Recomended Reading

As Emily and I started this project, it coincided with my reading of a book called "In Defense of Food - An Eater's Manifesto" (Michael Pollan). I highly recommend this book if you are interested in reducing your dependence on processed foods. Many of the ideas discussed within that book are what Emily and I are striving to attain in this project.

If you don't want to read the book, it can essentially be boiled down to the following three simple statements, which are also worked into the art on the cover.

1. Eat food
2. Not too much.
3. Mostly plants.

Sounds simple right. Of course, when you read the first one, it seems pretty obvious... we all eat food! Well, Pollan gets into the the subtle distinction between food and edible substance. The grocery store carries much more of the latter. Pollan also gets into the roots of Nutritionism... where scientific findings direct us to ingest and avoid specific neutrients as a means of improving health (which often leads to worse health than we began with!). Example: avoid saturated fat, eat more low fat or fat free foods... yet we still have an obesity problem, perhaps from eating more carbs).

I hope to reflect more upon the themes mentioned in Pollan's book and work them into future posts. In the mean time, I will post a recipe that I created (and enjoyed for dinner) last week that attempts to fit the above listed criteria. Enjoy!

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Pan Seared Tilapia Salad

Ingredients typically found at Wegmans, but any reasonable equivalent will do.
Estimated cook time: about 15-20 minutes

• Tilapia fillet(s) - individually packaged works great.
  
• Pan Searing flour
• 1 tbsp. Olive oil
• Baby spinach and Arugula salad blend (any will do... the greener the leaves the better)
• Balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing
• Dash of lemon juice added to salad dressing (optional)
  

Rinse fillet(s) in cold water and pat dry. Dust with pan searing flour and shake off excess. Heat oil in frying pan (non-stick works best) over medium-high heat until faintly smoking. Sear fish in pan until golden brown (about 3-5 minutes). Turn over and reduce heat to medium. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Place fish over bed of salad greens. Top with salad dressing.

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I love this recipe because it uses the pan searing technique. It takes some practice to get this technique down, but done properly, you can cook steak and fish very quickly while sealing in the flavor and juices. The creativity for this recipe comes in with the dressing. I like the lemon-pepper taste with tilapia... so I am working on coming up with a dressing with those flavors. Stay tuned, I may revise this if I can work out a better dressing to include.