A non-bento food post!

OK, now that I've posted the little bento photo gallery below, I thought I'd add a post of some other food stuffs since that's what I've been thinking about more than bento lately.  I have been trying to eat healthier and cut way back on processed foods and nearly eliminate those which contain High Fructose Corn Syrup.

One of my favorite things, and some can be seen in the last couple bento in the last post, is the Black Bean Quinoa Salad I've been making.  If you've followed my blog for a while, you may remember that I used to make Black Bean Orzo Salad - well, this is the same recipe, only I replace the Orzo pasta with healthy Quinoa :)

Below is a close-up from one of the bento in the last post.  I love the color in this salad (but I don't think the photo captures it well). Instead of just red pepper, I like to also use yellow and orange for even more color and nutrition :)

The original recipe can be found here - I just swap the orzo for quinoa

This is my husband's version of a Panzanella Salad he had a number of years back on a business trip.

It's very healthy and a great way for us to use some of the basil from the garden. We've been making this for years - I made it this time, but the 'recipe' is his :)

The greens are baby spinach and basil from our garden tossed with fat free caesar dressing.

I toasted pine nuts in a skillet and then added red onion, roasted red pepper and artichoke heart quartes - heated that a little, turned off heat and added the halved grape tomatoes -

cut bread in to cubes and toasted under broiler

(it's a white whole wheat garlic herb bread that I made in my bread machine - if using plain bread, we would spray w/ canola and toss with herbs first).

Top the greens with the pine nut mixture and bread cubes and sprinkle grated parmesan - Voila - so yummy!

Next up is my husband's version of the shrimp and egg open faced sandwich they serve at Ikea.

He makes it a little different every time  and it doesn't usually have cherry tomatoes, but we had just picked the first couple from the garden and wanted to use them :)

This time it was as follows:

Shrimp & Egg Toats

4 Tbs Hellman's Light Mayo

1 Tbs Spicy Brown Mustard

1 Tbs Fresh Dill

3/4 lb Baby Salad Shrimp

3 Boiled Eggs, chopped

Salt to taste

Additional Dill and Cherry Tomatoes for garnish

Mixed salad greens and/or baby arugula and baby spinach

(we use whatever we happen to have)

Toast of choice

(We used the White Whole Wheat Garlic Herb Bread as in the Panzanella above)

Last week the grocery store had Swordfish on sale. We haven't had swordfish in quite a while, so I decided to pick some up for dinner that night.  A search for ways to prepare it yielded a recipe for Swordfish with Citrus Pesto. I read through the reviews and made a couple slight adjustments to the pesto - I ased a bit more garlic and only used the juice of half a lemon and half the orange,but all the zest. I thought it was pretty darn good, though it makes a lot more pesto than you need for the Swordfish, but that's a good thing as it is tasty and can be used for other things - I used it a couple nights later in a shrimp pasta primavera dish :)

Along with the Swordfish, I had picked up a bunch of beets.  This was the first time I made beet greens, and only my second time eating them - I'm a fan :)

I sauteed some red onion in canola oil until semi translucent, then added garlic and sauteed for maybe 30 sec or so before adding the beet greens, which were sauteed until tender.  I then sprinkled them with sea salt and a squeezed some lemon juice over it - yum!

The beets were just boiled, peeled and sliced - it's too hot for roasting, but I plan to try them that way this fall :)

The other side dish is a Grilled Italian Bread and Cherry Tomato Salad.

Last week the grocery store had Swordfish on sale. We haven't had swordfish in quite a while, so I decided to pick some up for dinner that night. A search for ways to prepare it yielded a recipe for Swordfish with Citrus Pesto. I read through the reviews and made a couple slight adjustments to the pesto - I ased a bit more garlic and only used the juice of half a lemon and half the orange,but all the zest. I thought it was pretty darn good, though it makes a lot more pesto than you need for the Swordfish, but that's a good thing as it is tasty and can be used for other things - I used it a couple nights later in a shrimp pasta primavera dish :)

Along with the Swordfish, I had picked up a bunch of beets. This was the first time I made beet greens, and only my second time eating them - I'm a fan :)

I sauteed some red onion in canola oil until semi translucent, then added garlic and sauteed for maybe 30 sec or so before adding the beet greens, which were sauteed until tender. I then sprinkled them with sea salt and a squeezed some lemon juice over it - yum!

The beets were just boiled, peeled and sliced - it's too hot for roasting, but I plan to try them that way this fall :)

The other side dish is a Grilled Italian Bread and Cherry Tomato Salad.

Kat used some of the pesto and some of the quinoa salad from above in her bento for today - the pesto is on top of some cooked shrimp:

Last night I made Miso Sake Glazed Salmon.

This is a dish Kat and I love and Rob will eat, but I don't think he loves it like we do...

I don't measure the ingredients when I make this, but this is basically what I do - just taste and adjust as needed:

I'm proud to say my salmon was cooked perfectly :)

Miso Sake Glaze/Marinade

1/4-1/3 cup miso paste

a couple tablespoons sake

a couple tablespoons mirin

honey - maybe a Tbs or so...

Salmon (I had 3 steaks, I think about 1 1/2 lbs)

Mix all ingredients and coat salmon - broil on low until salmon has just about reached desired doneness, then broil on high just long enough to finish off the glaze.

I keep saying I'm going to try this on chicken, but I haven't done it yet...

I absolutely loved the broccoli cooked this way - I had the little bit of leftovers cold this afternoon while I was making my lunch - so good :)

For the broccoli, ginger and garlic was sauteed and a couple tsp sesame oil and a little hot sesame oil , broccoli was then sauteed for a couple minutes, then I added a little water and put the lid on to steam the broccoli just until crisp tender - perfect :)

 

The noodles are a teriyaki noodle dish from a package - just trying to use up what I have in the pantry...

 

I hope you enjoyed this not so much bento food post and maybe get an idea or two from it :)