Lighter Tuna Casserole with Vegetables

I love old school comfort foods even though I didn't grow up with most of them.  My family mostly ate Korean food for dinner with occasional take-out/delivery foods, spaghetti, and burritos.  My mom never made any of the old school casseroles; they're something I discovered as an adult.

One of the downsides to cooking is that you realize what goes into all those delicious dishes.  And butter, fat, and salt make everything taste good!  So this is a healthy spin on the classic tuna casserole dish.  It doesn't use canned soup and incorporates more vegetables.  It doesn't quite taste the same as the old school dish but it's really good in its own way.  And you can eat this satisfying and filling dish without any guilt (or at the very least minimal guilt)!

Servings: 3-5 (for me this is a 3 mealer, sometimes 2)\

Ingredients:
1/3 cup low-fat (or nonfat) sour cream
2 tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh dill)
8 ounces dried pasta (I used a whole wheat fusilli)
10 ounces tuna (drained and flaked)
1 large or 2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced (I cut mine a bit smaller)
2 large tomatoes, diced
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Cooking spray or oil for greasing casserole dish

Instructions:

• Cook 8 oz noodles according to its directions until al dente.  Drain and set aside.
• Spray or grease a casserole dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small bowl combine 2 tbsps mayonnaise, 1/3 cup sour cream, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp dried dill until well mixed.
• In a large bowl combine 1-2 chopped zucchini, 3 chopped celery stalks, 10 oz tuna, and the cooked pasta.
• Pour in the sour cream sauce and stir together until pasta mixture is well coated.
• Pour pasta mixture into the casserole dish and bake uncovered for 25 minutes.
• Take out the dish and top with 2 chopped tomatoes and 1 cup shredded cheese.  Put back in oven for an additional 5-7 minutes.
• Season each dish with salt and pepper to taste.

And now for the pictures!

Any recipe here on Grubbin Pugs starts with pathetically sad begging pugs.  Here's one.

 And then there were two (and my shoes).

Anytime I bring out the cheese, Sunny and Rosy get really excited and hopeful.

Because of course I have to give them a teensy bit of cheese!  Rosy always does a little hopping dance as she waits for a sprinkle of cheese in her bowl.

Pop it in the oven and out comes some gooey cheese.  GOOEY!

"Psst!  Sunny she's done something magical to the cheese!  It smells even more amazing now!"

Lil beggars.

Life is all about perspective.  Two of my favorite things are pugs...

And food!

And with a little sprinkling of salt and pepper I'm ready to chow down!  None for the girls but they did get some cheese as I mentioned before and a tiny bit of leftover tuna from the cans.

Mmmm!

No licks Sunny!

Put those tongues away!  Ok, time to take the bowl away before one of the girls manages to get a lick in.

Adapted from SOS! The Six O'Clock Scramble to the Rescue.

Seafood and Brown Rice Porridge (modified jeonbokjuk)

I've been on a big Korean food kick lately. Well I always crave Korean food, but I mean I've been trying to cook more of it myself. I used to shy away from it because a lot of the dishes require ingredients you can only get at a Korean/Asian market, but this modified jeonbokjuk dish I made is great because it requires no special ingredients and yet it tastes yummy and comforting! This dish reminds me of the plain rice porridge my mom used to make all the time and it also reminds me of one of the best airport meals I ever had at the Incheon airport in Seoul.

Jeonbokjuk is traditionally made with short grain white rice and abalone. I love abalone! One of the best food experiences in my life was when I went to Jeju Island with my mom and we climbed over the slippery rocks, sat on wet upside-down buckets, and ate fresh abalone (with a side of kimchi of course) that was sold by the female divers (haenyo) there. So, so good. Unfortunately, it's not as easy to come by here and so I used a seafood mix from Trader Joe's that had squid, shrimp, and scallops. You can pick any kind of seafood that you like best. I also used brown rice because that's what I had handy (I'm slowly making my way through a giant bag of rice I bought forever ago) and I generally try to eat brown rice instead of white nowadays. The brown rice doesn't break down as easily as the white rice though so adjust soaking and cooking times as necessary.

Unfortunately the weather warmed up yesterday when I made this and I always run really hot the day after a long run so it wasn't an ideal type of day to eat this but I still loved spooning this wonderful Korean comfort food and foresee many cold winter days when I'll be making this again!

