Turbo Cook Sunday: Sicilian Style Mahi Mahi over Couscous

The quality of frozen fish these days is very good.  Being land locked, we don't have many options for fresh fish.  Trout is about the extent of it.  I really like fish, and try to encorporate it into at least one meal a week.  The best thing about fish is that it cooks very quickly, is versatile in the ways you can use it, and if all else fails, you can hack it up when it's still frozen if you forget to get it out to thaw.  (Gee, I wonder who does that? *wink*).
Today is my turbo cook day.  We are getting close to lambing, and I have three babies to take care of every day.  I have to plan ahead to keep from getting behind.  My little kids start coming before seven, and don't go home until 5:30 or 6:00 at night.  I can't spend a large amount of time in the kitchen while they are here, so I turbo cook on the weekends, and then I am free to play, and properly care for them, and still put a nutritious hot meal on the table. 
I have already filled the crockpot with Swedish Stewed Lamb, and made a big batch of rice and black bean enchiladas(I will post recipes later this week), and have leftover rice and beans for a chile relleno casserole on roping night.  Now I can turn my attention to lunch today.  I like to double cook for my daycare.  I make a recipe for eight instead of four, and then I have hot meals for my babies' lunch.  They will love the tangy Sicilian Style Mahi Mahi, and it will only require me to heat up the saucy fish, and boil water to make the Couscous.
This fish would be equally good with pasta, or even served over boiled potatoes mashed with a little butter.  I'm sure if I were true Italian, I would make polenta or something fancy. It has a tomato based sauce with sliced garlic, green olives and capers, sprinkled with fresh parsley.  This recipe makes eight servings, but only uses two portions of frozen fish. It is economical, as well as convenient, because it uses pantry staples like tomatoes, olives and frozen fish.  It is also a one pot meal.  Well, one pot and a bowl to make the couscous in.  Best of all, it takes less than thirty minutes to prepare!

Sicilian Style Mahi Mahi with Couscous

Sicilian Style Mahi Mahi with Couscous
3 T olive oil
twelve cloves of garlic thinly sliced
Three 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 C chopped green olives drained
1/2 8 oz jar capers rinsed and drained
1/3 C chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp black pepper
 Two thawed portions of Mahi Mahi, cut into cubes (you can get away with hacking it up frozen if you forget to thaw)
zest of one lemon divided*
juice of 1/2 lemon
In a large skillet or dutch oven with the heat off, add the oil and thinly sliced garlic and bring the heat up to medium high.  When the garlic starts to get a tiny bit golden, add the tomatoes, capers, olives, parsley and pepper.  On high, bring it to a boil, and reduce the heat to simmer for ten minutes.  Add in fish and cook until fish turns opaque and flakes easily, about ten minutes more.  Just before serving, add the zest and juice of lemon.  If you add it in sooner, it can become bitter.  Serve with extra lemon wedges, and over couscous.
Lemon Couscous:
Put tea kettle on to boil.  In a medium size mixing bowl, put 1 C uncooked couscous, 1/2 zest of one lemon, 1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash, 1 T butter, and salt and pepper to taste. When the water boils, add 1C boiling water to the couscous, and cover the bowl with a plate or lid.  After a few minutes, take off the plate and fluff couscous with a fork.  Dish into a pasta bowl and top with Mahi Mahi sauce. Makes four servings.

Wagon Wheel Tuna Casserole

As I have said before, noodles are a toddler favorite.  This casserole we had today has shifted the wagon wheel pasta into the new favorite roll.  Move over rigatoni, there's a new sherriff in town!
It's been a long lousy week for me.  I haven't felt well, and it was an almost herculean effort to fix the last lunch meal before the weekend.  Besides not feeling great, my husband has been out of town due to road closures, so I am in charge of all the farm chores.  I am really glad that my work week is almost over.
This is an easy "eat it now, and have it for later" meal.  It makes a ton of pasta, and freezes well.  Even though I feel like something a coyote et and crapped over a cliff, I pulled it off. 

I don't use a lot of canned cream soups, or any canned soups for that matter.  I can make a superior product in about the same amount of time it takes to heat up canned soup, and can control salt and sugar etc...I do however, always have chicken and beef stock on hand.  Either homemade, or in the box. I can make a creamed soup zip quick with stock, some cornstarch or butter and flour, buttermilk and a few herbs.  I use buttermilk because it is lowfat, and has a little tang to it.  I also hate to waste food, so I'm always looking for ways to use up buttermilk before it goes bad.

