Brain Food: I’m serving fish for back to school week.

You may have heard your grandmother say “Fish is Brain Food” but there is increasing evidence that this is true. A study in 2009 found that teenagers scored an average of 6% higher on intelligence scores if they ate fish once a week. Okay so I served it three times this week – does that mean my kids will score 18% higher? 😉 Certain types of fish are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids which are essential for optimal brain functioning, particularly salmon, tuna and anchovies. Haven’t gotten too far with anchovies yet but salmon and tuna? Yes!

One of the great things about living in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance of salmon. My son has been catching it recently right on the beach at the bottom of the hill! So on Sunday we made our usual grilled wild caught silver salmon (not caught by my son) with lemon onion topping, cooking about twice as much as we needed, the rest to be eaten later. Tuesday I whirled the leftovers up in the cuisinart with some celery, parsley, green onion (yes more onion), lemon zest, Old Bay seasoning and since my husband has recently decided to avoid gluten, some uncooked old fashioned rolled oats. I normally would have added red bell pepper but I was out. I formed these into patties and cooked them in olive oil (more Omega 3’s!) et voilà. Delish. Kids loved them and they got another helping of brain power.

Then on Wednesday, I picked up some wild caught rock cod at the local market that had just come in that day. I made an old standby recipe which is basically cooking it a minute each side then adding the juice of a lemon, some canned diced tomatoes, a pressed clove of garlic and a handful of fresh basil chiffonade, covering it and letting it steam for a few minutes in the juices. So fresh and yummy. Served over brown rice and some steamed green beans from our CSA delivery and we were ready to eat in no time.

School started the next morning: Thursday, 8 am. And although I did hear one peep on Wednesday “fish again?” at least I know that they got the nutrients they needed to start the school year off right.