[12/9/13 update: Generally you're supposed to eat this day of and pretty soon after cooking it, but I've refrigerated it and eaten it the next day or two without problems. It congeals so you have to stir in some extra water when reheating and save the green onions and seaweed for any refrigerated amount and add it fresh to the reheated portions.]

Servings: 2-4 (4 if you're serving something else with it, but for me this is a 2 mealer)

Ingredients:
1 cup shrimp/squid/scallops, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (use whatever seafood you prefer)
1 cup short grain brown rice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup carrots, chopped into small pieces
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, chopped into small pieces
7 cups water
1/2 cup roasted seaweed, crumbled
Salt (and pepper (optional)) to taste

Instructions:

• Wash 1 cup of brown rice and then soak it in cold water for at least two hours (I soaked it about 4). Drain well and set aside.
• Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat and add 2 tbsps of sesame oil.
• Add 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 cup chopped seafood, 1/4 cup chopped carrot, and 1 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms to the pot and stir for 30 seconds.
• Add the 1 cup of brown rice to the pot and stir continuously for 3-6 minutes until the rice starts to look translucent.
• Add 7 cups of water to the pot and stir everything together. Let the water come to a simmer and then cover the pot and decrease the heat to low.  
• Cook rice for 30-45 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally to make sure the rice doesn't stick and burn to the bottom. (I put my heat too low in the beginning and ended up cooking mine for 45 minutes).
• Once the rice has broken down into a porridge-like texture, add 1 tbsp of soy sauce and approximately 1 tsp of salt. Taste and add another tbsps of soy sauce or more salt if desired (I used 2 tbsps of soy sauce). 
• Serve hot and topped with crushed roasted seaweed and chopped green onions. Add salt and pepper to taste if desired.

When I opened it up the steam fogged up my camera lens! Look how pathetically sad my chub chub pugs look.

I like to put a lot of green onions and seaweed on mine! But I took a photo first with it looking nice and dainty because otherwise all you'd see in this photo would be a big ol pile of green onions and seaweed!

Can we all just take a second to stop and look at Sunny's sad pug slump in front of my fridge and Rosy's desperately pleading face?

Sunny wouldn't budge from that spot so when I had to open the fridge I had to nudge the door against her and slide her across. Only then did she jump up and then wedge herself partially inside the fridge, looking at her precious carrots.  Sigh.

I usually try to minimize my use of oil in my foods and often substitute with cooking sprays (Trader Joe's makes so many good ones!) but trust me and use the full 2 tbsps of sesame oil. Sesame oil is such a fragrant and flavorful oil and you can really taste it in this dish! See even the pugs can smell it!

This is the kind of dish that is good to make on a cold and dreary day when you need something to warm you from the inside and also something good to help someone who is recovering from an illness.

And I got all my ingredients from Trader Joe's, even the roasted seaweed (they have a sweet/salty snack version that I just used because I was too lazy to make a trip to the Korean market)! Oh, well the rice was originally from a Korean market, but you can get rice anywhere. Enjoy!  


Adapted from Maangchi.

Fish and Shrimp Stew with Tomatoes

Now that fall's started I'm in the mood for soup! While I love so many of the recipes I've posted on here already, I'm always on the lookout for new recipes to try out. I stumbled across this one and it was the first fish-based stew that I thought looked yummy and yet easy and quick to make. And yes it is all three!

Unfortunately today was a little warm and it was so humid that my hair cowlick did what my friend calls "happy puppy ear." I hate humidity so so much, and yet I live in a terrible city for it. By the time I got home it was late and I felt gross and hot.  I so wasn't in the mood for cooking up a soup but I had my fish and shrimp thawing in the fridge. This was really fast to put together since I did my chopping over the weekend and it was so yummy! A nice change from my usual bacon or sausage driven soups! Of course one can never have too much bacon or snausages, but this is a nice change and a great seafood option.

