Shrimp Civeche

One thing that I really love about living in Northern California, is the access to such a wide variety of fresh foods.  Within a 100 mile radius, this area produces almost every fruit, vegetable and meat one typically eats.  Olive groves for fresh olive oil.  Fields of artichoke plants.  Acres of citrus trees. Miles of pasture lands for animals.  Tomato fields.  Fresh and salt water fish.  Rice paddies.  Dairy farms.  You can even grow some varieties of bananas! If I were to go on a strict locavore diet, I don't think I would really miss out on anything at all.  Everything I love is grown around here. 

I'm still surrounded by bags of fresh lemons, so they are making their way into almost everything we eat.  And, even though it's only mid March, the temperatures have been creeping their way into the mid to high 70s!  When it starts to get warm outside, I only want to eat cold foods.  I decided to make my take on a shrimp civeche.  It was great eaten as is, but I also enjoyed it on a bed of butter lettuce leaves and scooped it up with organic tortilla chips. 

Shrimp Civeche

1 pound very small cooked shrimp, rinsed (I used 100 count shrimp)
2 Tbsp salt

Juice from 3 limes 

juice from 4 lemons
1 red onion, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, large stems removed and chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and diced

1 bunch of radishes, diced

Green Tobasco to taste
1-2 avocado, peeled, seed removed, cut into small chunks

Fresh butter lettuce (optional)

Organic corn tortilla chips (optional)

 

Place shrimp in a large glass bowl (do not use metal). Mix in the lime and lemon juice, red onion, cilantro, cucumber, and radishes. Refrigerate until ready to serve (at least 1 hour)  Right before serving, add the Tobasco and avocado. Serve chilled on a bed of fresh lettuce or as a dip with organic corn tortilla chips.  Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days.  

Vegetarian Tostadas

After I made that yummy Taco Bell wanna be sauce, I knew I had to use it for more than just eating like soup.  I wanted to make bean burritos, but gluten free tortillas just never seem to want to be made into burritos.  They are always cracking and falling apart so you end up with a burrito in your lap instead of in your belly.  

I needed a quick dinner, so I ended up deciding on bean tostadas.  

I took my gluten free tortillas, crisped them up in the oven.  Then I topped them with refried black beans, an extra generous portion of the sauce, and then topped it with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and avocados.  After I took the picture, I dumped on at least 3 gallons of the sauce, but didn't want to show that my finished product looked like a crime scene....which may be ok, since Halloween is this week, but not very appetizing to stare at. 

Vegetarian Tostadas

2 brown rice tortillas

Your choice of oil or cooking spray

1 can refried beans

Taco sauce

Assorted veggies (lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, olives, jalapeño slices, onions, bell peppers, etc)

(Non-dairy) Cheese and sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 400.  Brush or spray tortillas on both sides with oil or cooking spray.  Bake in the oven for about 5 minutes until crispy.  You can turn them halfway during cooking but it's not completely necessary.  Be careful to watch the tortillas closely because they will finish suddenly and will go from done to burnt in what seems like half a second.  

While the tortilla is cooking, heat your beans, chop up your veggies, and get out any other toppings you may want.

As soon as the tortillas are done, put them on your dinner plate.  Spread each tortilla with half the beans.  Top generously with sauce.  Pile on your toppings and then finish with more sauce.  

Enjoy right away or your tortilla will get soggy.  Enjoy!!!!

Taco Salad with Avocado Dressing

My friend Lauren came over for dinner after she got back from a short vacation.  She said she was needing to detox from all the fun and suggested we make a taco salad.  

My grandma and my mom make this super yummy taco salad that has a homemade avocado dressing  mixed in the salad.  I'm sure I loved the salad mostly because it had crushed up Fritos in the salad, but I did remember that the dressing was really yummy.  

I tracked down the recipe from my aunt and was so disappointed to find out that it had sour cream in it. Dairy does NOT do my body good anymore, so I decided to try to find another avocado dressing recipe.  None of the ones I found were even close to my grandma's recipe, so I ended up combing all the best parts of the dozens of recipes I read into my own, allergen-friendly, avocado dressing.  

I made the dressing in a mixing bowl with an immersion blender, but you could definitely make this in a blender, a magic bullet, or even a small food processor.  

Avocado Green Chili Dressing

1 Avocado, skin and pit removed

Juice of 1 Lime

3 tbl water

3 tbl olive oil

1 garlic clove (I used my fermented garlic)

Small handful of Cilantro (leaves...stems too if you're lazy)

1/2 of a 4oz can of diced green chilies

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 tsp chili powder (opt)

Add all ingredients to a blender and process until smooth.  Cover and chill for about 30 minutes while you are preparing your salad.  

When we made our taco salads, we put in everything that we could find that would go in a taco salad.  Lettuce, tomatoes, taco meat, onions, olives, crushed up tortilla chips, roasted corn kernels, salsa, etc.  I also like to add black beans or kidney beans, but didn't have any at the time. Once again, this is one of those super flexible meals that will adapt to whatever you have on hand.  

This post was shared on Whole Food Fridays Week #11 and Creative Thursday Link Party #26

Lazy Saturdays

Saturday mornings are my favorite day of the week.  Every Saturday morning, rain or shine, year-round, the Davis Farmer's Market is open for business.  One of my favorite farmer's market in our area, this market has such an amazing selection of food, in addition to your standard zucchini, tomatoes, and peaches.  Yolo Land & Cattle sells some of the best Grass Fed and Finished Beef around.  They are very humane and respectful of their animals, which is very important to me.  Bledsoe Natural Pork has some of the most amazing pork, including smoked pork chops and bacon, I have ever tasted.  And as a bonus, it's completely allergy friendly, free from any added ingredients including any of those icky nitrates or nitrites. There are also numerous vendors selling pastured chicken and eggs, fresh cheese, wine, baked goods, and lets not forget about all the lovely organic fruits and vegetables lining the tables. 

This past Saturday, I stopped by Mission Fresh Fish's booth and picked up some fresh caught wild king salmon.  When I spoke with the vendor, she stated that the fish has been caught in Half Moon Bay only the day before.  It smelled so fresh and was so bright red, I couldn't wait to get home and cook it for dinner. I had also bought an entire flat of fresh, organic strawberries.  The farmer is in year two of the five year process of becoming certified organic so cannot legally call them "Organic" yet.  They don't use any of the harmful chemicals on their berries, which is a huge bonus for me because I am so sensitive to the sprays on strawberries.   

When I was getting ready to make dinner, I knew that I had to somehow incorporate the salmon and the strawberries together into my dinner.  I turned to Google and ended up finding an amazing sounding recipe from the Whole Foods website "Salmon with Strawberry Salsa" and I knew that I had to make something like this that would fit with my current allergy elimination diet as well as with what I had on hand.  It turned out amazing!  My mouth is still watering so much just thinking about this, that I am going to make this tonight for dinner!  

Salmon with Strawberry Salsa

2 6 oz. pieces fresh wild king salmon
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 basket strawberries, washed and dried then cored and diced
1/2 cucumber peeled, seeded and diced
1 large firm avocado diced
2 tablespoons mint finely chopped
2 tablespoons citrus juice (I used orange)
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350*.  Drizzle salmon with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.   Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until cooked to desired level of done-ness.

While the salmon is cooking, mix together strawberries, cucumber, avocado, mind and citrus juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, spoon half of the salsa on a plate and top with a piece of salmon.