This is a twist on a family recipe. Bacalhau is a traditional Portuguese dish served on special occasions like Easter and Christmas, but it’s made with salted dried cod-fish, which I don’t really like. My mom taught me last year to use fresh cod fish instead, and it turned out better than the original recipe. This last week I had K.T. over to try it since this is a gluten free dish with organic vegetables. I think it passed the test, but next time I will add less olive oil so the fish is not floating in it – the recipe below has been adjusted.

A taste of home. Only better.

Bacalhau – Fresh Cod Fish with Vegetables

First Part:

• 1 lb. fresh cod
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ½ onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• ½ bunch cilantro (chopped)
• 3 green onions (chopped)
• ¼ cup olive oil

Put all ingredients together in a dish and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.

Second Part:

• 2 bell peppers (of different colors – sliced)
• 2 tomatoes (sliced)
• 2 potatoes (sliced)
• 2 hard-boiled eggs (sliced)
• ½ can green olives (pitted)
• ¼ cup olive oil

Put all ingredients in the dish with the cod fish, cover with foil, and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with rice, more olive oil, and vinho verde.

Calories: 350 calories per serving (without the rice, wine and extra olive oil). This recipe makes 4 servings.

My organic basket from last week also had swiss chard. I remember hating it as a child (or even as an adult) and I waited a whole week until I finally decided to cook it. I didn’t even invite anyone else for dinner that night because I was sure no one in the world was crazy enough to like swiss chard.

I looked up online an easy recipe and came upon something called a 3-minute swiss chard. Patience is not a virtue I possess so this recipe sounded great. It even had a little blurb about how this vegetable is a super food like spinach, rich in nutrients like vitamins and antioxidants, and blah, blah, blah… I’m sure I’ll hate it anyway.

Besides waiting for the water the boil, this recipe was pretty simple and used ingredients I always have at home. Actually, of course, I didn’t have everything: no olives or feta cheese that day, but then I just added what I had in the fridge – onion and parmesan cheese. Wow, I’m starting to make my own recipes now!

Surprise, surprise: this dish was one of the tastiest things I had in a while! So glad I hadn’t invited anyone over. I ate the whole thing in one seating.

My new favorite vegetable: Swiss Chard

5-minute Swiss Chard with Parmesan Cheese

• 1 bunch of swiss chard (chopped, but without thick parts of the stem)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• ½ medium red onion (chopped)
• Juice of ½ lime
• 3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Boil lots of water in a pot. Once it’s at a rapid boil, add the swiss chard. Do not cover. After 3 minutes, drain the water with a colander.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onion for about a minute until it’s translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Add the boiled swiss chard and sauté everything for a minute.

Stir in lime juice and parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Calories: 400, but this recipe should serve 2 people.

This past Easter, when I went to Boston, I had a gluten free chocolate cake that tasted awesome. First of all, I don’t even like chocolate cakes because they are dry and don’t even taste like chocolate. I prefer brownies… But this one was just like an oversized Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie and I just couldn’t believe the main ingredient was black beans!

The lady who had made it got the recipe from this Healthy Indulgences website. It took me a couple of times to make a good one. For the first one I used Splenda. Argh. Horrible aftertaste. Then for the second time I decided I didn’t need to be that healthy. I have a few friends who are gluten free, so it is always good to have a dessert they will be able to enjoy. When I made it for my birthday, it turned out so good there wasn’t even a piece left. It is just a really nice moist minty cake with no hint of black beans whatsoever.

Who knew black beans could make a tasty dessert?

Gluten-free Mint Chocolate Cake

• 1 can of unseasoned black beans (15 oz)
• 5 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons mint extract (actually I probably put more as the little bottle fell in. Oops)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 and ¼ cups granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9” cake pan with olive oil or grease it with butter. Dust cocoa all over inside the pan, tapping evenly to distribute.

Drain and rinse beans in a strainer or colander. Place beans, 3 of the eggs, vanilla, mint, and salt into blender. Blend on high until beans are completely liquefied.

Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs, beating for a minute after each addition.

Pour bean batter into egg/butter/sugar mixture and mix them all together.

Whisk together cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Slowly add this to the main mixture. Beat the batter until smooth. (First, make sure the cocoa is all incorporated into the batter otherwise you’ll have the powder all over your face like I did).

Scrape batter into pan and smooth the top. Grip pan firmly by the edges and rap it on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles.

Bake for 45 minutes (well, in high altitude it took one hour…) Cake is done when the top is rounded and firm to the touch. After 10 minutes, take the cake from the pan and let it cool. Cover it with plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

This recipe makes just one layer.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons half and half or coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt

Cream the butter until fluffy. Stir sugar into butter with a spatula, then beat until smooth. Slowly blend in the cocoa powder, vanilla, and sea salt. Makes enough to frost the one layer of the chocolate cake recipe.

Calories: 450 per slice for both cake and frosting. Makes 8 slices.

I need to go make one NOW!

Growing up, my mom would make me a smoothie every morning and take it to my bed, where I would drink it half asleep. Then I would go back to bed and sleep until lunch time. Call me lazy and spoiled, but I am just not a morning person, and my mom was just trying to get me some nutrients before noon. Fast forward 15 years later and I still have smoothies pretty much every morning, although I have to get up a whole 5 minutes before I’m supposed to just to make them. Maybe I am a little lazy, because the best thing about smoothies is that I don’t even have to chew anything that early in the morning.

Last week I got a basket of organic fruits and vegetables, and I was in smoothie heaven. My favorite was a Peach Smoothie:

• Fresh-squeezed juice of one orange (about ¾ cup)
• ½ cup of almond milk
• Lowfat strawberry yogurt (4 oz. container)
• ½  banana
• 1 peach

Blended it all in for one large delicious glass of only 300 calories.

Peach Smoothie