Lemon and Parmesan Crusted Salmon

Betty Crocker has a recipe for a lemon and Parmesan crusted salmon that looks amazing.  However, in the spirit of being the “no pressure cooker” I decided to change it up, make it easier, and make it my own.  That’s what being a no pressure cooker is all about, right???  Whenever possible, I try and find the easiest and quickest way to make a delicious dish…then…I share it with all of you.

I made a number of changes to this recipe.  One of the main changes was not using fresh white bread crumbs.  I used panko.  Panko provides a fantastic crunch that I feel balances well with the soft and delicate texture of the salmon.  Also, I didn't feel like putting white bread in a food processor.  Here, I season the salmon first and then I brush with a mixture of margarine and lemon juice.  This helps keep the salmon moist and also gives it part of the lemony flavor that goes so well with seafood.  The salmon receives another citrus punch because the crust mixture is made with lemon zest.  The flavors come together so well that you may not ever make salmon another way again!

Lemon and Parmesan Crusted Salmon

*inspired by Betty Crocker

 

4 salmon fillets

1 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp pepper, divided

cooking spray

3 tbsp butter

juice from one lemon

¼ c panko breadcrumbs

¼ c grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp herbs de Provence

1 tsp lemon zest (~1 lemon)

Preheat oven to 400F.

Season both sides of salmon fillets with half of the salt and pepper.  Place seasoned fillets on a baking sheet lightly coated in cooking spray.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  Add lemon juice and stir to combine.  Brush the top of fillets with about half of the butter mixture.  Set butter mixture aside.

Note: I lightly patted the salmon with the butter/juice mixture so that I wouldn’t brush the seasoning off.  I recommend you do the same :)

Combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan, herbs, zest, and remaining salt and pepper.  Add remaining butter mixture and stir well so that breadcrumbs are evenly wetted.

Fact: Herbs de Provence is a mixture of dried herbs and often includes lavender.  The brand I used combined thyme, marjoram, rosemary, basil, fennel, sage, and lavender.  This mixture is known to be traced to South France and has a multitude of uses but pairs really well with grilled meat and seafood.

Press breadcrumb mixture over top of salmon fillets.  Bake uncovered for ~15 minutes.  Turn oven on broil and cook until breadcrumbs are golden in color.  Serve immediately.

I served this dish with roasted red potatoes and steamed broccoli.  It made for a great weeknight meal that was balanced, healthy, and quick!  If you don’t have herbs de Provence at home, you can try tarragon, Italian seasoning, or oregano. 

Chocolate Mug Cake

This is a recipe I kind of wish I didn't know how to make. This is too fast, too easy and too yummy. I learned this recipe when I was a brand new mama, desperate for a treat and trying to get a shower, meal, laundry and my own nap into my tiny gentleman's sporadic nap time. A bit of googling, a few trials and errors and a few more successes, I have a tiny bite of cake ready in less than 2 minutes. Fabulous!

Chocolate Mug Cake - adapted from Budget Bytes
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt 
1 tablespoon chocolate chips
1 tablespoon full-fat yogurt (or sour cream)
2 tablespoons milk (I use whole milk)
Raspberries and powdered sugar if you're fancy

In your mug, mix together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips. Then mix in yogurt and milk. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Scrape down sides and microwave for 50 seconds. Eat. Marvel at the magic that you just made a tiny cake in 50 seconds. Relax.

A few things about this recipe...
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and a few raspberries if you want. Or top with frosting if you have any hanging around.
It's not too sweet. If you want it sweeter, add another teaspoon of sugar. 
This is only 185 calories. Awesome. 
An excellent twist is to put a dollop of peanut butter in the middle of the batter before microwaving. Awesome. 
You can swap in a tablespoon of coffee for one of the tablespoons of milk. Also awesome.
Since the investment of time and money in this recipe is close to zero, I feel great experimenting with this tiny bit of dessert.

Enjoy!!

