Caribbean Shrimp and Scallops

We were in the mood for shrimp and scallops this week, so I came up with this recipe, which turned out great. The dish was really tasty and fresh -- perfect for summer!

Living in New England, it's not hard to find good, fresh seafood year-round. But if you live in parts of the country where fresh seafood is harder to find, here are some tips for finding good-quality shrimp and scallops:

• Frozen seafood is the next best thing, when good-quality fresh isn't available (much of what you buy "fresh" may have been previously frozen, anyway); just follow the package instructions when thawing
• Buy seafood that smells fresh and mild; there should be no strong odor
• Raw shrimp should have firm flesh and be translucent
• Raw scallops should smell mild and slightly sweet; be moist and shiny; and have a milky white, pinkish, or tan color; and they should have almost no water around them
• Rinse scallops before cooking to remove any sand
• To devein shrimp: after peeling, use a sharp knife to cut a quarter-inch cut down the shrimp's back and remove and discard the black "vein" with your fingers

Caribbean Shrimp and Scallops

Servings: 4

Marinating time: 1 hour to overnight

2/3 cup orange juice
Juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 teaspoons jerk seasoning
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled
1 pound sea scallops
Cooking spray
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 scallions, sliced
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. In a medium bowl, combine orange juice, lime juice, oil, and jerk seasoning. Combine the marinade and shrimp in a plastic resealable bag, shake to coat, and marinate 1 hour to overnight, turning at least once. During the last 10 minutes of marinating time, add the scallops.
2. Coat a large nonstick skillet or wok with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper and scallions, and sauté 2 minutes. Remove seafood from marinade and add to skillet, cooking about 3 minutes on each side, or until done.
3. Season dish with salt and pepper, and serve.

Nutrition Information
(For ¼ of recipe) 315 calories; 13 g carbohydrate; 43 g protein; 10 g fat (1.5 g saturated); 1 g fiber; 925 mg sodium. Exchanges: 6 very lean meats; 1.5 fats; 1 vegetable.

Side suggestions. Baked sweet potatoes. Steamed green beans.

Blueberry Muffins

I woke up a little on the early side this morning. As I was trying to go back to sleep, I couldn't shake the thought of blueberry muffins from my head. So I headed down to the kitchen, made some tea, and started flipping through my cookbooks and magazines in search for the perfect recipe.

While there is nothing like a fresh, still warm-from-the-oven blueberry muffin, too often they are like eating dessert, not a wholesome breakfast. Of course, it's also possible for a muffin to taste "too healthy." A quick search through my recipe collection and on the internet yielded a lot of recipes, but none that were just what I was looking for. As a last whim, I decided to glance through one of the books I recently acquired for an article I was writing, The Volumetrics Eating Plan by Barbara Rolls, PhD. Sure enough, there was a recipe for blueberry muffins that intrigued me. Though it used applesauce in place of all but one teaspoon of oil (which seemed a little too restrictive to me), overall, the recipe was pretty close to what I was looking for.

Always up for an experiment in the kitchen, I decided to give the recipe a try. Though the base of the recipe remained the same, I did make some adaptions and modifications, including subsituting kefir for buttermilk, increasing the amount of canola oil (it's a good fat after all!), and using a 10-grain flour mix instead of whole wheat flour. I also increased the size of the muffins because I only had 12-cup muffin tin, not 16 as the original recipe called for. The end result was exactly what I was looking for, a super-moist, tender, bursting-with-blueberries muffin, that didn't leave you feeling like you just ate a pound of butter.

Here is the final recipe. Remember, a key to tender muffins is mixing the wet and dry ingredients as little as possible.

Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12 good-sized muffins

1 1/2 cups + 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup 10-grain flour (or whole-wheat flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cardamom (or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon)
1 1/4 cups low-fat kefir (buttermilk or plain yogurt would also work)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, brown sugar, 10-grain flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom. Make a well in the middle.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the kefir, applesauce, egg, oil, and vanilla extract.
4. Toss the blueberries in 1/4 cup of flour.
5. Spray a 12-muffin muffin pan with cooking spray.
6. Add the kefir mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries.
7. Portion the mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
8. Place the muffin pan on a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing. Enjoy!

Like most baked goods, these muffins are best served when still slightly warm. Once cooled, you can wrap leftover muffins in plastic wrap, place in a resealable bag, and
toss in the freezer for future breakfasts or snacks.

