Parmesan Baked Fish

I don't have a lot of fish recipes and most of them are rather similar but I was quite impressed with this one. It didn't turn out "crusted" the way a breaded fish would but it was still delicious, easy, and quick!

1. Thaw fish fillets. We use pollock and just put it in the fridge overnight. Since there are only two of us, we only thawed two fillets but you can easily adapt this recipe to use as many fish as you want.

2. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a cookie sheet.

3. Combine an egg and 2 tablespoons of milk in a small bowl. We had extra of this and would easily do 4-6 fillets.

4. In a ziploc bag or on a large plate, combine Parmesan cheese (about 1/3 cup for 4 fillets), a couple shakes of paprika, and salt + pepper to taste.

5. Put your fillets on a plate in a single layer (you can do this in batches if your fish don't all fit on one plate). Using a pastry brush, brush on the egg and milk mixture. I had done this to both sides of my fish but the bottom side of the fish just end up stuck to the pan so next time, I would only do the top side.

6. Then either place fish in ziploc bag with the topping or rub the fish around the plate so they get covered with the mixture. You actually need less seasoning on the fish than you would think to get a good flavor.

7. Lay on cookie sheet, seasoned side up.

8. Repeat with all remaining fish. Bake for 25 minutes or until they flake with a fork.

Salmon Tacos

Over the weekend, I made salmon tacos. It sounds a little strange but was actually pretty good.

1 can salmon (we eat a lot of canned fish around here because it still has the nutrition but it's much cheaper than buying the fresh fish)

1 can black beans (we actually finally got around to cooking our bag of beans the other day so I just pulled a 2 cup container out of the freezer)

1 cup salsa (I didn't measure. I just used enough so it didn't look dry)

1/2 cup cheese (I also didn't measure this. You may want more or less due to your liking. We used colby jack.)

Combine everything in a bowl and serve in shells or with tortillas. We ate it cold/ room temperature the first night but the leftovers got warmed up and that made it a little better. I also added sour cream to mine since they suggest adding regular taco toppings.

It was pretty good and really easy and extremely quick. I think I'd make it again but it wasn't fantastic. Maybe only 7/10 stars.

Fish Stick Florentine

On Friday night, I was looking for a way to jazz up fish sticks. We usually serve them with a vegetable and a variety of mashed potatoes but this night, I wanted something different. After looking through lots of recipes for how to make your own fish sticks (which obviously wasn't what I wanted), I found this one. I was a little nervous of all the spinach because I'm not a huge spinach fan and usually try to cover up the taste with other stuff (like when I put it in smoothies). I also wasn't sure how David would feel about it but he eats anything I make.

I decided to try it anyway. I followed one of the comments and made it on the stove top and then the oven instead of the microwave. I started with a pot over medium heat for the butter, flour, and spices (I added paprika at this point because I hadn't read the recipe all the way through and didn't know they save that for the end). When this started making noises like it was going to burn and stick to the bottom of the pan, I added the milk in haste. I whisked at this point because my butter still hadn't melted all the way. Then I added the cheese when it looked smooth (it never looked thick to me). I doubled the cheese they called for (mostly because I was still scared of the spinach taste plus we love cheese). Then, we assembled it like they did and put it in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Next time, I will add more of the cheese sauce to the spinach mixture because there was way too much for on top of the fish sticks and this made them kind of soggy. We also had the sticks in the freezer the whole time (we didn't thaw them in other words) and next time, I might bake them first (according to box instructions) and just assemble the casserole without baking it again to make them crunchier.

Overall, it was very good! David and I ate the whole thing in one sitting so depending on who you're feeding and how much they like it, it does not make 4 servings. I will definitely make this again but I'll try some of my modifications.

Cooking Fish

A while ago, I bought an 11 pound bag of pollock (white fish) because it was a good deal. I had never cooked anything like this before but have since cooked it several different ways. Last week, I made a lemon pepper rub that would've turned out okay if I had forgotten to turn my oven from preheat to bake (I do this all the time and always burn the top of whatever I'm making.) Last night, I adapted a recipe I found online and sauteed my leftover tomato with some onion and added Italian seasoning. Then I spread it out over the fish in a baking pan. This turned out pretty good. No matter what toppings you put on your fish, you always bake it (if you 're cooking it by baking) at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (or until flaky). You can bread it, you can marinade it, you can cook it plain.  You put whatever ingredients you want on top and bake. A homemade, somewhat healthy (depending on what you put on top) meal ready in 20 minutes. I always serve it with a baked potato and a side of vegetables. It couldn't be easier which is why I've been making this a lot for my "no processed food" dinners. I suppose the butter I put on the potato counts as processed and my seasonings are dried so that could count but I'm not going to be that picky.