This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of HealthyTuna.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

A lot of people contact me to write posts for them.  Most are horribly unsuited for this venue, but every once in a great while one comes along that gets my attention, not just because the people behind the product are willing to compensate me for my time, but because what they have to say is relevant, important and has an impact for the most important people in this blog’s world; You, the faithful readers of CBSOP. This is one of those instances.

Several of my female food-blogging partners in crime either are, or have very recently been pregnant.  This post is dedicated to making sure that their health and the health of their children is in the forefront at all times.  It seems that a lot of women avoid seafood during pregnancy due to concerns about mercury.

While it is certainly a good idea to avoid high-risk seafood such as shark, mackerel, swordfish and tilefish, studies have proven that the high levels of Omega3 fatty acids present in seafoods such as salmon and tuna help to prevent depression as well as helping the development of your baby, both in the womb and while breastfeeding.

Since I am not a doctor (I just play a chef on the Internet), I will refer you to the studies provided by healthy tuna. I’ve looked them over and they seem to be reputable, I give them credit and will vouch for them insofar as being worth a good-hard read, at which point I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

The lovely Veronique at healthy tuna also sent along a few recipes with a request that I give one a try and share it with all of you.  From the group sent, I chose the Southwest Tuna Salad for the sake of simplicity.  The original instructions were for a salad that would very likely have been tasty, but on film would have been far from appealing.

After a few days of conversations, I was allowed to play with the recipe a bit, as I am wont to do with every recipe I touch on occasion.  I decided that the salad would be far more presentable if presented as a composed salad, sort of in the bent of a Cobb salad (remember those from the 80’s?) and I was off.

The original recipe is presented as given to me, my changes are detailed below.

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I can’t get enough seafood lately.  I’m not sure why, but something about fish keeps me coming back time-and-time again. Even though it is the beginning of fall and I should be craving heavier dishes, I find I just want seafood, fish in particular.  I can’t shake the craving.

Luckily I still had some Tilapia in the freezer.  A little foraging in the pantry and I decided that I was looking for some richer flavors than the last few dishes I’ve made, but not so heavy as to leave me tired at the end.  This was the result.

I can’t stress how well this turned out.  I also don’t want to waste any more time getting to the meat of the issue.  I want you to try this and tell me if I’m crazy, because I think I may have just found the perfect Tilapia recipe.  No joke.  It’s that good.  try it and let me know what you think.

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If you’re looking for ways to put more fish on your weekly menu at something like a reasonable price, you’ve probably considered Tilapia. It’s a good choice.  Tilapia is a mild fish, fairly firm and easy to deal with when cooking.  It is farmed around the world and can be bought for less than your first-born child, even if you have plans to feed an small army. And let’s face it, if cooked properly it’s just plain good.

Unfortunately, most of my kids very much dislike fish that hasn’t been through a processing plant and turned into a stick of some kind. To this I say to bad for them!  I can still get my fish fix at lunchtime when they are at school. It also allows me to be more creative in trying to find other things they might like.

I think this relish (or perhaps it’s more of a hot salsa?) is something I might be able to get them to eat on the side. It’s phenomenal in both flavor and simplicity, definitely something I recommend giving a shot and applying your own twists to.

In all I’d give this dish about a 6 out of 10. I have another Tilapia recipe that might have gone better with the relish.  I’ll be trying that one out soon.

What’s your favorite Tilapia recipe?  We’d love to know.

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One of my goals while my wife is away is to perfect my skills with fish.  It’s one of two banes of my culinary existence, the other being duck. It seems no matter how hard I try, it is always too overcooked, undercooked or incorrectly paired for my wife to enjoy it.  since we should be eating more lean proteins, I’ve charged myself with mastering this deficet in my culinary skills when I am the only one who needs to tolerate my mistakes.

In this case, I wish my wife could have been here.  This dish was nearly perfect.  The fish was flaky, moist and incredibly light.  The salad brought a fullness to the dish that the Sole could not have managed on its own and the sauce was wonderfully savory and tangy at the same time.  In short, aside from being a little plain in presentation, it was heaven on a plate.

This success has bolstered my drive to perfect my skills with fish.  I’m hoping that by the time my wife returns from Turkey we can make fish a once-a-week part of our diet.  not only is it healthy, but it’s quick, tasty and light.  Something we both need every few days or so.

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After two months of heavy braises, rich sauces and gravys it’s nice to be eating on the lighter side again.  My palate had almost forgotten the joys of great ingredients cooked and served simply.  With just a few ingredients and a very short cooking time, this dish was an homage to simplicity and the preservation of the flavors that the ingredients bring to the party.

Fish should be served simply.  It’s far too easy to mask the delicate flavor of the fish itself with any type of sauce or glaze, and in the case of tuna this is especially true.  For this dish I took inspiration from both Western and Asian cuisine with striking results.  The flavors were subtle, pleasing and a perfect match from start to finish.  Plating could be done in any manner you choose, as all of the components are far better eated together than they are seperately in this case.

The best part is that this is a complete meal that carries absolutely no guilt.  The entire plate is low in everything that you want it to be low in and high i the things you need, like fiber, Omega 3’s and vitamins.  Quick, simple, healthy and Weight Watcher’s friendly as well at only 9 points for the entire plate!

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, simple flavors are usually the most profound.  The art of great food is not necessarily about the number of ingredients, the amount of spices and flavorings, or even the technical knowledge of the person preparing the meal.  It’s about a perfect balance of flavors, textures and aromas.  This is true of the perfect serving of escargot as much as it is in the perfect plate of simple southern greens.  They are both beautiful experiences in their own right, and neither one is complicated.

