Tuna Guacamole!

Tuna Guacamole in endive leaves

Tuna Guacamole is great dish for an appetizer, snack, or impromptu little meal. I know it may sound a bit strange, but trust me, it’s yummy! And it takes less than five minutes  to make — especially if you start with a high-quality, freshly-made, store-bought guacamole.

INGREDIENTS

Freshly-made guacamole (homemade or store bought)
Canned tuna, flaked with a fork
Freshly squeezed lime juice
Thinly sliced green onions (green part only)
Chopped fresh cilantro
Fish sauce
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Leaves of Belgium endive or Butter  lettuce
Diced red onions
Diced red bell pepper

DIRECTIONS

Place the guacamole into a bowl and then mix in the tuna. Then add, according to your taste: lime juice, green onions, cilantro, fish sauce, salt, and pepper. Mix it all up; taste and adjust seasoning.

• Take a leaf of endive and partially fill it with a dollop of Tuna Gaucamole. Garnish with finely diced red onions and red bell peppers. Serve!

- OR  -

• Place a small scoop of Tuna Guacamole into leaf of Butter lettuce and top that with the red onions and red bell pepper. Wrap the lettuce around the mixture and enjoy!

FOOD SHOPPING NOTES

Tuna:  I really like the Wild Planet Wild Albacore Tuna. It’s pole-caught, high quality tuna, that is “highest in omega 3 and low in mercury.” And, it’s  canned without added oil or water in BPA-free cans! It’s a premium product for a premium price, but it’s a good value when you buy through Amazon Subscribe & Save (which is what I do)!

Fish Sauce: Tra Chang Brand Fish Sauce is my current favorite. It is made from anchovies, salt, sugar – and nothing else. I bought a 25-ounce bottle for just a few dollars at one of our local Asian supermarkets. For a side-by-side comparison of popular fish sauces, see the blog post, Thai Fish Sauce Taste Test. Note: All fish sauces are sky-high in sodium, but the Tra Chang Brand is lower in sodium than most. And, you don’t need to use a lot to get a great flavor hit!

Red Bell Pepper: Because red bell pepper is on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen Plus list (in 2013), I only buy organic red bell peppers.

Enjoy and be healthy!
~ Leni

Crispy Seasoned Okra – a great appetizer or snack!

Okra -- ready to microwave

Okra -- ready to eat!

Okra doesn’t have to be slimy! In this fat-free recipe, the okra is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Okra is available at well-stocked supermarkets and Asian markets. At Asian markets, you can also pick up besan (gram) flour. Made from ground chick peas, besan flour is a great gluten-free substitute for wheat flour when used for coating foods with seasonings. Just remember that because besan is ground up chickpeas, it naturally contains the oil of the chickpea and therefore it’s best to store besan in your freezer to maximize the shelf-life (keep the oil from going rancid).

I highly recommend you give this recipe a try! It’s delicious and easy to make!

Ingredients

14 ounces okra
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon besan flour
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/4 teaspoon ground corriander
1/2 – 1 teaspoon red chile powder
pinch asafoetida
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

If the glass go-round in your microwave is removable, take it out of the microwave, clean it (if needed), and place it on the kitchen counter. If the go-round is not removable, find a large, microwave-safe plate; set it aside.

Rinse the okra; do not dry. (The water clinging to the okra after rinsing, helps the seasonings stick.)

Cut almost all of the stem off each piece of okra and then slit each piece of okra in half, lengthwise; set okra pieces aside.

Into a large bowl, place remaining ingredients – the seasonings. Mix the seasonings with your hands (be sure that your hands are dry) until well mixed. Add reserved okra and, using your hands, mix the okra around so that it gets evenly coated with seasonings.

Place seasoned okra directly on the microwave go-round (or large microwave-safe plate), with cut end facing up and stem end facing out. Scrape the last bits of seasoning out of the bowl and scatter the remaining seasoning over the okra.

Place okra-filled microwave go-round (or plate) back into microwave oven. Heat on high for 8 minutes.  Check for doneness — which in this case means crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. It will probably need another 2-4 minutes, depending on your microwave.

BE CAREFUL: The microwave go-round gets hot!

