Gluten-Free Baked Salmon

I am a frequent visitor to the website, "The World’s Healthiest Food", and they are.  I have learned so many good ways to create food dishes. Most of their recipes focus on promoting healthy eating.  I am Asian, so I like to combine their techniques with my own talents as a cook to create and also promote healthy eating in my own way.  In my family, and the in law family, we have some people having sensitivities with food. Today, I will introduce an easy and healthy gluten-free fish recipe.  Because salmon is the healthiest fish combined with baking it with Mediterranean vegetables, this will make this recipe one of the best healthiest and delicious meals.
Ingredients:
Two salmon fillets with skin on, 5 oz. each
1 cup sliced artichoke hearts
1/4 cup sliced red onion
1 tsp capers
2 tbs sun dried tomato
Dressing ingredients:
1/4 cup peanut oil
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
1 tbs gluten-free soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
Black pepper
 
Serve with cilantro aioli* (optional)

Directions:
Combine the dressing ingredients and mix well.

Place the fish on a baking dish.

 

Divide the vegetables equally and place on top of the fish.
Divide the dressing and pour over the fish and vegetables.

Bake in the preheated oven set for 350° for 10 to 12 minutes.
Spoon 1 tbsp aioli over the top and serve.

*To make cilantro aioli:
In a blender, add 2 cups cilantro, 1 tbs lemon juice, 2 garlic cloves, and salt and pepper. Add 1/4 cup olive oil or low fat mayonnaise. Blend until smooth.

Asian Spicy Chicken & Potato Stew

Making a stew is one of my favorite methods of cooking, because it is simple for a "one-pot meal". In a stew pot, potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables can be added to the stew. Creating the sauce base is the key, and today I will introduce this spicy stew sauce, which is a version adapted from the Korean stew sauce. This recipe is spicy, so go easy on the spices. I think this is a very easy and healthy meal to prepare. Serve by itself or with rice or bread.

Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken thighs, cut up
1 lb. red potatoes, peeled and cut into big chunks
1 large onion, diced
1 cup sweet peas
1 cup chicken broth
Stew sauce ingredients:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
2 tbs Korean hot chili paste
1 tbs chili powder
1 jalapeno, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbs honey
Garnishes:
2 green onions, chopped

Directions:
Remove chicken skin for a healthier meal.
Combine the stew sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well
In a stew pot, heat 1 tbs peanut oil and brown chicken well (about 5 minutes).

Stir in chopped onions and sauce. Mix well in the pot with chicken. Stir and cook for them to mingle (about 3 minutes).

Add broth and bring to boil (skim off any residue rising to the top). Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add potatoes. Stir to combine. Cover and cook until chicken and potatoes are tender.

 Add sweet peas and cook for another 3 minutes. During the cooking time, adjust the seasoning with a little salt and black pepper.

 

Garnish with green onions when serving.

Life Is All About Choices

Life Is All About Choices - Author: Unknown

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or ... I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.  Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or ... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins - wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter." Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or ... I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Michael continued, "... the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything."

"Yes," I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'."

Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude ... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Buddhism Today

Shrimp Soon Tofu

If Korean soup is one of your favorites and soon tofu is one of them, then the recipe I will share with you today is the version adapted from the shrimp soon tofu being served in all the Korean restaurants. To make this soup at home, each cook needs to have the kelp broth or chicken broth ready. Water can be used for this soup, but kelp or chicken broth is much better and makes a healthier soup. I bought the soon tofu at a Korean store. It is a soft, silken tofu, which is hard to create at home. Other ingredients are the choice of each individual cook. Different kinds of vegetables are appropriate to add into the soup. Invest in a cast iron personal Korean pot to create the restaurant effect when served. This is a recipe for one.

