"the skinny chef" news and stories

Don't be afraid to cook fish -- it makes an easy, fast meal that you can serve with a flavorful fresh sauce. If it's in your budget, try wild salmon, which is naturally high in omega-3's. If not, go for tilapia instead -- it's inexpensive, easy to find and has a white, flaky texture that most people love.

To prepare the fish, preheat your oven to 400°F. Simply coat the fish with a light layer of olive oil spray and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place in a glass baking dish and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the fish flakes with a fork. Top with a scoop of sauce and serve immediately.

See the Skinny Chef's recipes for sauce to serve with fish, after the jump.

Catfish po' boys are one of my favorite sandwiches and I always crave them around Mardi Gras. Hot fried filling, cool mayo, all on a chewy bun with crisp greens -- yum.

My local grocery store doesn't always carry catfish, so I re-created the sandwich keeping some of the same elements that I love -- the spicy mayo, ciabatta roll and warm seafood, but using shrimp instead, which is always available. Since I like to keep it light, I don't deep-fry the shrim, relying instead on a light bread coating to give it crispness and crunch.

Find the Skinny Chef's recipe for lighter po' boy sandwiches after the jump...

Tired of eating the same thing for breakfast? Here are two ways to incorporate super foods quinoa and flax into your morning meal, whether you like it hot or cold.

Quinoa, sometimes called a whole grain, is actually the seed of a green leafy plant that is still cultivated in South America. Revered by the ancient Aztecs as a source of energy, chefs and home cooks now admire it for its mild taste and creamy texture. Quinoa is as easy to cook as rice, but it's also a complete protein (translation: it has all 9 essential amino acids) and is very high in manganese (which helps keep bones strong), niacin and fiber.

Flax is another nutritional heavy hitter and has a nutty flavor reminiscent of toasted coconut. The seeds range in color from golden to brown to reddish brown. Heavy with omega-3 fatty acids, just two tablespoons of flax a day can give you almost all of your daily needs – but remember to purchase them ground, or grind your own, since the whole seed can pass through your system undigested. Ground flax can be sprinkled on top of or stirred into many of your favorite recipes.

After the jump, find my nutritious breakfast recipes...

I classify some traditional, family-style recipes as "legacy recipes," meaning they're much more than comfort food and heritage. So this week, I'm featuring an updated, healthier version of a legacy recipe that I grew up eating. As a kid, I fell in love with the mini pasta stars alongside the tender meatballs in this soup.

When these red bananas first caught my eye yesterday, I thought they were purple. Purple bananas? Well, there are purple beans, purple tomatoes, purple cauliflower -- so why not purple bananas?

Sounds like something out of an "Alice in Wonderland" garden, but I assure you that they're real and they're actually called "red" bananas. In fact, you might find an array of deep red and violet foods if you were to stroll through some people's gardens -- surely Alice Waters or Dan Barber might have fruits and vegetables from the darker spectrum of the rainbow.