A Habana Cafe Inspired Recipe

So as you may remember in a recent post, I had delicious meal at my favorite Cuban restaurant, Habana Cafe while in Gulfport Florida back in May. So when I put some rice on to cook and was looking around trying to think of what I wanted to make for dinner, I thought black beans and shrimp and then I thought, Cuban Black Beans and Shrimp!

And voila! About 30 minutes later I was sitting down to my own homemade version of that oh so memorable meal after a quick search for how to make Cuban Black Beans!

Shrimp in Coconut and Butter Garlic Sauce:

1 Bag Raw Shrimp (I used the 20-25 count size so they were about the size of my thumb, fairly large)
1 lemon
4 cloves of Garlic diced
1-2 tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
2-4 tbs unsalted butter
1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine (Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay works well)
1/2 tsp salt and 1/2-1 tsp black pepper

1. Thaw shrimp in cold water. Yes, COLD not warm, cold water! (They actually thaw much faster in cold)
2. Mince Garlic
3. Once shrimp are thaw, put Coconut Oil and Butter in a pan and heat to medium. Add garlic while pan is still heating up.
4. Let garlic cook 1-2 minutes (just want to soften, not crisp or burn!)
5. Add Shrimp and wine. Zest lemon and squeeze 1/2 lemon into pan. Add salt and pepper
6. Cook shrimp til tender but not overdone... about 2-3 minutes per side at Medium(4-6) to High(6-9) heat.

Serve with black beans over rice, use liquid as a sauce over rice. Option- serve rest of lemon in wedges to be squeezed over plate.

Cuban Style Black Beans:
via Marta of Babalublog
This is not exactly like Marta's but her's laid the base for how I made mine!

2 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
1/4 Large red onion diced
1/2 Red bell pepper diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 can of black beans 
1/4 cup of red or white wine
1 tsp. of sugar 
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 packet of Goya seasoning with azafran- *I didn't have this so I just used a pinch of saffron from my stash and 1 tsp Cumin!
salt and pepper to taste


1. Dice onion, pepper and garlic. Heat black iron skillet to medium with Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. Toss diced veggies in.
2. Let veggies cook 3-5 minutes on medium to medium low heat.
3. Partially drain black beans but leave some of the juice in can (if you like your beans more swimming than don't drain at all)
4. Pour wine into pan and stir veggies. Then add black beans.
5. Add seasonings- sugar, Goya Seasoning or Cumin and Saffron, oregano,salt, pepper
6. Let cook on medium for 5-10 minutes or let simmer on low while you cook rest of your meal!

Serve alone or over rice!

I made this recipe in about 30 minutes! It was simple but definitely in the Delicious of the Most category!

Coconut Tilapia with Stuffed Bell Pepper

ForI LOVE fish! In fact, when I finish with my juice fast I intend to use it as an opportunity to completely change my food lifestyle by eating primarily vegetarian... except I can't give up fseafood. I just love it to much, so I will actually be adopting a pescatarian diet.

In the mean time, here is a meal I made last week before starting my juice fast thanks to some beautiful fresh tilapia I found at Costco. 

When I got it home I knew I wanted to do something simple by tasty with it and since I was feeling kind of lazy I came up with this quick and simple way of cooking it. It turned out to be DELICOUS!

Coconut Tilapia and Stuffed Bell Peppers

Serves: 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

I suggest starting on the peppers first so they can be baking in the oven while you cook the fish!

For Fish:

1/2 cup Coconut Flour (find at your local natural foods/ health store or whole foods)

1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper, 2 tsp Paprika 

3-6 tbs Virgin Coconut Oil (it has much more flavor and health benefits then 2nd pressed)

Fresh Tilapia- at least 4 fillets 

For Stuffed Peppers:

2 large bell peppers (I prefer red, orange or yellow over green personally) to stuff

1 pepper to chop up

3 big handfulls of chopped Kale (stems removed)

1 zucchini chopped

1 cup of cooked rice (jasmine, brown, black) or quinoa (left overs work great!)

