Salmon for health and delicious eats!

Husband and I have changed small things about our eating habits over the years, but the big one has been adding in a little fish where we were eating pretty much no fish. I’ve become a big fan of salmon in particular; while it is especially good with a delicious butter and garlic sauce, it’s also a really rich, fatty fish on its own. You can eat your salmon with a pile of greens and still feel like you had a rich and filling meal, usually without feeling stuffed.

We made a really tasty pistachio salmon during Whole30, but this one was a grilled salmon from a restaurant, and thinking about it today makes me want the weather to improve so that I can get outside and grill a fillet. One recipe I really want to try as well is this one; will write again when I actually get around to trying it! I love maple as a flavor, and I’m excited to explore it on main dishes rather than just pancakes: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/maple-glazed-salmon-0

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Shrimp Scampi

I have lately been cutting meat all over the place – not avoiding it entirely, but switching to less of it. HOWEVER. Husband will stand for only so much of this, and I sometimes choose to add meat or fish back into the diet for his happiness. In this case, I was able to choose a perfect combo: by picking shrimp, I satisfied his desire for tasty proteins, but because shrimp ain’t cheap, he could accept the smaller portion. Marriage, it seems, is a never-ending negotiation and compromise.

In the case of shrimp, though, it’s a delicious compromise. Starting with a big pat of butter, some garlic, and some pepper flake, I sautéed the shrimp from thawed-and-gray to hot-and-pink. The sauce was thinner than I wanted, perhaps due to some water still left in the package from the thawing process, so I turned to my trusty dusty chickpea flour, as well as a little parmesan and Colby jack cheese, until the sauce was thick and yellow and garlicky, the way I wanted (if not exactly the traditional, gorgeous scampi sauce that I was loosely emulating, at least at the start. If you want real scampi, there are many, many recipes).

The scampi was served atop the tomato farro I discussed earlier this week, providing a fibrous and tasty base. The excess sauce enriched the tomato, which was flavorful but not creamy. Husband and I both fell on the bowls with abandon, but when the time came to decide about seconds (we’d snarfed half of what I made), Husband surprised me by holding back. “I want to eat it,” he said. “But I want to be able to have it for lunch tomorrow.”

I know Husband just wanted tasty food the following day, but I cannot help drawing a parallel: the reason I want to eat less meat and animal protein of all kinds isn’t from some dislike for them. I just want there to be some tomorrow; with the evidence of how much more energy it takes to produce meat, it makes sense to use less meat and more carbs as we try to transition to cleaner energies and to walk lightly upon the earth. I don’t think you have to be a tree hugger (though I might be one…) to see the benefit to using slightly less energy in our lives, on the off chance that it will help us have more to use in the future.