Dukan Seared Ahi Tuna

Seared Ahi Tuna

We both loved this recipe!

Why we've never tried to make it at home...we just don't know.  Last week we got back in touch with our fish guy...for those new to our blog, we are very lucky to know a guy here in Honolulu who enjoys going to the fish auction.  What this basically means is, we pay his much lower weight for fresh fish which is sometimes less than 1/4th the cost in a market like Whole foods.  The taste is also fresher.

Originally we envisioned baking or grilling our fish but our fish guy was so excited to tell us he just cut some ahi tuna and it sashimi grade...for those not familiar with the term, it basically means it is a very good quality and can be eaten raw.  Our fish guy said "you're not going to cook this are you?!"  So, we decided to have Seared Ahi Tuna.

This is a very tasty and easy dish to prepare.  The fish cooks VERY quickly since you're searing it, not cooking it through.  We used Tom's Blackened Seasoning from allrecipes.com...we used Truvia instead of sugar, but other than that, we used the recipe as is....oh except we made only a quarter of the recipe.   For the ahi, we followed Foodland's recipe...we made the avocado tartare too...that recipe will be coming up on Monday, April 8th!  This can be Paleo - use Stevia as your sweetener for the seasoning.

We are definitely making this again.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 (depends what you're having it with, if you're having a starch, etc.)
Prep Time: approx 20 minutes
Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

2 - 6 oz. sashimi grade ahi tuna blocks (we tried to cut ours into 1 - 1 1/2" blocks, try not to cut your fish too thin or it'll cook too quickly)
1/2 T. extra virgin olive oil
blackening spice (see below)

Blackening Spice ingredients:
1/4 T. paprika
1 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. onion powder
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 T. natural sweetener (we used Truvia) - use Stevia if you're on Paleo (but I would try less than 1/4 T. first)

Wash and pat dry your fish.  Heat your pan on high heat for a couple of minutes.  Brush fish with olive oil and season evenly with blackening spice (if you're in Attack, omit the olive oil, rub the seasoning on your fish and spray your pan with a little bit of non-stick spray).  We didn't add any more salt but you can season your fish with salt before the blackening spice if you wish.  Place fish into hot pan, sear on all sides until brown on the outside and opaque on the inside, about 1 minute per side.

Remove fish from pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels.  Let fish cool before slicing.  We used this time to make our Avocado Tartare.

The male half of this couple had his fish with our Sesame Cucumber Salad, Avocado Tartare and Okinawan Sweet Potatoes.  I had the same minus the potatoes.    This can be eaten as is - Pure Protein or served with veggies.

Enjoy...we sure did!

8 Of Our Favorite Attack Recipes

Dukan Chopped Steak

We are trying to clean up our recipe blog.  We finally got our "Poultry" page under "Recipe Categories" fixed, but can't seem to get the pork and beef page fixed.  We're hoping to get some Attack, Cruise, Consolidation, and Paleo recipe pages up to make it easier to view and find recipes.

If you are new to Dukan or starting over like we did a couple times or just needed to add in a couple Attack days after a vacation or holiday, below are some of our favorite Attack Dinner/Lunch recipes.  The very first time we tried the Dukan Diet, we lasted a day or two.  We didn't do any planning and Attack is really the phase we needed to have planned out.  We also tried to eat just deli meats, yogurt, strips of chicken and beef.  Oh man, it was rough!

As we successfully made our way through to Consolidation, we got better at meal planning and the next time we had to go on Attack we really dug deep to Dukan some our of favorite recipes so we could actually have meals instead of just snack type foods during Attack.  That's where the recipes below came in -- yay!  Most of these recipes are simple and easy to make.

You may have noticed we haven't baked much or made any kinds of desserts.  The later half of our first successful Dukan run, the sugar cravings went away and by the time we went through the diet again, we really didn't need things like our Dukan Chocolate Oat Bran Muffins to satisfy our sweet tooth!

Eventually we will make more desserts, but for now, we're perfectly happy filling up on meats, fishes and veggies!

Dukan Chopped Steak
Dukan Shoyu Chicken
Dukan Fish Moco
Dukan Curry Turkey Burgers
Dukan Turkey Herb Meatloaf
Dukan Chicken Adobo
Dukan Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon
Dukan Japanese Roll Ups (with konnyaku and no veggies)

Dukan Shoyu Chicken

Dukan Fish Moco

Dukan Curry Turkey Burgers

Dukan Turkey Herb Meatloaf

Dukan Chicken Adobo

Dukan Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon

Dukan Japanese Roll Ups

Dukan Spice Rubbed Salmon

Spice Rubbed Salmon

We loved this recipe!

We don't eat spiced rubbed anything too often, but saw this recipe pop up on Skinnytaste.com's blog and decided to stash it away.  It was easy to prepare, tasty and something different for us.  We skipped the Black Beans and Corn part of the recipe.

