Foil Promotes My Laziness

Many times when I come home after working in lab all day, all I want is something quick and easy for dinner...yet preferably not something I can get at a fast food drive through.

 
Here's my "efficient" and lazy dinner which was prepared by just wrapping everything in foil and popping it in the oven. I seasoned the tilapia with soy sauce, white wine, garlic, and green onion.

I kept the zucchini simple and just used some lemon pepper seasoning; and for the mushrooms I used about a half tablespoon of pre-made black bean and garlic sauce that's common in Asian cuisines.

I don't remember specifically how long the food was in the oven for, but since fish cooks really quickly...I assume all of my foil packets were in a preheated 350 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes. Also, keep in mind that if you're baking any kind of squash (like the zucchini that I have), make sure not to over bake it or it can become a soggy mess.    

Be careful when you open the foil packets, or you may end up with a too hot to handle facial!

Salmon Patty Sandwich

I really like salmon and recently stumbled upon breaded salmon patties in the frozen food section of the grocery store. They're really healthy and are really easy to make. You can either bake the patties in the oven or pan fry them in a pan using less than a tablespoon of olive oil.

I sandwiched them between two slices of organic white bread with some green lettuce leaves and tartar sauce (I made my own tartar sauce by mixing mayonnaise and pickled relish together).

Easy, healthy, light...yet satisfying.

I Cheated, Twice

I've been suffering from a bit of a writers block and obviously haven't been blogging much. Hopefully the anticipation of all the food from Thanksgiving will fuel my brain to write. And of course not having to slave away in the laboratory.

Fish is so simple to cook, especially tilapia.

I cheated with this meal and just stuck the tilapia in a foil pouch and baked it in the oven. The tilapia was seasoned with some seasoned salt, pepper, green onions, some fresh lemon slices, and garlic. It was baked at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I also cheated with the side dish as well. I cooked Mediterranean curry flavored couscous from a box but added a bit of extra additions. I added fresh zucchini, mushrooms, and tomato into the flavored stock before bringing it to a boil and then adding in the couscous. Couscous is really quick and easy and takes pretty much under 10 minutes.

I cheated twice, but at least I'm being honest.

He Wants Janie, or was it Jenn?

This is Janie...the Janie Roll. This roll consists of unagi (grilled eel), shrimp tempura, and cucumber rolled uramaki style; topped with avocado, masago caviar, and sesame seeds. This roll was probably the highlight of our meal because it was unique, and had a mix of interesting textures and flavors, especially between the unagi and masago.

Janie Roll

This was the first time I've ever been to Sushi Zushi in the Domain, and I was very impressed with the quality of the food, service, atmosphere (though it was a bit dark), and the portion sizes of their happy hour rolls. They have Happy Hour from 3-7pm, so we took advantage of some of the cheaper rolls listed on it. We also ordered a couple of rolls from the main menu, and goodness, their menu is very intimidating because of its huge size. The waitress was very patient with us though, which was really appreciated.

I really liked all the rolls we ordered, but was not very impressed by the cheese appetizer. I do not remember the specific name of it, but it tasted just like fried mozzarella cheese sticks but without the flavor of the Italian spices, and it had this interesting sweet sauce. Thankfully we didn't spend too much on it since it was on their Happy Hour menu, I can't even find this appetizer on their main menu.

Fried cheese?

The three rolls we ordered off the Happy Hour menu were the Key West Roll, Spicy Salmon Roll, and Philadelphia Roll. I was expecting fairly small rolls since most places that have a Happy Hour menu reduce the sizes of their rolls during this time, but I think each roll was "normal" size. 

Key West Roll and Spider Roll

Since I was expecting smaller rolls, I was expecting to have to order more food halfway through. I ended up not having to do this, and both of us were really full and satisfied at the end. The Key West Roll consisted of shrimp tempura, avocado, and cucumber topped with eel sauce. The other rolls had the same ingredients similar to other sushi places.

