Basque Fish

I eat fish of some sort every single day, it's a great lean protein source and is typically very quick and easy to prepare. I eat a lot of tilapia because it's inexpensive and it takes on the flavor of whatever spice you cook it with.

This is what I call Basque Fish, I made it up...as usual. I do have a good reason for calling it Basque Fish, it's based on the spices found in typical Basque Cuisine and it reminds me of the Basque food I had when visiting my brother in Spain a few times. 

Above I have my 1:00 meal (lunch #2 as David calls it). Fish and asparagus. It's great with fresh lemon squeezed over it too!

I came up with this as I usually do by using the ingredients I had on hand, which happened to be a lot of very ripe tomatoes. Red ones and yellow ones. I lined a baking dish with foil then laid the tilapia filets on top. I roughly chopped the tomatoes and put them all over the fish then a very generous amount of smokey Spanish paprika (I like agri-dulce otherwise known as bittersweet).

Baked uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes (test a piece by flaking into it, it should be firm yet still moist, not raw or squishy looking inside) and the tomatoes released juices and mingled with the fish, the paprika melted into the tomatoes and a wonderful sauce was created.

Another view, you can see some of the browed bits on top where the tomatoes caramelized. 

Here I am eating it with cauliflower. It goes well with any vegetable as long as it is a plain one (no other sauce).


This is great even at room temperature, but then I can eat just about anything at room temperature these days...


You can always add some black olives if you want a bit more flavor, I would use Kalamata (Greek) not pitted black California, they have absolutely no flavor! Remember that olives are "fat pellets" though, calorie dense so if you are watching your weight, leave them out.

La La Lasagna!

La La Lasagna! I have been craving lasagna for ages, but I just have a hard time eating it. I feel too guilty. I know that sounds sick, but in reality, it is a very unhealthy dish. What makes me feel so guilty? I work my buns off at the gym (actually, no I work those even bigger!) so I can be lean, strong, healthy and look ripped. Sitting down to a big plate of lasagna would pretty much destroy all of my hard work.

One serving of lasagna can easily hover around 1000 calories, that is almost half of my daily caloric intake when I am not dieting!

Saturday I made this, it was healthy and it was damn good! A keeper for sure!

I will explain what I did, and then tell you what I will change next time; you decide what you want to do.

Did I mention there was no pasta involved? No starches at all!

While this may have fat in it due to the low fat cheese, I tend to shy away from most fat free foods; they tend to have added sugars and garbage. I have also been changing my diet a bit to greatly reduce starches and increase protein and fats. This is the perfect dish.

Feel free to substitute fat free if you like. Other than that, this has no “packaged” foods, it is fairly straightforward and delicious!

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Pre-heat oven to 375

20 ounce package extra lean ground turkey breast (1% fat)

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp olive oil

3 cups sliced mushrooms (I love mushrooms)

1 8 ounce can tomato sauce

1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes

Salt and pepper

½ tsp oregano

1 large or 2 small eggplant, peeled and sliced thin about ¼ inch thick

1 cup low fat cottage cheese

1 1/3 cups grated low fat mozzarella cheese

Sauté the garlic and turkey in the olive oil in a deep skillet or 3 quart pot till the meat is cooked through (this will not ever brown, no fat in it).

Add the mushrooms, the tomato sauce and tomatoes, crushing with the spoon. Add salt, pepper and oregano and simmer, stirring occasionally about 20-30 minutes till thickened.

In a small lasagna pan (approximately 8x12), place a layer of the eggplant, ½ of the cottage cheese, ½ of the turkey/tomato sauce then 2/3 cups grated mozzarella. Repeat again to make two layers.

Bake 45 minutes. Let sit about 10 minutes, cut into serving pieces and serve.

Changes: It had too much liquid; I would drain the whole tomatoes and discard the liquid. I would add I small can tomato paste and cook sauce until very, very thick.

Other than that- I loved it!