Mircale Burger Mix

I've mentioned this vegetable mix that I combine with all types of ground meat to create burgers for the Trainer and myself. It started as a mix for meatloaf, but the Trainer felt that the shape pf meatloaf was unsatisfactory for making sandwiches, so the universal burger was born. I designed it from the Blood Type Diet to be beneficial for both of us Type O's, but it tastes great too!

This recipe makes a large batch of mix, suitable for use with about 10 lbs of meat, but it's easier to make a large batch and it freezes well for later use.

4-5 small vidalia onions
1 head of garlic
1 bunch of spinach
1 bunch of cilantro
2 tbsp dulse flakes
1 tbsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp turmeric

puree all the vegetables in the blander, loading them in turns, until well blended.

transfer to a non-stainable bowl and mix in dulse, sea salt and turmeric with a metal spoon.

mix with ground meat until desired consistency is achieved

shape and grill burgers

note: turkey and chicken often require much less mix then lean beef

Sea Bass Papitolle

I understand that a papitolle is really a term used to refer to a method of cooking in parchment, but I think cooking in foil works just as well. I got the idea for this recipe while cruising Epicurious, but I think it's enough my own that I can claim it.

1-large Sea Bass fillet
1-onion, sliced
3-cloves garlic, sliced
1-cup fresh spinach leaves
Poultry seasoning
Sea salt
Aluminum foil

•Lay out a piece of foil large enough to wrap around fish

•Pile a layer of spinach on foil

•Lay fish on top of spinach

•Season fish with spices and salt

•Lay onions and garlic over fish

•Close foil over fish, rolling up edges

•Place packet in a skillet, or in an oven preheated to 450, and cook for about 10 minutes

•Remove and open packet, fish will continue to cook if you don't.

•Serve with more sauteed spinach and brown rice.

Rosemary Home-Roasted Beef

1 onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
6-8 full sprigs rosemary, coarsely chopped or bruised

Juice of 1 lime
Fresh ground black pepper
Sea salt

Cling wrap and aluminum foil

•Lay out a large piece of aluminum foil and a generous amount of cling wrap on top of it.

•Layer 1/2 the onion, garlic and rosemary in one corner of the cling wrap.

•Score one side of the meat, sprinkle with lemon juice, and coat with salt and pepper

•Lay the seasoned side if the meat on the onions, pushing everything underneath.

•Score the other side of the steak, juice, salt and pepper.

•Arrange the rosemary, garlic and onions on top of the steal.

•Wrap the whole thing as tightly as possible in the cling wrap, then I'm the aluminum foil.

•Place package in the refrigerator to marinate, preferably 12-24 hours

•Preheat a George Foreman grill, to 425 (or a comparable grill or oven)

•Unwrap the meat and quickly transfer it to the cooking surface, keeping all the fixings in place.

•Grill for 10 minutes, remove from heat and let stand.

•Slice thinly when ready.


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Citrus Soy Sea Bass and a Pamelo

It’s been quite a buys week for me. It’s been a busy week, between work and home; I’ve hardly had a minute to relax. Our company is going to be showing at trade show in Las Vegas, and it’s me job to get all the goods ready for it. Throw in a last minute buying trip and you’ve got chaos, as well as me working both the Saturday before and Memorial Day. (Don’t worry; I’ll be getting well compensated in July)

I did some cooking and baking this week, as well as fitting in a few reviews, which I have yet to write. I’ll start with the Citrus Soy Sea Bass that I made last Sunday and I’ll try to follow up quickly with Glutino’s wafer cookies and Pamela’s chocolate chunk cookies.


Last week Whole Foods had a special on Chilean Sea Bass, intrigued, I ran a little search on Epicurious and found an interesting cirtusy ginger marinade for sea bass. It sounded great to me, although I wasn’t sure how my boyfriend would like it. So, after my trip to the Green Market I got down to business, making the marinade and then preparing his turkey burgers and my hamburguesas de tres carnes.

Rather than spending more money on ingredients that I didn’t have I decided to substitute a pamelo that one of our contractors had given me to try. He claims that they are the original grapefruit, and opening this thing up was an adventure. The skin is super thick, and the fruit itself was about the size of a softball. One section alone was bigger than my ear. Opening it was exciting but the fruit itself was a little disappointing; it was dried out and crumbly and not very good eating. It did however serve very well in the recipe, where I substituted it for orange.