We ended up using 6 smaller pieces of salmon since we were using the tail end of our Costco slab of salmon.  If you're using pieces not similar in thickness, remember to throw the thicker pieces on the grill before the skinnier pieces!

I had this by itself on our PP day.  The male half had his with red rice.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2-4
Prep Time: 10 minutes or so

Cook Time: 8-10 minutes (it really depends on how thick your salmon is, ours were fairly thin so they cooked up fast)

Spice Rub:
1 t. smoked paprika
1 1/2 t. Splenda brown sugar (we'll probably use 1 t. next time)
1/2 t. chipotle chili powder
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 lime, juice of
4-6 pieces of salmon (depending on the size again)
lime wedges for serving

Combine all spice rub ingredients in a bowl.  Squeeze lime over both sides of your salmon, then rub your spice rub on both sides of the salmon and let it rest for 5 minutes.  Just before the 5 minutes are up, heat a grill pan over high heat, spray with nonstick spray and place salmon on grill pan.  Cook for 3-5 minutes undisturbed until the salmon is half way cooked, then flip your salmon pieces over and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until your salmon is cooked.  Do not overcook.

Enjoy...we sure did!  And we'll probably use this rub for steaks or chicken in the future.

Dukan Chopped Steak

Chopped Steak

We loved this recipe...and it's easy to adjust to your own taste!

For some reason, we craved an old time Hawaii favorite -- Chopped Steak.  Everyone had their version of it...this one is close to our grandma's except we thickened the sauce a little too much.  Next time we probably won't thicken the sauce this much.  Sunday was a PP day for me, so we made our Chopped Steak the "classic" way -- beef and onions.

Grandma sometimes added bean sprouts or celery and carrots.  The sauce is basically a teriyaki sauce.  It's quick, easy and you can change the beef out for chicken or even tofu.  The thickened sauce worked for me because I had it plain....the male half of this couple had his Chopped Steak with a scoop of red rice, so a runnier sauce would have been fine for him.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2-4 (we got three servings out of ours)
Prep Time: 10 minutes, plus 20 minutes to marinate steak
Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

1 lb. beef, thinly sliced (we used a NY Steak and removed the excess fat, not our favorite cut, but it was reasonably priced)
1 yellow onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 t. cornstarch mixed with 1 t. water (optional or you can use less if you want a runnier sauce)

Marinade:
1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce (we used almost a 1/4 c. and filled the rest of the cup with water -- high blood pressure)
2 to 3 t. natural sweetener (we used 2 t., start with 1 t. and taste as you add your sweetener to find a taste you like)
1 t. vinegar
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced or grated

Combine marinade ingredients.  Add beef and marinate for 20 minutes.

Heat pan over high heat, spray lightly with non stick spray; add onions and cook until soft.  Remove onions and set aside.  Place beef in pan with marinade.  Stir fry until cooked through (ours took 3-4 minutes).  If you want to thicken your sauce, remove beef leaving sauce in pan, if you want to leave your sauce as is, skip this step.  Add your cornstarch/water mixture, stir constantly and lower heat.  Simmer until sauce thickens.

Return beef and onions to pan and stir to coat.  Serve as is or over a bed of brown or red rice.

If you're adding vegetables like bean sprouts, we would toss the veggies in after you remove the onions, cook until veggies are tender, remove veggies and continue with cooking your beef, etc.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Grilled Balsamic Chicken

Grilled Balsamic Chicken

We didn't care for this recipe...but we're posting it in case others may want to try it and hopefully improve it!

It wasn't bad, it just wasn't for us.  We love balsamic vinegar...especially when we're dipping our bread into the vinegar/olive oil mix at an Italian restaurant so we thought we'd love this recipe.   First of all, ours didn't look as good as 'For The Love of Cooking's' chicken did.  Ours started to char a lot.  The chicken ended up juicy and tasty, but perhaps we should have used less balsamic vinegar or something.

We followed the recipe with the exception of the flour and butter...oh and of course, we cooked ours in our grill pan.  The sauce was a bit too strong for us.

If you try this recipe and it comes out better for you or you tweak it in some way, please do share!  The nice thing about this recipe is we ate it during Attack.

Good luck!

Dukan Shoyu Chicken

Shoyu Chicken

 This is a scheduled post.  If we do not respond to your comments right away, it's because we are on the road!  Thanks!

We loved this recipe...and our Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker.

This is the first savory dish we've made in our Deep Covered Baker and we are definitely going to use it again.  Our boneless skinless chicken thighs came out moist!  This recipe can be made on the stove as well.

The Deep Covered Baker in the microwave

In Hawaii, the 'plate lunch' is a big thing.   It's something we grew up with as children...as a matter of fact, our parents did too.  We remember when plate lunches came in a box while others came wrapped neatly in butcher paper.  The plate lunch was always 2 scoops of rice (or as the local people say '2 scoop rice'), 1 scoop macaroni salad (no potatoes in the salad) and your main entree which many times would be covered in brown gravy or something not too healthy.  The plate lunch like many other restaurants across the U.S. and probably the world has evolved.  Most restaurants serve their plate lunches in styrofoam or 'green' containers and offer healthier selections along side their 'heart attack on a plate' selections.

