Zesty Greek Tilapia with Orzo

Earlier this week, our family returned from a little vacation (or, more aptly named, a "family trip"--hard to call it a vacation until the kids are a bit older) to the charming city of Avalon on Catalina Island. For four days we soaked up what the island has to offer, including a ferry ride from Long Beach, 

Arizona children experiencing a boat

 trips to the beach,

Arizona children experiencing a beach

a glass-bottom boat tour,

Fishies!

 exploring around the historic Avalon Casino,

and climbing the steep staircases around the city to take in some beautiful views from above.

After returning from this trip, I feel unusually motivated to make positive changes in my life. It's like a mini New Year's Day. I suddenly want to clean my house from floor to ceiling, take a math placement test I've been putting off for my nutrition degree, and start a fundraising campaign to buy a new play structure for our church's religious education center. (Calm the heck down, right?) And certainly after all the vacation eating--ice cream, margaritas, giant burritos, and a probably ill-advised stop at Carl's Jr.--I've definitely felt the desire to get back to "normal" eating habits, i.e. healthy eating habits.

The first evening we were back, I decided we needed a mega-healthy dinner to counteract some of the vacation's excesses. (Did I mention the two boxes of Girl Scout cookies that somehow stowed away in our snack bag for the drive?) Bring on the fiber! the vitamins! the omega-3 fatty acids! All those things not found in Girl Scout cookies and Carl's Jr. onion rings! I'd been eyeing some recipes for Greek-style tilapia for awhile, but ended up winging it to create my own version that fit my craving for something healthy and flavorful. 

Being from the Southwest, it's probably hard-wired into my system to turn anything with diced tomatoes into a kind of salsa. I started off by combining tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, and some other Mediterranean staples to make a Greek-style pico de gallo: 

Spread over tilapia fillets, this zesty mixture complemented the fish's mild flavor nicely. Served with orzo and accompanied by a green vegetable, it made a flavorful meal packed with nutrients that will be easy to whip up on a weeknight in the future. And yes, I promise there's fish under there in the picture...I just happened to like the Greek salsa...a lot.

Zesty Greek Tilapia with Orzo
A Love Letter to Food Original

Ingredients:

3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 2.25 oz. can sliced olives, drained
2 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1 green onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
scant 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
black pepper to taste
5 medium tilapia fillets (about 15 oz.)
8 oz. oz. orzo pasta

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, mix tomatoes, olives, feta, green onion, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, and salt. Season with pepper.

3. Spray a 9 x 13" baking pan with cooking spray and place tilapia fillets evenly in the pan. Spread the tomato mixture on top of the fish to cover. 

4. Bake about 15 minutes or until the tilapia flakes easily with a fork.

5. Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to package directions. Serve tilapia over orzo.

Serves 3-4.

Crab Quiche

What's the first thing you learned how to cook? Mac and cheese? Scrambled eggs? BLTs? Weird as it may sound, one of the first things I ever learned to cook was quiche. Growing up, it was a dinner dish my mom frequently made--a deviation from her '80s Illinoisan repertoire of baked chicken, spaghetti, and meatloaf. To this day, I'm not sure how this traditional French fare infiltrated her Midwestern meal planning, but I am the beneficiary of its presence there. From early on in my marriage when I first started cooking, I had an index card with her recipe for a chicken-spinach-mushroom variety on it and used it often. In the last ten years, I've expanded from there. To date, I've tried... 

• broccoli quiche 
• quiche lorraine 
• bacon-asparagus quiche
• tomato-mozzarella-basil quiche
• ham and parsley quiche
• crab quiche
• and probably other less successful versions I don't remember.

Basically, if you have a pie crust, eggs, and cheese, you can whip up a quiche. Add what you like, take out what you like--easy dinner, boom! Or easy lunch. Or easy breakfast. Or easy brunch. For this crab quiche, you quite likely have all the ingredients except the crab (unless you're one of those crab stockpilers you see on reality TV: "Coming this June to TLC...Crab Hoarders of Maricopa County.") If you're a crab hoarder, you're gonna LOVE this one. And even if you're not a crab hoarder, give it a try. With its mild crab taste, it's a great way to work some omega 3-rich seafood into your diet even if you're not crazy about seafood. 

Crab Quiche
(Slightly adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
dash hot sauce
1/2 c. milk
6 oz. lump crab meat (drained, if from a can)
1 1/4 c. your choice of shredded cheese (I'd recommend a Swiss or a cheddar blend)
1/2 c. chopped green onions
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, beat together mayonnaise, flour, eggs, garlic powder, hot sauce, and milk until thoroughly combined. Stir in crab, cheese, and onion. Pour into pie shell.

3. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Summer Vegetable Soup with Shrimp and Lemon

Last year, I read probably the most inspiring food book I've ever encountered: Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Ever since the 5th grade, when I wrote a report on Barbara Kingsolver, I have been intrigued by this author I considered more or less local (she was a long-time resident of Tucson; I live roughly 90 minutes north in Mesa). Most people know her for her best-selling novels, but Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a memoir of Kingsolver's family's journey across the country, leaving Tucson (waaahhh!) for rural Virginia, where they attempted to make a go of running a self-sustaining farm. If you have any interest in the idea of eating seasonally/locally, or wonder why some people find it worthwhile, please read this book. It, more than anything else, motivated me to make the effort to support local agriculture and eat what the seasons provide. 

That being said, unfortunately, in the Phoenix area, eating seasonally can be a bit of a joke. In her memoir, Kingsolver calls February "Hungry Month" since it's the time when (in her part of the country) plants lie dormant and nothing grows. In Phoenix--or at least in our backyard garden--Hungry Months include May through September. Then again, Kingsolver also mentions that eating locally in the desert Southwest is defined (by the powers that define these things) as within a 250-mile radius. So I guess we're off the hook for not having to harvest dead grass for our salads during these summer months.

My point here is that, even though it's difficult, I try--and want to keep trying harder. I get to the farmer's market when I can, and I certainly don't buy $6 asparagus in August or $5 strawberries in January. When I saw this soup recipe, it got me excited to bust over to my nearest Sprouts and bag up armloads of vegetables that happen to be on sale right now because they actually belong to this season. (Maybe not in central Mesa, but somewhere not too far away.) The result was fabulous. This soup, while very simple, had an unusual flavor that took me by surprise. The savory-tart combination of broth with lemon juice was the perfect background for the freshness of summer vegetables corn, tomatoes, and zucchini. Not to mention that with the veggies chopped ahead of time, it was done in 30 minutes! If you're a year-round soup lover like me, this will make you realize that "summer soup" doesn't have to be a contradiction in terms.

Summer Vegetable Soup with Shrimp and Lemon

(Adapted from Fine Cooking Fresh)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 qt. chicken broth

1 c. diced tomato

2 small zucchini, cut into medium dice

1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen corn kernels

1 lb. red potatoes, cut into medium dice

Kosher salt and black pepper

1/4-1/2 lb. pre-cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, parsley, or cilantro, or a mix

Juice of one lemon

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large stock pot or Dutch oven. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another minute or two, being careful not to let it brown. Add the broth, the remaining vegetables, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the shrimp until heated, 1-2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add fresh herbs and lemon juice. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

We happened to think this was great with a side of sweet cornbread!

Herb-Marinated Tilapia with Mango Salsa

Pop quiz: what's the world's most popular fruit? Apples? Bananas? Tomatoes, if we're going to be fussy and technical?

Nope, none of the above. Numerous reports name the world's most widely consumed fruit as the mango. Around the globe, mangoes outrank apples by 3 to 1 and bananas by 10 to 1. We Americans have some catching up to do in terms of our mango savvy. If this were the Olympics, the Brazilians and Indians would be slaughtering us.

I'm not actually sure I had ever eaten a mango before about the age of 25. My dad has always told me the story of his near-death-experience-mango-allergy, so genetics being what they are, I always steered clear for fear of some terrible case of sticky-sweet anaphylaxis. Fortunately, whenever I did eventually get up the guts to taste some, mangoes were kind to me and did not bring me any closer to death. Quite the opposite. They're loaded with Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and fiber, so if anything, they should add to my lifespan. So indulge me while I give you a second mango-related post in the space of three days.  

This dinner is one of those powerhouse meals that manages to be healthy, delicious, and gorgeous at the same time. It's ideal for company, as it looks straight out of a magazine and is almost entirely prepared ahead of time. To make this for dinner last night, I made the mango salsa a day ahead (gives the flavors more time to meld anyway) and put the tilapia in the marinade in the early afternoon. Served with rice and steamed broccoli, it's just what summer ordered!

P.S. If your local grocer does not offer mangoes, or if they are out of season, I recommend purchasing them frozen. Trader Joe's sells pre-peeled, pre-chopped mangoes in their frozen section, which is what I almost always use for this recipe. Frozen fruits are typically picked at the height of ripeness, so you're much better off buying frozen than fresh if the fruit you're looking for is not in season.

Herb-Marinated Tilapia with Mango Salsa
(Adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

For the marinade:
1/2 c. olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
3/4 tsp. salt
4 large tilapia fillets

For the salsa:
1 1/2 c. mango, peeled and diced
1/3 c. red pepper, diced
1/3 c. red onion, minced
1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced
2-3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
3 Tbsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
salt to taste

For best results, prepare the salsa ahead of time (up to 48 hours) by combining the mango, red pepper, red onion, jalapeño, and cilantro. Stir in lime juice and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste.

Place tilapia fillets in a large Ziploc-type bag. Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, basil, black pepper, and salt. Pour over fillets, coat with the marinade, squeeze excess air out of the bag, and seal. Marinate refrigerated for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Place tilapia fillets in a glass baking dish, draining off excess marinade. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve topped with mango salsa.

NOM