--posted by Maria--

Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches

This week's feature was inspired by something called "Take and Bake" bread I found in the bakery at Whole Foods. I picked up a loaf of ciabatta, baked it for seven minutes at home, and assembled grilled veggie sandwiches (recipe below).

If you are a CooksAid subscriber, you know that we feature one vegetarian recipe a week, along with a seafood recipe, a chicken recipe, and a couple of other recipes featuring beef, pork, and/or other meats. This goes along with our idea of a well-balanced diet.

If you don't usually eat at least one meatless dinner per week, you may want to give it a try. Adding a vegetarian dinner to your week can increase your intake of plant-based foods, which has a number of health benefits such as helping you maintain a healthy weight; lowering your blood pressure; improving your cholesterol levels; and reducing your risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

Here's this week's recipe - you won't even miss the meat!

Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches

Servings: 2

¼ cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 + 1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
½ teaspoon dried thyme
Cooking spray
½ zucchini squash, sliced at an angle into ¼-inch slices
½ summer squash, sliced at an angle into ¼-inch slices
¼ yellow onion, sliced into ¼-inch strips
½ red bell pepper, sliced into ¼-inch strips
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small loaf Ciabatta bread (about 5 ounces), sliced in half down the middle, then lengthwise to make 4 slices

1. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, horseradish, and thyme. Set aside.
2. Coat a grill pan with cooking spray, or use nonstick foil on an outdoor grill. Heat grill pan or grill over medium-high. Spread out vegetables on pan or foil, season with salt and pepper, and cook about five minutes, turning once.
3. In a medium bowl, toss vegetables with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and oil.
4. Toast bread in a toaster or on the grill for about 45 seconds. Spread mayonnaise mixture on bread, top with vegetables, and serve.

Nutrition Information
(For ½ recipe) 340 calories; 45 g carbohydrate; 8 g protein; 15 g fat (2 g saturated); 4 g fiber; 920 mg sodium. Exchanges: 2.5 starches; 2.5 fats; 1.5 vegetables.

Side suggestions. Fruit salad.

--posted by Krisha--

Bulgur, Bean, and Sun-Dried Tomato Salad

I spent the past week vacationing with my husband, Pete, and 13-month old son, Elliott, in a summer cottage on Cape Cod. Cooking while you are on vacation is different. Because you usually don't have a stocked pantry, you have to start with a full shopping trip to get even the most basic of ingredients, such as olive oil and butter. You also want to keep meals extra simple--after all, who wants to spend hours in the kitchen when everyone else is out enjoying the sun? So when my mom, who was coming to visit for a couple of days, offered to bring along some home cooked food, I didn't object!

When my mom arrived, I helped her unpack a basket of goodies that included homemade cardamom "bullar" (a type of Swedish sweet roll), fresh bread, oven-roasted turkey, salad greens from her garden, and a bulgur and bean salad. I was so curious about this bulgur and bean salad that I had to try a little sample before dinner. It was delicious and a perfect summer food. The beans helped make the salad hearty enough for a vegetarian entree and the sun-dried tomatoes added a punch of flavor. Since I'm always looking for new ways of incorporating whole grains into my recipes, I decided to recreate the salad for CooksAid.

The salad I ultimately created was very similiar to my mom's, except she served hers with pesto sauce, and to keep things simple (and on the lighter side), I just mixed in a bunch of fresh basil in mine. Whether you are looking for a dish to bring to a summer barbecue, a refreshing summer dinner, or want to incorporate more whole grains into your diet, this is a recipe to try:

Bulgur, Bean, and Sun-Dried Tomato Salad

Servings: 4

2 cups water
1 cup bulgur wheat
1 cup kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup basil, chopped
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. In a medium pot, add water and bulgur. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 12 minutes, or until water is absorbed and bulgur is tender.

2. In a large bowl, combine bulgur, beans, tomatoes, onion, and basil. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cool in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Nutrition Information
(For 1/4 of recipe) 330 calories; 53 g carbohydrate; 13 g protein; 6.5 g fat (0 g sat); 12 g fiber; 355 mg sodium. Exchanges: 3 starches; 1 very lean meat substitute; 1 fat.

Side suggestions: Spinach and feta salad. Drizzle 4 cups baby spinach with 4 teaspoons olive oil and 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar; toss to combine. Top with crumbled feta. Crusty bread.

--posted by Maria--