Bonnie Jean's Soul Food Cafe

went to Bonnie Jeans soul food cafe for Sunday dinner, not supper. 

when translated to yankee it means lunch, not dinner.

fried mac & cheese balls, honey pecan glazed fried chicken w/waffle, fried okra, corn bread, black eyed peas and grape Kool-Aide. #nomnomnom #drool

beer battered fish tacos

2.March.11

There is a super mercado in San Diego called Pancho Villa's that is super cheap. They have great produce and fish at unbelievable prices.

I got the tilapia filets ($2.19 for 4 fillets) and soaked them in beer with a dash of ground black pepper.

Batter:

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1/3 cup beer

I inadvertently poured too much beer which made the batter a bit too runny. I compensated by adding panko.

Coat the beer soaked pieces of fish in flour then in the batter and into HOT canola oil. 

cook until crispy, turning once. 

I've never been a big fan of white sauces but this sauce is pretty awesome. This can also be used as a great veggie dip.

I use greek style yogurt for a thicker consistency. 

Equal parts non-fat plain yogurt and smart balance mayo

1 lime, juiced 
1 teaspoon ground cumin 
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed 
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Serve with warm corn tortillas topped with shredded carrots, cabbage, jicama,and avocado 

SOY-tainly!

I've never really cooked tofu before.  I just did the basic baked tofu.

marinated in peanut sauce

I used Sriracha hot sauce instead of Thai chili pepper.

The sauce was a bit on the bland side but I kept adding cayenne and sriracha until it tasted like something.

served over brown rice

inspired by cannellini beans

1, March 2011

Yesterday while making my bean bolonese, I had an idea brought on by the smell of canned white kidney beans. 

I couldn't help but think that they smelled not un-like tuna.

So I decided to bust out the old chopper/grinder and chop/grind some beans and mix up some faux tuna salad.

I added everything I would have added to tuna- smart balance mayo, spicy mustard, lemon juice, capers, cayenne pepper, & salt and pepper. of course I don't have exact measurements because I kept adding stuff until I liked the consistency.

 

Meatless Monday

I have always considered myself to be Vegetarian friendly. 

In recent years I have been eating a lot more meat because I live with someone who eats 

(what I would consider to be) a lot of meat.

For our health (and for the environment), I proposed the idea of meat free meals for one week every month. 

I think I like my friend Emily's idea better. 2 meat free meals a week. I think that is more do-able.

Yesterday was the first meat free day.

I made a Bean Bolognese

with cannellini (white kidney) beans, added oregano in with the parsley, served over whole wheat spaghetti

For dessert I made baked apples. 

I left the skin on some granny smith apples and added a pinch of all spice, ground cloves, and squirt of maple syrup to the yummy sugary mix.

served warm with a dollop of plain** not fat greek yogurt.

**plain yogurt is just that...PLAIN. 

I'm not sure why some people think that plain yogurt is the same as vanilla yogurt. 

It is not the same thing. Plain yogurt is tart and most people don't care for it. 

However, when you make something that sits in a sticky sugary sauce, it's usually not necessary to add syrupy sweet (vanilla) yogurt. The tart yogurt quickly becomes sweet when you mix everything together.

I'm going to melt cheddar cheese on the left overs.