Shoyu chicken is on most plate lunch menus and we don't really order it due to the amount of soy sauce and sugar used.  Plus, most restaurants will leave the skin and fat on the chicken thighs.  This is an easy, tasty dish to make and it really only takes 20 minutes in the microwave (Deep Covered Baker) or on the stove in a regular pot.

This recipe came from Rainbow Drive In in Kapahulu near Waikiki a very popular local style restaurant.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 people
Prep Time: 10-20 minutes (it took us longer since we removed all the fat from our chicken)
Cook Time: 20 minutes

2 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (fat removed)
1/2 c. natural sweetener (we used Xylitol)
3/4 c. low sodium soy sauce (we watered ours down)
1/4 c. white vinegar
1/8 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. pepper
1 clove garlic
1 inch ginger, crushed

Wash and drain chicken.  Place in Deep Covered Baker or pot.  Combine sauce ingredients.  Pour sauce over chicken.  If using a Deep Covered Baker, cover and cook on high in your microwave for 20 minutes.  If cooking on the stove, bring to a boil and cook for 20-30 minutes.

We didn't thicken our sauce, but if you would like to, use some cornstarch.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Stir Fried Fish with Ginger and Eggs

Stir Fried Fish with Ginger and Eggs

Note: this is a scheduled post.

We enjoyed this recipe, but it probably would have been better with beef or chicken.

It's been a while since we made it so we can't remember if we loved it just liked it!  Must not have been loved since we haven't been wanting to try it again!  We do remember it being a very easy and quick dish to cook.

A few months ago we came across House of Annie's recipe blog.  It's beautiful and everything looks yummy.  They live here in Hawaii, but one of the bloggers is from Malaysia.  We decided to use their Stir Fried Beef with Ginger and Eggs recipe for our fresh shutome (swordfish).  

Our ginger did not come out as pretty as House of Annie's!

Note: We had this as a Pure Protein during our Reboot Attack phase...it does have oyster sauce, so it's up to you!

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes or so

1 lb. shutome (swordfish) or any other fairly firm fish, slice into thin pieces
1 T. cornstarch
1 1/2" piece of ginger, cut into small strips without the skin
4 green onions stalks, chopped (any size you like)
1/4 c. or less, water
1 egg, lightly beaten (you can use 2 if you like)
1 T. olive oil

For marinade:

1 T. Shaoxing Rice Wine (or dry sherry)
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. oyster sauce
1 t. natural sweetener (we used Truvia)
1/2 t. pepper

Rinse, cut and pat dry your fish.  Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl.  Coat fish with cornstarch, then pour marinade over fish and gently mix, be sure each piece of fish is coated.  Set aside.  Prep ginger, green onions and egg separately.  You'll want to have everything ready...this dish cooks up pretty quickly.

Heat a wok over high heat.  Once hot, add the olive oil and swirl around in your wok.  Add ginger and stir fry...we didn't make ours golden crisp, but will do that next time.  Remove ginger from oil and drain on paper towels.

Add fish to the wok and stir fry for about a minute.  Add the green onions and stir fry for another 15 seconds.  Move the fish and green onions to the sides creating a well.  Add the water, then the beaten egg.  Stir everything together until egg is set.   Plate your fish and garnish with ginger.

The female half had this as is, no starch.  The male half had his over brown rice.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Fish Moco

Fish Moco (minus the over easy egg)

We loved this recipe!

Gosh, it feels like we've already typed this post, but can't seem to find it.  Perhaps we just imagined what we would say about this dish.  Just before the female half ended up with illness after illness, our fish guy had some fresh shutome or swordfish.  The female half reminisced about "small kid days" when her grandparents cooked fish with just Hawaiian salt and pepper.

For reasons we can't remember, we decided not only to pan fry our fish but to make a fish moco.  Loco moco's as we mentioned before is a local favorite.  A "traditional" loco moco in most cases is a mound of white rice topped with a hamburger patty, over easy egg and lots of gravy.  As the male half puts it, a heart attack on a plate.

This meal was very easy to prepare!

For the gravy, we used Dukanitout's mushroom gravy recipe without the mushrooms and we used chicken broth.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (one of us has no carbs/starch)
Prep Time: 10 - 30 minutes (we had to remove the skin from our fish, etc)
Cook Time: 10 minutes

1 lb. shutome (swordfish) or any other fish you'd like, cut into thinner "medallions"
salt and pepper to taste
egg (usually 1-2 per person - this is optional)

For Dukanitout's gravy - minus the mushrooms:
1 c. chicken broth
1/4 t. Dijon mustard
1 t. fresh thyme
1 T. cornstarch
salt and pepper

Prepare your gravy ahead of time, then reheat just before serving.   Combine all gravy ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.  Pour gravy into a small pot and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until your gravy thicken.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Salt and pepper your fish...you can even use Adobo Seasoning to season your fish.  Heat a grill pan over medium heat, spray your pan with a little bit of non-stick spray and fry fish until cooked.  Our fish took just a couple minutes to cook on each side.  Try not to over cook your fish or it'll dry out.