Spicy Salmon Roll and Philadelphia Roll

The location of this particular Sushi Zushi is great since you can go walk around and shop in the Domain afterward. I love shopping, especially on a happy stomach!

Caliente!

Hmmm...this post has nothing to do with Mexican food, BUT it does deal with spicy food!

Cajun food is something I don't get to enjoy that often since I currently do not live in a city that offers fresh seafood. We're in a desert I tell ya! I don't always trust the quality of some of the seafood that's shipped in. Thankfully, Austin offers some great seafood options, and one of those is French Quarter Grille.

Blackened catfish topped with crawfish etouffee

The restaurant has such a cute interior that's cozy and comfortable. It's not too expensive considering how much seafood you're getting in your entree. Though I went during lunch, so I'm not sure if there's a difference in prices between the lunch menu that I saw, and the dinner menu. I was worried that they would skimp on the seafood portion, but they definitely did not.

Blackened catfish topped with crawfish and shrimp gumbo

I was so full afterward that I didn't order dessert, but I really wanted to. They had a few different kinds of Creme Brulee (regular, chocolate, raspberry) and cheesecake. Other items I want to try off their menu in the future are their Fried Green Tomatoes and their Cajun Crawfish Cheesecake (I believe that's what it's called). It apparently is a special appetizer that is not listed on their menu, but has a lot of hype behind it. I overheard one of the waiters describing it to a nearby table when they were ordering. 

Don't be nervous that the words crawfish and cheesecake are together! Would you be brave and try it?

It's Sushi Time!

Anytime I'm around the UT campus, I'm nostalgic. 

I have to go to Sushi Niichi whenever I'm around campus. It has always been one of my favorites because of their great lunch specials and happy hour. Of course they're not the best if you compare them with places like Uchi, Mushashino, etc. but for the price, they're fantastic. At least for me.

My favorite roll is the Blue Moonlight, which has spicy tuna and tempura shrimp inside, and salmon, tempura flake, and spicy Japanese mayo on the outside.

Blue Moonlight

We were too hungry and I forgot to take a picture BEFORE we started eating. We got the Blue Moonlight and Dragon (crab stick, avocado, cucumber on the inside, and grilled eel and avocado with teriyaki sauce on the outside) rolls; and a few nigiri pieces (Unagi - grilled eel, Binnaga - white tuna, and Masago - fish roe).

Do you like sushi?

My First Descaling

This post is about a couple weeks late...I really need to stop slacking and publish posts immediately. My lame excuse is that I didn't have time to edit the pictures. Anyways, better late than never, right?

I've been so busy this past week with traveling for a friend's wedding shower, spending almost 6 hours at the ER with a friend the night/morning I got back into town, and research research research. I haven't had much sleep, or any healthy, homemade food. I've been slacking horribly this week and getting takeout way too much for my liking. So time to cook something homemade!

I bought some fresh salmon yesterday. Isn't it a beauty?!

It was a pretty large fillet of salmon (longer than a foot), so I ended up cutting it into 5 single servings...and to my horror, I realized that the skin on the salmon still had the scales. Yikes!! I've never descaled a fish for the fact that I typically get filleted and skinless fish because I'm LAZY. I guess there's a first for everything though. I took the challenged and dived head first, or I guess knife first at the scales. It was sooooo worth it! The salmon came out really tasty. I kept it pretty basic and just used the seasonings I already had in my pantry, lemon pepper salt mix, a little extra black pepper, and some parsley; and some olive oil in a hot nonstick skillet was used to cook it.

The salmon had a perfect sear, and the skin was nice and crispy. It reminded me of those salmon skin sushi rolls many Japanese sushi restaurants serve.

I served the salmon with some wild mushroom herb couscous (from a box, please don't tell anyone!). As you can see, I took a bit of the salmon before I remembered to take a picture of it, oops!

What's your favorite way to prepare salmon?