Bacon-wrapped tilapia is simple, quick and yummy! It was also the perfect recipe experiment for my inaugural “What I Ate Today” post. I thought it might be helpful for some of the new folks if I occasionally shared my daily menu, so you could get some menu planning ideas and see how the low oxalate diet works  (at least my Paleo-ish, whole foods version of it). I also had a lot of left-over odds and ends in the fridge that needed using up today, so it was a great day to experiment with a new recipe or two.  Here’s what the day looked like.

Breakfast was my everyday standby. Yes, I’m boring. I eat the same very low oxalate breakfast almost every morning, except some mornings I stir-fry a half cup of veggies in the oil before I cook the eggs (onion, red pepper and zucchini is a favorite combination).

Breakfast:

3 eggs cooked over-easy in a teaspoon of olive oil   ( < 1 mg. oxalate)
1 cup Madagascar Vanilla Tea (rooibos)   ( 0.9 mg. oxalate)

Total: about 1.5 mg. oxalate

My lunches these days are typically some combination of left-overs, either warmed up or added to a salad.  My boys usually enjoy cottage cheese or yogurt and fruit, although today they wanted the chicken.

Lunch:

4 -5 ounces roast chicken seasoned with salt, white pepper and a little thyme ( 1.5 mg. oxalate)
1 cup southern -style turnip and collard greens (about 13.5 mg. oxalate)
1 large yellowish-red gala apple (mostly yellow) ( about 4 mg. oxalate)

Total: about 19 mg. oxalate

I usually like to cook something new for dinner on Saturday night, but  I had a little bit of butternut squash, a few rings of pineapple and some uncooked bacon that seriously needed eating. Plus, I’d picked some fresh lettuce and arugula from the garden while weeding this afternoon and really wanted a salad. I was flipping through a magazine earlier in the day and saw a recipe for bacon-wrapped tilapia. Perfect! The recipe included potatoes and a bunch of other high oxalate ingredients. Plus, it required grilling in a basket, but it did spark the idea and I had a few tilapia fillets in the freezer. I rubbed the fish with an oil/spice mix, wrapped each in bacon and cooked them in my cast-iron skillet (see the recipe below). When I was finished, I removed the fish, poured out most of the grease and added a 1 lb. bag of frozen cauliflower to the skillet. I cooked the cauliflower for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, added a little salt and white pepper and served.  It was about the best cauliflower I’ve ever tasted and even my sons asked for seconds. We ended up eating the whole bag! One of my sons ate an entire large fillet with three slices of bacon, too, so I guess this dinner is a keeper. Here’s the oxalate run-down for my dinner.

Dinner:

Bacon-wrapped tilapia fillet (4.5 mg. oxalate  )
1/4 cup pineapple (about 5.5 mg. oxalate)
1/2 cup baked, unseasoned butternut squash (4.9 mg. oxalate)
1 cup mixed lettuce and arugula with homemade vinaigrette ( about 2 mg. oxalate)
1 1/2 cups stir-fried cauliflower (about 5.5 mg. oxalate)

Dinner Total: 22.4 mg. oxalate

Daily Oxalate Total:  42.9 mg. oxalate

I hope you’ve enjoyed a sample menu from a typical day in my Paleo-ish, gluten-free, dairy-free world. You’ll notice I consumed about ten half-cup servings of fruit and vegetables. I don’t always hit this number, but I try for at least seven a day. I also occasionally eat black-eyed peas, a little sugar, greens peas, corn tortillas or rice, so I’m not completely Paleo. But I’m hoping to be again soon. And today was actually a Paleo perfect day for me, so that felt good. I’m stuffed and happy after that monster-sized dinner, so I probably won’t snack before bed. I also ate only one medium-oxalate food (boiled collard greens), so this was a lower oxalate day than some. Overall, a pretty yummy day in my world.

Here’s the recipe for the Bacon-Wrapped Tilapia.

Bacon-Wrapped Tilapia

4 tilapia fillets (about a pound)
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
8 -12 slices uncured, preservative -free bacon

Rub each fillet with a mixture of white pepper and paprika then drizzle with sesame seed oil. Wrap 2-3 slices of bacon around each fillet. I chose to completely wrap the fillets with bacon, but you could also leave a gap between the bacon slices and only use two . Cook in skillet over medium heat until bacon in browned on one side. About 7 minutes. Pour off some of the bacon fat if needed and cook another 6-7 minutes until the bacon is browned (it won’t brown if you’ve got too much grease in the skillet.) Transfer finished fillets to a paper towel-lined plate and let drain a minute. (If you’re cooking the cauliflower, too, this is the time to add your bag of frozen veggies to the skillet, turn up the heat a little, and stir-fry until tender.)

Makes 4 large servings or 8 smaller servings

Low Oxalate Info: All ingredients in bacon-wrapped tilapia are low oxalate except  paprika, which  has about 6.0 mg. oxalate per teaspoon. Bacon-wrapped tilapia has about 4.5 mg. oxalate per large serving (made with three slices bacon).

Other Diets: Bacon-wrapped tilapia may also be appropriate for gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, Paleo, low carb, GFCF and GAPS diets. Be sure to use  uncured, preservative-free bacon if you follow the GAPS protocol.