Just before your fish is done, in a small frying pan, fry up an over easy egg for each person (or two).  Plate goes like this...fish first, egg, then your heated gravy.  Sorry, we forgot to take a photo with the egg on the fish.

If you're in Consolidation, you can have this over brown or red rice.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Curry Turkey Burgers

Curry Turkey Burgers

NOTE: This is a scheduled post...trying to catch up!

We loved this recipe!

The male half of this couple enjoys curry...the female half doesn't....but we came across some curry turkey burger recipes (can't even remember how we came across it) and it sounded pretty good.  We're glad we tried the recipe.  (Note, the female half does love Thai curries, but doesn't care for Indian curry).

You can adjust the amount of curry to the type of curry you want to use.  We actually used curry powder we found in Chinatown here.

RECIPE:
Makes 8 burgers
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: Approximately 20 minutes

1 lb. ground turkey
1 small shallot, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. curry powder (adjust to your taste)
1-2 t. red chili flakes (we used 2)
1 egg
1/4 c. oat bran
kosher salt (I think we used 1-2 t.)
pepper (approx 1/4 t)

Mix everything in a bowl and portion our 8 servings.  Make each serving into a patty and fry over medium high heat...we used our grill pan.  Cook the patties for approximately 6 minutes on each side or until there's no pink juice coming from your patties.

The male half had this over brown rice and the female half had it with a side salad.  Have it alone on Cruise PP days or even during Attack.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Giada's Salmon with Lemon, Capers and Rosemary - It's a Dukan Recipe!

Giada's Salmon with Lemon, Capers and Rosemary

NOTE: This is a scheduled post...took the weekend off and barely touched the computer!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Had this not been so "lemon-y" we would have loved this.

Not sure if we did something wrong, but this was a little too much lemon for us...and the female half loves lemon-y things!   Don't get us wrong, it was still very tasty and we will make this again, but with less lemon.  We found this recipe on Giada De Laurentiis' page on Foodnetwork.com.  It looked simple and easy to prepare...and we just so happened to have fresh rosemary available!

Fresh rosemary isn't something we have all the time.  It's available, but it's very expensive and we both don't have green thumbs!  The lemon seemed to overpower the rosemary and capers.  The next time we make this, we'll probably use just one lemon slice for each fish and skip the addition of lemon juice.

We're positive this recipe would work well with our favorite Opah fish too :-)

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (on a Pure Protein Day, if we were eating this with brown rice or quinoa, this would have served 4)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes (our fillets were about 3/4" thick)

4 - 6 oz. salmon fillets (we actually had 2 at 6 oz. and the other 2 were smaller)
olive oil (optional, we didn't use any, but if you want to, brush oil lightly on both side of fish while seasoning fillets)
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. black pepper
1 T. minced fresh rosemary leaves (we would use 1/2 T. if you're using dried)
8 lemon slices (next time using just one slice per fillet)
1/4 c. lemon juice (that's 1 T. each fillet, next time using just 1 t. each fillet or just the lemon slices)
1/2 c. Marsala wine (or dry white wine)
4 t. capers
4 pieces of aluminum foil (we used 3 since we wrapped our two smaller pieces in one foil)

Rinse and pat dry fillets.  Preheat your grill or grill pan - we used a grill pan over medium high heat. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary (and olive oil if you are using it).  Place salmon fillets on foil pieces large enough to fold and seal tightly (ours came out so so, we used to be good at this since we've made foil packet dinners in our crock pot - we're rusty).   Top each fillet with 2 lemon slices (or 1), 1 T. lemon juice (or less if you don't want your fish too lemon-y), 2 T. Marsala wine and 1 t. capers.  Fold each packet tightly.   Place foil packets on grill pan and cook for approximately 8 minutes.  If your fillets are thicker, you'll want to cook them 10 minutes for every inch.  Carefully open packets when done and serve in the packet with the juices.

Besides the strong lemon flavor, this was a great, light and easy dinner.

Enjoy!

Dukan Turkey Herb Meatloaf

Turkey Herb Meatloaf

Note:  This is a scheduled post.

We loved this. Today we had a brief discussion about meatloafs. The female half felt like making one, the male half told her how it's okay but he feels soft things should just be soft and his mother always added chopped raw onions to their meatloaf and he just doesn't like crunchy things in his soft things. Oh my! There went the onions and orange bell pepper idea although the sauté idea was considered. Decided to use the fabulous garlic sauce from Skinnytaste's salmon recipe we had this past weekend. The male half agreed but only if the female half agreed not to put any of the sauce on the top of the meatloaf..he had enough mustard for this week :-).

