Fast Fish Soup

Well I suppose that is not proper English, the fish isn't fast, it is a quick soup to make, how's that?

I love soup, and when you are trying to eat a low calorie or low carbohydrate (starch) meal, soup is just the ticket.

I almost always have tilapia in the freezer, my friend Virginia gets it at Costco for me, I am not a member. I sometimes get it at Safeway or Whole Foods, but rarely buy it anywhere else. Both Safeway and Whole Foods (along with Costo) sell the right kind of tilapia. Yes, Safeway does indeed!

I will not buy tilapia from China or Taiwan, and all frozen tilapia is from one of these places. I have written extensively about the reasons, so you can search back and read, but basically their methods are not safe as far as contaminates in the water and feed.

If you are concerned about what you put in your body, then you should only buy tilapia from the US or South America.

I know many people, mostly competitors (because who else eats tilapia?) who buy frozen tilapia and frozen hockey puck chicken, they do it because it's cheap and convenient.

You need to decide what is more important to you: cheap and convenient or pure and healthy? Make the choice, be open about it and then live with it.

I digress.

I wanted soup, I was home alone, so in the morning before work, I had taken a pre-measured package of tilapia out of the freezer (that I received fresh then subsequently froze), it was thawed and ready to go.

I heated a skillet, sprinkled the fish with plenty of Spanish paprika, and quickly cooked it.

I then took 2 cups of homemade chicken stock out of the freezer (I always have it) and added vegetables that I had in the fridge that have been cooked for my lunches.

I added chard, kale, asparagus, and then a nice spoon of Thai Red Curry Paste! Yum!

After that was heated, I poured it over the fish I had laid in the bowl.

On the top? A few splashes of Sriracha sauce, so hot and tasty.

It took me about 15 minutes, start to finish and I ate (and loved) the whole thing!

Beauties and The Beast

They are the beauties, I am the beast!

There is something magical about friends, people who accept you and help you though the good and the bad. They are better than a spouse, really, I mean, they are there no matter what.

Virginia is here with me, (and her daughter Sophie). She lives around the corner and we have known each other since our sons were in grade school. That's how we met, and our boys are now 16 and 17.

She and her family lived around the corner then they moved to New Hampshire for a while, and moved back here just across the street from their old home a few years ago.

Our husbands are both car fanatics, and we all enjoy sitting out in each others backyards just drinking, talking, eating, relaxing. The entire group is totally into cooking and food, we have so many fun times together. We have some pretty good stories to tell too!

Virginia is so close that if I go out to my front yard, and walk to the end of my property, while she stands on a 12 foot ladder in her backyard, we can wave to each other...OK, we are close, really. One Thanksgiving I undercooked the turkey and we had about 15 people here, so we marched it over their house,popped it into her oven while I finished everything else,  no problem!

I was zipping down highway 17 on the way to the bank Friday. I had just spent 2 hours with my dad at Stanford hospital and I had to go get documents from my safe deposit to complete my son's application to become a British Citizen (different subject matter- email me if you want to know).

Virgina sends a text: "Are you home?", I tell her in about a half hour, so she says "I will be by then"

Virginia and Sophie come over to cheer me up and what do they have? You can see it in the picture above- Pain Aux Raisin from Fleur De Cocoa!!!!

Not only that, she had two mini ones and two full sized ones. We popped open a bottle of sparkling wine and I had one of the small croissants. (then I ate the other small one- the big ones are for Saturday morning with hot, dark, black coffee!)

I am not saying that when you are depressed or down you should celebrate or placate with food, but food is a comfort and there is nothing wrong with that, in moderation.

These are the two things that I would have celebrated with immediately after my competition, so Virginia was sharing a special time with me now.

She took time out of her day to call the bakery and ensure they had what I wanted, then she brought it over and spent time with me. She was thinking about me and that meant a lot.

We spent a couple hours just talking, and hardly any of it was about me. You know, having people you can just spend time with, even if they do not have the same goals as you, is important. In fact, I find that having people around me who don't have a narrowly crazed mind set about training is actually good for me.

I am feeling much better- I shouldn't let my set backs suck up too much energy, I am really looking forward to the coffee and croissant...and later in the week a Greek salad.

Then its back on the diet, I plan to see if maybe I can make a "miraculous recovery" and come back to lifting in two weeks. I won't push it, but I will use the positive energy the Beauties gave me....