Servings: 3-6

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup carrot, chopped
10 ounces baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1/4-1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4-1/2 cup green onions, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (no salt added)
2 cups vegetable broth
1-1 1/2 pound firm white fish (e.g., tilapia or cod), cut into approximately 1-inch pieces
1/2-1 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed (I like to cut my shrimp into 1-inch pieces too)
2 tablespoons capers
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Cooking spray or olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• If using frozen shrimp and fish, make sure they're properly thawed.
• Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and either use a cooking spray or heat up 1 tbsp of olive oil.
• Add 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped red bell pepper, 1/4 cup chopped carrots, and 3 minced garlic cloves to the pot/Dutch oven. Stir occasionally for about 4 minutes and then add 10 oz chopped mushrooms and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. (I may omit the carrots next time as I don't really like carrots unless they're used in a long cooking soup. This recipe is so fast that the carrots were still too carrot-y for my taste).
• Add 1/2 tsp dried oregano and 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
• Add 1/4 cup chopped parsley and 1/2 cup dry white wine. Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes.
• Add 28 oz diced tomatoes and 2 cups vegetable broth. Stir everything together until well mixed and bring the soup to a simmer. (At this point I tasted the soup and was a bit disappointed with the tomatoe-y taste. I was almost tempted to season it then but thought it best to wait to the end and I am so glad I did! The fish, shrimp, and capers really change the flavor of the soup so wait to season!)

• Add 1-1 1/2 lb white fish to the soup. Stir occasionally for about 3 minutes until the fish is almost cooked through.
• Add 1/2-1 lb shrimp to the soup (I like having things in my soup bite-sized so I cut up my shrimp into approximately 1-inch pieces). Stir occasionally for about 2-3 minutes until shrimp is just cooked. 

• Remove pot/Dutch oven from heat and stir in 2 tbsps capers. Then add salt and pepper to taste (with the capers, you'll need less salt than usual with soups so season after adding the capers in).

• Optional: Top each bowl with a sprinkling of chopped green onions. I had some extra chopped green onions from another recipe and I love green onions so I thought I'd add some to my soup. It adds such a nice crunch and extra flavor to the soup! I then finished with an extra bit of fresh cracked pepper. 

Sniff that bowl Sunny. Aw man, look at how gray Rosy's getting in her muzzle already! She's only 3!

Anytime I cook Rosy can't stop licking her lips! Look at her crazy tongue go!

Adapted from Cookin' Canuck.

Curry Shrimp and Potatoes

I don't normally cook seafood but I was in the mood for shrimp and Trader Joe's makes it so easy with their frozen shrimp.  All you need to do is thaw it and then it's ready for a quick cooking!  This dish was so easy and yet incredibly satisfying without feeling heavy.  I'm a meat and potatoes kind of girl and this hit all the cravings while keeping it a bit light.  The curry flavor is a bit strong but if curry isn't your thing you can halve the amount of curry or try a different kind of spice.  I also love the zucchini in this recipe.  I'm going through a huge zucchini kick (so are my pugs) and so there's a nice amount of veggies in here to balance the dish.  So start defrosting that bag of shrimp now and get ready for a yummy curry dish!

Servings: 4 (but I ate this for two meals)

Ingredients:
2 baking potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 scallions, chopped
1 pound frozen shrimp, peeled, deveined, and thawed
1 small zucchini, halved and chopped
5 ounces mushrooms, chopped (I like baby bella)
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking spray (or olive oil)

Instructions:

• Heat a large nonstock skillet over medium-high heat.  Spray skillet with cooking spray or heat some olive oil.
• Add 2 chopped potatoes (scrub the potatoes well when you clean them and leave the skin on when you chop them) and cook for 12-14 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender inside and browned and crisp on the outside. 
• Add 1 teaspoon crushed garlic, 1 chopped zucchini, 5 oz chopped mushrooms, and 4 chopped scallions (sometimes if I have extra chopped yellow onion I add that too because I love onions!).  Cook for about 5 minutes or until zucchini and mushrooms are tender and then transfer to a plate and return empty skillet to stovetop.
• Spray pan again with cooking spray (or use oil) and add 1 lb shrimp and 2 tsp curry powder to skillet.  Stir occasionally until all shrimp are cooked and coated with the curry.
• Add back the cooked vegetables to the skillet and toss with the shrimp until everything is coated with the curry powder. 
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mmmm now dig in and enjoy!

My pugs didn't seem that entranced by the shrimp and curry but they do love zucchini and were begging for some when I was chopping and cooking the vegetables. Lucky for them zucchini is on the ok list for dogs so I gave them a teeny bit.

Sunny loved the zucchini so much that she wouldn't leave the kitchen the whole time I was there in the hope that I may give some more food.  So while I cleaned up and washed the dishes she snoozed on the cold and hard kitchen floor (even though carpet and numerous dog beds were only a few feet away).

I'll definitely be making this again and I'll experiment with different summer vegetables as the season arrives and maybe with some different or more nuanced flavors.

Adapted from Martha Stewart.