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[wizardfoodz]

Salmon with Orange-Garlic Salt

Although this will be my third year getting a CSA from Basket of Life Farm until recently I was still very much a dabbler in the world of healthy eating.

I can now say that I’ve made some major changes to the way I approach food in my life, and because of that, I’ve lost over 30 pounds since February.  32, to be exact.  I still have a way to go, but it’s a pretty awesome start.

I used to think that because I cooked dinner most nights, and went to the farmer’s market most weekends, I ate healthy foods.  And I did, more or less, but I was also “cheating” a lot – fast food sandwiches for breakfast a couple of times a week, bread made with white flour every day, ice cream at night (more than I’d like to admit).

I got to the point where I needed to make a real change.  I was tired of feeling tired, and I truly felt like what I was eating was the problem.  I won’t pretend that I did it entirely on my own.  It took something called “The 24 Day Challenge” from a company called Advocare to kickstart this change for me, but it helped me create a structure for how I ate and how I approached food, one that I’ve done a pretty good job at keeping up with.  Yes, I’ve had days or weeks where I fall off the wagon a bit, but now I know how to get back on track.

My typical day of food now looks something like this:

Breakfast:  Protein (usually eggs), sometimes complex carbs (multi-grain toast), sometimes fruit (like a banana or orange).

Lunch:  Protein (often a chicken breast, sometimes something like tuna), veggies,  complex carbs like brown rice, or sometimes quinoa or sweet potato.

Dinner:  Protein (again, often chicken, sometimes pork or fish), veggies, and occasionally some complex carbs like wheat pasta.

Add a square or two of good chocolate before bed most nights, just in case you think I gave up everything, and throw in a couple of snacks throughout the day (like pistachios or fruit), and I’m a happy camper – 30 plus pounds lighter!

I pay attention to how I feel after I eat, and I try to stay away from lots of dairy (except for good farmer’s market cheese!), white sugar, and white flour because I’ve learned that they make me feel yucky after I eat them.  The same goes for lots of coffee.

But it certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy my food – I absolutely do!  Today’s dinner was a great example of that.  Just fish and veggies…but tasty and satisfying.

I started with some wild-caught Alaskan salmon (each piece was about 1/3 pound).

I seared the salmon with a little olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper (skin side up) in a hot pan to get a good sear on top, then flipped it and popped the whole pan into a 400-degree oven for about 7 minutes.  It came out perfect.  (Oh, I roasted some asparagus from the farmer’s market at the same time.  The asparagus was thin, so it took about the same amount of time.)

While the salmon and asparagus were cooking, I made the Orange-Garlic Salt sprinkle on top.  I took the zest of one orange, one minced clove of garlic, a handful of parsley (chopped), and a couple of pinches of kosher salt and mixed them together.  So easy!

As soon as I sprinkled the Orange Salt on the hot salmon, I could smell the orange zest and garlic, and it almost sizzled…beautiful.

I rounded it out with a glass of 15 Feet of Wheat beer from Trailhead Brewery, made with blueberries and honey.  I bought a growler of this beer Friday night, and boy am I glad I did!  It went perfectly with dinner tonight

Well, off to have a bit of good chocolate, watch some Torchwood on Netflix and go to bed.  It’s a good day.