GWA: Grilled Fish Tacos

This post is a little late as Aaron made these delicious grilled fish tacos awhile ago but that doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed today...or tomorrow…or the next day….

And since grilling season will have a dramatic finish over Labor Day weekend, we thought it would be now or never, and you don’t want to face never when dealing with these bad boys.

These are some serious fish tacos.

I learned a lot about Aaron’s cooking skills this summer as he continued to make me amazing meal after meal all grilled and delicious. This was definitely one of my favorite Grilling with Aaron meals so far.

This is also a great Sunday Lunch as it is something the whole family will enjoy!

Normally fish tacos are found breaded or floured but that means they are probably not grilled. That’s not how we do things though! While I wasn’t sure at first about the grilled fish you do not miss the breading at all.

Instead the fish is tender and the flavors blend perfectly together on a crispy tortilla. No matter what you will get a great flavor without the extra breading and will be left with a pretty healthy, low fat and low calorie dinner.

So enjoy this great summer recipe from Aaron, the master of grilling, and in my opinion everything Mexican!

Grilled Tilapia Tacos:

makes 5-6 tacos
 

 

Ingredients:

4 filets of tilapia or white fish
6 small tortillas or 3 large tortillas cut in half
Garlic infused olive oil
1 cup shredded savoy cabbage
1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup of chopped Cilantro
1 fresh mango, thinly sliced
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1/3 cup chopped red onion
Homemade salsa or sour cream
Sea salt
Black pepper


Directions:

Preheat outside grill to 400-450 degrees.

Aaron’s tip: Every grill is different so the most important part is not regulating the temperature but rather watching the fish as it cooks.

Season tilapia filets with salt, pepper, and a little garlic olive oil. When grill is heated place filets on the bottom rack. Cook for 5 minutes on each side, 10 minutes total, always watching. Fish will become firm.

Make sure there is enough oil as fish sticks easily. You can also place on foil if you would like but you will not get the desired grill marks.

Once fish is cooking, lightly oil tortillas with garlic olive oil and place on the top rack of the grill. Flip each tortilla after 2 minutes and take off once a nice golden crisp appears.

Once fish and tortillas are cooked, begin to assemble toppings. Lay half of a filet of fish on each tortilla, top with a good amount of each cabbage, a few slices of mango and avocado and a pinch of chopped onions. Add chopped cilantro if desired to each taco.

Top with homemade salsa or herbed sour cream. Though you don’t even need it!

Enjoy your last bites of summer!

P.S. Stop back tomorrow for my great giveaway and review from GoPicnic Ready-to-Eat Meals!

Love,

The College Cuisiner

WIAW #31: Aaron's Garlic Grilled Chicken Sandwiches

Alright readers, I must admit after this weekend I'm getting a little spoiled by my wonderful fiancé Aaron. Not only did we spend a wonderful weekend in Center City Philadelphia for my early birthday present to see Keane (my birthday is in August) but last week he made full scale dinners FOUR TIMES.

So Let's talk about the food We Ate this Weekend:





Don't take this the wrong way baby but since we've been together I think you've made the WHOLE meal maybe once. All I'm saying is I could get used to this. Especially since I just found out that the man I'm marrying is a flipping gourmet! Where did this come from?

Really, I don’t care where I just am happy it is a reality. And that leads me to our amazing weekend. My wonderful fiancé pulled out all the stops for my pre-birthday weekend. He picked me up from work and we went to his mom’s house for Friday night.

Of course it has lots of food involved. He made his Tilapia tacos with homemade salsa (recipe to come.)


On Saturday we drove into the city to stay at the Radisson Warwick. We were starving but since we wouldn’t be able to have dinner before the concert we decided to have a nice lunch…and walk a mile and a half for it.

Totally…worth…it. We went to Amada, Joes Garces’ Spanish tapas bar in Old City. Ever since going to Barcelona I love love real Spanish tapas. 

This place was the real deal.

Because this was my birthday meal we went all out. Aaron got a beer and I ordered a deliciously refreshing Sangria Blanco with apples oranges and rosemary. Perfect for the hot day.

We started off with traditional marinated olives. We were starving and they came out first so it was perfect.

Next we had the Spanish cheese plate. I ordered the cheeses by the condiments which the Garces Trading Company sell by the jar (getting some.) The Garlic dolce de leche was incredible and was so good it outshined even the wonderful truffle lavender honey and the fig preserves. Of course we had to get more bread!

Next we ordered the crab stuffed roasted red peppers topped with almonds. WOWOW. Best thing by far.

