Fresh Tilapia Fish Full of Bones

While yesterday's fish was a price bargain, from now on I'm gonna just pay the extra money and buy the filets instead. The fish was full of bones and it was irritating picking them out in order to eat it. Yes, you can pull the fish spine out, but that doesn't take out all the bones -- there's more left. Picking through it took the fun out of eating the fish. I dropped a couple of the fish heads over my bedroom balcony for the stray Siamese cat who lives under the building. As soon as it hit the ground that cat nabbed the fish heads and dragged it to its kill corner. We ate one fish each, with one left over, the scraps of which I gave to my cats. But I had to pick the bones out of that for them as well. Don't want to have to take a cat to the vet with a sharp fish bone stuck in its gullet. The three of six fish were baked in foil with lemon juice on them, along with pepper and garlic salt. Put a little chicken stock on each one so they'd cook moist. Friend used the meat cleaver to chop the fish's heads, tails and fins off, then he de-scaled them. The cats went crazy over the fish -- especially Whiskers. But all those sharp little bones were a real annoyance. No, next time I'll just buy the prepared fish filets which have no bones at all. I later found this bulletin board post about Tilapia's fish bones: Don't Bother Cooking Tilapia, Too Many Bones.


SEANCE TABLE converted into a Halloween table last night, with holiday red table cloth.
HALLOWEEN... Not a single trick-or-treater came to the door last night, even though we had the lighted pumpkin in the window. In fact, looking out the windows, no kids could be seen anywhere. I guess the parents take them elsewhere around here. Through the window we saw other apartments bearing lighted pumpkins in their windows as well -- but not a body could be seen lurking around outside. The place was dead. During this time I watched Fox Movie Channel (FMC) "Planet of the Apes" movies and then saw "Night of the Living Dead" again before going to sleep. A very dull Halloween. No costumes this year as money is tight. And the bowl of Halloween candy was kinda small, too, which I put in my roommate's room away from me.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME -- Well, it's the first day of November. The year 2009 is winding down and soon a NEW DECADE of the twenty-tens will start (see Wiki). See Future Timeline to see the crazy predictions for the twenty-tens and beyond. November is turkey-eating month here in America. This month we'll see the end of the warmer weather and the approach of the freezing cold Winter and snow. At Walmart yesterday, amidst all the crowds of Halloween candy shoppers milling about like a school of fish in the sea, I saw things like snow boots set out in the shoe section and a whole display of Christmas cookie in cans.


Makes enough for 4 people
Alissa's Italian Spaghetti Sauce -- My friend Alissa who is part Italian, told me of a near fat-free pasta sauce she does that we tried last week and it was delicious. She said use two 14 oz. cans of whole tomatoes ground up in a blender. Add a 6 oz. can of tomato paste and an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce. To that mixture we added a half-cup of diced bell pepper and onion. Then add in 4 or 5 cloves of fresh diced garlic. Add in two handfulls of mushrooms -- or a small can of them (which we had, drained of the salty brine). You will need to add water to thin it slightly as the sauce is very thick initially. We used EXTRA LEAN hamburger (expensive) and made tiny meatballs out of it. There was practically zero fat in this. It's worth spending more for the extra lean ground beef as it yields no fat! Alissa said to use ground turkey meat in place of hamburger, but we didn't have any on hand.

We're going to make this sauce again today, the exact same way as it turned out to be DELICIOUS. Not bitter in any way. It was very good. For spices we used dried Basil, Thyme and a big Bay Leaf. A very simple spaghetti sauce recipe that turned out really good. We do have some TURKEY Italian sausages this time, so we'll add them to the sauce. I'm not supposed to eat a lot of pasta and white rice being Type 2 diabetic as those are starchy and sugary. But I can have a reduced portion which won't hurt. There is no way I'm giving up my pasta. I just have to have some at least once a week which shouldn't hurt. Avoiding rice is no problem. But avoiding potatoes hurts real bad. The trick is to lower the carbohydrate intake. Just one serving is all I'll need, along with only two or three quarter-sized meatballs won't hurt cholesterol-wise as the extra lean ground beef is good. I wanted to buy some ground turkey meat, but forgot. Next time we'll make it with that. I'm also using whole wheat spaghetti. Although I love Parmesan Cheese, I can't use any on my food. Too much fat. Notice no mention of salt? That's because that tiny 8 oz. can of tomato sauce contained the salt in it. The addition of the spicy fat-free turkey sausage pieces ought to make this sauce a total winner.

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