A Fish Tale-Orange Honey Halibut

I have been thinking about that fish in my freezer for three days now, hence the title, A Fish Tale.  It was such a pretty piece of fish that I had to do something special rather than just bake it in some lemon and seasonings, although that is sometimes just as good as anything else. However, I'm trying to eat lean and ensure that I enjoy what I'm eating and that it isn't just a *chore* to eat healthy. 

Growing up so close and living close to the Gulf Coast, fish and seafood were always easy to come by. Any time I would go to the beach, when I would return home, I would hit the grocery and most of my "meat" take home was fish for a good month. I just love fish but sometimes it can be a little boring. I remember during the summer I was complaining on Facebook that now that I live in Idaho, the abundance of shrimp and the fish that I enjoy are not here. However, I got lucky a few weeks ago and learned that our local Butcher Block (the name of the store) also sells fish! I was a happy camper, particularly learning that all of the shrimp they carry is gulf shrimp and that she can get me anything I want. Since I was in a hurry that day, I settled for this beautiful piece of Ahi and a nice 1 lb. fillet of halibut. I've been trying to think of something to do with that fish but just never came up with something exciting. I mean, if you are trying to eat healthy you should at least look for low calorie ways to jazz up your food.

After looking through a bunch of the fish posts that I had pinned on Pinterest, I decided to come up with my own bastardized recipe (meaning I took ideas from several recipes). I came up with orange and honey marinade and on the side an orange/avocado (told you I loved them) salsa. Oh yeah, this was a good one! So, here's how it went and the recipe:

• 1/2 cup of orange juice (you can squeeze fresh, which is always nice, or use bought. If you use bought, stay away from anything that is concentrate, always go with 100% juice. I used the Trop50, so the orange juice for the marinade was only 25 calories). 
• 4 teaspoons raw honey (as I mentioned in my posting about tea, you want raw, local honey). Remember, honey is only 22 calories per teaspoon and since you are using it as a marinade, you aren't killing yourself with 88 calories) 
• 4 teaspoons of EVOO (that's extra virgin olive oil. You could also use coconut oil or grapeseed oil if you prefer. I like to use grapeseed but unfortunately, I only have olive in the kitchen right now). 
• 1 pound of halibut (Quite frankly, you can use any fresh you want but you want a nice meaty fish like salmon, grouper, etc). 

Mix the juice, honey and EVOO together and take my word for it, mix it in a bowl first. Usually when I create marinades, I just slosh it all together in the baggie but that honey will stick to the sides and you'll be cursing so take it from me, mix it in a bowl first THEN pour it in the baggie after you have dissolved the honey in the juice. Put the fish in, seal and refrigerate for at least an hour. 

The next part of this dish is a side of yummishness...orange/avocado salsa. So here's how that goes: 

• 1 1/2 large oranges (I used navel because I didn't want seeds and that's really all I had on hand). I sliced, peeled and then just cut into pieces. You might want to be a little more elegant than me and peel, separate the sections then slice. I just went for the slice and then peel method. 
• 1 avocado (cut into pieces...like I have to tell you that!)
• 1/4 cup of cilantro. (Always use fresh cilantro since you won't get that flavor burst from dried. Additionally, I like to *cut* my cilantro with scissors so I'm getting nice pieces of that wonderful herb)
• 1 teaspoon of EVOO
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (this did kick the salsa a little bit, but I like that kind of kick. You might want to use less or use cumin or chili powder instead. You just want a little seasoning to give it a little somethin', somethin'). 
• 1/4 cup of lime juice. 
• Optional: raw onion. (Yeah, if you read my earlier post, you know I do not like raw onion but for some folks, raw onion would be a nice addition. 

Mix all of this together and refrigerate while you are waiting for the fish to marinade. 

Heat the oven to 400 (after the fish has marinated an hour) and cook. Because the fish was as thick as it was, I cooked 25 minutes. I poured just a little of the marinade over the fish and lightly seasoned with sea salt. You don't want to put all of the marinade in with the fish since you don't want it swimming in marinade, even though fish like swimming...not as good for them while they are cooking! 

I chose to accompany my fish dish with asparagus. Nothing fancy, just used my Calphalon fajita pan and sauteed in a little EVOO and seasoned with Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt (Love that stuff since it has onion and garlic powder and a few other tasty herbs). 

Here is the final result. This is 1/2 of the halibut, so essentially, this recipe could serve two adults or you could add another side like saffron rice (that would probably be a very nice accompaniment, but alas I'm not eating rice right now) and get 4 smaller servings from the fish. After eating this salsa with this fish, I really don't think anything but I nice big, meaty white fish will work and lemme tell ya, this was as yummy as I thought it would be! 

Well, I'm off to think of something fun and healthy to cook tomorrow night since my grandkids are coming for a spend the night party. Hmmm, yep homework for me! 