3 cloves garlic minced

2 tbs lemon

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil or coconut oil

The fish is so easy- just mix the salt, pepper and paprika into the coconut flour and set on a plate. Dredge the fillets straight from package or after a quick rinse if you prefer in the flour then set on a clean plate. 

Heat Coconut oil in a large flat bottom pan. Bring to high heat. When oil heated add dredged fillets and turn heat to medium. Let cook 3-4 minutes then flip and cook another 3-4 minute or until flesh is firm. 

To make Stuffed Peppers:

1: Rinse all veggies and cook rice if not already cooked, set oven to 350 to preheat

2: Cut top off pepper by running knife all the way around so as to keep the seed bunch easily removable with the top. I then chop the out parts of the pepper top up and add it into the mix but you can save it to pace back on as a top when cooking if you like- just remove the seeds/center. 

3: Clean out interior of peppers from any seeds or pith (the white bits) and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 min. Then place them directly in a cold water/ice bath to stop cooking. Drain and rub interior with a bit of oil using fingers. 

4: Dice other veggies (zucchini, peppers, kale) into small 1/2 inch bites and mince garlic. 

5: Heat another skillet with oil (I like coconut) to medium heat and add zucchini, peppers and garlic. Cook 4 minutes

6: Add kale and cook another 4 minutes. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper and any other seasoning you might like! Add rice. Stir until whole mixture is well incorporated. 

7: Using a spoon, stuff peppers with mixture. You can really pack it in!

8: Place peppers in a glass baking dish and put on middle rack in oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes!

Once peppers are tender slice in half gently and using a spoon plate with fish! Or use more peppers and double the filling and give each person a whole pepper! I served half a stuffed pepper per person and so 2 stuffed peppers served 4 of us!

Bon Appétit!

Cauliflower "White/Alfredo" Sauce

Ok, so it has been a while since I posted a recipe for you all. In truth I cook dinner for my family nearly every night of the week but 75% of the time I'm half started on making dinner before I remember I should have grabbed my camera.  And about 50% of my meals are staple favorites like Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti, Grilled or Broiled Salmon, Grilled Chicken with various veggies or Salad. 

But it has been too long my friends! So when I was on Pinterest yesterday and saw a pin for Cauliflower Sauce, well I just had to try it and see if it turned out as well as the Cauliflower Pizza!

I also had a package of frozen "fresh" calamari and though I could add those into this meal. 

The Cauliflower Sauce is really simple. I'd go with white cauliflower unless you want to freak your fam out and buy the purple kind!

Cauliflower White Sauce:

Servings 4

Prep Time: 5-10 min

Cook Time: 10 min

1 Large fresh head of cauliflower 

8 cloves garlic

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste ( I found that because cauliflower is so bland that I had to season more than I normally would)

1. If using a whole head of cauli, cut off stalk and break into medium bunches.

2. Place cauliflower in pot over steamer rack (I'm not a fan of boiling but if you prefer you can boil them to) Steam for 6 minutes. 

3. Now de-skin garlic and mince. Place in unheated small skillet with 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil and bring to medium temperature- cook about 3 minutes (don't let the garlic brown as it turns bitter tasting)

4. Drain cauliflower and reserve 1-2 cup of cooking liquid.  Place drained cauliflower in blender or food processor and add garlic with butter/oil mixture.

5. Blend 30 seconds, then add 1/2 cup water, blend 30 seconds. Add water until you reach desired consistency (do you like thick or thin sauce?) I added about 1 cup total. 

6. Serve over your favorite pasta, mix with rice for a "cheesy" sauce or use as white sauce  for pizza!  The sky is the limit really. 

I put mine over some gluten free spaghetti (I'd have used linguini if I'd had it) and added green peas and some pan sauteed calamari. And then I added Old Bay and it was delicious! :) The family approved! Except next time I think i will use a bolder flavored protein like salmon, ground turkey or shrimp because the whole dish while it looked nice was really bland even with the seasoning I'd added to the calamari and the sauce until I added some Old Bay.