Cooking on a boat is a lot different than cooking on land—if its not the counter space thats an issue, its the stovetop or oven space.  If its not space that is an issue its generally just using what is available to you to make a decent and healthy meal.  So far, so good on SV Ojigwan!

Also…

You should know that I am really great at NOT following recipes.  I hardly ever measure and often will make things without having all the proper ingredients.  I just use what I have and substitute where I can.  Because of this, some things will taste different each time I make them…sometimes better, sometimes not so much LOL.  For our crossing from Georgetown SC to Ocracoke NC, I prepared an easy passage meal, a stuffed pepper casserole.  I had made this before on another passage and it was a hit.  It was still good this time around but tasted different to Ridgey.  I thought so too—maybe not enough tomato sauce?  Not enough cheese?  The fact that I only had one pepper to use this time?? Haha who knows.  Cooking is fun…just go with it.  If it tastes like shit, add hot sauce.

MEAT DISHES:

Bison or Beef Taco bowls

This is a staple for Ridgey and I.  We use bison when it is available, but in the Bahamas it is non existent.  We substituted with beef here.

INGREDIENTS:

• Beef or Bison
• Cheese (any kind really) We prefer cheddar or gouda
• Onions
• Peppers
• Red cabbage
• Cilantro
• Tomatoes
• Avacado
• Mango
• Thai Chili Sauce or hot sauce or Sriracha
• Beans (black or refried)

Directions: Cook the beef in skillet and season with adobo, cumin, pepper, garlic salt, and smoked paprika.  Once meat is nearly brown, add onions and peppers to pan and cook to desired consistency.  At the time I add the peppers and onions to the meat, I would add the beans to a small pot to began warming. Once peppers, onions and meat are cooked, sprinkle cheese on top and close the lid to melt.  Meanwhile, dice tomatoes, avocado and mango and set aside.  Also began slicing the cabbage and cilantro.  Once the cheese is nice and melty, place the meat in the bowl and top with tomatoes, avo and mango.  Then sprinkle crunchy cabbage and cilantro on top and add your desired amount of sauce (I love the Franks brand of sriracha better than actually sriracha—its almost like a thai chili type of flavor and doesn’t have as much heat as real sriracha).  You’re done—enjoy!

BBQ Pork Chops with crispy slaw over crunchy cheese potatoes with a black bean and corn salad as a side.

Here in the Bahamas, pork has been the one thing that has been pretty reasonable as far as pricing goes.  Unfortunately it is usually found in chop form, as opposed to loin which I typically like.  Loins are hard to overcook and always come out perfectly tender and juicy, unlike the pork chop, which although I had never cooked before now, I remember them being dry and tasteless growing up #sorryma.  However…my stance on the porkchop has changed after cooking them a few times and here is one of my favorite recipes so far.

Ingredients:

• Pork chops (4)
• Onions (1)
• 1 Cup (roughly) of Pineapple juice ( I ran out of pineapple juice and used guava for these once and it was fine)
• 1/2 Cup (roughly) of BBQ sauce
• 1/2 Cup (roughly) of Chili sauce
• 4 Lg potatoes, cut and sliced with skin on if using red skin (any potato will do!)
• Cheddar
• Red cabbage
• two large carrots or a handful of pre-shredded carrots
• sesame seeds
• Agave
• Lime juice
• Black Beans (1 can)
• Corn (1 Can)
• Green Pepper (1/2)
• Rice Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper
• Diced tomatoes (1 can)
• a couple diced (pickled) jalepenos for heat (not nessessary)
• 1 TBS Olive Oil

Directions:  Preheat oven to 325.  In a pyrex type baking dish, add some olive oil, the pineapple juice, the pork chops, the BBQ sauce and Chili sauce and top with the sliced onion.  Bake for 1 hour, uncovered at 325.  While pork chops are baking: take a nap, do yoga, watch an episode of your favorite show for an hour, then go pull the baking dish from the oven, cover with foil and put it back in the oven at 350 for the remaining 30 minutes.  At this time, slice potatoes and throw them in a skillet (with olive oil) at low to mid heat and cover.  Add salt and pepper too.  While they are cooking, slice your red cabbage and carrots and throw in a bowl.  Add lime juice and Agave (I just kept adding and tasting until I liked the flavor), I added pepper and topped with sesame seeds and then put it in the refrigerator.  Next up is the corn and bean salad and its super easy—drain one can of black beans, add it to a bowl, drain one can of corn and add it to the same bowl, add one can of diced tomatoes (also drained) and add to bowl.  Slice peppers and jalapenos and add to the same bowl and add rice vinegar (any will do), olive oil and salt and pepper.  Mix and let chill.  Once you notice that the potatoes are cooked, turn the heat up higher to crisp (this is a personal preference).  The crispier you want them, the earlier you should start cooking them.  Once the potatoes are to your liking, add cheddar cheese on top and cover to melt cheese.  Once pork and potatoes are done you can plate–I plated the cheesy crispy potatoes first, topped with pork (I sliced the chops up for easier eating), top with coleslaw (this coleslaw is just leftover from a recipe I used the night before with mahi) and add the bean salad as a side dish.  What you have is a cheesy, savory, spicy, BBQ’y stack of deliciousness.  You can add more BBQ or hot sauce to the top of the stack if you’d like.