The bass turned out wonderfully, soft and flaky, almost as though I had cooked it in butter. I loved the bold, spicy, ginger pineapple sauce. My boyfriend ate the fish but proclaimed the sauce “too spicy”. I had suspected he might, but he told me to fix what I wanted, so I did. I’ll just have to save this recipe for folk with less delicate tastes. However, if you choose to accept the challenge, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Citrus Soy Sea Bass

½ c. pineapple chunks
½ c. grapefruit sections

¼ c. soy sauce, gluten free of course
3 tbsp fresh ginger
1 tbsp sesame or other oil
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1- large bass steak, or other cut of bass

Put all ingredients, except bass, in the blender and puree. Place bass and marinade in a glass container, make sure the fish is covered, stir occasionally, let sit for at least two hours.

Heat a pan, cover the bottom with marinade, put in fish and cover with the rest of the marinade. Cover and steam until the bass is white and cooked all the way through. Time depends on how thick the bass cut is.

Remove the fish when it’s done. Cook down the marinade until it is caramelized.

Serve and enjoy.

Tilapia on a Whim

Last weekend, while watching TV, my boyfriend asked me what tilapia was. He had read in his Flex magazine that some professional body builder was helping to train another and he recommended eating lots of tilapia. So naturally, my boyfriend wants to try tilapia too.

I did a little web research and learned that tilapia is not only on the “safe” list, it’s low calorie, high in protein and low in fat compared to, say, sea bass or tuna.

Never one to turn down a challenge I decided to give it a shot. I thought about what would be fairly fool proof, in terms of my boyfriend trying new foods: nothing fancy or spicy, and what ingredients I already had at home: the end of a bottle of white wine from my last seafood project.

On the way home I stopped at the local grocery, grabbed what looked good and threw this together.

2 fillets Tilapia
1 medium Vidalia or yellow Onion, sliced
2 cloves Garlic, sliced
1 Tomato, diced
3 sprigs fresh Rosemary, partially chopped
White Whine
Olive Oil
Salt and Fresh Pepper

Wash the tilapia and lay on a plate. Sprinkle salt, fresh ground pepper and chopped rosemary over fish. Clean and slice garlic and onions. Sautee garlic, onions and rosemary with salt and pepper until onions are translucent. Push onions to sides of pan, lay tilapia fillets in pan to sear on one side. After 3 minutes flip fillets and cover with onions. Add diced tomato and enough white wine to cover bottom of pan. Cover and cooked until fish is cooked through, about 7 minutes.

We had this with brown rice. I started the rice before I started to prepare the fish and they were done at just about the same time.

My boyfriend really liked it, the only thing that slipped my mind in the mad-dash for groceries was the lemon, luckily we always have limes in the refrigerator. I expect I’ll be making tilapia in ever more creative ways in the future.

Fennel & Eggs

As I was reading a health food magazine on the subway I found an article extolling the virtues of fennel. I don't see fennel very often, but I remember my Nonna loved it. It's indigenous to the Mediterranean and I'm sure that she ate it growing up in her Italian family; she used to call in fenochio.

Fennel is a winter vegetable, available from autumn to early spring. It has lots of vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and antioxidants. Historically it’s been used for bad breath and indigestion, intestinal spasms and cramps (maybe it’s the celiac’s best friend?)

I’ve almost exclusively had it in salads; it’s great with some walnuts, cranberries, citrus fruit and just a little vinaigrette. This article had some good ideas, but I wanted to try something a little heartier.

It’s hard to use many of the recipes I find, since I’m really only cooking for one. The rest of the folks in this apartment won’t try anything new, so whatever I make gets eaten by me. This was my first attempt, and although it doesn’t look like much, it is delicious! And quick.

Makes 1 Serving:
3 Eggs or egg whites
½ bulb Fennel
1 clove Garlic
1teaspoon Olive Oil
¼ cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
Salt and Fresh Pepper to taste

Thinly slice fennel and garlic, sauté in a large skillet until fennel is soft. Add eggs and stir, cook until eggs are set. Top with cheese, cover and turn of heat. Serve warm.

This is really filling, it makes a great breakfast. I think it would work well with just about any type of cheese. It could also be made to serve more; a larger batch could be baked in the oven.