Grilled Flounder Fillet.

For those of you who know me, know that I have a enormous aversion to fish beyond eating cold shrimp – which I can eat with really spicy cocktail sauce daily.  I’ll be honest, its always scared me.  I don’t know why but I have avoided it every chance I’ve gotten.  With my 30 lb weight loss and super clean eating, I started to lose my taste for meat.  This left me a bit high and dry other than the standard beans, nuts, cottage cheese as a protein source.  My goal is to always take in a lot of protein per day because I work out 6 days a week – hard!  So the fish topic had to be revisited and I reluctantly did just that.

Long story short, while on vacation in Maine – we were invited to a very exclusive  TD bank sponsored Lobster Bake (along with Olympic runners and other prominent New Englanders).  I proudly cracked and dismantled my lobster (with the direction of my new friend from Maine) and ate the tail… yes, the whole thing!  Then while in NH, I spoke to my good friend Jenny at length (I mean hours) about fish and the scale of fishiness.  What I should start with and what I should avoid.  I then tried my husband’s fish tacos – which was really good during our travels.  I did also have a bite of Jenny’s sesame salmon one night we were out to dinner and I was okay with it.  Progress!  So today we went to our local fishmonger and my husband got catfish and he recommended flounder fillet for me.  My husband created this recipe and I have to admit, I liked it.  I wouldn’t say love but a strong like and would eat it again.  It was mild and great over my plate of sautéed spinach (my fallback cushion).

So for all of you fish-avoiders… give this a try.  I promise, you might be surprised at the outcome!

Ingredients:

4 flounder fillets (about 1/3 lb each)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lemon, thinly sliced into 8 pieces (two per piece of fish) and use the remaining portion of the lemon to juice
1/4 red onion, diced
1 large tomato, sliced
1 pepper, chopped
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Spray olive oil on 4 pieces of tin foil (one each for the fish fillets).  Rinse the fillets with cold water and place on the foil (you’re going to make packets).  In a sauté pan, heat your olive oil and add the garlic.  Cook for about 30 seconds or so.  Once the oil cools a bit drizzle on the fillets, rubbing it in to both sides.  Add the lemon slices over the top.  Squeeze some juice over the top of the lemons. Add the onions, tomato, peppers, salt and pepper.  Fold each piece of tin foil loosely to make a packet for grilling/steaming.  Grill for 12-14 minutes.  Serve in the foil packet or over sautéed spinach or kale.

— Knead to Cook