 

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

With dearest love,

Daddy

In an effort to take care of my body, I made this simple, quick and wholesome soup.  The prep time is just 5 minutes and the whole thing takes about 30.  It is also carb friendly if you are ever cooking for someone concerned about that.

Cauliflower Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 yellow onion diced

2-3 cloves minced garlic

1 1/2 tsp olive oil or grape seed oil (enough to coat the pot)

1 regular size cauliflower chopped into pieces

4 cups of vegetable stock

(I used 2 bouillon cubes with 4 cups of H2O)

4 branches of Kale, with leaves picked off and broken apart

Salt & pepper to taste (depends on the broth you use)

Recipe

1. Heat oil in pot and add onions and garlic. Cook until translucent.
2. Add cauliflower and stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes until cauliflower is soft (not mushy). Poke with a fork and it should go through easily but not fall apart. If you're worried check at 15 minutes.
3. Add kale and cook another 5 minutes on low heat. 

4. Remove from heat then blend/puree with a hand blender/immersion blender
5. Add salt or pepper to taste (mine doesn't need any)

Mindful Eating + Almond Butter Blondies

On a walk through The Big Island, Hawaii

A few years ago I went on a silent meditation retreat for 3 days in Connecticut.  At the time I was in AmeriCorps, and was starting to feel the emotional toll my job was taking on me as I tried to help people in situations I had never been faced with.  So I thought the weekend retreat would be just that- a retreat that would allow me to get away from it all and be good to myself.  Never did I imagine it would be such a challenge! Spending 3 full days without saying a word or reading anything, left me devoid of stimulation and left with stillness.  I've always been a people person who thrived on interaction.  When I was in kindergarten I used to walk into the class and go straight to the time out section.  My teacher, confused by my action asked me why I went straight there in the morning.  I simply responded that I knew I would get put there because I was a talker and I couldn't help it.  One thing I took away from the retreat was taking the time to slow down and enjoy what I was doing that moment.  They had us do an exercise with food that was mentioned in this week's NYTimes.  The premise behind the exercise is to take something mundane that we take for granted and slow it down to allow you to appreciate it.  We did this with a raisin, but it could be done with anything really.  The first step of the exercise is to use your other senses aside from taste to appreciate the food.  Smell it, feel it, look at it.  Now close your eyes and put it in your mouth and let it sit there.  Feel what it feels like, taste what the essence of the food before you chew is like.  Now take a bite.  What do you taste? Try and deconstruct the taste.  See if you can sense the hints of spices or different flavors.

Friday night I went to a dinner party and brought these Blondies with me.  Before I told anyone what was in them I had them all guess.  I love playing this game- I often ask people to guess what flavor or food something is and see if they can deconstruct the taste.  No one guessed correctly!  These are so moist and chewy, yet they are made of wholesome simple ingredients.  Try it at your next dinner party- you are bound to create a conversation starter and be a hit with the taste buds :)

Elana's Pantry Gluten Free, Dairy Free Almond Butter Blondies

1 (16 ounce) jar creamy roasted almond butter
1 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dark chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, with a hand blender, mix almond butter until creamy
2. Mix in agave and eggs
3. Add salt and baking soda
4. Mix well with hand blender until all ingredients are thoroughly combined
5. Mix half of the chocolate into the batter
6. Pour batter into a well greased 9x13 inch Pyrex baking dish
7. Scatter the other half of the chocolate on top of the batter
8. Bake at 325° for 35 minutes
9. Serve

Serves 12- 24 (depends on if people want seconds!)

Almond Butter Blondies

Fun-guy Mushroom Quinoa + Turkey Stirfry

On a hike to Sugarloaf Mountain Maryland

I'm a big fan of knock knock jokes or one liners- anything that results in quick laughter really. If you're ever in a bad mood just whip one of these bad boys out and its bound to make you smile even if you don't want to! What's life if you can't laugh every day, be silly and have fun?


A mushroom walks into a bar and sees a beautiful woman.  He goes over and starts hitting on this woman... She won't give him the light of day and turns him down.
Not willing, to give up, he pleads with her... "C'mon lady, I'm a fun-guy..." Get it fun-guy= funghi!

Gets me laughing every time!

One more for the road- because I can't resist a good ole geeky science joke:

A neutron walks into a bar. "I'd like a beer" he says. The bartender promptly serves up a beer. "How much will that be?" asks the neutron.
"For you?" replies the bartender, "no charge."

This recipe was inspired by my friends Cate and Adam, who made stuffed peppers at the mountain house.  It's a spin off the idea of their stuffing, which I changed to be more mushroom heavy and dairy free.  I didn't use it to stuff peppers but it could easily be a stuffing for peppers or to fill tortillas or tacos. To make it vegetarian just switch out the tofu for your favorite veg friendly protein (tofu, Seitan etc).

