Summer Recipe Recap, Part II

I know you all have been on the edges of your seats for part two, yes!?!? Thanks to everyone who told me how much they enjoyed my food photos...makes me a feel a tad bit less crazy for taking them. Just a tad. Let's begin part two with something fan-tabulus:

TILAPIA WITH MANGO SALSA

Once again, this delicious delight is from my momma. We cooked up tilapia in the grill pan, along with some crusty bread and fresh asparagus. And kind of like the fish taco sauce from part one, this mango salsa totally makes the dish. Here's what you need to combine:

1 mango, peeled & diced

1 small can of corn kernels

1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumber

1/3 cup diced red onion
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 TBSP finely chopped jalapeno (optional)
1 TBSP lime juice
salt & pepper to taste
Momma a.k.a. Nana recommends refrigerating the salsa so all the flavors blend, plus I think it's extra tasty when chilled. I ate the salsa by itself as leftovers the next day! Love it.

CHICKEN AND APPLE POT PIES

Y'all, please forgive me. I did not get a good photo of the scrumptious little pot pies I made with this Rachael Ray recipe. Believe me, this makes me very sad. So, here is the photo from her site instead. Boo. Anyway, the tops of my pot pies did not look like biscuits like they do here, although I'm not entirely sure why...and I did not have these super cute ramekins either. But they were as gratifying as Rachael promised! And much better for us than a typical pot pie. I think the apples really make this dish amazing.

STRAWBERRY TART

When I was done making the potpies, I had a little pastry dough leftover that I did not want to waste. We also always keep strawberries on hand for lil'bub. So of course my mind wandered to this dessert dish (see sidebar)! I wanted to make it super simple, so the quickest recipe I could find online combined sliced strawberries with a couple  tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of lemon juice, a pinch of corn starch, and a tiny pinch of salt. Easy! I rolled out a circle of dough, put the mix in, and then folded the edges over. I brushed those edges with a little egg, sprinkled the whole thing with a bit more sugar, and popped it into a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes. Ce magnifique!!

BAKED SHELLS CASSEROLE

This one did not get much styling because we devoured it before I could even find the camera! ha! It's another Rachael Ray recipe. One of the reasons that I especially like Rachael recipes is because they are so quick. I mean, not as fast as she says exactly. Rachael time is about 1/2 of Bub time...so her thirty minute recipes take me about an hour. And that's about how long I like to spend. This one, however, is about four times longer than that.  If I had understood this, I probably would not have attempted it. No regrets though!! because it was sooooo good. I'd just like to point out that when you click on the link, there's a helpful little video where Rachael is showing you how to do everything. Turns out that sauce she has bubblin' away on the stove actually took me an entire night to make. As you might imagine, we had to make alternative dinner plans that night. The next night, however, I was able to put everything together and bake to perfection. As you also might imagine, we were extra ready to taste this dish. Hence, the post-dinner photo!

I hope you guys tell me if you try any of this stuff. You should take photos and send them to me! It's ok if you don't have a food setting on your camera, no judgement :)