Spaghetti Tuna

Spaghetti Tuna with Tomatoes and Garlic

I found a spaghetti tuna from one of my recipe books but my husband did not like the other ingredients so I ended up creating my own version.

Luckily the place where we lived before, there was an abundance of fresh tuna.

Ingredients:

200 grams - Spaghetti
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes(cut half)
500 grams fresh tuna (canned tuna- drained is fine)
6 to 8 cloves of garlic (thinly diced)
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese(grated) or gruyere or you can have any cheese of your choice.

Directions:

If fresh tuna(fillet), wash then rise, place in a pan, add garlic salt & pepper, pour a spoon of water then cover for about 4 minutes medium heat/fire. Uncover then with the use of two forks try to make the tuna in flakes. Stir fry(without oil) until the tuna flakes become a bit dry and garlic is almost cooked. Then add cherry tomatoes stir fry for 1 minute then turn off the heat, add olive oil and add more salt & pepper to your taste. You can add chili powder if you want or add it later in your plate.

Serve this with grated parmesan cheese or gruyere on top of spaghetti noodles(must be al dente!).

Lamb Steak and Ratatouille

Ratatouille is the first recipe I learned from my mother in law. This is my favorite cos you don’t need to add meat.. it's a vegetables stew. I usually add tomato sauce to get a strong tomato flavor.

Grilling meat is my husband’s job in the kitchen , mine is ratatouille.

One day, I was craving for ratatouile and he was craving for a grilled lamb steak so…here’s the output:

Ratatouille

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic(chopped)
2 big onions(cut in half/sliced)
3 big tomatoes(cut in half/sliced)
1 medium eggplant(cut in half/ sliced)
1 medium suchini(cut in half/sliced)
½ cup of tomato sauce(optional but you have to add 1 more big tomato if tomato sauce is not available)
1 tbsp. of catsup(optional) or ½ carrot (sliced) – also optional if you want to make it a bit sweet.

1 tsp. Herbes de provence or just 1 tsp. of thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
2 to 3 tbsp. of olive oil

Directions:

In a pan, stir fry the onions and garlic with 1 tbsp. of water for 3 to 4 minutes then add the remaining vegetables, herbs. bay leaf, salt and pepper then cover and continue cooking over a low heat until all are cooked(but not overcooked). Add olive oil after cooking.

Note: If you have leftover ratatouille, you can poach eggs on top of ratatouille and you can add anchovies or smoked ham and chili powder, salt and pepper and you will have a nice egg pizza over ratatouille. (I will post this soon.)

Tasty Mushrooms

I always prepare this as our side dish specially in times of making our immune system stronger. It's not that easy to find fresh mushrooms though but I hope you could find some, any mushrooms available should be okay but should be the fresh ones not the dried ones.

Stir fried Mushrooms with Parsley and Garlic

Ingredients:

1 cup shiitake mushrooms
1 cup maitake mushrooms
1 cup button mushrooms
(you can mix mushrooms of your choice)

4 cloves of garlic(chopped)
3 tbsp. chopped parsley
½ tsp. butter(optional)
salt and pepper

Directions:

Wash the mushrooms then rinse then stir fry(but do not add water or broth) in a frying pan with garlic, parsley, salt & pepper. The rinsed mushroom will be watery while cooking. Start cooking(medium fire) for 2 minutes then low fire for five minutes until the mushrooms become watery. Takeout the excess soup from time to time until you will hear a sound of like frying a mushroom(save the mushroom soup for other recipe like noodle soup). Stir 1 or 2 times but do not stir too much, let the mushroom be a little bit brownish(about 5 minutes) then turn off the heat/fire. Add extra virgin olive oil after cooking and you can add a little butter if you like. This can be served with rice or add to your pizza as topping.

Our Healthy Choice...Cooking without guilt……

that’s what I want to share with you..I am not a professional chef nor a nutritionist, I am just trying to cook something healthy based on what I have learned.

I did not spend much time in the kitchen before I married my husband whose love for good food is undeniable since he’s from France. I was a workaholic accounting professional working abroad and never had a chance to cook . Now as a devoted housewife it is very challenging for me to try some recipes.

Every time I try a recipe, my husband always asks me : “Did you follow the recipe or did you alter the recipe according to your conscience? (He knows I am avoiding some ingredients and using less butter or none at all, fatty parts of meat, etc.). Anyway bottom line, I just want to cook something healthy but at least acceptable to his taste.

I started my healthy lifestyle from knowing the daily food that should be served on the table and I started looking around…organic food(veggies, pasta, grains, fruit etc.),

… how to cook the food… I have already learned a lot of recipes from recipe books and magazines, from my beloved mother and from my mother-in-law and started to do some alterations to make each recipe a healthy one and started inventing my very own recipes…without guilt..so I am inviting you to take a look, read on how I prepare each recipe and it’s up to you if it’s making a healthy sense to you….what ever your comments..thank you..and if you can share something healthy please do….but remember it’s up to you how would you like your recipe to be prepared…it’s your choice…….

Please note…….Extra Virgin Olive Oil(first cold pressed)…

You will obviously have a question on your mind why I use extra virgin olive oil and using them as fresh as possible..well there’s a reason why I keep on using olive oil…I have used different types of oil, and I have been to fast food before but I always had gastritis problem after, the doctor asked me to avoid fried food…I tried olive oil for cooking and had no problem ever since. I believe that the Olive oil might be the right oil for me..what I do is I listen to my body and if my body is telling me(thru aches and pains) something is wrong with what I consume I make a list of them and avoid them(but not completely avoiding them like raw garlic…I can’t eat it in raw form but I know it’s very good for health but since I still want to consume garlic I always eat cooked garlic and I am always pain free. I heard a lot about VCO Virgin Coconut oil, I haven’t tried it for cooking but I am applying it on my skin. As I have read before, cooking with oil or butter is okay as long as it does not reach it’s smoking point so it’s up to you to make a choice.