Ingredients:
I packet Ground turkey chopped into pieces
1 packet of mini portobello mushrooms (6 mushrooms) or 1 pack of shitake mushrooms, diced
1 yellow onion diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
4 stalks of celery diced
1 cup raw pignolis (pine nuts)
3 cloves of Shallots diced
drizzle of Black Truffle Oil

1 cup Quinoa
2 cups of Imagine Portobello Mushroom Soup (Kosher, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free)

Instructions

1) In one pot cook the Quinoa: Bring soup and Quinoa to a boil, cover and let it simmer on low until all of the soup has been absorbed and quinoa is soft and fluffy, mixing occasionally
2) In one frying pan put some olive oil to cover the pan and throw the chopped turkey into it on medium heat, stirring occasionally until meat is browned on both sides but not over cooked so that it doesn't become dry.
3) In another frying pan put enough olive oil to coat the pan and warm on medium heat
4) Add onion, shallots, garlic and celery and cook for a few minutes
5) Add mushrooms and pignolas (pine nuts)
6) Once all ingredients are cooked combine the
                                                                                         two pans into the pot, mix together
                                                                                    7) Drizzle the top with truffle oil and mix it in*

                                                                                    Serves 4-6
*If serving right away you can drizzle a bit of truffle oil on top of each bowl of stirfry before serving instead of adding it to the big pot*

Fun-guy Mushroom Quinoa + Turkey Stirfry

True to my Roots- Potato Leek Soup

Tonight is Tu Be Shvat, the Birthday of Trees in Judaism.  It's pretty awesome that we have a dedicated time for environmentalism and appreciating nature.  I used to think, gee why would we celebrate nature in the dead of winter when nothing is growing?  But of course, it is now that we can appreciate how deeply rooted the trees are even when they are not in bloom.  The holiday serves as a greater metaphor for reminding us to connect to our roots as a people.  I'm celebrating by cooking something with deep roots- the ever infamous potato- the one that gave Dan Quayle a bad rep.

This soup is my bread and butter- my friends ask for me to make it all of the time.  It is simple, hearty and suites everyones dietary needs! Feel free to experiment with different types of potatoes and see which you like best- i usually try new ones at the farmers market and it surprises me every time :)

Vegan Creamy Potato Leek Soup ( Adapted from The Great American Detox Diet by Alex Jamieson)

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts washed and sliced into 1/4-inch slices
2 cups chopped yellow onion (Roughly one onion)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large Yukon Gold potatoes or (about 1 pound), peeled and cubed into 1/2-inch cubes
4 cups vegetable stock
2-3 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat a 4-quart soup pot over medium heat and add the oil.

2. Add the leeks, onion, and sea salt and saute for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the onion begins to turn translucent.

3. Add the garlic and stir well. Cook for 1 minute more.

4. Add the potatoes and vegetable stock, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook 20 minutes.

5. Remove the soup from the heat and use an immersion/stick blender to blend the soup in the pot or ladle the soup into a blender, 1 cup at a time. Blend the soup with the fresh rosemary leaves until smooth and free of chunks. Pour smooth soup into a heat-proof bowl and continue until all of the soup has been blended.

6. Transfer the blended soup back to the original soup pot and warm over low heat until heated through. Serve hot.

Serves 4 – 6

Novelty in the Mountains- Ricotta Apple + Banana Walnut Pancakes

"Monotony Collapses time; novelty unfolds it".  I read this quote from the book I'm currently reading Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer, this past weekend.  It felt fitting, as I was away in the mountains of Pennsylvania with some friends. It has always been my biggest fear that I might settle for a monotonous life without the type of excitement I've created in my twenties.  Looking around it seems that society steers us towards a path of least resistance, and people wake up twenty years down the road with a mid life crisis because their life is boring.  It's an interesting concept to think that creating new memories by having as many new experiences as possible might actually lengthen our perception of our lives.  Think back to the last year and what you remember- its the trips you took, the events you participated in or the people you met who made a lasting impact on you. Sometimes I think back on the decision to go to medical school and sacrifice 4 years of opportunities to live abroad, learn more trades, and meet more people.  Although I know I am in the right place and doing what I'm passionate about- it goes against the Machiavellian way ingrained in me to learn and excel at as many things as possible.  So right now, I will find the opportunities in the every day.


This weekend was incredible, we hiked in the snow, played board games, read by the fire, and had wonderful talks over delicious food.

Food in the Mountains: We split up and all took a meal in pairs: All was Gluten Free and Vegetarian

Saturday Breakfast: 
Spicy eggs + Sweet potato mash
Saturday Lunch
Pasta Salad with Vegetables + Herbs
Saturday Dinner
Stuffed Peppers + Cornbread + Roasted Brussels sprout (who knew it was spelled like that? )
Sunday Breakfast (this was mine!)
Ricotta Apple Pancakes + Banana Walnut Pancakes + Fruit Salad

I used two different gluten free mixes: Pamela's and Simply Organic
Pamela's makes sturdier pancakes and Simply Organic makes fluffier ones, so I chose Pamela's for banana walnut and Simply Organic for Ricotta Apple.

I know this is not a picture of pancakes.....

Banana Walnut pancakes are my go to, the banana's just melt into the batter and the walnuts give it a crunch.  Just make the mix as instructed and add one banana and a handful of nuts to each serving or cup of mix.  This works just as well with other nuts like pecans.

But the fruit looked so beautiful
and I was too busy making the pancakes to photograph!

Ricotta Apple pancakes was a new innovation.  After making the mix as instructed I just scooped out 2 tablespoons of ricotta cheese, diced a small fuji apple, added a hint of cinnamon and wallah fluffy apple cinnamon goodness.  You can't taste the ricotta cheese, it just makes the batter fluffier and provides a softer texture.