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Note to Readers: Mushroom Contest – My recipe is on the web!

Hi everyone,

I just entered a mushroom recipe contest sponsored by Taste of Home. For this contest, entrants had to create a recipe using mushrooms, and I created the appetizer recipe, Shitake ‘Bacon’, Avocado and Mango Bites.

I can’t publish this recipe on this blog because I entered it into a contest so it’s the property of the sponsor of the contest. But you can see my recipe on the Taste of Home web site.

As you know, mushrooms have significant anti-cancer properties, so these Shitake ‘Bacon’, Avocado and Mango Bites are not only delicious, beautiful, and easy-to-make, but they are very HEALTHY besides!

I think you will LOVE these Shitake ‘Bacon’, Avocado and Mango Bites. They’re a BIG hit around here!

The contest has not yet been judged so I do not know if my recipe will take a prize….but I sure hope so. And if you would like to rate the recipe and write a review, just go to the link on the Taste of Home site!

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

APRICOTS: Apricots Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Thyme

Why apricots?

The carotenoids, vitamin A and lycopene, found in orange colored fruits and vegetables, have “the proven capacity to inhibit the growth of cells of several cancer lines, including brain gliomas,” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 122). Other carotenoids have been shown to “stimulate the growth of immune cells and increate their capacity to attack tumor cells,” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 122).

In addition, “a study that tracked breast cancer patients for six years showed that those who consumed the most foods rich in carotenoids lived longer than those who consumer less,” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 122)

APRICOTS STUFFED WITH GOAT CHEESE AND THYME

Apricots Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Thyme

This recipe could not be easier! And these apricot bites are a wonderful appetizer – something a little different and very delicious.

Note: Here are the directions for making just one Apricot Stuffed with Goat Cheese. You’ll want to make a lot more than just one!

Ingredients

1 dried apricot

• I used Mariani Ultimate Apricots that I had bought at Costco. They’re a good size, soft and plump – just perfect.
• Like most dried apricots, the Mariani brand contains sulfur dioxide which is used to preserve the color (keeps them orange, not brown like apricots without this preservative). Some people are allergic to sulfur dioxide. For those people it’s definitely not safe to consume products that contain sulfur dioxide; for the rest of us, it’s OK. For more on sulfur dioxide’s safety — and the safety of many other additives and preservatives in our food – see CSPI’s website.

¼-½ teaspoon goat cheese

• If possible, choose goat cheese from grass-fed goats because the omega 3 to omega 6 balance of grass-fed milk (cheese) and meat is closer to the ideal 1:1 ratio.
• Where can you find cheese from grass-fed goats? I have found grass-fed dairy products at our local farmer’s market. Of course, when the market is not in season, you have to look elsewhere – at specialty grocery stores and online (americangrassfed.org and eatwild.com)
• Not to worry. If you don’t use grass-fed goat cheese, that’s fine too.

2 pieces ( ¾ to 1-inch long stems, each) fresh thyme

• Note: Herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil and mint are very rich in essential oils of the terpene family, and these oils “promote apoptosis [cell death] in cancer cells and reduce their spread by blocking the enzymes they need to invade neighboring tissues.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 123)
• Use the tender ends of the sprigs of thyme for this recipe.
• Use a pair of kitchen shears to cut ff the tender ends of the thyme.
• Tip: Reserve the woodier ends of the thyme for another use, such as making soup.
• You can freeze the remaining thyme sprigs(after washing). Just put into a resealable plastic bag for the freezer and freeze.
• You can also store thyme sprigs  for about a week in the refrigerator. Just loosely wrap them in a paper towel and refrigerate. Do not wash the thyme before you refrigerate it. But do wash it before you are ready to use it.

Directions

Pry the dried apricot halves apart or cut them apart with a sharp serrated knife, but do not completely separate the two halves of the apricot. (The two halves of the apricot should be joined together on one end.)

Spread the goat cheese onto one of the apricot halves.

Place the thyme on the cheese so that two (or more) ends of the thyme peek out over the edge of the apricot.

Cover the filled apricot half with the plain apricot half.

And…that’s the recipe. It’s that simple!

Enjoy and be healthy!

Leni