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Weight Loss
What A Friend I Have In Fish
As I’ve said many times before, maintaining a healthy weight-loss diet really isn’t rocket science. It’s about making intelligent choices, maintaining a proper balance, staying away from processed foods, sugars, and unnecessary fats, and just using some common sense. One of those bits of common sense is that one of the best things you can have a lot of in your diet is fish.
Fish generally provides one of the best sources of lean protein you can get. Not all fish is equal (salmon, for example, is a lot fattier than sole), but pretty much any and all fish is a good safe bet when you’re trying to take off some pounds.
Where a lot of people make mistakes with this advice, is that they think only about the content of what fish IS, and now how it’s prepared! I don’t care how lean and healthy an ingredient is, if you deep fry it, you may as well just slap it right on your belly, or hips, or thighs, or wherever you tend to gain weight, because that’s exactly where it’s going. This is no less true for fish. So that fried fish sandwich at the popular fast food chain (are you still afraid of clowns?) is probably not your best bet. This is also true for the tuna sandwich. While there’s nothing wrong with canned tuna (get the white albacore, not the “light” tuna, and packed in water, not in oil), most people mix it with a ton of mayonnaise, thus obliterating any weight-loss advantage to eating it in the first place.
If you like your canned white meat tuna, try putting it in your next big salad, with a low-fat dressing, and all your favorite vegetables, for a healthy lunch. If you prefer your fish fresh and hot, get creative with how you prepare it. I’d like to offer up two of my favorite recipes, that are both extremely low in fat and absolutely delicious.
Grilled Sea Bass With Papaya Salsa
I like this recipe best with sea bass, but it works just as well with any other meaty white fish. The great thing about this recipe is that it takes very little time to make, and is virtually foolproof in terms of proportions. Just mix it up to your taste.
Ingredients
- 1/4 - 1/3rd pound pieces of sea bass (or other meaty white fish) per person
- Splash olive oil
For the salsa
- One large, fully ripe Hawaiian papaya (the Mexican variety is mealy and not nearly as tasty)
- One large, ripe fresh tomato
- 1/4 Red Onion
- One small jalapeno pepper (optional)
- One handful of Fresh Cilantro
- The juice of one fresh lime.
To prepare
The salsa can be prepared immediately before cooking the fish, or up to a day in advance. Chop all the ingredients except the jalapeno and lime, and combine in a bowl. In terms of proportions, you want to have more papaya than tomato, and more tomato than onion. The amount of cilantro is a matter of taste, but the finished product should still look more orange and red than green. If you’d like to give it a bit of a kick, add no more than about a half a teaspoon of very finely choped jalapeno (or Serrano, if you REALLY like it hot). Mix together with the other ingredients. Finally, squeeze the juice from the lime into the mixture, and gently stir up, being careful not to mash the papaya. Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
For the fish, you can either grill outdoors on the bbq, or I find it actually works very well indoors on a grilling pan. To a VERY hot grilling pan, add a light coating of olive oil, and put on the fish. Depending on the thickness of the cut, it doesn’t need more than 3 – 4 minutes per side. When it’s flipped over, it should just be starting to show some grill marks. The fish is done when it is starting to flake a bit. Remove from the heat, spoon the salsa over each piece, and garnish with a sprig of cilantro.
This dish goes great with some rice and simple steamed green beans.
Harvest Red Snapper
Red Snapper is a great fish to work with, as it’s generally relatively inexpensive, it’s very tasty, and it has a low fat content. This is a fun, tangy, and very easy dish, perfect for autumn, but good all year too.
Ingredients
- 1/4 - 1/3rd pound piece of red snapper per person
- Fresh orange juice
- One large fresh tomato
- Fresh mushrooms, sliced
- Fresh cranberries (these are generally only available in autumn months. During the rest of the year, you can substitute with dried cranberries)
- Red pepper flakes
To prepare
This really is one of the all-time easiest and healthiest ways I’ve ever seen to prepare fish. Chop the tomato, and slice the mushrooms. Pour the fresh orange juice into a large sauté pan, until it’s about a half-inch deep. Put on a medium-high heat. Once the juice gets good and hot, slide in the fish, and then add the tomato, mushrroms, and cranberries around the fish, making sure they’re well submerged in the juice. Add the pepper flakes to your own taste. Using a large spoon, keep dousing the fish and the other ingredients with the juice as it all cooks, to make sure that nothing gets left high and dry. By constantly dousing the fish, there will be no need to turn it over, but if you prefer to, you can. As with most fish dishes, the fish is done with it starts to flake. Don’t let it flake too much, or it will just come completely apart. When you’re satisfied that the fish is fully cooked, remove the fish with a slotted spatula, serve onto dinner plates, and spoon on the other ingredients in the juice. Great with rice and steamed brussels sprouts.
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