Whole 30 Day 13, Almond Crusted Halibut with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli

And, yes, we did also make that romaine wedge salad with the Tahini Ranch Dressing I posted last night! I forgot to mention that I replaced the two tablespoons of maple syrup with just one tablespoon of apple juice to comply with our Whole 30 program. I was a little concerned that using two tablespoons of apple juice would make the dressing too runny when I mixed it up, but after having some straight out of the fridge at lunch yesterday that should not concern you, so go ahead and use an equal swap of juice for syrup if you like. And if you want the dressing to pour a little easier (say, for a photo of your salad!) then get it out of the fridge 45 minutes before dinner.

Romaine Wedge with Tahini Ranch Dressing

I will happily eat this salad again any time. I love a nice crunchy wedge and appreciate a creamy dressing option right now to break up the monotony of vinaigrette. But, in the interest of fair critique from all the culinary critics here, Jason thought it tasted like peanut butter that first night we had it. That is why I highly recommend making it a day ahead, you really do need to give those flavors 12-24 hours to come together.

Almond Crusted Halibut, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Roast Broccoli from Cooking Whole 30

The main course was a total departure for us. I honestly cannot remember breading and baking fish ever! And truly that has been one of the great things about challenging myself to both do the Whole 30 and write about all our meals, it has pushed us to try new things. We found the recipe flipping through the Whole 30 Cookbook but wanted to try it with halibut instead of filet of sole. Either way you are looking at a mild and flaky white fish so I don’t think there is a big difference there. As always, the quality of your piece of fish will bear greatly on the finished product, so we get our fish from Petaluma’s premium fishmonger, Anna’s Seafood. This girl is a rock star! She just moved to a bigger location so she can eventually open a restaurant as well. I look forward to trying it someday when eating out is possible.

Anna’s Seafood Market

We took a small short cut on the fish by using Trader Joe’s already ground almonds for our breading. I often buy those for a Chocolate Torte recipe of my Granny’s that Ford loves, so I happened to have a in the pantry.

Place the breaded fish in a glass baking dish with melted ghee

The fish only takes about 15 minutes to bake and you do not need to flip it, just rotate the pan halfway through it’s time in the oven. We also roasted some broccoli, so those went in the oven 15 minutes ahead of the fish. The potato recipe is very straightforward, and I was only willing to try mashed potatoes on this program because we had made ghee. I don’t think there is any way to get around some form of butter in mashed potatoes!

This is another one of those dinners that could easily be carried over for a celebration. And as it turns out, tonight we do have something to celebrate. It is our dear friend Scott’s birthday! Scott and Alison are known for throwing the best parties, and under normal circumstances we would have been at their place tonight, raising a glass to the man of the hour. We had to settle for toasting him with Pellegrino over a zoom call this year, but maybe next year we can honor him in person with a celebratory dinner.

The birthday boy at a celebration from years past

I have been wanting to experiment more with lunches, but that has been a bit tricky with work. I have long been a fan of a big salad with some type of protein on it for lunch, it’s the perfect midday meal to fuel you up for the rest of the day. The day we reheated those leftover meatballs for lunch I could barely stay awake the rest of the afternoon! Heavy lunches tend to do that to me. (It should be noted here that those meatballs are a winner, we will be making them again after the Whole 30 is over.) My advice for keeping those endless parades of salads interesting is to keep a few special touches on hand. For me that is Kalamata olives, toasted nuts, and a few fresh herbs. I used the leftover mint from the cauliflower rice we made a few days ago on today’s salad and it really made it! So don’t forget to save those little extras, they make a big difference.

Mixed greens with roast chicken, avocado, kalamata olives, cucumber, tomatoes, green onion, and fresh mint

I’ll be back tomorrow with next week’s meal plan and grocery list, and our last dinner of the week: Instant Pot Carnitas Salad Bowls.

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