Mini Crunchy Tuna Burgers!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh tuna, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup chives
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp Tamari 
• 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup coconut oil or EVOO
• 8 small dinner rolls or Hawaiian rolls
• Lettuce slices
• 1 tbsp ginger
• Mustard
• Salad (I used mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and topped them with lemon juice)

What to do:

1. Pulse the tuna, garlic, chives, black pepper, Tamari, sesame seeds, and ginger in the food processor. 
2. Separate the tuna mix into 8 small patties and roll in the bread crumbs. 
3. In a medium skillet, heat up the coconut oil or EVOO on medium high. Cook the patties (approximately 2 minutes per side). Set aside. 
4. Serve on Hawaiian rolls with mustard, lettuce, and any other toppings you prefer (I used jalapeno and Wasabi). 
5. Serve with veggies or a salad.

Blueberry Scones w/Orange Glaze!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour, plus more for rolling blueberries in
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into chunks
• 3/4 cup buttermilk or cream
• 1 egg
• 1 pint fresh blueberries

Orange Glaze-

• 2 oranges, zest and juice
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in butter using 2 forks or a pastry blender. The butter pieces should be coated with flour and resemble crumbs.
3. In another bowl, mix buttermilk and egg together, and then add to the flour mixture. mix just to incorporate, do not overwork the dough.
4. Roll the blueberries in flour to coat (so they don't sink to bottom). Fold the blueberries into batter (be careful not to bruise). Drop large tablespoons of batter on an un-greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until brown. Cool before applying orange glaze.
6. To prepare the orange glaze, combine butter, sugar, orange zest, and juice, over a double broiler. 
7. Cook until butter and sugar are melted and heat and beat until smooth and slightly cool. 
8. Drizzle or brush on top of scones and let glaze harden.

Enjoy!

Simple Shrimp Skillet!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and devined
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tbsp lemon pepper spice
• Salt
• 1 tsp coconut oil or EVOO
• Salad (toppings are your choice-I went with goat cheese and squeezed lemon juice on top)

What to do:

1. Heat up the coconut oil or EVOO in a medium skillet on medium high heat. 
2. Cook the shrimp and toss in the lemon pepper spice, salt, and juiced lemon. 
3. Cook until done and set aside. Serve with a small side salad.

Couscous Stuffed Chicken w/Feta, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Olives!

Ingredients:

For Couscous-

• 1 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 4 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
• 4 tbsp green olives, chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 (10 ounce) box couscous
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 lb feta cheese, crumbled

For Chicken-

• 4 (6 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp olive or coconut oil
• 1 tbsp butter

For Sauce-

• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 6 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 4 tbsp roughly chopped olives
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 lb feta cheese crumbled for garnish (optional)

What to do:

For the Couscous-

1. In a medium saucepan over medium high add olive oil, when hot, add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Add the sun dried tomatoes and saute for a few minutes. 
2. Add olives and chicken stock and bring to a boil.
3. Add couscous, cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 5 minutes.
4. Fluff with fork, season with salt and pepper. Spread two cups of couscous on a large plate, add 1/2 pound feta, and let cool. Keep the remaining hot to serve with chicken (in covered casserole dish). 

For the Chicken-

1. Trim chicken with boning knife. Start at top of breast and carefully butterfly the chicken so that it opens like a book.
2. When the couscous is cool enough to handle, carefully spoon the mixture into the chicken pocket. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter. Brown the chicken on both sides. 
4. Place chicken in baking dish and bake for 20 minutes or until done. 

For the Sauce-

1. In the saute pan that you cooked the chicken in, heat and add the garlic. 
2. Deglaze with white wine and lemon juice. Reduce by one third. Add in sun-dried tomatoes, let reduce for 2-3 minutes, add the olives, turn off heat, add the butter and stir to combine.

To serve, place couscous from oven on plate, cut chicken breast in half, top with sauce, crumble remaining feta cheese.

Optional: Serve with a light tomato salad (mix together 4 diced tomatoes, 1/2 purple onion diced, 1 handful parsley chopped, and the juice of 1/2 a lemon.

BBQ Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus!

Ingredients:

Wraps-

• 2 cups fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 1.5 pounds thin cut chicken breast
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil or coconut oil
• Salt and pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 inch ginger root, finely chopped
• 1 orange, zested
• 1 red bell pepper, diced small
• 1 small can water chestnuts, chopped
• 3 tbsp hoisin
• 1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, core removed, head quartered
• Wedges of navel orange, for garnish

Asparagus-

• 1 bunch of asparagus, organic
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• Salt and pepper
• Tuscan EVOO
• 8 thin slices of prosciutto 

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Prep the asparagus first...clean the asparagus and trim to the same length. Separate into 4 bunches. Drizzle lightly with EVOO, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and lemon zest. 
3. Wrap each bunch in 2 slices of prosciutto. Drizzle with lemon juice and bake for 12-15 minutes. 
4. Set aside and cover in foil to keep warm.
5. Meanwhile, preheat a large skillet or wok to high. Add oil to hot pan. Add chicken to pan and sear meat (1-2 minutes). 
6. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two.
7. Add salt and pepper, garlic, and ginger. Cook one minute more.
8. Add zest, red bell pepper, and water chestnuts. Cook another minute.
9. Add hoisin sauce and stir to coat mixture evenly. 
10. Transfer the hot chopped chicken to serving platter and pile the quartered wedges of crisp iceberg lettuce along side. Add wedged oranges to platter to garnish. 
11. To eat, pile spoonfuls into lettuce halves, wrapping lettuce around fillings and squeeze an orange wedge over.