Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Freezer Fudge, Frozen Banana Cookie Crust Fruit Pie, and this week's dinner recipes

After Moroccan Chicken GFG is getting a little chickened out, which I'm sure happens to most of us fairly regularly.  So this week, I'll be trying out a couple non-chicken recipes.  Although TJ's did have boneless skinless chicken breast wayyyyyy on sale, which was awesome.  Tuesday, it's use what you have night, so I'll be defrosting some frozen orange roughy (which belongs to the slimehead family of fish, um gross?!) and cooking it gently with lemons and some leftover white wine from this weekend, maybe toss in a few capers, and the amazingly gorgeous french green beans I found at Trader Joe's.  Friday, I'm going to try cooking with fish sauce, something I've never cooked with before, so that will be interesting!  I was inspired by this recipe from August's Real Simple.  But we don't eat pork and not sure if I'll ever get around to picking up some chilies.

Example!  Not my pic.

Orange Roughy with White Wine, Lemons, and Capers
-1 lb orange roughy
-1/4 cup dry white wine, use what you got!
-1 teaspoon lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 tablespoon capers
-1 tablespoon EVOO
-salt/pepper to taste

Marinate fish for 20 minutes in white wine and capers.  Heat oil to medium-high in saute pan and place marinated fish fillets in pan, seasoning with salt and pepper.  Add marinade and cook 2 minutes then flip and season other side. Cook another 2 minutes, lower heat, then pour in white wine and caper marinade, lemon juice, and sprinkle with lemon zest.  Cook for a few more minutes to allow flavors to come together.  Serve with veggies!

Here is the Real Simple recipe, adapted by me:

Real Simple

 Thai Ground Turkey Salad with Peanuts

• 2 teaspoons coconut oil
• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 5 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 large jalapeño peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
•  1 head of romaine, chopped
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 medium carrots, coarsely grated
• 3/4 cup fresh mint leaves 
•  1 red pepper, sliced
•  1 cucumber, sliced
• 1/4 cup salted, roasted peanuts, chopped

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the turkey and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no longer pink, 2 to 3 minutes. Add ¼ cup water, 1 tablespoon of the fish sauce, and stir until liquid is evaporated.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the lime juice, peppers, and the remaining 4 tablespoons of fish sauce.
3. Divide the lettuce among bowls, top with the turkey mixture, onion, carrots, mint, and peanuts, and drizzle with the lime dressing. 

Today I'm having fun making dessert for dinner at our friends house tonight.  As usual Spoonful of Sugar Free served as an inspiration.  I will tinker with the recipe a bit, since it's actually raw, I'm not quite as concerned about ruining it with my tweaks as usual.  But it is very very simple!


Frozen Banana Cookie Crust Fruit Pie
-4 frozen bananas
-1 cup walnuts
-3 or 4 dried pitted dates
-2 tablespoons cocoa powder
-2 cups sliced berries (I have strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries)

Process/blend walnuts, dates, and cocoa powder until mixture is clumpy but well incorporated.  Transfer mixture to pie dish and spread out evenly with your hands, to form the pie crust, and freeze.  Blend frozen overripe bananas until creamy, adding a bit of vanilla or cinnamon if you desire.  Pour bananas into frozen pie crust, and return to freezer.  Thaw a bit before serving, then top with sliced berries!  You could also jazz up the filling anyway you want- with cocoa powder, unsweetened shredded coconut, or even some blended berries!  You could also drop in some chocolate shavings or chopped nuts.  Tons of different fun variations!  This pie is for kids too so I don't want to complicate it too much this time around.

This morning I also tried homemade nutella.  True to form, I did not follow the instructions.  I threw everything in the cuisinart and started blending, then realizing I was supposed to add ingredients in a specific order.  I don't really think it made a difference in the end, the result was realllly good, although I ended up adding a bit more salt.  It's also a bit too sweet for me so next time I'll halve the amount of sugar I used.  The recipe also says to toast and skin the nuts.  Well, I toasted them, and tried to skin them, but got sick of skinning them half-way through so just threw the rest in the bowl.  Eh, again, don't think it really mattered.  I think in the end it made a little more than a cup?  I transferred the mixture to a glass jar and stuck it in the fridge.  But that got me thinking, what a yummy freezer fudge flavor that would be!  So after S eats her half banana at lunch, I'll use the rest for a nutella fudge variation.  2T coconut butter, 2T hazelnut spread, 1T cocoa powder, half banana, and pinch of salt.  May need a teensy bit of sweetener.  Yum!

Homemade Nutella Freezer Fudge
-1/2 overripe banana
-2T coconut butter
-2T homemade chocolate hazelnut spread
-1T cocoa powder
-pinch of salt, touch of sweetener if necessary

Blend and freeze!