Made this time last year... Lettuce Wrap Salad and Chicken with Balsamic Peppers

Braised Beef Short Ribs over Penne

I’m somewhat of a short rib fiend.  No…seriously.  If I go to a restaurant and they have any form of short ribs on the menu, then I’m probably ordering it.  Obviously, it’s not something you can indulge in very often since red meat is loaded in saturated fat, but red meat also has iron, which is important for all of us.  AND…since I’m pregnant, I can use iron as an excuse to have just a few more beef short ribs than usual :)

As many times as I have had beef short ribs at restaurants, I have never actually made it myself.  So, I looked for a recipe online.  Lo and behold, I found Giada’s short ribs over penne.  The reviews were great, and the ingredients sounded intriguing, so I didn’t look any further.  Giada never lets me down!  I did make some slight modifications to her recipe, but overall, it doesn’t require any changes.  My version is just a little more simple to make, which I’m sure you’ll appreciate.

Braised Beef Short Ribs over Penne

*slightly modified from Giada de Laurentiis

4lbs beef short ribs

salt and pepper

¼ c olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

6 whole, peeled, canned San Marzano tomatoes

1c red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon

3 tbsp Dijon mustard

2c beef stock

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1lb penne pasta

¼ c grated Parmesan

¼ c chopped fresh parsley

Place an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven.  Preheat oven to 350F.

Season ribs with salt and pepper.  In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  In batches, add ribs and brown on all sides (about 8-10 mins).  Remove ribs and set aside.  Add the tomatoes, onion, and garlic.  Cook, stirring frequently for 2 mins.  Add the wine and mustard.  Bring mixture to a boil and scrape up brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Return ribs to pan.  Add stock, cover the pan and place in oven for 2 hrs and 15 mins or until meat is fork-tender and easily falls off the bone.

Tip: Make sure to use a plastic or wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits so you don’t scratch the bottom of your pan.

Remove ribs from the cooking liquid.  Remove the meat from the bones and discard the bones.  Using 2 forks, shred the meat to desired thickness.  Stir the shredded meat into the sauce.  Season with salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste.

Modification: Here’s where I made a big change.  Giada’s recipe calls for a smooth sauce.  After removing the ribs, she puts the sauce in a food processor and then returns it to the pan.  I thought this was too much work and unnecessary.  I don’t mind some lovely chunks of tomatoes and onions in my sauce.  Once you stir back in the short ribs, it works perfectly.

In a large pot, cook pasta until al dente.  Fill serving bowls with pasta.  Top with shredded short ribs, grated Parmesan, and chopped parsley.

This was truly a restaurant-quality dish.  Save this one for a nice Sunday dinner or when you’re entertaining friends and you want to show off a bit.  It also is a little time consuming since braising is a slow-cooking method.  If you make extra, it warms up wonderfully so you can take portions to work for lunch throughout the week. 

Bon Appetite!!!

Baked Ziti

We've been watching a lot of Chef Ramsey TV in our house and it's amazing!! One guy has described himself as "the Flavor Elevator" and another woman just pulled off her own hair. I'm telling you, it's amazing. It's hilarious and it's incredible and it's inspiring. I am loving it.

Anyway - we had company over last weekend and I made a huge baked ziti. When I read the recipe and it said it would feed 8-10 with just one pound of pasta, I was skeptical, but in fact, this thing was huge! And even better, it was delicious! Rich, cheesy and amazing!

Baked Ziti - adapted from Cooks Illustrated
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Really and truly serves 8-10

1 pound Italian sausage
16 ounce container whole milk cottage cheese (or ricotta)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese (divided)
1 1/2 cups frozen chopped spinach
1 pound ziti (or penne or other short tube pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 cloves of garlic - minced
2 15 ounce cans tomato sauce 
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces mozzarella cheese - 1/2 of it shredded, 1/2 of it chopped into dice

Whisk cottage cheese (or ricotta) eggs, spinach and 1 cup of Parmesan in a large bowl and set aside. Boil water for noodles and cook until softened but cooked through - about 5 minutes. Drain the noodles and set aside. The noodles finish cooking while baking.

