Heavenly Paleo Coconut, Garlic, Lime Fish with Arugula, Roasted Pepper, and Grilled Onion Stuffing

This is one of those dishes where I knew kinda what I wanted to eat, but didn't really know if it would *work*. I'm here to tell you, that it worked so well, be used the same idea last night for a chicken stir fry with chopped onions and carrots over a bed of green beans, and tonight I'm making shrimp and onions with the same sauce, and cauli mash.

For the sauce

1/3 C coconut oil

4 large garlic cloves, sliced or roughly chopped

For the dish

4 white fish fillets. I used talapia.

1/2 of a jarred roasted red pepper, or fresh if you like to make your own, cut into 4 long strips

1-2 C fresh arugula 

6 "petals" off of a grilled onion. (I had them left over from dinner he night before, but you can cook fresh, or roast an onion in the oven wrapped in foil)

1 whole lime (for juice)

Salt and pepper

Heat oven to 375.

In small fry pan, melt coconut oil and begin to toast garlic over low heat so you don't burn the garlic.

Lay your filets out to arrange the filling/stuffing, and salt and pepper each fillet.

Place a 1/4 of the arugula on each fillet.

Place one of the pepper stips on top of the arugula.

Place the cooled grilled or roasted onion petals on top of the peppers.

To get this shape/size of onion, I cut the onion in half, from stem to root so each half had root to keep it together, then grilled. I peeled the large outer layers then cut them in half again. Each piece you see here is a quarter of an outer layer, in other words.

Starting at the thin end, roll the fish and secure with tooth pick. I used 2 toothpicks per fillet, because the talapia fillet has 2 parts at the thick end.

This shows what the seam will look like, but flip it to the bottom of the dish.

Arrange seam-side down in a casserole dish, with a lid, sized so that it will allow them to be secure but not crowded. 

Take the remaining onions and place in the spaces between the fish rolls.

When your garlic is beautifully toasted, pour the garlic infused coconut oil and the toasted garlic over the fish.  

Squeeze your entire lime over the fish.

Cover your casserole, and place in your heated oven for about 15-20 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.

Serve over something you can use to collect the insanely awesome sauce! (I have to admit, we ate ours over jasmine rice. Not 100% Paleo because of that, but you can use your *base* of choice to ensure pure Paleo. Tonight, I'm making something similar to this again using shrimp over cauliflower mash, to mimic a Caribbean coconut-lime shrimp and grits.)

The combination of the mild fish, with the peppery arugula, the sweet of the pepper, the slight smokey and sweet onions drizzled with the savory garlic, the sweet coconut oil, and the tangy lime is an amazing combination! My husband isn't a huge fan of lime, but we both gobbled this up like it was our first meal out of prison. He added red pepper flakes to his, but I'm a spice-wimp, and scarfed it all up just as it came out.

Eat real (awesome flavorful) food, move your body, improve your surroundings, and stay hungry.

Arrangement #7,482

I rearrange the furniture like other people change their sheets. I've done this since I was a pre-teen. I think it was my way of having control over something. (ME?!? Having control issues? WHAT?!?!) 

Now, as a grown-up, it's ... me having control over something. 

And constantly wanting something "new" but not being able to buy new things whenever I want. This is another reason I love to recycle, fix things, paint things, change things, and make things. It's my way of having something *new*. Plus, as a child, my family did not have disposable income, so we were that family who pulled things out of other peoples trash and Daddy would fix it. I think I was in high school before Mama ever had a "new", and I mean, *out of the box, she's the first-owner* "new" vacuum. 

One of my favorite memories was of the day the cleaners a few doors down from Daddy's office went out of business. Everything that wasn't picked up was thrown in the back dumpster. Daddy came home, got me, and took me back there with him. He quite literally threw me into the dumpster, and I started tossing out furs. Yes! Furs. Fur coats. Shawls, wraps, full length, jackets, hand-poufs... It was a PETA nightmare, but to a little girl, it was princess dress-up heaven!  Most we're ruined, worn, torn, and unwearable, but we kept the nice ones. I think there's one or two still around somewhere, but I'm not sure where.

I got off track. Again... ME?!? Distracted? Naw... Can't be. JESUS! What kind of bird is that? It's HUGE!

The furniture. I was originally writing about the furniture.  

