Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda

We try not to let the hustle and bustle of the holiday season prevent us from making an effort to cook at least a few healthy meals at home (although apparently we’re perfectly fine with it preventing us from writing blog posts — sorry!)  A home-cooked meal provides a sense of normalcy and comfort amidst all the decorating, shopping, wrapping, mailing, baking, etc. etc. of this time of year.  But it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate.  “Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda” is a fancy name for a pretty simple fish dish.  “Bagna cauda” actually refers to a warm dip that is similar to fondue.  In this recipe, Giada De Laurentis gave the dip a citrus twist and turned it into a sauce for tilapia.  Genius.  And easy enough for a busy weeknight, with simple ingredients of butter, olive oil, orange juice, orange and lemon zest, anchovy fillets, garlic, basil and tilapia.

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Cilantro-Chipotle Tilapia

After all the turkey and trimmings from Thanksgiving, how about something light, healthy and simple to prepare?  This fish dish is all that, plus it has a nice smoky spice from the chipotle.  The recipe only calls for a few ingredients:  tilapia fillets, cilantro, canned chipotles in adobo, ground cumin, vegetable oil and salt & pepper.  The instructions could not be much easier — puree the ingredients for the sauce, spread the sauce over the fish, then broil the fish for less than 10 minutes.

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Shrimp and Peppers

Shrimp can be a very healthy protein easily prepared on a weeknight.  We cook shrimp at least a couple times per month and almost always keep a bag of raw frozen shrimp in our freezer.  We have lots of favorite ways to prepare shrimp — from pasta dishes, to salads, to simple grilled shrimp — but also appreciate finding new recipes incorporating this versatile protein.  We found a shrimp recipe on Epicurious.com and adapted it according to some of the reviewers’ suggestions.  (One of the many things we like about the Epicurious site is being able to consult the reviews of people who have cooked each recipe and take the time to share their experience — good or bad.)  Reviewers can also rate recipes on Epicurious, and we agree with the ones who gave this dish high marks.  The plump roasted shrimp pairs nicely with the spicy sauteed peppers and the whole thing takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.

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Steamed Crab Legs

We’ve been to seafood-boil types of events before — my brother has an awesome crawfish boil almost every spring — but had never previously attempted this cooking technique at home.  When we discovered king crab legs on super sale at our local grocery store, we decided to give it a shot.  The resulting steamed crab meat was perfectly cooked with a hint of spice and unmistakable Old Bay seasoning, evocative of a day at the beach and seafood fresh from the ocean.

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Barbecued Swordfish

One of the biggest challenges in our menu planning is trying to find fish dishes that Dan and I both enjoy.  He’ll eat just about any type of fish, prepared in a variety of ways, but I’m picky about fish and usually only like it if it doesn’t taste like fish and has some sort of sauce or salsa to distract me from the fact that it is fish.  (I’m easy like that.)  We also try to make sure the sauce or other fish disguisers aren’t so unhealthy as to cancel out the health benefits of eating fish in the first place.  We found this swordfish recipe in one of Mario Batali’s cookbooks and liked the flavor of the (relatively) simple barbecue sauce that complemented but didn’t overpower the swordfish.  An added bonus is that Chef Batali included a recipe for a delicious olive and cucumber salad to accompany the fish and further mask any “too fishy” flavor.  The salad was really good as a side dish (post coming soon!), but not necessary as a topping because the swordfish wasn’t fishy at all and had a subtle savory flavor from the barbecue sauce.

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Lobster Cobb Salad (with leftover lobster)

We found this recipe in Ina Garten’s cookbook, “Barefoot Contessa Family Style,” and loved it.  Ina recommends that you “make this elegant salad when your mother-in-law comes for lunch,” but unfortunately, my mother-in-law doesn’t prefer lobster.  More for me!  Only kidding (Hi Elaine!) — you can also make this salad with chicken or shrimp and it will still be delicious and decadent.  We think it’s the combination of Dijon in the dressing, bacon and blue cheese topping, peppery arugula and creamy avocado that make this salad exceptional.  As Ina says, “this is a special meal for times when you really want to please someone.”

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Grilled Branzini

We are big fans of Michael Ruhlman and regularly read his food blog, which is where Dan discovered that “branzini” is a really easy and tasty fish to grill.  We’re always trying to work new fish recipes into our weekly menu routine, but it can be difficult because I’m not a big fan.  But we are mindful of the health benefits of eating fish on a regular basis, so we continue searching for good fish dishes — especially ones that don’t involve breading or heavy sauces that cancel out the beneficial aspects.  We have some old favorites (here and here), but this grilled branzini may be the most healthy — and still delicious — we have tried to date.  It is also ridiculously easy.

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Spinach Salad with Grilled Shrimp

Now that it is officially summer (although it has been full-on “summer” from a holy-crap-it’s-hot perspective around here for at least a month now), we find ourselves incorporating more salads into our meal routine. With temps in the high 90s, the last thing we want to do is heat up the kitchen with the oven or slave over a hot stove. Instead, I make Dan slave over a hot grill outside (where it is really hot) to cook up a delicious protein to add to our salad. This grilled shrimp salad is one of our new favorites, due in large part to the flavorful dressing that would work with many other types of salads as well. You could also make this dish with leftover shrimp, chicken or beef for an even easier (and cooler) summer weeknight meal.

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Sonoran Tilapia

In our ongoing quest to try to cook healthy meals, we attempt to incorporate fish into our weekly routine on a semi-regular basis.  Note how I used the key words “attempt” and “semi-regular,” as opposed to “succeed” and “often.”  The problem is that I don’t really like fish — mostly because it tastes like fish (and don’t even get me started on how much I dislike salmon…)   So, when we do cook fish at home, the recipe usually involves a sauce of some sort (this is my favorite) and we almost always use a light, non-fishy fish like tilapia. Luckily, our local grocery store sells large bags of frozen tilapia fillets that are really easy to thaw and cook for a quick weeknight meal.  I found this particular recipe when I was looking for a new fish dish that met my culinary criteria (sauce, non-fishy, healthy-ish) and called for an Anaheim chile pepper, since we happened to have a few ripe ones in our garden.  Not only did this recipe meet these criteria for the most part, it also included TWO sauces — one for the fish while it cooked and another to spoon over the fish when it is done.  (If you’re not a fish wimp like me, you might actually enjoy the fish without the second sauce, which would save a little time and effort if you’re looking for a really quick meal.)

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Tuna Salad

This is not your typical tuna salad.  The difference that sets this tuna apart (in our opinion) is the addition of lime and horseradish.  And there are no pickles in this dish, which is one of the main ingredients we think of when we think tuna salad.  Not that we think about or make tuna salad all that often, but when we do, we like to use this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated’s American Classics cookbook.  The ingredients are simple:  solid white tuna (packed in water), lime juice and lime zest, prepared horseradish, red onion, fresh parsley, salt and pepper, mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.  Simple but tasty.

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