Chicken Gyros

Ingredients:

• Two large chicken breasts
• Mixed greens
• 1 tomato (diced)
• ¼ c cucumbers
• 3 pitas
• Red onion (red onion is strong and I only add a tiny bit of it.  Maybe once slice off of the onion, but diced)
• 2 c Greek yogurt
• For dressing:
• ¼ c olive oil
• 2 oz of chevre goat cheese
• 1tbs of Dijon
• 2 tbs of balsamic
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano to taste

First, I like to marinate the chicken breasts in greek yogurt prior to cooking them.  The longer the better obviously, but I have let them marinate for as short of a time frame as 1 hour.  Once done marinating, I cook the chicken and I added some garlic salt and pepper to it while it was cooking.  While chicken is on the stove, I slice the tomatoes, cucumbers and red onion and throw into a bowl.  I then start on the dressing.  SUPER easy…add all ingredients together and stir….done.  Once chicken is done cooking, I shredded as best as I could and set aside.  I sliced the top of the pita open and began stuffing it with goodness.  First, I used a knife to spread the sauce all over the inside of the pita.  Then I added some mixed greens, and then the tomato/cucumber/onion combo and lastly added the shredded chicken.  I added some more dressing on top for extra flavor 😊

VEGGIE DISHES

Eggplant, pesto, tomato, and capers over Polenta with feta

Ingredients:

• 1 Large Eggplant
• Pesto
• 1 Can of diced tomatoes
• Capers
• Polenta
• Mozzarela
• Feta
• Olive Oil
• Oregano

Directions:

Super easy! I cut the eggplant, threw it in a skillet, cooked until soft, in olive oil, oregano and some pesto.  Added canned diced tomatoes, capers and topped with feta.  I sliced the polenta about a quarter inch thick—thick enough where it won’t break when you flip it and fried it in the skillet until golden and heated through.  I plated the polenta, topped it with mozzarella cheese, and then topped it with my eggplant and tomatoes. This was so easy and so so so good.  As a side, I did honey balsamic carrots.

Honey Balsamic Carrots

These I found online and wanted to give credit to the website where I found this amazing recipe— http://tiphero.com/honey-balsamic-carrots/

The BEST Avo Toast

Ingredients:

• Bread
• Avocado
• Tomato
• Lemon
• Crushed red pepper
• Chevre goat cheese
• Crushed black pepper

Slice and mash avocado.  Add a tiny bit of lemon juice (to your liking), crushed red peppers and mix well with mashed avo.  Toast bread to your liking and while its toasting slice tomatoes.  Top toast with goat cheese, then avo mash, then sliced tomatoes, then add black pepper to taste.  Add balsamic if desired 😊

Summer Veggie Salad (for those of you who don’t like lettuce)

• 1 zucchini (when I made this, I only had two zucchini)
• 1 squash
• 1 can of corn
• 1 oz of goat cheese
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Pepper
• Adobo
• Red pepper flakes

Use ribbon peeler to slice the zucchini into thin strips and place in a large bowl.  Add can of corn, and crumble the goat cheese on top.  Last drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle adobo, ground pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.

OZ Salad

I’m calling this my OZ salad bc I had it in Australia (My loveley sister in law made it because she had had it at a restaurant there) and I loved it so much, I had to recreate it.

Ingredients:

• Halloumi
• 1 c quinoa
• 2 large diced tomatoes
• 1 bag of arugula
• Pine Nuts
• 2 sweet potatoes

Rinse and dice sweet potatoes.  Coat in olive oil and place in a baking dish.  Bake at 350 until crisping.  30 minutes?  Cook the quinoa while the potatoes are roasting.  In a large salad bowl add arugula, tomatoes, and pine nuts.  At this time, start cooking the halloumi on the stove top. Once the potatoes are roasted to your liking.

DRINKS:

Kombucha

Ridge and I love our kombucha and always bought from the store until we were about to leave the US.  I did not want to go without this bubbly probiotic for months, so I made a scoby and the rest is history.  We have been making it for the past few months now and I honestly am unsure of how many batches.  Here is the site I have been using for my delish kombucha—http://www.liveeatlearn.com/the-simple-guide-to-kickass-kombucha/