Cod with Organic Vegetables (Low Fat)

I use organic growing methods for my gardens so when I buy produce out of season I like to buy certified organic if at all possible. Last weekend one of our kids picked up a basket of organic produce for us from Pfenning's Organic Farm in Baden, Ontario. The basket contained Jona Gold apples, blood oranges, rainbow carrots, blueberries, English cucumber, yellow onions, red leaf lettuce, red potatoes and button mushrooms. The cost for all this great organic produce was $17. In comparison to fruits and vegetables that are not grown using organic methods, this produce is more expensive. However, more grocery stores are now carrying organic produce so as the demand grows, the price will decrease somewhat. Why is buying organic produce important?

Organic Produce

Organic growers use no chemical fertilizers, herbicides or fumigants so there are none of these residues remaining in the food. The food is free of toxic chemical and growing organically keeps toxic chemicals out of the air, soil and water. In addition to this, growing organically provides a safer working environment for field workers. Growing and/or buying organic produce is:

• eco-friendly
• socially responsible
• healthiers, free of toxic chemicals
• supporting sustainable farming practices

In some but not all cases, buying organic produce will cost a bit more. The reason for this is two fold. There is less demand for organic produce. Organic methods are more labour intensive. For example weeds are manually removed when growing organically rather than using a chemical herbicide. Organic farms tend to be smaller with lower yields. In addition to this, organic produce is not always blemish free and perfect looking contrary to what consumers have come to expect. As a result the uninformed consumer doesn't buy organic produce on the basis of looks and cost even though it is a healthier choice.

Ingredients

Pictured are the organic vegeatables (top) and cod (bottom) used to make an easy, low fat meal. Rainbow carrots are carrots that have been selectively bred to red, purple, yellow and white. Each have their own unique characteristics and flavours. When used as a blend they have a nice eye appeal as well as interesting flavours, quite gourmet. Rainbow carrots can easily be grown in the home garden so this will be one of my new varieties to try growing this year. Red potatoes are always a delight! We love them steamed.

Our butchershop has Highliner brand cod fillets on sale for $5.99 per pound, a $4 per lb savings. We bought 10 fillets which is enough for 2 meals for 2 adults. Cod is a lean white fish with a mild flavour and firm texture that can be baked, steamed, poached, pan fried or coated English style in batter then deep fried. It can also be used in chowders. Cod has 105 calories per 3.5 ounce (about 1 pictured fillet) serving making it a health conscious choice. It is also an economical choice in terms of price. As with all fish, it is important not to over cook cod.

The Meal

We coated the cod fillets with Krusto Fish Batter mix then pan fried until just golden. This is a fish coating that can be used dry as we did here or can be made into a batter for deep frying. We steamed the red potatoes and rainbow carrots together. Notice the contrasting colours of the carrots. The bag we got only had yellow and 2 shades of orange carrots so I will be looking for one with both red and white carrots. Adding in a few regular carrots would give a bit more contrast as well. Rounding out the meal was a small spinach side salad making for a healthy, low fat meal.