 We would definitely make this again and the female half would probably even dare to brush on some garlic sauce during the last couple minutes of baking. The flavor of this meatloaf is mild, just the way the male half likes it. The female half would prefer to use twice the amount of garlic sauce to make it "bursting with flavor".

It turned out to be a fast, simple meal minus the one hour five minute bake time...which actually gave us time to get other things done :-)  Sorry, just a couple photos since it was a throw it all in one bowl and mix recipe!

RECIPE:
Serves 4
Prep Time: less than 10 minutes
Bake Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit

1 lb. ground turkey (lean)
1/4 c. oat bran (next time we'll use 1/8 c.)
1 egg
2 c. non fat mozzarella, shredded (if you don't like your meatloaf this cheesy, cut it down to 1 c.)

Skinnytaste's Garlic Dijon Herb Sauce (mash together with a mortar and pestle or mini food processor):
1 tsp. Herbs de Provence
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. olive oil (optional, we went without it)
3-4 cloves garlic
2 T. Dijon mustard

Mix turkey, sauce, oat bran, cheese and egg together...mix it well!   Place turkey mixture evenly in a 9" x 4" loaf pan (we lined ours with parchment paper) and bake for about 1 hour, 5 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit or until done.  After removing pan from the oven, let the meatloaf sit for 5 minutes, then cut and serve.

The meatloaf was juicy when it first was sliced, but as the meatloaf cools, it does become drier.  We would use only 1/4 c. next time we make this meatloaf.  This was a Pure Protein meal for the female half...the male half had his with brown rice.  We'll either make sandwiches out of the leftovers or make a sauce to pour over the meatloaf.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Style Loco Moco

Dukan Loco Moco

Hmmm...we were torn on this one.  There were some things about this we both loved and some we were just okay with.  First, the male half did NOT like that we used so much mustard.  He doesn't care for mustard, probably for the same reason he doesn't care for much vinegar in his food.  He did like that it was something different and in Hawaii, who doesn't love an over-easy egg over your food ;-)  The female half loves mustard, so the sauce was delicious, but it could have use more spice.  We both didn't care for the not so tender beef, should have tenderized it first with a mallet.  The male half would have preferred chicken over beef because it's less fatty but we already had 3 chicken dishes planned for the weekend, so beef it was!

A Loco Moco is a very popular dish in Hawaii.  It was created decades ago...as far as we can remember, at least 30 years ago.  The original version consisted of white rice topped with a hamburger patty, then one or two over-easy eggs and smothered with gravy.  The male half likes to call it a "heart-attack on a plate".  Over the years many restaurants have offered variations of the dish including fish instead of a hamburger patty, chili instead of gravy, all kinds of meats and some even offer you a choice on how you want your egg cooked.  

The female half has had her share of loco mocos growing up in Hawaii...her favorites are the original (but only with a homemade hamburger patty), the fish moco and the chili moco...with an over-easy egg of course.  Since Dukan, we've given up loco mocos but still love to "bust" the egg yolk over our food...so we decided to add an egg to this beef dish and call it our Dukan Loco Moco or Dukan Moco!

RECIPE:

Serves 2 (during Attack, if we both ate brown rice, this would have served 3 or 4)

Prep time: 5-10 minutes

Cook Time: approximately 8 minutes, but it depends on how you like your beef cooked

1 lb. beef top round (we picked up a tray of pre-sliced beef strips)

1 serving of Skinnytaste's Garlic Dijon Herb Sauce (see recipe below)

2 T. Dijon mustard (if you don't want a strong mustard taste, omit this)

1/2 jalapeno with most of the seeds removed (we should have use the whole thing and left more seeds in)

1 T. fresh cilantro, chopped fine

1 egg per person

Skinnytaste's Sauce - mash together with a mortar and pestle or a mini food processor

3-4 cloves garlic

1 t. herbs de Provence

1 t. red wine vinegar

2 T. Dijon mustard

1 t. olive oil (if you are using it, we left it out)

Mix Skinnytaste's sauce and set aside.  As mentioned above, the mustard was too strong for the male half..the female half loved it.  If you want a lot of sauce, make double the amount of sauce instead.  Heat a grill pan over medium high heat, spray with some nonstick spray and place meat in pan.  Cook until a little over 50% cooked.  Flip meat over and quickly add half the garlic sauce on the meat.  Cook to your preference.  We are medium rare people, so our cooking time wasn't long at all.  Turn meat over again and add the rest of the sauce to the meat.  We turned it over one last time and serve with or without an over-easy egg over the beef.  

We cooked our eggs just before the beef was done cooking.

Enjoy...we both did...sort of :-)

Dukan Chicken Adobo

Chicken Adobo

We loved this recipe.

Pork and Chicken Adobo are popular dishes here in Hawaii introduced by the Filipinos.  You'll find it on many menus, even at the local plate lunch places.  Each person has their own way of making adobo...some like it with a strong vinegar flavor and some prefer a lighter vinegar flavor.   The female half loves the vinegar flavor but the male half prefers a lighter vinegar taste so Splenda brown sugar is added to cut down on the vinegar flavor when we're dining together or feeding other people.

