Tropical Tilapia and a Challenge

Hey guys!  

This meal has been haunting my mind in a good way since I made it!  I love fresh, light meals in the summer, and this one has been my absolute favorite!

Since dad and Luvy were grilling steak kabobs, I didn’t really know what I wanted.  

I knew I wanted a salad/rice bowl.  I wanted lots of veggies.

I knew I didn’t want my typical rice and beans.  Plus, I wanted to use my Trader Joe’s Pineapple Salsa.

Then it hit me… a tropical salad/rice bowl with tilapia.

Tropical Tilapia Salad

• grilled tilapia
• salad greens or spinach (I used spinach)
• cooked rice
• grilled or fresh veggies and pineapple (I didn’t have any pineapple.  BIG bummer!)
• salsa (I used TJ’s Pinapple Salsa)
• avocado (optional)—but highly recommended!

Put all your veggies on the grill first.  They will take a bit longer than the fish.

Grill your fish in the last 5-6 minutes.  You don’t want your fish to be done before your veggies (or steak kabobs!).  

Luvy is our grill master, and he always grills my fish perfectly!

For the salad, put down a layer of greens and add your rice.  Top with grilled veggies (and pineapple) and fish.

Top it off with salsa and avocado.  YUM!!

I forgot to add my avocado before I took the picture.  Whoopsy… bad blogger.  This was so good and I was so excited that I’m surprised I took any pics!  

I have to figure out how to make pineapple salsa, because I didn’t notice it until after I had eaten it that this salsa is made in a plant with wheat.  So, it probably isn’t gluten free… whoops!  I got a bit of a tummy ache after, but I don’t know if it was just mental.  Do you every do that??

Okay, so I have a challenge for us.  It has been really hot, and I haven’t been drinking enough water.  I have noticed that I have been swelling, and my digestion has not been very good. 

SO, I am challenging all of us to drink 2 large glasses of water every morning before we eat or drink anything else.  This will help flush out our system and get everything moving.  If you want to add some lemon to this, even better!  

Who’s with me on the challenge??

Does pineapple salsa sound good to you?  Any recipes????

WIAW #8

Can you believe it is Wednesday already??  You know what that means!!  It’s time for What I Ate Wednesday!

This past weekend, I made a TON of food for daddy to come up.  My fridge is still massively full of food.

It was so hot outside that I didn’t want us to heat up the house, plus I didn’t want to spend all my time in the kitchen with him here!

Also, my dad likes vegetarian food, so it made it very easy to feed him.  Plus, when he comes up, he always brings farm fresh veggies and meats from local farms and his farm.  Luvy loves that!

So how do you feed family or guests without a ton of cooking?

Breakfast:

Mostly for breakfast we would have yogurt, oats, or some cereal.  On Saturday morning, we made a “big breakfast”.

Daddy and Luvy made some sausage from a local farmer in Tennessee that my daddy is friends with.  They both LOVE this sausage.  Me, not so much.  :)

I whipped up Purely Elizabeth’s gluten free pancakes while Luvy made some eggs for us.

I don’t like my syrup to touch my eggs so this is my first plate.  :)  I love fruit with my breakfast!

The sausage and pancakes look so similar!

Lunch:

For lunches, we mostly ate leftovers and cold salads.

My Confetti Quinoa Salad was a huge hit, and so was Emily’s Lentil and Green Bean Salad!

The guys also made turkey sandwiches for lunch.  Devoured with a TON of daddy’s homemade salsa.  We have been out for a few weeks now, and Luvy was lost without it.  Store bought just doesn’t cut it after you have had my daddy’s salsa!

Dinner:

Dinner was super simple compared to some of the recipes I try!  I made Happy Herbivore’s Mexican Cabbage.

Luvy and I have made this several times and we can’t get enough!

For our second night’s dinner, we ate really early because daddy doesn’t usually eat dinner.  Since he was up, Luvy and him decided to grill up some of daddy’s beef.  I was so glad that Luvy finally had someone to eat beef with!  ha!

We griled corn from Daddy’s garden, vegetables, tilapia for me, and beef skewers with veggies for the guys.

Luvy was quite the grill master!

I made an amazing Tropical Tilapia salad!  I’ll have to share my recipe with you guys!

I hope y’alls weekend was as great as ours.  It was so fun hanging out with my dad and having him around!!

How do you all feed guests without spending a ton of time in the kitchen?

Do you all like to grill out in the summer?

WIAW #5

Happy What I Ate Wednesday friends!  I hope you guys are enjoying these!

My appetite has been all over the place the past few days.  Some days, I don’t have much of an appetite, and then the next day I’m like a bear coming out of hibernation!  It’s crazy.  Anyone else ever have that?

Side note:  For an amazing recipe, make sure you check out my guest post today over at The Lean Green Bean!  Thanks for having me Lindsay!

So, I promised you guys “real” pictures this week, and I semi came through for you.  See, I went to take pictures with my big girl camera, and the battery was dead!  No warning… just dead.  #bummer

Camera phone to the rescue!

Breakfast was a glorious huge bowl of oats (hungry day!).  It had a peach, blueberries, almond butter and sunflower butter (couldn’t make up my mind).  I also had 1/2 up of coffee.

I love only having 3 hrs between breakfast and lunch, because I’m not starving by lunch time.

Lunch was leftover lentil and green bean salad, rice, sauteed spinach and squash, and cantaloupe.

2-3 bowls of cantaloupe!  :)

Luvy had an appointment with my friend Amanda to get his hair cut last night, so my snack was portable.  Pure Bar and an apple!  Perfect.

We came home, and Luvy grilled for us last night!

The perfect summer dinner: grilled salmon, sauteed green beans and squash, and rice!  Simple and delicious!

After eating 5oz of salmon, I so wasn’t hungry for a snack last night.  So weird for me!  However, I’m certain a few handfuls of granola found it’s way into my mouth.

I ended my night with some warm Homegrown Mint Tea last night while working on my computer.

What are your favorite summer meals?

What are some things you have eaten recently that you love??

Make sure you check out my guest post today over at The Lean Green Bean!  Thanks for having me Lindsay!