European Locks - Recipe Inside

European Locks have been a household favorite in my family for a long time. There's just something about the mixture of salmon, cream cheese, cilantro and lemon that clashes beautifully in your mouth. It's great for all seasons, simple and easy to make, and it doesn't take much time at all. While I do not put measurements for specific ingredients most of the time, I do not do so here with this as Salmon is one of those tricky things to cook according to peoples tastes. Many are picky about their fish, so while using here the basic ingredients that I use for my version of these nummy bagel entrees, I continue to let you cater to your tastes with my recipes.

Ingredients:

1 package of fresh salmon

Bagels - (My preference is Onion bagels but as long as it's not sweet, you can use what you like)

1 clove of Fresh chopped garlic

Basil

Salt

Pepper

Lemon juice (to your taste) 

Cilantro

Butter (not margarine)

Green Bell Peppers (optional)

Cream Cheese

Directions: 

Throw the salmon into the fryer with about two table spoons of garlic, immediately add the garlic, basil, pepper, and salt in there. This is usually do your taste but as you can see in my picture below, I season it rather heavily. I also cook the lemon juice in with the salmon about midway at it's done point, though most prefer to wait to squeeze it on there after it's all the way done cooking.

Now when one cooks their salmon for the locks they have several choices, they can choose to keep their salmon together in slices or chunks, or they can be like me and just go ahead and chuck it as it's cooking:

Why do I do this? Well, because salmon falls apart. It crumbles and that's why it's easy to blend and what not. I don't chuck it into tiny pieces either, or it would be too difficult to keep on your bagel. So just medium sized little chunks. When your salmon is almost done cooking, that's when you're going to toast your bagel, chop your cilantro and slice your green (and optional) bell peppers. 

Smother your bagel in cream cheese, top the salmon and cilantro, sliced peppers, maybe a little bit more salt and pepper and lemon juice, slap em together and enjoy! 

Why Do I Write About Health and Food?

So God knows, I'm not a fitness guru, or a Chief with a degree in Culinary Arts. I'm not even remotely interested in becoming so either. I'm not skinny, and my eating habits sometimes slip from 'hardly eat anything ever' to 'oh my god, I'm SO hungry! Feed me all the things!"

So why do I write about health and food? Well that would be a million dollar question for some of those who know me personally.  Well I guess I will share my story.

It started out with a emotionally and mentally abusive husband. Now ex-husband thank goodness. For almost a decade I gave myself to this man, and when we finally got married, all of a sudden I was too "fat" for him. "Morbidly obese" he called me. Which... by the way I'm NOT. Despite losing almost a hundred pounds when I was with him, I was unable to achieve Barbie Trophy Wife status that he was aiming for.

He will always claim it was my health he was concerned about, however those who know me personally and have seen my continued improvement in my weight, will disagree. And as someone who had the private arguments with him. so do I.

I had agreed to his very strict diet while I was with him. A no-carb almost paleo diet. Now for normal people, this diet does cause weight loss. It did for his parents, and for him (he and his father were almost skeletal when I left, in a grotesque display of being very under-weight. How he's doing now I have no idea).

But when the diet did not work for me I went to the doctor to see what was going on. I had very painful periods, more painful than the normal. And during weeks of ovulation and even during weeks I was not, I was experience pain in my ovaries. Sometimes exercise to  my ex-husbands extreme disappointment was impossible due to the pain being too much for me.  Sometimes I would be talking or walking and suddenly I'd be on the floor sobbing due to the pain suddenly flaring up.

With an ultra sound and a few blood tests it was confirmed. I have PCOS. Poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. An endocrine imbalance. And guess what? It makes weight loss very difficult. Women with PCOS have to exercise at least three times the usual amount than a normal woman to lose weight.

WELL. Crap. That sucks. And even with my health condition, the breaking straw to my relationship were the words: "But like I said, your weight is a deal breaker, and that is no lie. If PCOS made it impossible I'm not gonna lie it would be over. I can't envision myself living our lives forever with this problem between us if it stayed that way."

Literally. Verbatim. So I ended my toxic marriage and broke away. And now I am still struggling with weight control. I have lost weight since that conversation too, but painstakingly.

And I am not the only one with PCOS that is struggling with my weight. And PCOS is not the only health condition out there that makes it difficult for people to become "healthy." Now, mind you, I fully believe you can still be chubby an still be healthy as a horse.

But for a lot of us, men and women alike, it's a mental health that I relate to the most. As someone who was abused by the person I trusted the most in the world over my weight, I understand the psychological pain that "bigger than average" people feel.  I also understand that it's not always about being lazy or whatever but it could be hormone, or a physical handicap, or a health condition that is keeping someone from reaching their goals, try as they might.

I also understand, as someone who was forced into a diet I was not entirely happy about, how sometimes in a diet, things can leave you feeling unsatisfied, with a "hungry" feeling. The recipes and tips I leave on this blog are for those of us who are trying to eat healthy, and not feel 'starved' of things that they enjoy. It also is easy to feed your families these recipes in case you're trying to get them on board with your 'less junk more green' diet.

Just remember everyone. Everything in moderation. There is ALWAYS room for one or two pieces of chocolate every couple days. No over doing it. And that applies with your diets and exercise too. You would not eat an entire cake, so do not start off your regimes with suddenly cutting out all of your 'bad' foods and working out three hours a day. Don't shock your body and gradually get into it.

Be healthy. Be smart. Be strong. You're not alone.