Most restaurants and home cooks make their Pork Adobo with pork belly...lots of fat and if using chicken, they like to leave the skin on.  We usually make Chicken Adobo at home and have always used boneless, skinless thighs.  This is the first time we've Dukan'd our recipe...so we used Splenda brown sugar, trimmed 90% of the fat off our chicken thighs and browned the chicken using non-stick spray and it came out great!  Of course, the female half could have done without the Splenda brown sugar :-)

We like making a big batch of Chicken Adobo for leftovers...this can be eaten by itself, over brown rice, shred the chicken up and make quesadillas or sandwiches.  We probably would even use it for lasagna.   Note:  We've made this in the crock pot, before Dukan, removing the fat and it gets dried out.  We may try to adjust the cooking time, but we are happy with the over the stove method.

RECIPE:
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 5-30 minutes (depending on how much fat you're trimming from your chicken)
Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (remove as much fat as you like)
1/2 red onion, sliced (you can use more, the male half wrinkled his nose when he saw the onion, but it melts down a lot during cooking)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 t. kosher salt (optional)
1/2 t. peppercorns (or ground pepper)
1 lg. bay leaf, crushed
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1/2 in. ginger root, crushed
1/2 T. Splenda brown sugar (optional, if you prefer a stronger vinegar taste, omit sugar)
1/4 c. soy sauce, low sodium
1 t. cornstarch, plus 1 t. water if you want your sauce thicker

In a pot over medium high heat, saute onions and garlic a couple minutes, do not burn garlic.  Remove onions and garlic, brown chicken on both sides, then add garlic and onions back to pot.  Add the vinegar, salt, peppercorns, bay leaf, ginger root and brown sugar.  Simmer for 30 minutes over medium low heat, stirring occasionally.  Add soy sauce and simmer another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If the sauce is too salty, add water in 1/8 c. at a time to taste.    Add cornstarch slurry in if you want your sauce thicker.  This is the first time we've made it with cornstarch and we prefer it without.

Before Dukan, we used to make this with red potatoes too adding in the cubes of potatoes in with the soy sauce.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Skinnytaste's Grilled Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon (It's a Dukan recipe!)

Skinnytaste's Grilled Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon

Wow, we LOVED this!

If we remember correctly, Dijon mustard is ok during Attack.  This recipe came from one of our favorite lowfat recipe blogs, Skinnytaste.   While not all of Skinnytaste's recipes are easy to Dukan, quite a few of them are and there are a lot of them that fit into Consolidation or you could have them as a lower fat Celebration meal.

We found this recipe, thought it sounded good but we didn't realize it would be this good :-)  Oh, forgot to mention...on Thursday we discussed how we keep forgetting to have our Pure Protein day.  There are weeks we plan for it, then something happens and we push it back, push it back again until it's been forgotten.  So, the female half decided she would play catch up and have about 4 Pure Protein days in a row.  The male half's weight has been good, so he's only doing 2 Pure Protein days.  This is how this recipe was chosen, as part of our weekend of Pure Protein days.

NOTE: the asparagus in the photos are for the male half :-)

We're definitely making this again.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (as a Pure Protein meal)
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: about 10 minutes

4 garlic cloves
1 tsp. dried Herbs de Provence (if you don't have any, you can make your own following this recipe)
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. olive oil (optional, we left it out)
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 lb. salmon fillets, 1" (we had a couple 1" and a couple about 1/2")
kosher salt and pepper to taste
lemon wedges for serving

Using a mortar and pestle or mini food processor, mash garlic with herbs, vinegar, oil if you are using it and Dijon mustard until it becomes a paste.  We didn't have either kitchen tool so we minced the garlic and herbs up really well first.  Set sauce aside.

Season salmon with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Heat a grill pan or grill over high heat until hot.  Spray pan with a little bit of non-stick spray and reduce heat to medium-low.  Place the salmon on the hot grill pan and cook without moving for 4-5 minutes (we cooked ours until it was just over 50% done).  Turn and cook the other side for an additional 3-4 minutes spooning on half of the garlic sauce evenly.

Turn and cook one more minute spooning the other side of the fish with remaining sauce.  Turn once again and let the fish finish cooking about one minute.  Fish cooking time should be approximately 9-10 minutes per inch.  If your fish is thinner, reduce the total cooking time.  We prefer our salmon slightly undercooked, so we cooked it for about 8 minutes or so.

Serve with lemon wedges.  The male half had his with brown rice and asparagus grilled in the same pan with the same sauce and some kalamansi (similar to lemon).    We're thinking about using this sauce on our meatloaf...well, the female half would like to, but the male half doesn't care for mustard...although he did like this recipe!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Cuban Pork Stir Fry

Dukan Cuban Pork Stir Fry

We liked this recipe...it was a bit dry, had we not overcooked it, it probably would have tasted better. Cooking lean pork has always been a challenge for us. It's the, "gotta be sure it's cooked properly thing". We probably should've opted for chicken or beef since the male half of this couple tries not to each a whole lot of pork...but we have 2 or 3 other chicken recipes we wanted to try this weekend, so pork it was!