Our house is long and narrow. Not a square, or even a shallow and wide box. Nope... It's narrow and long. It's a GREAT house, with a LOT of WONDERFUL features, upgrades, and flash things that make me say, "Ahhh" when I see them... But furniture placement and "flow" has been a constant struggle.

Take a look. This is the family room. I just moved the couch long-ways in front of the fireplace and TV. And I *think* I LOVE IT!!

No, I didn't "pick-up" before taking the pictures. I'm a real mom with real kids and real dogs. The house will never be clean all at once all at the same time. If it is, something is either very very wrong, or I have aquired the entire staff of Downton Abbey.

So this is the current arrangement in the family room. We can all sit on the sofa together to watch TV. I can sit between the kids to keep them from fighting. I can snuggle with both kids, AND my 110 lb gigantic baby lapradore Homer can snuggle with me too.

Then... We have *this* space up front. Ugh... What/how do I do anything with this? It's designed to be a formal sitting room and dining room. We do entertain enough to keep/need the big table, but it needs a bit more space. I have to get the knee walls down and out. They totally make the space unlivable, and half of my first floor is waisted space.

Take a look...

So, how would you arrange this space? If I had the knee wall gone in the dining room, I'd love to have a round dining table to soften the corners and edges. With the knee wall gone by the front door, I'd be able to bring the furniture all the was to the entry-way wall, after brining the hardwood all the way from the door to the family room. It will soften the entry, and would eliminate the bottleneck at the front door.

Speaking of remodeling, in the above pictures of the family room, the wall that currently has my wedding portrait (and the kids preschool alphabets) needs to go as well. There is also a useless wall in the foyer that needs to go. We'll have to leave supports, but they need to be round columns instead of the jagged angles that they are now. I have more right angles than the Bush Administration up in this joint. 

So... Donations to the "Oh Sweet Jesus, Girl Your Home Needs Some Serious Work" fund can be mailed, addressed, and written out directly to me or my Honey. Checks always accepted. I'm southern, so your thank you note will be hand written, and will include pictures of what your donation contributed.

Thank you.

Keep improving, my friends.

Almond Awesome Brownies

I found a recipient for regular brownies in a cookbook, then changed everything around to suit my tastes. 

I wanted to use almond flour, but I didn't have any, so I made my own using roasted plain almonds I had saved in the freezer. I think the container I had was a pound (but I'm not swearing to it, so buy extra and freeze what you don't use.) I put them into the food processor and whirred them into a mixture of a course grind and a medium grind. I wanted a slight crunch from the nuts, but I'm not a fan of huge pieces of nuts in my brownies. I'm very much a texture girl, and consistence is a big deal for me. The only thing really crunchy I want in my brownie is the crunchy chocolatey edges.

After I had the course ground almond flour in the mixture, I wanted/needed more flour, so I put the remaining half of the almonds back into the food processor, and let it go until it was almost almond butter. I saved my leftover flour in the fridge in a plastic resealable container.

In deciding which brownies to make, I had thought of making a peanut butter swirl, so if I had gone too far with grinding my almonds, I would have had almond butter, so I would have just added that and made an almond butter swirl brownie. 

But I stopped it just short, and had beautiful fine ground almond flour.

This is all important, because y'all know I don't measure. I try sometimes, but then I do what I want and what I think will work. For instance, I added more total flour than the original recipe called for. I added double vanilla because I LOVE the good stuff. I added double the salt because I love sweet and salty. The recipe below is what I used. If you don't like sweet and salty together, only use half of the salt listed. But these were seriously incredibly tasty. 

So... Here goes...

1 C sugar (I'm going to use coconut crystals or dates next time)

1/2 C coconut oil

2 teaspoons VERY GOOD vanilla extract

2 eggs

2/3 C course/medium grind almond flour

1/3 to 1/2 C fine ground almond flour (reserved)

3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or other large granule salt

Heat oven to 350

Grease a square 8x8 or 9x9 with coconut oil.

Mix sugar, coconut oil, vanilla, and eggs in a bowl big enough to mix it all in. (I used a wooden spoon, didn't need a mixer.)

Stir in the course/medium almond flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. 

Add enough of the fine ground almond flour to make a thick, dough type "batter"

Spread the batter in the pan evenly.

Bake 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick in center comes out without liquid chocolate on it. You don't want it "clean", because they'll be dry, but you'll want to make sure they're done.

Cut into 16 squares, and enjoy. Or hide them from everyone, and gobble them all up yourself.