theworldaccordingtoeggface: Celebrating Christmas Eve Italian Style

For many Italians (I'm 1/2 Sicilian), Christmas Eve is celebrated with a mostly seafood menu. It's an Italian tradition called the Feast of the Seven Fishes, Festa dei Sette Pesci. As a kid, I didn't appreciate this tradition at all. My friends were all having ham and turkey and I was staring at a plate of octopus tentacles and salted dried cod (baccala) that had to be soaked back to softness for 2 days. Needlesstosay, I filled up on cheese cubes and Christmas cookies. As I got older, I enjoyed a few of those traditional dishes... baccala is actually delicious. I must admit I never quite got into the octopus. Post weight loss surgery the "feast" is scaled down a bit but I still make sure mostly seafood is on the menu for the day.

If you are used to this tradition or want to be Italian for the day and partake in the low carb, protein heaven. Here are a few of my favorite bariatric surgery friendly seafood recipes...

Shelly's Crab Imperial
Shelly's Mini Shrimp & Crab Cakes