Pecan Crusted Scallops

We went to Aldi today and it strikes me as odd or perhaps apropos that I spent $60 on primarily cheese. And a binge purchase-- scallops.

I have been so hungry for scallops. I got twelve jumbo scallops for $10. 

I decided to crust them in pecans. Normally one would grind the pecans and mix them with good quality breadcrumbs but I went gluten free and just used pecans.

I found some recipes online but didn't like the sound of any of them so I used them as a base. I found one that served with orange butter (1/2 cup orange juice to 2 tablespoons butter). I wanted mango butter. So I took 2/3 cup of frozen mango chunks, thawed them in the microwave with water, and puréed them in the food processor. I added three tablespoons butter and processed it with the mango.

I put this mix on the stove so the heat would melt it partially but not reduce it to liquid completely.

Next I put 1 cup pecan halves into the food processor, figuring a touch of mango and butter wouldn't hurt. Ground those as much as I could.

To flavor my scallops and make them sticky for my pecans, I whisked together:

- three tablespoons honey

- about one and a half tablespoons Briana's Blush Vinaigrette 

- about one teaspoon ground ginger

(The inside of the scallops ended up tasting like maple syrup when they were done. Not sure why.)

I rolled each scallop into this sticky mess and pressed it into the ground pecans. I arranged them in a Pyrex dish, poured the extra goop on them and baked at 425 for twelve minutes.

I served with a nice dollop of the butter, put some extra butter on the plate for the Brussel sprouts and used my mother-in-law's leftover zucchini pie as a compliment. Really good stuff. 

Strawberry Protein Smoothie

I slapped all this (plus a last minute addition of mango) in the blender today:

- 1 cup frozen strawberry banana blend

- 1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

- vanilla cream protein powder 

- 1 serving Oikos vanilla coconut Greek yogurt

- 1/2 cup skim milk

Funny part is that it looks like the blender wasn't put together correctly and most of the milk ran out the bottom.

It was my favorite smoothie ever but it was so thick I had to eat it with a spoon!

Pork in orange sauce

This is a variation of pork with peaches and snap peas, the original recipe passed to me from my college roommate.

The sauce, which is added with whatever nuts you want (cashews or peanuts recommended) after the vegetables and meat are cooked, consists of:

- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed juice of clementines

- 1/4 cup corn cob jelly

- 1 tablespoon corn starch

- 2 indivudual serving cups of diced mango

- 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce

- 2 teaspoons ground ginger 

Mango cherry smoothie

I'm addicted to those Bolthouse Farms Immunity Boost Mango smoothies. At Target, they are $3.99 for 32 ounces (which after my employee discount and red card savings drops to $3.41) while the same bottle at Giant is $4.29.

So, I decided to try and make my own.

- I started with organic frozen mango chunks because I couldn't find any other frozen mango and wasn't sure when I was shopping when I would attempt this and didn't want fresh mangoes to rot. I used about 2 cups.
- I added about 5 ounces of that nasty Bolthouse Farms mango protein smoothie
And grated, blended to a fine pulp
- I added about 3 teaspoons frozen orange juice concentrate
- 15 or so fresh cherries
And grated, blended to a fine pulp
- then I added a mango Greek yogurt

Lunch for breakfast

The non-dairy options in this house looked bleak. I offered my daughter homemade granola, eggs or, if school lunch wasn't going to be PB&J, PB&J. She wanted PB&J but the school lunch options were hot dog (which she doesn't like) or cheesesteak (dairy) so it's a PB&J day.

For breakfast, I made her raw broccoli with Newman's Own Sesame Ginger dressing, some of the Bolthouse Immunity-C boost (mango/cherry, I'm an addict-- tried the mango 21 protein by the same company and it had to be one of the nastiest things I've ever tasted) and a Boca chk*n patty on soft wheat bread (yes, the store-bought kind).

Maybe today I will make bread... Or biscuits.

More creamsicle smoothies/ On Sorbet

I made another batch of creamsicle smoothies this morning spiked with mango sorbet. My father-in-law brought the Häagen-Dazs mango sorbet some time ago, but I didn't have any use for it so I ignored it.

Well, this morning, as I finished it to make another batch of smoothies, I read the label. Yeah, I do it on anything. The nutritional info on rainbow sprinkles is appalling.

I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, the carb count was high (37 g in a 1/2 cup) but the vitamin content was good. In the same serving size, the RDA of vitamin A was 20% and Vitamin C was 10%. That implies they use real mangos and not mango-flavor.

So I check the ingredients. Water, mango puree, sugar, lemon juice concentrate, carrot juice concentrate, pumpkin juice concentrate, natural flavor and pectin. May contain trace amounts of milk protein.

Daddy's Turkey Ranch Salad

Today we're going to the theatre to see our first live performance as a family. We're going to see James & The Giant Peach. We read the book. We watched the movie. And today the play! It's very exciting.

After the play, my friend Gayle is joining us for chicken paprika. My husband prepared lunch while I prepped dinner to be heated later...

He reheated the leftover peanut butter noodles. He cut the fresh mango. Then, he engineered this salad of red leaf lettuce, carrot peels, bits of turkey breast and bites of wisconsin cheddar. He added Annie's Organic Cowgirl Ranch dressing and served as his "Turkey Ranch Salad."

I never use regular ranch dressing because it usually has MSG. Organic ranch dressings do not. And since my child adores ranch, I figure it's better to go organic on this one.

The child devours the mango, as she usually does, and so does the tortoise.