Ingredients;
2 cups kelp or chicken broth
6 oz. soon tofu
5 shrimp, peeled and rinsed
Other ingredients:
1/4 cup sliced onions
1 garlic clove minced
1 cup total of mixed cabbage and snow peas
2 fresh mushrooms sliced or your choice of mushroom
1 egg
2 scallions, cut into 2 inch sections
1 tsp sesame oil
Spicy sauce ingredients:
2 tsp hot Korean paste
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 tbs soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs water
1/4 tsp minced garlic

Directions:
Combine the spicy sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
In a Korean cast iron pot, add broth and half of the spicy sauce mixture.

Bring to boil and add cabbages, onions, and mushrooms.

Boil over high heat and add shrimp.. Boil for 2 minutes and add tofu and snow peas.

 Adjust seasoning with more salt or use the spicy sauce to add on the side, Skim off any foam with a slotted spoon.

Add scallion, sesame oil and break an egg. Gently sink the egg into the soup. Remove from the stove and serve.

Braised Smelt Fish (cá kèo kho tộ)

This is a typical dish from the southern part of Vietnam. My family is from the North; therefore, this dish is seldom served on our dinner table. However, when any of us is under the weather, then my mom would make this dish served with plain congee. I am not sure that the smelt fish sold in Korean stores is cá kèo, but it looks like cá kèo . However, the recipe for this braised fish is easy to prepare, and it can use any kind of fish. The sweet fat of smelt fish braised slowly with pepper and chili, will be a very delicious food for winter days.

Ingredients:
1 lb. smelt fish
Marinade ingredients:
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp salt
3 chopped garlic cloves
2 shallots, sliced
Braised sauce ingredients:
2 tbs peanut oil
1 tbs blackstrap molasses
1 tsp sugar
1 tbs honey
1 tbs black pepper
3 dried Thai hot chili peppers
1/4 tsp Korean chili powder
Other ingredient:
2 green onions, cut into sections

Directions:
Wash and drain the smelt fish well. Place in a bowl and add all the marinade ingredients and mix well. Let marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. Drain the fish and reserve the marinade.

In a cast iron pot (Korean product), heat oil. Add the reserved garlic and shallots.

Cook until fragrant and add the fish. Cook fish in the fragrant oil for a few minutes.

 Add the remaining braised sauce ingredients and the reserved marinade. Stir to mix well.

 Cover and simmer for one hour or until the sauce evaporates. Adjust the seasoning during braising the fish with more sugar and pepper to your taste.

Add green onions at the end of cooking time.

 

Easy No-Knead Shrimp-Artichoke-Mushroom Pizza

For pizza lovers, I like to share this easy recipe from making dough to finishing the pizza without too much effort. The pizza dough can be bought, but the no-knead pizza dough works out perfectly, if time permits. Homemade pizza is open to many possibilities of the topping. Each cook can has his or her own creativity to make a personnel pizza by changing the toppings. Invest in a pizza stone and a peel to transfer the dough to and from easier. I think making pizza at home is fun and healthy by choosing carefully what’s on top of the pizza. Kids, adults can get together and make a feast out of it.

Ingredients:
Dough ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp active yeast
2 tbs olive oil
1 cup warm water
Topping ingredients:
12 oz. shrimp peeled, deveined, and tails removed
2 oz. artichokes, patted dry, and sliced
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Cayenne
1 cup of cheese, mozzarella, fontina or mixed, your choice
Fresh chopped parsley
Sauce ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup peanut oil

Directions:
The night before, place all the dough ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir well. Cover and let it rise for 18 hours. Follow the link below to learn how to shape the dough. With this dough recipe, the ingredients can make 3 individual pieces.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-pizza-crust-recipe

To make the sauce:
Heat oil in a saucepan. Add chopped garlic. Fry garlic for 2 or 3 minutes or until fragrant. Do not burn the garlic.

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 450°.
Pat shrimp. Dry with paper towels. Combine shrimp and artichoke with salt and pepper

.

 

Arrange the pizza dough on a peel or in a pie pan, cast iron. Brush each dough with one tablespoon garlic-oil.

 Divide toppings equally on each pizza.

 

 Top with more cheese and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley and serve. The oven temperature varies. Check the baking time.

In  cast iron pan

Cook in stove top for 3 minutes be fore bake in oven , It will make the crust is crispier