Hoppin’ John is a fabulous Southern rice and beans dish that is traditionally served on New Year’s Day.  Hoppin’ John is so ubiquitous to the South that there are as many recipes, traditions and legends surrounding the dish as there are cooks who serve it.  Traditionally, Hoppin’ John is a stew of black-eyed peas, onions and smoked pork (bacon or ham) that is served over white rice. Some cooks add celery, hot peppers, and seasonings such as thyme, bay leaf or cajun spices. Others leave Hoppin’ John plain. The oldest surviving printed recipe dates back to 1847, although there are references to the stew in letters and literature  before this.

Serving Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day is supposed to bring prosperity and good luck in the New Year.  Most southern cooks serve it with turnip, mustard or collard greens, which are also supposed to bring wealth in the New Year.  Some cooks add a coin to the dish and whoever gets the coin is supposed to have the most luck of all. Other cooks put a coin under each plate before serving Hoppin’ John.

Most of the traditional ingredients in Hoppin’ John are low oxalate, so I didn’t do much to my version to tweak the oxalate content.  Many modern cooks use celery and green pepper in Hoppin’ John, which you can use in moderation if you wish. I choose to substitute chopped kohlrabi or broccoli stems and red bell pepper to keep the oxalate down. I also prefer to make Hoppin’ John with a smoked ham hock or bacon, but it’s also a fabulous way to use up the left-over ham from Christmas.  These meats are pretty interchangeable without changing the final result too much.

Enjoy your Hoppin’ John and good luck in the New Year.

Hoppin’ John

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large ham hock (or 1/2 pound bacon or smoked ham)
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup kohlrabi, chopped (or peeled broccoli stems, chopped)
1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic (3-5 cloves)
1 pound black-eyed peas, soaked overnight and rinsed
1 quart low oxalate chicken broth (or more if you like a soupier stew)
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dry thyme leaves
1 teaspoon white pepper (UK readers click here)
salt to taste (I usually let people salt at the table since the pork is usually already salty)
1/8 – 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (to taste)
3 tablespoons finely chopped green onion (optional)
3 cups long-grained white rice, cooked

Heat the oil in a large soup pot, then add the ham hock and sear on all sides for about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the onion, kohlrabi, red pepper, and garlic and cook over medium heat until the onions are translucent (about 4 minutes). Add the black-eyed peas, chicken broth, bay leaves, thyme, and seasonings. Bring the Hoppin’ John to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes to an hour, or until the peas are tender but not mushy, stirring occasionally. If the liquid evaporates, add more water or chicken broth. Pull the ham off the bone if using ham hocks. Adjust the seasonings to taste, and garnish with green onions if using.  Serve over the long-grain rice.

Makes 10 servings.

Menu Planning: New Year’s Dinner in the picture above is a Southern soul food feast with Hoppin’ John, corn bread, collard greens and creamed corn. I like to add fried catfish (in corn meal batter), and Wow! Southern low oxalate cooking at it’s best (although do go easy on the corn bread).

Low Oxalate Info: All ingredients in Hoppin’ John are low oxalate. One serving of Hoppin’ John has about 4.6 mg. oxalate per hearty serving (1/10 of the above recipe).

Other Diet Info: Hoppin’ John may also be appropriate for gluten-free, dairy-free, and GFCF diets.

Photo credits go to Sleepneko for New Year’s Dinner and January 1, 2011.

I recently checked out Sarah Fragoso’s Everyday Paleo Cookbook from my public library because I’d heard such good things about it and because I enjoy her blog, Everday Paleo.  Sarah is a creative cook with lots of fabulous ideas for family-friendly Paleo foods.  Unfortunately, most of her recipes are high oxalate or very high oxalate.  I found few medium or low oxalate recipes in her cookbook, with a few notable exceptions including a fantastic recipe for roasted brussel sprouts.  I modified the recipe slightly for oxalate content, but it could be enjoyed the way Sarah wrote it, too (in small amounts!).  We enjoyed roasted brussel sprouts with steak, apple sauce and a green salad, but I think it would go well with ham or pork chops, too.  Be sure to check out the cauliflower variation below if you need a lower oxalate side dish.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

1/2 pound bacon, diced
1 1/2 pounds brussel sprouts, quartered and ends trimmed
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1/2 cup pork broth, chicken broth or water (I use homemade broth or Swanson’s 100% Natural Chicken Broth)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon thyme

Brown the bacon in a skillet until crispy.  Meanwhile, boil the brussel sprouts in a large saucepan for about 10 minutes.  Pour off the water and add the bacon, bacon fat and remaining ingredients.  Mix well until each brussel sprout is well coated.  Pour the brussel sprouts mixture into a glass or ceramic baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Vegetarian Variation:  Use about 3-4 tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil in place of the bacon and bacon fat.  I personally like coconut oil best!

Roasted Cauliflower:  This is also a fabulous way to cook cauliflower.  Simply replace the brussel sprouts with cauliflower or try  using half cauliflower, half brussel sprouts.  I love these two veggies mixed, and it’s a great way to reduce the oxalate content, but still enjoy a few brussel sprouts.

Low Oxalate Info:  Brussel sprouts are a medium oxalate food with 8.5 mg. oxalate per half cup when boiled 12 minutes (compared to 12.7 mg. oxalate per half cup when steamed).  All other ingredients are low or very low oxalate.  Roasted brussel sprouts have about 9.0 mg. oxalate per half cup.  If you make this recipe with half cauliflower-half brussel sprouts, it has about 5 mg. oxalate per half cup.

Other Diets:  Roasted brussel sprouts may also be appropriate for Paleo, low carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, GAPS and GFCF diets. If you are following the GAPS diet make sure you choose a GAPS-legal bacon!