Day 186: Fish is Brain Food. Bring it ON!

This is my first week back at work since before Christmas and it's HARD!!  Conference Calls?  Recommendations?  Analysis?  Points of View?  What are these foreign things that my clients want from me??

It's amazing how quickly I go soft after just a bit of vacation.  My brain needs a quick re-charge and since fish is supposedly brain food, I'll be eating a lot of it this week!!  Last night it was tuna, tonight it was red snapper, and who knows what will be for dinner tomorrow!

I created this recipe and it was pretty good, although it would have been better with a touch more salt.

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 T olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 shakes of red pepper flakes

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 large vine ripened tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/2 yellow (or orange or red) bell pepper, sliced

1/4 cup white wine

1 tsp capers, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

2 6-7 ounce red snapper filets, patted dry and seasoned on both sides with S&P

Two slices of lemon

Heat your oil in a non-stick pan on medium-low heat.  Add garlic, shallot, and red pepper flakes and saute for a few minutes until softened.

Add tomatoes through oregano and turn heat up to a boil.  Lay snapper filets across top of tomato mixture, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover the pan with a lid or with tightly fitted foil.  Allow fish to steam for about 8 minutes.  It's done once you no longer see pink spots.

Plate up your fish fillets and veggies from the pan and crank up the heat on the remaining sauce.  It should reduce rather quickly - just a minute or two - and then you can drizzle it over your fish.  Squeeze fresh lemon juice over each filet.

I cooked up some cauliflower as our veggie side dish tonight.  I preheated the oven to 375 degrees.  While it was warming up, I cored the cauliflower and sliced it into 1/2-3/4 inch slices and gently tossed the pieces in a bowl with S&P.  I then laid the slices out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roasted the cauliflower for about 20 minutes.  I drizzled some olive oil over it and continued to roast it for another 10 minutes until it was golden brown.  It's so simple, but so delicious - cauliflower actually gets sweet after a good amount of roasting like this.

This is all very easy, even on a work night.  And hopefully, I'll wake up a lot smarter tomorrow and able to easily execute all of those client demands!!