We did enjoy the flavors of this dish and it was very easy to make.  We found this recipe on La Cocina De Nathan which has a LOT of great Hispanic recipes.  The original recipe made by Nathan is a pork chop recipe but we decided to turn it into a stir fry.  We used less onions since the male half said he wouldn't have any.

We made this as an Attack/Cruise recipe, so we used our non-stick spray, but next time we will use some olive oil to cook the pork and onions.  We also trimmed the fat from our already very lean, thin pork chops...next time, we'll probably leave a little bit of the fat on to help keep the pork moist.   Nathan notes some of the garlic may burn, but it's fine for this dish.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 as a Pure Protein meal (or 4 with a side of brown rice)
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: 7-10 minutes

6 thin, lean pork chops, sliced into thin stir-fry pieces (remove as much fat as you want, note, you can cook your pork chops whole, you don't have to stir fry yours, be sure to cook your pork well)
4-5 garlic cloves, mashed into a paste using a mortar, garlic press or mini food processor
juice of 1 1/2 limes
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. kosher salt
1/2 red onion, sliced (optional, if you're ok with onions, the female half recommends you not leave them out)
juice of 1 lime (for onions)

Mash garlic with salt, cumin and lime juice (our garlic ended up minced due to lack of time and tools).  Rub mixture on pork.   Heat pan over high heat, spray some non-stick spray (or olive oil if you're using oil).  Note: If you are cooking your pork whole, use medium high heat, not high heat.  Cook pork until 75% done.  Set pork aside.  In same pan, add more spray (or oil) and add onions.  Saute until soft (we left ours a little crunchy since that's the way the female half likes her onions).  Deglaze pan with lime juice.  Add pork back in to heat everything up and serve after pork is cooked through.

The female half ate this as a Pure Protein meal and the male half had his with rice.

Enjoy!

Dukan Jalapeno Cheddar Turkey Burgers

Jalapeno Cheddar Turkey Burgers
These were juicier than they look in this pic

We loved this recipe.

The male half of this couple doesn't get excited about food...he eats to live, not lives to eat :-)  Once in a great while when asked the question "what would you like me to make for dinner?", he will suggest something.  It's usually spicy salmon bowls or a pasta dish.  This past weekend the female half said "ground turkey's on sale, what kind of turkey burgers shall we have?" and without hesitation the male half said "how about jalapeno turkey burgers?".  Whoa, he had an opinion about what we'd be eating.  It really only happens 2-3 times per year!

That was it, we had to make jalapeno burgers.  We actually had a can of diced jalapenos for a while, so we were happy to finally use it.  We also had a little less than a 1/4 c. of fat free cheddar cheese from our Christmas Eve Baked Rigatoni (forgot to post the recipe).  The recipe turned into Jalapeno Cheddar Turkey burgers.  The female half decided to do another PP day (and probably a couple more this week to get lose her vacation weight), the male half ate his with some rice.

This was another quick and easy recipe.

RECIPE:
Makes 8 burgers
Prep Time: 20 minutes or less
Cook Time: approximately 20-30 minutes (we have a small pan, cooked 2 patties at a time)

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey, as lean as you like
1 4oz. can of diced jalapenos, drained (ok to use fresh jalapenos also, approximately 2, with or without seeds depending on how much spice you want, we usually leave a few seeds in)
1/8 c. oat bran or less (we prefer less since it tends to dry the turkey out)
1 t. adobo seasoning
1 egg
fat free cheddar cheese, grated (we used approx. 1/2 T. in each burger, but you can use more or less)

Mix all ingredients together except the grated cheese.  Form eight balls of turkey.  Form a crater in each turkey ball, add the cheese in the crater and pinch the edges together forming a ball around the cheese.  (Reminds us of making dim sum).  Gently flatten your turkey balls into patties and pan fry or grill them.  We usually cook them for approximately 3-4 minutes on one side, flip them over and cook until the juices run clear.  Try not to overcook the burgers or they will dry out.  We used a little bit of nonstick spray also.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Vanilla Lavender Oat Bran Muffins

Since the male half of this couple doesn't really care for muffins, etc...we're not requiring him to sample muffins :-)

These are our orange muffins, but the lavender ones look
the same except you can see the lavender in them.

These were great...if you like lavender that is.  Some people don't care for the taste of lavender.  Lavender buds are pretty expensive, but this recipe uses 1.5 to 2 tsp of lavender buds and the buds are very light in weight so it won't break the bank.

We used the same recipe we've been using for our oat bran muffins replacing the flavored extract with the lavender.  If you have an herb or coffee grinder, you may want to grind the lavender buds up to release more flavor.  We don't have a grinder, so we usually just rough chop the lavender buds.

