If it Swims... I Don't Eat it!

Dear Fish,

I'll cut right to the chase.  I'm just not that into you.  I've tried to like you, I really have, but the bottom line is, you're fish, you taste fishy and you smell fishy.  There's this mental block in my brain that just can NOT get over the thought of how you look all scaly and slimy and ugly swimming around when I'm about to put you in my mouth.  Yuck.

And then there's seafood.  All you lobster and crab lovers out there, I apologize, but I just don't get it.  It seems like an awful lot of work for a little bit of reward.  Not to mention it's messy and it isn't cheap.  

I recall going to Red Lobster once with a friend and her then boyfriend (you know who you are, SD) and watching the two of them devour the all-you-can-eat crab legs like a couple of savages.  While being subjected to the overwhelming aroma of the sea, I tried to choke down my pathetic and tasteless chicken counting the minutes till I could get the hell out of there.  

The hubs, on the other hand, loves fish.  He eats it every chance he gets (outside of our home, obvi) and doesn't understand how fish can taste "fishy". "It's fish!" is his response.  The teen isn't into fish at all but the toddler will gobble it up. I know it's good for you, blah, blah, blah, and I want said toddler to be open-minded when it comes to food.  So, over the years I've tried to like it and have attempted to cook it a handful of times. 

But... it doesn't matter what I do to it, I just don't like it.  I am pretty sure it's mostly a mind-over-matter thing, but the mind wins every time.  

Take tonight for example.  I made Fish Taco Bowls with a recipe I pinned from the blog, Pinch of Yum. Doesn't this LOOK good?

Black beans, corn, brown rice, onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, red peppers, tomatoes, Monterrey Jack cheese, avocado (my fave thing ever) - all delicious. Topped with some salsa and sour cream.  Even better, right?  But underneath all that goodness, there was the FISH.  The fish was a RUINER!  A ruiner, I say!  I should have stuck to a Meatless Monday and left out the fish.  Dinner FAIL.  For me, not for the hubs and the toddler, they both liked it.  The teen and me - not so much. 

Fish recipe ideas (that don't taste AT ALL LIKE FISH) for me or suggestions for types of fish I should try would be greatly appreciated - leave me a comment!

I should note that the recipe is fab and I actually might try it with chicken (surprise, surprise...).  No disrespect meant at all to Pinch of Yum.  It's not you... it's the FISH.  

Southwest Turkey Meatballs turned Enchiladas turned Tacos. What?

Every Saturday morning I sit down and plan out a dinner menu for the upcoming week in advance of our weekly trip to the farmer’s market and grocery store.  As much as it pains me sometimes to put thought and effort into the menu, I never regret having done so when I get home from work and need (and want!) to get a home-cooked, delicious and fairly quick dinner on the table during the week.

Sometimes I find so many yummy recipes that I want to try and I start to make my grocery list before I’ve 100% confirmed what I’ll cook that week.  Then once I decide on the menu, I forget to edit my list.  Oops.  This was one of those weeks.  I had found three Mexican recipes I wanted to try, but after more thought I decided that all of these in one week might be a little much.

So, I scaled back on the fiesta week theme and settled on these Southwest Turkey Meatballs which were on the menu tonight.  While gathering everything for the recipe, I discovered I had a few extra ingredients on hand that were meant for those other meals that didn’t make the cut.  No problem, I love to improvise and create and wouldn't want these items to go to waste!

I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter (except for: using bread crumbs instead of panko, adding more cumin than it called for and no lime zest, just lime juice) and it was looking good.  

But then... instead of adding chicken broth, I added – wait for it – enchilada sauce.  Oh yesssss.  I let that simmer and cook down till the meatballs were cooked through.

 

I know one wouldn't normally associate turkey meatballs with corn tortillas, but I thought, why not!?  I heated up a stack and we built our meatball-tortilla-enchilada-taco-thingies on our plates with shredded Monterey Jack cheese (another item that wasn’t meant to be on this week’s list), salsa, sour cream and avocado. 

The hubs and I ate ours with a knife and fork, the teen rolled his up taco style, and the toddler, well he just went at it with his hands.  It was definitely a winner and I will make it again. 

Do you like to improvise and create in the kitchen or are you a stick-to-the-recipe kinda cook?