Eat Fresh, Be Well (#eatfreshbewell)

--Kim

Romancing the Avocado

Yeah, I know, that's a cheesy title but quite honestly, I look for ways to incorporate avocado into a meal every single day so I do love avocados. I know that some people think that the high fat content makes them a food that you might not want to eat often but the health benefits of the avocado far outweigh that idea. The protein and fiber alone make this fruit an excellent choice. In fact, they are good for lowering cholesterol and have fat burning benefits as well. Aside from that, I just love avocados!!! 

As I stated in another post, one of my goals is to start trying some of those recipes I have been collecting on Pinterest. So, tonight, I made myself the most awesome salad which, of course, contained avocado. The original recipe is Zesty Lime, Shrimp and Avocado salad. Of course, I modified it and my recipe is for one serving. Trying this recipe tonight also gave me the opportunity to use my new avocado slicer. That is one of my new really cool kitchen tools...makes slicing proportional pieces so easy. Check it out below! 

So, here's the recipe for one serving: 

1 tbsp of olive oil (extra virgin...EVOO)

1/8 cup of lime juice (I used concentrated in the squeeze bottle since I only had one small lime in the house). Fresh lime juice is always best. 

8 cherry tomatoes (quartered) 

1 medium avocado

12 cooked shrimp (I used jumbo shrimp so depending on the size, you might want to use a few more) 

2 boiled eggs (I only used the whites. This is where I deviated from the original recipe since the original didn't call for eggs)

Fresh cilantro (you can use as much as you like and I like a lot of cilantro). 

I also eliminated the raw onions from the original recipe because I hate raw onions. 

In a bowl, combine the olive oil and lime juice and stir. Chop up the tomatoes, avocado, shrimp and eggs and toss them into the bowl with the EVOO and well, toss. Salt and pepper to taste then stir in the cilantro. I also served this on top of fresh spinach and it was a great evening meal. 

Naturally, you can increase this recipe if you're feeding more people or use these proportions if you are serving this as an opening appetizer. It's a great choice! 

#eatfreshbewell 
--Kim

But Water is So Boring!

We all know how good water is for us. For some folks, drinking tons of water a day is an easy task, for others (like me), I have to constantly remind myself to keep my water glass full. I will be honest, I've done so well with drinking water as of late that if I don't drink at least three 24 oz. glasses of water, my body reminds me. How does it do that, well oddly enough one evening I started noticing that my lips were getting chapped and I had not been outside in the cold at all. I drank two 24 oz glasses of water and the next morning, my lips were fine again. I guess it could be worse, eh? 

My problem is, water is so boring to drink. All that watery goodness is just hard to handle unless you figure out a way to drink it without the boring factor. So, I have several methods that help me stay on top of my water in-take. 

Method 1: Keep the little food keeper (Tupperware or whatever you call it) full of lemon and lime slices. I will drink water all day long with lemons and limes squeezed into it. I will not drink as much water if I don't have the fruit sliced up so I make sure that I always have slices of fruit (again, for me it's lemons and limes...you might prefer a different fruit). I will also admit to being lazy about the whole fruit slicing thing, so I make sure that when cutting up veggies and such at night for dinner, that I take that time to slice more fruit. 

Method 2: I use a 24 oz. Cool Gear cup. Not only does it keep my water nice and cool, I will drink water more quickly if I am drinking through a straw. Not a big mystery, really, but it definitely helps me, otherwise I sip and I do not refill my glass as often. 

Method 3: TEA! I try to always keep a pitcher of tea in the fridge. Seriously, tea is just flavored water and how you choose to flavor your water is all up to you. Here's the deal with me, I do not like hot drinks so I always drink iced tea. My all time favorite tea: Wild Berry Plum by Republic of Tea. I used to sell ROT in my store in Alabama so I always had tea on hand. Now that I'm in Idaho, I can't find ROT so easily so I settle for the next best thing Red Zinger by Celestial Seasonings. Quite frankly, I love any tea that has hibiscus in it! 

The cool thing about herbal teas is that you get lots of flavor with no caffeine. However, even with green tea, the caffeine is minimal but the health benefits with polyphenols and EcG cannot be beat. Don't take my word for it, Health Benefits of Tea. The great thing is there are so many tea varieties to choose from that you just cannot go wrong...well, unless you don't know how to steep your tea. If you are brewing white tea, you only steep for 1 minute. White tea is as close to a pure tea leaf as you can get so it can be strong. If you over-steep white tea, you might end up with it tasting so strong that you wondered why you paid so much for tea that doesn't taste all that great. If you brew green tea, you only want to let the bags steep for 2 minutes...again, you don't want to make it too strong or you may not like it. Black tea should steep for 4 minutes and herbals are the longest at 5 minutes. ROT makes this cool little hour glass timer for tea and I use it. 

