Spring!  Warmer.  Wet.  Still chilly.  I cooked two things that were light and fresh with fruit but also warm and soothing for blustery damp days.

Tilapia in citrus and basil
Original inspirational recipe here.
What I did:
Briefly marinated the Tilapia fillets in the juice and zest of one orange, some olive oil, and ground coriander.
Cooked quinoa (or rice) with a dash of lemon juice and dried basil, parsley and salt.
Prepped (because one the fish starts cooking it goes really fast).  Chopped green olives, shallot, and basil.  Segmented 2 oranges and 1 grapefruit.
Removed fish from marinade and fried it hot (trying to brown it slightly)
Flipped fish, added shallot, let cook a bit.
Added marinade and most of the olives and citrus.  Let cook until fish was done and everything was warm.
Added the basil and remaining olives and citrus.

French Chicken Soup
I made Jamie Oliver’s recipe a couple times before creating my much lazier crock pot version.  His is much prettier.

I layered in my giant crockpot:
1 diced onion (could certainly do more)
4-6 garlic cloves
4-6 chopped celery stalks
a lot of quartered button mushrooms
6-8 chicken thighs (bone in skin removed)
A lot (3-4T?) mustard, grainy and Dijon
couple gluggs of olive oil.
roughly 2c stock and 2c white wine.
Cooked on high for 4ish hours (or low for 6ish hours)
At the end tossed in a bunch of:
halved green grapes (trust me, it’s great)
chopped fresh tarragon and parsley
ripped up bib (butter) lettuce.  It’s great, really.

It’s not quite as rich as the original, but it’s a wonderful fresh light springy chicken stew.  Served with Will’s homemade french baguette 🙂