Tag Archives: Fish

Hello everyone! I am sorry that I haven’t been posting as often! I have been staying at my lovely friends’ homes, bouncing around, and living out of a suitcase. However, today Emily and I whipped up a bomb lunch that I highly recommend you make! Once again, we went to HEB with no idea what to make and came up with a Coconutty Squash & Tilapia Flatbread! Sadly, the store didn’t have shredded coconut, so we had to buy a whole one…

How To Crack Open a Coconut

1. Get a towel, cup,  nail, hammer, coconut, and go outside.

2. Find the three darker indentations on the coconut. Hammer a hole into each indentation.

3. Drain the coconut water into the cup.

4. Once all of the coconut water is out, beat the coconut with the hammer. Try to aim for the general area of the three holes you made.

Once I got all my anger out on the coconut, I was ready to make lunch.

Recipe: Serves 2

Ingredients

2 whole wheat tortillas

2  4-ounce filets of tilapia

1/3 cup finely chopped coconut meat (you can substitute shredded coconut)

1 cup diced butternut squash

1/3 cup diced sweet onion

canola oil (or you can sub coconut oil if you have it!)

rum extract

cinnamon

salt

pepper (if you wish, Emily did, I didn’t)

almond slivers (optional)

To prepare, finely chop the coconut meat until you have about 1/3 cup. Finely chop up about 1/3 cup’s worth of sweet onion. Skin part of a butternut squash and chop into thinnish cubes, about 1 cup full. Rub a few drops of rum extract onto the tilapia filets and sprinkle on cinnamon and sea salt. Preheat the oven to 375.

Place two pans on the stove at medium heat and add 1 tsp canola oil to each. Divide the coconut and onion between the two pans. Saute & stir until light brown.

In one pan, add another 2 tsps of canola oil and stir. Throw in the butternut squash and cover. Occasionally stir. Remove from heat when the squash is soft and lightly browned.

In the other pan, place the tilapia on top of the coconut-onion mixture. After a few minutes, flip the tilapia and cover. Remove from heat when the tilapia is white all the way through.

Combine all of the onion, squash, fish, and coconut into one pan and lightly mix. Add salt.

Lightly spray the two whole wheat tortillas with canola oil (or coconut oil if you have it!). Pop in the oven for a few minutes until crispy.

Optional but recommended: Once you take out the tortillas, spread a thin layer of coconut butter over them.

To serve, slice the tortillas into quarters. Top with the squash-tilapia mixture. Garnish with slivered almonds, salt, and toasted coconut. Serve with a side salad!

Benefits:

Coconut * coconut gets a bad rap because of its saturated fat content, but its fatty acids are mainly medium-chain triglycerides, not long-chain. The long-chain triglycerides are bad for our cholesterol levels, but coconut has been shown to improve cholesterol levels. Animal studies suggest that medium-chain triglycerides can increase metabolism.

Cinnamon * In one study, after taking 1/4 – 1 tsp cinnamon daily for 40 days, all participants benefitted from a reduction of fasting blood sugar levels, blood triglycerides, and LDL (bad) cholesterol! It is very high in antioxidants and can help stabilize blood sugar levels, which will help prevent an insulin spike, and thus the storage of fat.

Tilapia * a lean source of protein that has some omega 3′s!

Butternut squash * A great source of Vitamin C, A, potassium, manganese, and folate. It is also very high in fiber and water content!

Whole wheat *  when you choose white flour over whole wheat flour, you are losing over half of the B vitamins, fiber, folic acid, calcium, zinc, phosphorous, copper, and iron. Whole grains reduce your risk for diabetes and have also been linked to weight loss and maintaining a lower BMI.