Wagon Wheel Tuna Casserole
1 box wagon wheel shaped pasta cooked and drained
2 C chicken stock
1 C buttermilk
2 heaping T cornstarch
1/2 tsp basil
1 T minced garlic
2 cans/pints diced tomatoes
2 tins tuna and their juice
1 can Italian flat green beans and their juice
2 C Velveeta cubed
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning

In the pan you just cooked the pasta in, mix the chicken stock, buttermilk, basil, garlic and cornstarch, and whisk to combine.  Add in the tuna and liquid, tomatoes, Old Bay and green beans.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer stirring often, and add cheese cubes.  When cheese is melted, add the cooked pasta and toss to coat.
This fed three hungry toddlers a 1 C serving each, plus Joel and I a 1 1/2 C serving.  There is enough to fill a 2 quart casserole, and it will go in the freezer for later on.  To reheat, place in a 325 F oven until bubbly, about 1 hour. 

Greek Pasta Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing

Pasta salad often lives in our fridge.  It comes in handy for Don's lunches, to take to the barn when we are training, or for feeding toddlers.  Babies love anything with noodles. 
My little ones love this pasta.  It's tangy and creamy, and it has rotini, the toddler's pick for noodles.

Greek Pasta Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing

1 box rotini, cooked, drained and cooled
1 carton of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 C sliced drained black olives
1 C Feta Cheese
1 onion chopped
1/2 peeled and chopped cucumber

Dressing:
juice and zest of 2 lemons
1/3 C Greek plain yogurt
1/2 tsp marjoram
2 T fresh chopped parsley
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/4 C olive oil

In a large bowl, combine salad ingredients.  In a canning jar, add all dressing ingredients, put on the lid and shake to combine.  Because of the salty feta and olives, I dress the salad first, and then adjust the salt level.  Most of the time I don't add any salt.  Cover salad and refridgerate for a couple hours before serving.  Lasts in the fridge all week for lunches!

Pasta with Clam Sauce and Baked Acorn Squash, Lentil Soup with Ham Hock and Leftover Squash

My husband loves red clam sauce.  I love it too in that I don't have to remember to get the hamburg out of the freezer, and it is easy to get supper on the table in the amount of time it takes to cook the pasta. 
We took the kids to the Son Harvest Pumpkin Patch, my cousin's farm outside of Riverton.  The kids all picked out a pumpkin, and we got several kinds of squash.  Among them were two huge white acorn squash.  We all love acorn squash, so we took it home and cooked it for supper. 
Acorn or any other squash is super easy to cook.  I just wash the outside with warm soapy water, and cut it open lengthwise.  I have an old silver serving spoon that is very sturdy, and I use either that, or the icecream scoop to remove the seeds and strings.  I then place the squash halves in a glass baking dish, cut side up, and season with salt and pepper, and a T of butter in the cavity.  I put that in the oven, and fill the glass dish with water at least 1/4 of the way up the sides of the squash.  Bake for at least 1 hour at 350*F.  To serve it, just scoop it out and top with a little butter and pepper, or even some grated cheese.  It is sweet and delicious! 
We only cooked one acorn, but had half of it left over, so I used it in the Lentil and Ham Hock Soup.  It adds lots of vitamin A, but also makes a great thickener.  I have also used it in my cheese sauce for Mac and Cheese.  It is a great vegetable for that, because kids eat it without ever knowing it is in there.
Below are two great examples of easy meals that rely on pantry staples.  I could cook either one anytime, as I always have dried pasta, canned clams, tomatoes, dried beans, and frozen ham hocks on hand. 
Even if you think you don't like seafood, try this sauce.  It is delicious!

Red Clam Sauce

2 T oil
1 white onion peeled and chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper flake
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp old bay seasoning for seafood
1 small can tomato paste
1 T minced garlic
1 5 oz can of chopped clams and their juice
1 quart diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, brown onions in oil.  Add paste and let it brown a bit.  This carmelizes the sugars and makes a deeper taste to the sauce.  Add minced garlic, and juice from the clams.  Scrape the pan to loosen browned bits, and add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to simmer until pasta tests done.  I always serve this with Linguini, and fresh grated parmesan to top it.

I use my crock pot a couple times a week.  It really saves me, because in a quiet moment when the girls are taking their morning nap, I can get supper going.  Then at the end of the day, when I am pooped from chasing toddlers, and doing chores, I can just open the lid, and serve up the meal. 

Lentil and Ham Hock Soup

In a large sized crock pot, place:
1 pound lentils that have been washed in a strainer and picked over (sometimes there are stones)
1 white onion chopped
3 large carrots peeled and diced
1 green pepper diced
1 red pepper diced
1 jalapeno pepper diced
1 C celery diced (including leaves)
1 large ham hocks
2 quarts V-8 or tomato juice
2 quarts water
flesh from 1/2 cooked acorn squash
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 tsp Adobo Seasoning (a blend of salt, garlic, and spices found in the spice section of the grocery)
Ground pepper

Cook on high for 8-10 hours.  Before serving, taste and add salt and pepper if needed.  Remove ham hocks, and cool.  Using a fork, remove meat from the knuckle, and return it to the soup.