RECIPE:
Makes 8-9 medium sized muffins
Prep Time: 10 minutes or less
Bake Time: 15-20 minutes (depending on your oven)

3/4 c. oat bran
1/4 c. wheat bran
2 t. baking powder
4 t. truvia or other natural sweetener
2 T. sugar free vanilla pudding mix (powder)
1.5 to 2 t. lavender buds (ground or rough chopped)
1 - 6 oz. nonfat vanilla yogurt
1 c. egg whites

Mix all dry ingredients together.  Add yogurt and egg whites and whisk.  Pour into muffin pan (we line ours with muffin liners).  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes or until done.

Enjoy!

Dukan Lemon Oat Bran Muffins

These are our new favorite muffins!  The orange is great and so is the key lime favor but these are even better!  Our family liked them too!

We used the same recipe we've been using for our oat bran muffins, just substituted the orange creme yogurt for nonfat lemon chiffon yogurt and the orange extract for lemon extract.  These are tasty.

The orange, key lime and lemon muffins look the same...although you could add food coloring if you wish.

Dukan Key Lime Vanilla Oat Bran Muffins

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, I'll take two for work (even though he's not a muffin guy).
SHE SAID: Yum!  Needs more lime though.

Key Lime Oat Bran Muffins (they look just like the orange ones, we
should have put a piece of lime on it or something!

We loved Dukanitout.com's Orange Vanilla Oat Bran Muffins and we had a Yoplait Key Lime Pie Non-fat yogurt about to expire and we both love Key Lime Pie.  Mmm.  So, we decided to adjust Dukanitout's recipe to a Key Lime Pie recipe.  We didn't have key lime extract on hand (but have ordered some) so we used fresh squeezed lime juice...we still needed more lime.  You can definitely tell it's lime though.

We have a Yoplait Strawberry and White Chocolate Non-fat yogurt about to expire also, so perhaps we will bake some up with that.  A lot of flavors go well with vanilla.  We are also hoping to make some lavender muffins with the leftover lavender buds we have.  So many possibilities to make breakfast interesting!

We are posting a recipe that actually calls for the key lime extract, but if you prefer your muffins to have a subtle flavor and have limes on hand, use 3-4 t. fresh lime juice instead of the key lime extract.

RECIPE:
Makes 6 muffins.
Prep time: 10 minutes or less
Bake Time: 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

6 T. oat bran
2 T. wheat bran
1 t. baking powder
2 t. natural sweetener
1 heaping T. sugarfree vanilla pudding
5 T. non-fat Key Lime Pie yogurt from Yoplait
1/2 c. egg whites or 2 eggs
1 1/2 t. key lime extract or 3-4 t. fresh key lime juice

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add the yogurt and eggs and whisk until smooth.  Add the extract.  Pour batter into muffin pan (we use baking cups for quicker clean up).  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-18 minutes or until cooked.

Enjoy!

Dukan Japanese Pork Roll Ups

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good!
SHE SAID: I could eat these every day!

This is a photo of our students pork roll ups, we
don't have a pic of ours yet but ours uses thinner slices or
pork and no carrots or mayo dip

One of our students made these pork roll ups sauteed in a typical Japanese sauce...shoyu (soy sauce), sake and sugar for a potluck they hosted.  You can use mirin too.  You roll up veggies in thin slices of lean pork tenderloin.  After we started the Dukan Diet, we Dukan'd the recipe!  It's very tasty and is a great dinner or snack.  We serve it with more sauteed veggies and silk tofu.

Asparagus, celery, baby bok choy, choi sum and a lot of other veggies can be rolled up in the pork slices.  We use the shabu shabu cut pork tenderloin.  The cuts at Marukai market are very thin, very lean and when on sale, very reasonable.  One tray (just under 1/2 pound) usually has around 16 slices.

If you're in the Attack Phase or want to have these on your Pure Protein day, just roll the pork up and saute them, they are still great this way!

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes (if you have a small pan, less if you have a larger pan)

1 tray shabu shabu pork tenderloin (if you don't have shabu shabu meat at your market, ask the butcher to cut the meat paper thin)
2-3 T. low sodium shoyu
1 T. water
4 T. white wine
Veggies - thinly sliced (as much as you want to put in the roll ups, we would recommend not more than 2 items and cutting them thinner than carrot sticks to cook quickly)

Place veggie(s) on a slice of meat, at the end nearest to you.  Roll tightly.  Pour liquid ingredients in pan. Turn stove on to medium high heat.  Once pan is hot, start cooking roll ups.  Put your roll ups in the pan with the flap end down.  Once it starts to cook, it'll stick together and not unravel.

The thin pork slices cook quickly but be sure to cook them thoroughly.  The glaze formed in the pan is the best part!

For those not on the Dukan Diet, these are great on a bed of hot Japanese rice!

Enjoy!