While noodles cook, heat oil in a large skillet. Take sausage out of the casings and cook with the minced garlic until browned, about 7 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and oregano and simmer until thickened - about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the basil and sugar. Taste and add salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch into heavy cream. In a heavy bottomed pan, simmer the cream until thickened and bubbling at the edges, but not boiling, about 3 minutes over medium heat. 

Stir this hot cream into the cottage cheese and spinach mixture prepared earlier. Add 1 cup of the tomato and sausage sauce and the diced mozzarella and stir to combine.

Pour the noodle mixture into a very large baking dish - the dish I used was an oval 9x13 dish that's about 3 inches deep - top with the shredded mozzarella and the remaining 1/2 cup of Parmesan. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

A few things about this recipe...

This makes a HUGE casserole - it was dinner for 4 adults, 2 kids, and 4 more adult lunches. 

The sauce cooked with this was really simple, but really great - I'll use this as a base for other pastas sauces in the future.

While the tomato sauce was delicious, if you wanted to speed up this recipe, you could use a jarred marinara that you already liked.

Enjoy!  
Made this time last year: Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes and Turkey Spaghetti

Huevos Rancheros...AND A WINNER!

On Sunday, I woke up and wanted a good hearty breakfast.  BUT…I wanted something different than I normally make.  No muffins, no pancakes, no waffles.  I wanted something that challenged me in the kitchen and brought some versatility to our somewhat boring breakfast rotation.  The first thing I thought about was huevos rancheros.  It’s filling, it’s different, and it’s delicious.  I couldn’t wait to make it.  Now the challenge was…HOW?

I started scouring the web for various recipes.  It seemed like every recipe was different.  One called for you to make your own salsa (which I didn’t feel like making), most had barely cooked eggs (I like mine medium-well), and most importantly, all of them had no meat!  What the heck?  I needed some meat.  What better to go with a Mexican breakfast dish than chorizo?  I experimented and it was amazing.  Here’s my creation:

Huevos Rancheros

1 15oz can black beans

½ c water

1 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp pepper, divided

1 tsp hot Mexican chili powder (or regular chili powder), divided

1 tsp garlic powder, divided

1 tsp onion powder, divided

1 tsp cumin, divided

1 tsp olive oil

16oz ground chorizo

½ c diced onion

1 jalepeno, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

6-7 canned whole peeled tomatoes, seeds removed

1 tbsp vegetable oil

4 corn tortillas

4 large eggs

¼ c crumbled queso fresco

chopped cilantro for garnish (optional)

Drain and rinse black beans.  Add black beans and ½ c water to a small pot at medium heat.  Add half of the salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and cumin.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Once heated, use a fork to mash some of the beans and reduce heat to low until ready to use.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Brown ground chorizo.  Add jalepeno, garlic, and onion about half way through cooking.  Once chorizo is browned, crush tomatoes into the chorizo mixture using your hands.  Add remaining salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and cumin.  Bring to a boil and then simmer until ready to use.

Note: I grabbed fresh chorizo from the grocery store packaged meat section.  Hopefully you can find it at a grocery store near you.  Remove the skin, add it to the pan, and brown it.

Coat a cast iron skillet in vegetable oil.  Heat 2 tortillas until browned on both sides.  Break one egg over each tortilla.  Carefully flip tortilla to cook egg to desired doneness.  Flip tortillas and eggs back over and cook a couple of minutes.  Repeat with remaining tortillas and eggs.

Tip: Cooking method for eggs may vary depending on how well you want your eggs cooked.  If you want them sunny-side up, then you can fry them in a separate pan and just place them on top of the tortillas.  Cooking them on top of the tortillas works well for medium or medium-well eggs.

Place tortillas and eggs on a plate, top with black beans, chorizo mixture, and queso fresco.  You can also garnish with green onion and/or chopped cilantro.

NOW…WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!  It’s time to announce the winner of our 1-year anniversary giveaway!  We want to thank those of you who commented on the blog and gave us feedback on Facebook.  It is always great to hear from those who have followed us from the beginning and those new fans who we want to keep wanting more.  This year is sure to bring more goodies, so be sure to stay tuned!  And don’t forget that you can always contact us with recommendations for improvements at nopressurecookercontact@gmail.com.

