For those who really know me, this is an ironic post,
offering a fish recipe on Friday when I decided long ago that I never wanted to
participate in a “weird” Catholic tradition ever again (no offense to those who
participate!). For those who don’t know
me that well, I’m what they call a “recovering Catholic”. Organized religion is not my thing. Being raised Catholic with that kind of
personality trait is rather conflicting, I must say…
But, I do have my Catholic roots to thank for a few things,
like my interest in a broad array of different cultures and their religious or
spiritual practices and my open-mindedness towards them. Some are pretty cool, and others are weirder
than Catholicism… Back when I was
deciding to leave the church I used to be kinda bitter about religion, too,
which isn’t a good place to be. I
finally learned that what makes one person happy may not make another person
happy, but so long as we’re doing or following something that makes us happy
without hurting anyone else then all is well.
I searched within for my own personal belief system, satisfying both my
need for a belief and my desire to avoid organized religion, and life has been
pretty fulfilling since then, I must say.
Another thing I have to thank Catholicism for is my distaste
for soda… I gave up soda for Lent one year in grade school, made it all 40
days, which was tough because I loved me some soda… and I was so excited to
have a Dr. Pepper on Easter Sunday, only to find out it tasted
DISGUSTING!! Ugh! Thank you, Lent, for breaking my soda
addiction and completely reversing my taste for it, and leading me towards a
healthier lifestyle. Horray! (Okay so I’m not perfect, I’ll treat myself
to a Captain and Root Beer every now and then… I didn’t lose my taste for root
beer… shhh don’t tell…)
My senior year of high school I gave up being Catholic for
Lent. Har har har. I’m still going strong too and it’s been very
freeing for me! As I was saying, though,
leaving the church sent me through a weird transition of strong dislike for the
Catholic faith and how stifling it felt to me, and I vowed never to participate
in one of their traditions ever again – eating meat every Friday of Lent was
going to be one of them! I got over that
later on, once I found peace with my upbringing and got over my
bitterness. Plus, all those fish fries
in our area are fun and yummy! (That was
one thing that confused me though – technically not eating meat is supposed to
be a sacrifice, isn’t it? The McDonald’s
marquee advertising their tasty fish bites doesn’t seem like a big sacrifice to
me… but that’s just my opinion…) But I
haven’t forgotten that phase I went through, transitioning from Catholic to,
well, whatever you’d call me now. So I
had to laugh this Ash Wednesday when Justin and I were debating on what to have
for lunch, and we ended up pulling some fish out of the freezer because it
sounded good… and I realized I was letting my inner 18-year-old down… I guess eating fish on significant Lenten
days is just engrained in me! Makes for
a pretty easy Guilt-Free Friday post as far as recipes go too – I’ll just fish
it up for you! Even though Easter is
right around the corner… How is it March
already??
By the way, if we’re not supposed to eat meat on Friday, why
is fish okay? I mean, fish are animals
with flesh too, why don’t they count?
I’ve always wondered that…
Anyway. Now all my
readers know me a little better. Please
don’t think I’m judging you or knocking you if you do follow organized
religion. If that were the case, I would have no friends, because I’m kind of a
minority as it is… I love it when
anybody does what makes them happy, and if church makes you happy then keep
doing it! Like I said, it’s just
personally not my thing. Please don’t
judge me either!
Because if you are judging me you might have quit reading by
now… and if you quit reading by now then you’re missing out on this yummy
recipe! And especially if you’re
Catholic and in need of a good Friday recipe, you’re gonna want this one!
It’s yummy! And easy… So check it out!
You’ll need:
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp butter, melted (grass-fed is preferred)
1 ½ tbsp. honey
2 Paleo Biscuits, crumbled (those are in your freezer,
right? If not, get on it, they’re easy
and freeze well, so you’ll never be without biscuits!) If you're not avoiding bread, you can use about 3/4 cup of bread or cracker crumbs.
¾ cup chopped pecans
2 tsp chopped parsley
4 salmon fillets (about 4oz each)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the mustard, butter, and honey in a
bowl. In another bowl, mix the biscuit
crumbs, pecans, and parsley.
Coat the salmon fillets with the honey mustard mixture. I sprinkled some of the crumb mixture on a
lightly greased baking sheet and set each fillet on the crumbs. Coat the tops of the fillets with the
remainder of the crumb mixture.
Bake for 10 minutes per inch of thickness, or until the salmon
flakes when tested. Enjoy!
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