Munchin' Mediterranean Style

One of my favorite aspects of cooking at home is the control that I have over my caloric intake. When I dine out at a restaurant I tend to gravitate toward foods that are usually loaded with cheese. Or butter. Or both. Don't even get me started on bread baskets. Seriously. Please don't put a bread basket in front of me. Or the tortilla chip basket, for that matter.

When I'm grocery shopping I feel more compelled to buy some kind of a lean meat, a veggie and some kind of carb that won't make me feel like the Michelin Man.

I lucked into a big juicy sushi grade tuna steak the other night. For 50% off! I asked the man behind the fish counter if it was still good and he said yes. Good enough for me!

A photo posted by Alyssa (@apjord01) on Feb 24, 2016 at 7:07am PST

I decided to go Mediterranean for the night (same night as the Shaya hummus http://thebitchnkitchen.blogspot.com/2016/02/hummus.html) so I grabbed some couscous, a cucumber, a tomato and some feta cheese. When I buy feta or goat cheese or really any soft cheese that comes pre-flavored I always pick a garlic&herb option.

A photo posted by Alyssa (@apjord01) on Feb 24, 2016 at 3:07pm PST

This is so quick and easy!!!

Pan Seared Tuna
1 large tuna steak
EVOO
salt
pepper

Put the tuna steak on a plate and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until just before you are ready to cook.

Heat up a quarter sized amount of oil in the skillet. Once you can make water dance on the pan toss your tuna steak on the heat. Immediately drop the tuna steak in the pan. I personally like my tuna pink in the middle so I cooked it for two minutes on one side and then flipped it for another 2 minutes. It got a nice brown sear from the pan and was cooked, but not OVERCOOKED. The steak I had was sushi grade so I definitely could have gotten away with cooking it for a shorter amount of time.

A photo posted by Alyssa (@apjord01) on Feb 24, 2016 at 7:03am PST

Couscous Salad
one box of Near East pine nut couscous (I swear by this stuff. It only takes about 8 minutes to cook in total)
1 large cucumber
1 large tomato
1 container feta cheese
balsamic vinegar
salt
pepper
lemon

Made the couscous by boiling water with one tablespoon of butter. Once the water reaches a boil, turn off the heat. Add the couscous pearls and the seasoning packet. Remove the prepared couscous from heat.
Dice both the cucumber and the tomato, leaving out the tomato seeds. Transfer into a bowl. Add feta cheese to bowl. Add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and a healthy dash of salt and pepper. Add one teaspoon of dried basil. Stir until veggies and cheese are coated. Add more balsamic vinegar if necessary. Stir in the couscous and....you're done!

A photo posted by Alyssa (@apjord01) on Feb 24, 2016 at 5:07pm PST

This was delicious and pretty healthy. The nutty flavor of the couscous paired really well with the fish. Next time I think I would add even more vegetables to the salad.