Ahi Tuna Lettuce Bowls

Ahi Tuna Lettuce Bowls

Butter lettuce leaves

1/2 lb. fresh tuna -- previously baked, bathed in olive oil, on each side 10 min. in 350 oven 

   [make sure to season your tuna with garlic and whatever else you like]

avocado

red pepper

Cube the cooked tuna in tiny squares, cube the avocado in tiny squares, and dice the pepper.

Combine and put into the butter lettuce leaves, and your done!

You could put some soy sauce on top if you feel this needs more flavor, but we liked it on it's own.  This fed three of us, but I think it might work better for feeding two.  You could also do this for an appetizer!

SUPER good, and obviously it's pretty healthy.  Now I'm off to make big fat chocolate chip cookies to balance out the overly healthy meal...

Zucchini Spaghetti

Zucchini Spaghetti

Am I spelling zucchini correctly?  I'm not at all sure.  But what I am sure of is that zucchini spaghetti is easy, healthy, crunchy, and just as good as regular spaghetti.  I bought this new-fangled spiral cutter for cutting vegetables into spaghetti or ribbon (it's SO COOL), and as you can see, the zucchini looks beautiful.  I then put the zucchini in the microwave for two minutes.  It was a lot of zucchini, and you don't want to overcook the zucchini or it gets mushy.  Some people wouldn't even cook it at all -- they would just put the warm spaghetti sauce on top and eat it right away.

Anyways, this spiral cutter for veggies could be a lot of fun.  I think you can cut most anything with it, and I'm thinking salads cut this way could be a lot of fun.  The ribbon cutter blade could really make things pretty, too.

So, since it's super VEEEEEEGGGAAAANNN, I figured you would like this.

Quinoa White Chicken Chili

Quinoa White Chicken Chili

MAKE THIS RIGHT NOW.  SERIOUSLY.  IT'S THAT GOOD!!!

I found this on Pinterest, and it originally came from a website called closetcooking.com.  

I made a few changes… I didn't have enough of a yellow onion, so I used both yellow and red onion.  I also didn't have chicken broth or stock, so I used 3 cups of chicken bouillon (and it still tasted GREAT).  I used my own pinto beans that I canned years ago, and I didn't have any cilantro.  That's fine, because I personally hate cilantro.  This is my first time using a jalapeño pepper in a recipe like this, and I was nervous about cutting it up [there's all sorts of warnings about not touching your eyes or skin after cutting super-hot peppers like jalapeño].  I just held the pepper down with a fork and used a knife to slice it and cut out the white parts inside… and most of the seeds were attached to that, so they were easy to de-seed.

I was shocked at how good this was.  I put a little dollop of sour cream on top -- and before I did that, I used the oddest ingredient that REALLY kind of made the chili.  I crumbled up Nabisco Gluten Free Brown Rice Sea Salt and Pepper flavored Rice Thins on top of the chili.  Dad LOVED this.

ingredients

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 jalapeno peppers, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin, toasted and ground
• 3 cups chicken broth or chicken stock
• 1 cup salsa verde
• 1 pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts or thighs
• 1 (15 ounce) can white beans
• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (~1/2 lime)
• 2 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

directions

1. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat, add the onion and jalapeno peppers and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
3. Add the broth, salsa verde, chicken, beans, quinoa and oregano, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked and the quinoa is tender, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken, shred or dice, return to soup along with the lime juice and cilantro, season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.