The same holds true of this simple little dish.  It could be used as a tappas, an appetizer, a snack or even a great little brunch dish.  The ingredients are simple, straightforward and complimentary in ways that would not be possible had any other ingredient been added. In this case minimal is better, and if you try it, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Not only are these tiny tidbits a wonderful taste sensation, they are healthy.  Packed with Omega-3 fatty acids and lean proteins that we are all supposed to get more of. The cream cheese is low fat and so provides calcium without too much guilt. Of all the ingredients, only the bagels may cause worry for some, but they souldn’t.  The tiny addition in carb count is more than worth it. Top it all off with the fact that this dish weighs in at only 4 Weight Watcher’s points, and you’re golden.

Even my wife approved, and she’s not a salmon fan!

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If you thought canned tuna had to be boring, think again. If you look past the American tradition of slathering this delectable fish in mayonnaise and stuffing it between two pieces of bleached white bread, you’ll find that there is a world of inspiration waiting to be found in that tin, and this is but one of many I’ve had lately.

The same holds true of iceberg lettuce, it’s gotten a bad rap in these days of micro greens and baby field greens, but on a hot summer day in Texas there’s just nothing as refreshing as the cool, crisp texture and flavor if a good iceberg salad, whether that be a traditional wedge salad or a more composed dish like this one.

This dish stems from the need for both my wife and I to eat more Omega3 rich foods, and on the day it was served, the temperature here had soared well past 90, so a salad seemed in order, and as I dug through the pantry searching for viable ingredients the tuna caught my eye. I thought that I’d seen something similar from Elise at Simply Recipes, but when i went to look for it, I couldn’t find it. Therefore this tuna salad recipe is an original, based on my tastes for the day.

The end result was light, cool and infinitely satisfying. More than enough of a meal to carry me through a long hot afternoon until dinner and with no guilt at all, as this is probably one of the healthiest lunches I have prepared in a very long time. If you’ve been feeling a craving for seafood but don’t have the budget for a good piece of fresh fish from the local fishmonger, this is a dish that I highly recommend!

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If you’re looking for a meal that is cool, light and refreshing, look no further than this simple pizza. While it may sound odd for me to talk about cool meals in the wanting days of February, our part of the world has seen some pretty strange weather this winter, with temperatures ranging from the sunny and a bit over-warm 80’s, then dropping to a very crisp 24 degrees the very next day. It was on one of the warmer days that I decided something a little light was in order.

I used Alaskan smoked salmon for this dish that my wife had bought me as a Christmas gift. Unlike Nova Scotia smoked salmon, or Pacific Northwest “Jerked Style” salmon, this particular preparation leaves the consistency of the fish much like what you would find in a canned salmon. It would be a lot more attractive with slices of the other type, but aside from having slightly milder flavor than the hard cured varieties, this pizza was absolutely fantastic. (Enough so that I told my wife I needed to make it again for “testing” before I posted it here. I think she knew the truth, but she, as usual, let me think I was getting away with something. What you’re looking at is my second attempt, which was just as wonderful as the first.)

I got the original recipe for this pizza from Rachael Ray’s Food Network Recipe collection and modified it to suit my tastes from there, but her inspiration is almost definitely taken from the famous Wolfgang Puck, who introduced his version of this pizza to a hungry audience at Los Angeles California’s Spago in 1982, thus starting the gourmet pizza craze and making “California Cuisine” a term recognized worldwide.

It was great then, it’s great now, give it a go!

Do you have any great seafood pizza recipes? Care to share them with us? Leave a comment!

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In my opinion, fish is best cooked simply. Flavors should be added sparingly so that the delicate flavor of the meat comes through as its own statement, rather than being buried in herbs and spices or some overwhelming sauce. That doesn’t mean that fish should be boring, and this dish is anything but.

Tilapia is described as a mild flavored, medium textured fish, but I find the flavor to be much closer to moderate than mild, especially when baked, which seems to deepen the flavor considerably. It’s also one of those fish that people either love or hate. I used to be one of the latter crowd, but I find that as time goes on I like the texture (and price!) a lot more. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste, or my tastes are simply changing as I approach the big Four-Oh, either way, tilapia is something that will find its way onto my plate quite a bit more often.

The inspiration for this particular dish was simple necessity. I had a bunch of summer squash I’d bought for a barbecue that never happened and I needed to cook at least some of them up before they went too far south. The light flavors of the zucchini and yellow squash seemed like they’d be a good compliment to the tilapia I’d bought the week before, and with a few other small editions, such as a bit of garlic infused olive oil, I could have it all done in jut a few minutes, which sounded good as well.

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I discovered Meze, Small Bites Big Flavors from the Greek Table in my wife’s cookbook collection a few months ago. The impact that just flipping through the pages had on me was intense, immediate and life altering. I had to try some of this, and soon!

Unfortunately, soon wasn’t soon enough. With everything that’s been going on in our lives, this book has sat on my desk, forlorn and forgotten for far too long. It’s happy tales of Greek lifestyles and traditions, recipes and reminiscing tone all but relegated to obscurity… Until today.

For those who don’t know, meze is the Greek equivalent of Tappas. Small portions of food absolutely loaded with flavor, but each celebrating the main ingredient. The ingredients are generally simple, and while not necessarily something that every American household might have on hand, they’re all fairly easy to find in local markets now.

The first recipe that caught my eye when I flipped open the cover wasn’t really a recipe at all. It has no name, as such, simply a quick set of directions for turning sardines into meze.

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