DRUMROLL PLEASE………………………………………………………………………………………………

AND THE WINNER IS…………………………………………….

JODY LAURA!!! 

Jody, thank you so much for your feedback!  We hope that you continue to follow us and please enjoy some of our favorite kitchen items as a token of our appreciation!

*Jody, please send your full name and home address to our email address and we'll ship the goodies out to you as soon as possible :)

Tortillas an Anniversary and a GIVEAWAY!

Amazingly, a year has flown by!! Antoinette and I have written 82 recipe posts, we've made foods we've known and loved for years, and we've tried things we've never had before. Our friendship has grown, our palates have grown and people have viewed our blog 13,461 times! My baby turned 1 year old and Nette has a bun in the oven!! It's been an amazing year and we want to thank you for reading our posts, emailing us with ideas and comments, following us on Pinterest, connecting with us on Facebook and coming back again and again. So... we'd like to thank you with the gift of a homemade tortillas recipe and a GIVEAWAY! First, the tortillas.

I grew up in a town with amazing Mexican food. I have taken good tortillas for granted for many years. Good tortillas, in my opinion are toasted in spots, a bit chewy, not too thick, and that charred flour flavor is just as amazing on tortillas as it is on fresh bread! I'd been intimidated by making my own, but went for it to soak up the last bits of carnitas I made over the weekend and it's easier than I ever imagined. I found this recipe on a blog called Mexico in my Kitchen - you'll definitely be seeing more of that recipe inspiration on this blog coming from me!

Homemade Flour Tortillas - recipe from Mexico in my Kitchen
Makes 10, 10-inch tortillas

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup shortening or lard (I used Crisco vegetable shortening)
1 cup hot water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and shortening. Using your fingers, stir together all ingredients and blend the shortening into the flour until it looks like course meal.

Next add in the water all at once and continue to stir with your hands. Knead the dough first in the bowl and then on a floured surface until it is smooth and not too sticky. My dough sucked up another 1/4 cup of flour.

Divide the dough into 10 balls and roll them in your hands until shaped properly. Cover them with a dampened paper towel and let them rest for 30 minutes. 

Once the dough has had a chance to rest, heat a cast iron skillet or griddle to just under high heat and roll a few balls until they are about 10 inches in diameter (I made ZERO round tortillas, but my egg-shapped-horned-oddly-triangular tortillas were amazing!!) The skillet or griddle should be really nice and hot.

Place a tortilla in the hot, dry pan and let it cook for about 30 seconds. Using tongs, or a spatula, flip the tortilla. If it takes much longer than 30 seconds to get some nice charred spots on the tortilla, crank up the heat under the pan a bit.

The tortillas are done when both sides have charred spots and when you press them with the tongs or spatula, they don't change to a damp-looking color.

A few things about this recipe...

After half way through the tortilla balls, I had to cranked up the heat from medium-high to high. I ended up cooking these on high heat. They went faster and worked better.
I rolled 3 tortillas in the beginning. After that, I rolled the next tortilla as the last one cooked. 

Sometimes I got big steam bubbles, but that turned out OK, just pop them and keep cooking.  
You may see my pan with a greasy sheen... I re-seasoned this pan the day before due to some lazy washing. You won't need any grease.

AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!! 

Antoinette and I want to thank you all for visiting our blog. This has been such a great adventure for both of us and we are both are so grateful for the support our friends and families have given us. Neither of us have a zillion cooking tools, or any professional gear, but we have some faves that we would like to share with you. 

We have put together a collection of our fave items - please leave a comment on this post. We'll randomly select a winner and we'll mail you our package of goodies. Here's a quick peak at what the awesome package will be...

A digital thermometer, a hand-held mandolin slicer, silicone tipped tongs, and a wooden cutting board! 

Thank you and GOOD LUCK!
Written this time last year: Carnitas-ish Tacos, Cilantro Lime Cole Slaw and Grapefruit Pound Cake