Then we ordered two patatas dished because we couldn’t resist. First the Patatas Bravas then Patatas (perfectly crispy fries) with fried chorizo ham with an egg on top and crushed tomatoes on the bottom. Num num.

Aaron also got an ordered of the lamb meatballs with fresh peas in a light creamy sauce. I tried one which was very good but since I don’t eat red meat I didn’t go further.

Finally with a glass of Cava and then coffee we shared a wonderful flourless chocolate cake mouse layers with fresh banana gelato, chocolate sauce and roasted hazelnuts.

So after we rolled ourselves out we sat in the park we walked back, sat in the room and got dressed up to go to Parc on Rittenhouse Square for a 5:30 drink. What a lovely day in June to people watch soooo many weddings! 

Next we got changed into our concert wear (the hotel was right off of Rittenhouse) and walked to 10 Arts Lounge in the Ritz Carlton for a final drink before the concert at the Kimmel Center. Being happy hour their normally $14-15 appetizers were a whopping $5 each…so we got three so we wouldn’t be starving at the concert.


The concert was AMAZING! Keane is even better live and Tom Chaplin really gets into performing. Two and a half hours of standing, jumping andscreaming out every song I definitely got my work out in. So we went for a late night burger for him. Where else than another Joes Garces restaurant, Village Whiskey who was just awarded no. 2 burger in the country. We’ve been here before but he’s never gotten the burger. Aaron says it’s the best he’s ever had out…ever. I enjoyed my duck fat French fries with cheddar sauce and popcorn shrimp. Ah the life.


Then, bed.


This weekend included so many good eats I can hardly keep track. But since this is sensible snacking month here are some of my favorite snacks and Aaron made meals.


Aaron's Fantastic Meals:

Affectionately nicknamed " The Thai Greek" Aaron's Garlic Grilled Chicken Sandwich

Grilled tilapia tacos on grilled tortillas with mango, avocado, and homemade salsa

The amazing grilled quesadillas we posted last week.


(noticing a pattern?)


Snacks:

Hummus like-you-just-don't-care

Bananas and Justin's honey almond butter oh my!


Some of my foodie pen pal treats (sssshhhh it's a secret still!)


water (is that considered a snack?)

Apples with almond or peanut butter

The Good Bean Bars: Chocolate Berry! made with dried chickpeas instead of nuts so the bars is less fat while still being able to be chocolate covered and pull off 140 calories!

But back to those wonderful meals I've been talking about. I'm starting to feel bad that I have so many of Aaron's recipes to share instead of my own! But oh well, I just couldn't hold this recipe off!

This just came to Aaron last week and it turned out beautifully. I think he's having fun with this.

I hope you enjoy another edition of Grilling with Aaron:

Aaron's Garlic Grilled Chicken Sandwich a.k.a. "The Thai Greek": 

4 sandwiches

Ingredients:


4 chicken breasts
4 good sized bakery buns
Greek salad dressing (our favorite is Gazebo Room Greek)
6 oz. block of garlic herb cheddar cheese
Garlic infused olive oil
1/2 small white or yellow onion, sliced very thinly with a mandolin
1 cup of savoy cabbage, sliced very thinly with a mandolin
1/2 cup of shredded purple cabbage
1/2 cup olive oil mayonnaise
5 drops of Sriracha Thai hot chili sauce
black pepper


Directions:


Prepare cabbage and onions, set aside. Mix mayonnaise and hot sauce together in a small bowl, refrigerate.


Start grill and set to medium heat.


Marinate chicken breasts in Greek dressing and black pepper. If possible refrigerate marinated chicken for at least a half hour (this can be done the morning of as well.)


Cut buns in half and drizzle and rub in garlic olive oil on each side. Cut cheese into slices.


Place chicken breasts right on the hot grill. Allow to cook until brown on outside until no longer pink in the middle but still juicy (about 10, no more than 15 minutes.) 


Flip chicken after 5 minutes and add desired slices of cheese to the top being careful that cheese does not drip on the grill.


Before chicken is finished place buns open faced on the grill for no longer than 5 minutes until lightly toasted.


When finished place a grilled chicken breast on a toasted bun. On other half of bun smear a small amount of sriracha mayonnaise. Top chicken with a little sliced onion, savoy and purple cabbage on top with a little cracked black pepper. 


Serve with grilled potatoes or your favorite side.


Enjoy!


