I love bread.

One of the best things about learning German was that I got to go to Germany where they love bread. In German Cooking, by Marianna Olszeweska Heberle, she writes:

A woman is leaning over her backyard fence, discussing her son’s career choice with a neighbor. “Well,” she says, “Manfred just couldn’t pass his baker’s exams, so he’s taking up brain surgery.”

While she admits it’s a bit of an exaggeration, it’s still true that Germans love bread.

It’s so obvious I’m German.

And so obvious that Wisconsin is peopled with expat Germans. In my 3 1/2 years there, I got to the point when some sort of bread was the focus of every meal. Bread, crackers, Panera Rapid Pick-Up, pasta, desserts—you name it, I probably craved it. And consequently overate it.

Inadvertently, when I planned my meals for this week, I left out bread almost entirely. I think subconsciously I knew that I’ll always find an excuse to add bread to something, so I should make sure my menus don’t have it as a main course.

Instead, I seem to have made everything revolve around fish. Tilapia, salmon, mahi-mahi—I’ve had so much fish this week you’d think I moved to a seaside village instead of my mountainous, landlocked Pennsylvania.

Here are the recipes I’ve made that are high in fish—Omega-3s, protein, filling—and low in bread—carbs, sugars, delicious.

• Fish tacos. I replaced the chicken in this recipe with tilapia and used whole-wheat wraps for the taco shells. And my goodness, my mom and I loved them! The guacamole was perfect (use this guide to find ripe avocados) and the tacos filling. They ended up serving us for three meals.
• Crockpot mahi mahi. The fish turned out perfect, but the veggies took on all the taste of fish. My mom wasn’t thrilled with the veggies, and truth be told, neither was I, but I ate them anyway because, hey, they’re veggies. If I make this again, I’ll probably leave the veggies out of it. Also, the whole house smelled like fish and asparagus, which drove the cats slightly mad.
• Salmon and lime butter. (Is it obvious I love Stephanie O’Dea’s slow cooker recipes?) Instead of putting it in the crockpot, we decided to grill the salmon and dribble the lime butter overtop. And I tell you, I struggled with salmon on the grill because I am impatient, and a lot of it got stuck and I got frustrated, but my mom rescued it while I worked on the lime butter, which was the BEST.

Repeats? Definitely. Knowing I have tasty meals like this to look forward to makes it a little less tempting to snack on crackers the rest of the day!