Greg’s Guilt free Mexican Food

Greg doesn’t have to give up Hacienda.

I thought about Hacienda Restaurant all day on Friday. What would I eat? How would I avoid the temptations? That one margarita, beans, rice and cheese was not worth $3000. I went right to the appetizers and there, on the right hand column at the bottom, Ceviche jumped off the page.

Ceviche is one of those recipes that I used to pass over in my cookbook when I read that it is raw fish marinated in lime juice to “cook” it. Halibut is not my favorite fish cooked never mind raw, and I didn’t buy the “cooks in lime juice” bit. I finally tried Ceviche in Homer last summer and it was delicious and not what I expected. So I ordered the Haciendas Ceviche to give it a try. Charlie ordered a big enchilada dinner and I assumed I’d take couple bites of his dinner just to satisfy that Mexican food urge. Stealing off of his plate wasn’t necessary. All the Mexican food ingredients were in the ceveche with fresh cilantro, onions, tomatoes a little jalapeno, avocado with a few corn chips. I couldn’t eat it all. Both the Ceviche and salad were plenty and I took 1/2 of the food home. It’s the first time I have left the Hacienda and not felt miserably stuffed.

I found a couple recipes and looked up the nutritional values. This is the simple version but you can add a few other ingredients and not alter the calorie count very much such as: rinsed canned black beans, shrimp, squid, scallops.

Greg’s Guilt free Mexican Food, Halibut Ceviche.

1 lb. of raw halibut chopped in 1/4 cubes

7 limes, 6 squeezed- save one for later.

3 Roma tomatoes

1 small onion chopped fine

1-2 ripe but firm avocadoes diced, sprinkle with lime juice to keep fresh.

1/4 cup fresh oregano, cilantro or both to taste. Dry oregano is ok but make sure the cilantro is very fresh.

2 cloves of garlic minced to taste

1-3 jalapenos minced to taste

Place the halibut and lime juice in a glass casserole dish, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight, at lease 8 hours. Drain the fish and pat dry with paper towels and place in a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and remaining lime juice.

Serve with corn chips, warm flour tortillas, or crusty bread slices.

A 6 oz. serving of ceviche is 354 calories, 49 grams protein, 3 grams fat, 35 grams carbohydrates.