Love,


Aaron and Marisa

WIAW #30: Grilled Quesadillas and Homemade Salsa

I just realized that last week I repeated "WIAW #28" so actually, we are at 30 already! That's right folks I've been a part of this awesome link party for 30 Wednesdays over a period of 32 weeks (I missed two Wednesdays) that means I've been WIAWing for almost half a year now and you know what...it's been a blast.  I have met some great people along the way and found even more great blogs out there. I can't wait for the next thirty!

Now a little about my eats and my day:

On Saturday we went to one of my favorite places in the world, Knoebel's Family Amusement Park in Elysburg, PA. (More on this later though)

On Sunday Aaron and I went kayaking on the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, PA. We had such a great time especially after we went to the old fashioned drive in restaurant, Red Rabbit. 

 But let's talk about my weekday eats:

Breakfast

Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch cereal with fat-free milk

Cup of strength five coffee

Lunch

Grilled Cheese with three slices of tomato

2 pickle spears

Green Tea

 

Afternoon Snack

Sliced fuji apples with Natural Peanut butter on my way to a mani-pedi with mom

Dinner

Grilled Chicken quesadilla with cheddar, onion, grilled chicken 

with non-fat plain yoghurt and cilantro

homemade salsa and classic tortilla chips

Other "Fruitastic" snacks this week:

 

Fresh local strawberries with ricotta, fresh mint, lemon zest and local honey yummmmm

Fresh peach slices

Fresh strawberries at work with honey

As I don't have a recipe for today's post I thought it would be a perfect time for Aaron to share the AMAZING dinner he made last night for my mom and I. As this was grill centered I thought it would be perfect for the second edition of Grilling with Aaron which I know you are all dying for!

So without further ado, herrrrrrree's Aaron!

Growing up in San Diego, I was exposed to some of the best Mexican cuisine in the United States. Since moving to the East Coast several years ago, I have rarely found really authentic Mexican style salsa. So over the last couple of years I have made a great effort to perfect my own recipe. Salsa can be a great addition to many grilling items including steak or chicken, or one of my favorites, quesadillas on the grill.

This is a great summer meal when the grill is ready and available. The type of grill is up to you but I prefer propane since it tends to be cleaner and more efficient.

But first things first:

No quesadilla is complete without authentic salsa, here’s mine.

Perfect, Mexican Style Salsa: 

makes roughly 2 cups of prepared salsa

I never measure out ingredients exactly, I usually use a half of one jalapeno, at least two cloves of garlic, one half of a white onion, and a good bit of cilantro. The rest of the ingredients are exact. This can also be made ahead of time.

Ingredients:

½ of one fresh Jalapeno pepper

Juice of ½ lemon

Juice of ½ lime

2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

Salt to taste

20 oz. canned plum tomatoes

½ white onion

Sriracha “Rooster” Hot Chili Sauce (5 drops)

Roughly ½ cup of chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Place the tomatoes in a blender first and then pour the rest of the ingredients.

(I would not use more than five drops of Sriracha unless you want REALLY spicy salsa.)

Then slowly mix and sample a little bit until you find a taste balance that suits your personal preference. That is what salsa is all about.

For best results, transefer salsa to a large bowl and refrigerate for at least 30  minutes before serving.

Serve with Corn tortilla chips and freshly grilled quesadillas.

Now for quesadillas on the grill:

Aaron’s Grilled Chicken Quesadillas: 

makes 6 quesadillas

Ingredients:

2 skinless boneless chicken breasts

Gazebo Greek Salad dressing (about ½ cup or more for marinade)

½ white onion

2 cups of grated Cheddar cheese

Garlic infused Olive Oil

1-2 bell peppers of different colors, roughly chopped

Fresh Cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Marinate thinly sliced chicken with Greek salad dressing.

Place chicken slices on the grill until they are pink in the center (ensure you don’t cook the chicken all the way through so that it does not become overcooked when you place back on the grill in the tortillas). Once mostly cooked, slice into thin strips.

Dip tortillas in garlic infused olive oil and place a tortilla on to the grill.

While on the grill place sliced chicken, cheese, onions, and bell peppers on the tortilla and then place another oil dipped tortilla on top.

After the cheese starts to melt a little, flip the quesadilla so its golden brown on both sides. (make sure the cheese is slightly melted to acts as a “glue” for the quesadilla before flipping)

Serve immediately as quesadillas can get soggy. Serve with homemade salsa, and extra cilantro. (Try plain non-fat yoghurt for a guilt free version of sour cream.)

Enjoy!

Aaron (and Marisa)