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Eat Fresh, Day 11: A Worthy Splurge

Who: Jessica Mordo, Senior Editor, Sunset.com This year, I resolved to: Eat more fish. I aimed for about 4 servings a week for the durati...

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San Francisco’s Bi-Rite Market has amaaaazing fresh fish, although it’ll cost you

Who: Jessica Mordo, Senior Editor, Sunset.com

This year, I resolved to: Eat more fish. I aimed for about 4 servings a week for the duration of this challenge.

Even though this challenge is almost done, I still struggle with: The oh-so-noticeable difference between a quality piece of fresh fish ($$$) and defrosted frozen fish ($). It’s not sustainable to cook fresh fish every time.

Coping mechanism(s): I felt that I had to splurge at least once during the two-week challenge. I won’t disclose how much I spent on the gorgeous filets of wild-caught Hawaiian tombo tuna (pictured above), but let’s just say that for one item, it comprised a significant percentage of my regular weekly grocery bill. However, it really was worth it! I was nervous about wrecking the tuna, but I chose a successful recipe and the results (pictured below) were stellar. My husband loved it, too. You really can taste the difference between fresh and frozen—it’s not even close.

The tuna’s flavor held up so well to tomatoes, olives, fennel, and oregano

I’m feelin’: Still a bit wary of the cost vs. quality issue, but encouraged to make more of an effort throughout the rest of the year to eat more fish.

My takeaways: My goal for the challenge—to eat about 4 servings of fish per week—was a bit lofty. I knew ahead of time that would probably be the case, but that I’d power through the two weeks so I could experiment with a variety of ways to get fish into my weekly meal planning. I had some hits and some misses, but moving forward I’m going to have to lower my weekly intake. I think 1-2 servings a week would be more manageable, and that doesn’t always have to mean cooking fish for family dinner. Smoked salmon in my breakfast, a scoop of tuna salad (yup, good, old-fashioned canned tuna) in my lunch, opting for fish when eating out, whatever—I have options that don’t involve foisting fish on my husband and kids. Also, I can’t justify spending so much money on a quality piece of fresh fish for each weekly serving, but I can swing it once a month. If I keep hitting the dishes out of the park like I did with the tombo tuna, then I’ll have all the more buy-in from the rest of my family.

I’m celebrating with: Sushi this weekend! You’d think I’d have OD’d on fish by now, but I can’t ever say no to sushi.

A recipe I’m really digging: I cooked this Greek-Style Halibut recipe with some modifications. I subbed the tombo tuna for halibut (since the latter isn’t in season), omitted the booze, and added halved kalamata olives. I served it over brown rice. It was heavenly! I’d definitely make it again.