Normally I will drink my tea with nothing else in it but on occasion I might put in a tsp of raw honey per half gallon. Honey has its own health benefits and at 22 calories a tsp, I'm not getting that much raw honey. There are so many tea choices that you are bound to find something to satisfy even the most particular of tastes. 

Republic of Tea

Wow...I'm getting thirsty and I hear the teapot calling my name! 

--Kim

Keeping the Spaghetti Real

I have always loved pasta. Even though I know I do not come from an Italian heritage, I'm fairly certain that it's in my blood; how it got there I'm unsure but I love all things Italian! Unfortunately, I don't do great with pasta (complex carbohydrates) from a health perspective since I turn those types of carbohydrates into sugar and if I'm gonna have sugar in me, I want to ingest it! I take medication to keep my sugar levels reasonable. I'm not a diabetic but if I didn't mind what I eat, I very well could be. I literally crave pasta because I think that creating "something" that goes over pasta is just good food. However, I usually only eat pasta about once per month so I've been looking for something to help "feed my need" while not throwing my insulin levels out the window. 

Anyway, I love to find recipes and post to Pinterest. Well, not just recipes but other things as well but recipes has been high on my Pinterest board list. This week I kept seeing a pin from many folks for "one pot spaghetti". So, tonight I figured, I would give it a try so I looked up those recipes and honestly, I was not overly impressed...I think the recipes were just too simple for me. So, I took some liberties while following some of their instructions and in order to keep it more healthy, I also made some other adjustments as well. 

For instance, I used the Ancient Harvest brand of quinoa noodles (rotini) tonight. I also used ground turkey instead of ground beef and I put way more seasoning than they called for in their recipes. I also used Classico traditional tomato and basil since it has the least amount of sugars of any canned or pre-prepared pasta sauce. While I deviated from the recipes that I found online, I did not deviate from the "one pot approach". I must say, it's not really what I'm used to when I prepare spaghetti but it made for a good dinner. 

Here's the recipe: 

1/2 large onion
2 cloves of garlic (elephant...meaning big cloves). You might like yours more garlicky so adjust as needed. 
2 small sweet peppers (these are like bell peppers but not as "bell peppery tasting". I don't dig bells). 
2 Tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1.25 lbs ground turkey
Baby portabellas (use as many as you like, again, this is all about what you like) 
14 oz. free range chicken broth
1 jar Classico tomato and basil
1 14 oz can diced tomatos (I always use basil, garlic and oregano ones and don't drain). 
12 oz. rotini pasta
Basil
Oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

I put the first three items in a food processor since I love to hit a button and "chop-o". 

In a large saucepan or pot, saute the above chopped vegetables on medium in the EVOO until they are tender, don't overcook. Brown the turkey (I didn't drain it and the dish wasn't greasy). Add the mushrooms, chicken broth, tomato sauce, tomatoes and pasta. I then lightly salted (note, I didn't salt until this step) and added the basil and oregano. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 16-19 minutes (depending on how you like your pasta) and I checked it every 5 minutes or so, stirring. Depending on your stove, you might need to add a little water if the liquid evaporates and the pasta still needs a little more cook time. Unlike the recipes I found, I didn't use water since I used a can of diced tomatoes...just figured it gave me a little extra liquid and didn't need the water. I was right. The consistency of the dish was perfect and while it didn't taste like my traditional spaghetti, it was very good. 

Here's the thing about this recipe, it's gluten-free as well. If you are a vegetarian, don't use turkey, use zucchini, broccoli or other meaty vegetables instead. I have plans to take traditional recipes and find ways to reduce the fat and calories as well as finding alternative sources for food I love like pasta. I love quinoa and this pasta definitely "kept the spaghetti real". 

--Kim

Bee Positive

I have always heard that it is best to consume foods that are grown local to your area. So, about two weeks ago I went to our local produce stand and purchased some honey. Now...I typically drink flavored green teas...not artificially flavored but flavored with real fruits and herbs so I rarely sweeten my tea. However, I have just been feeling the need to boost up the flavor so I started using 3 tsp. of honey for a half gallon of tea and what a difference it makes! A tsp of honey is approximately 21 or 22 calories so I'm ingesting a whopping 66 calories for the entire half gallon. To think, I've been avoiding naturally sweetening my tea when I could be enjoying the juicy goodness of honey.

Clipart by Geo Images - http://clipartof.com/1118846
So...here's the positives of including this honey in my tea...bee pollen contains a rich supply of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids. It protects the liver from toxins and boosts energy and vitality. It also is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory as well. It also possesses antibacterial, antiviral, andtifungal, and antiprotozoan agents...essentially preventing bacterial cell division, just like prescription antibiotics.

So...don't dismiss the pleasure of having something sweet but don't overdo either! Additionally, support your local bee community and purchase locally, not store bought since it is better for you!