Baked Fish Sandwiches with Modern Coleslaw

Hi!!!  *waving*  Do you remember me?  Well I’m back with a whole bunch of recipes to be posted and some fun stuff about the all the cool things I have been doing.  I need to pace myself though.  It’s been a while and I need to inch back in slowly…
To start I am giving you a recipe that has become one of our favorites.  So much so that in the past 2 weeks I have made it 2 time with different fish just to see how I liked it!  This recipe can also be made in about 30 minutes making it a real winner in my books!!!
My sister first made this for me when I was up in Toronto mid April for the girls Spring Break.  She got it from the LCBO Food & Drink Magazine.  Unfortunately we don’t get the magazine here in the US but we can get the recipes online.

Baked Fish Sandwiches with Modern Coleslaw (adapted from LCBO Food & Drink Winter 2011)
Serves 4
1 lb haddock or red snapper fillets, cut into 3- to 4-inch pieces (I used the frozen cod and tilapia from Costco and just used 4 pieces thawed.)
½ cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 large egg beaten with salt and pepper
½ cup dry plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup panko
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
preheat oven to 425F

1.  Pat fish dry with paper towels. Dip fish in seasoned flour, shake off excess and dip fish in egg. Mix bread crumbs and parsley on a plate and coat fish. Reserve.

2.  Place fish on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in oven until golden brown.  This should be about 10-20 minutes (I know that’s a huge range there but it will al depend on how thick you fish is).
3.  Serve the fish in a soft roll (I used the sandwich thins) with tartar sauce and modern coleslaw (recipe below) right on the roll.
Modern Coleslaw (adapted from LCBO Food & Drink Winter 2011)
2 cups slivered napa cabbage (I used regular cabbage)
1 cup julienned English cucumber (regular cucumber – English Cuke is about $2.50 here!!!)
1/2 cup slivered red onion
2 tbsp slivered basil (I used 1 tsp dried basil leaves) 
2 tbsp rice vinegar (I used seasoned rice vinegar) 
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Combine cabbage, cucumber, onion and basil in a large bowl. Sprinkle with rice vinegar and olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve on top of fish sandwich.

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Pasta with Escarole, White Beans and Chicken Sausage…

It’s finally feeling like fall here.  Our day time temps are only reaching into the mid 80’s right now and the night time temps are down in the low 60’s.  Life in Florida doesn’t get much better than this.  With the windows all open and the A/C off, life is so good.  Makes me want to cook again.  Nice pots of soup and stew, filling casserole dishes and comforting pastas.
This is a pasta dish that I have been wanting to try out.  Simple enough but just finding the time was the challenge.  So you know what I did?  I prepped everything for this in the afternoon before I picked the kiddos up from school.  I chopped the onion and garlic, uncased the chicken sausage, cleaned and cut up the escarole, made the chicken broth, and rinsed the beans.  This way all I had to do when I got home was to boil the water for the pasta.  Do you know that with all the prep work done I ended up having to wait for the pasta to finish cooking!!!  It came together in about 15 minutes.  Anyone can find time to make this one!

Pasta with Escarole, White Beans and Chicken Sausage (adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger)
Ingredients:
1 lb bowtie (or other shape) pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
½ medium red onion, chopped, about 1 cup
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb hot Italian-style chicken sausage, casings removed, crumbled
1 medium head escarole or endive, rinsed, drained and chopped, about 8 cups
1 14 oz can low-sodium great northern beans or other white beans, drained and rinsed
1½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp rubbed sage, or 1 Tbsp fresh sage leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/8 cup grated Parmesan

Directions:

• Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.
• Heat the oil over a medium heat in a large, deep saute pan or 8-quart stockpot.
• Saute the onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 1 minute. Stir in the sausage and cook until heated through and browned, about 4 minutes.
• Add the escarole and cook until wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add the beans, 1 cup of chicken stock, sage and simmer until the mixture is heated through and liquid is slightly reduced.
• Add the sausage-bean mixture to pasta and toss well, loosening with the additional ½ cup chicken stock if necessary.
• Season with freshly ground pepper and salt, to taste.
• Divide among 4 pasta bowls and top with parmesan cheese.

***This one was a hit with the whole family.  Youngest even took it to school for her lunch in a thermos…

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My favorite quick, one pot meal…

We all need a go to meal.  Something that we have all the ingredients on hand at all times and is fast and easy to prepare right? 
This is mine.  It take me about 28 minutes from start to finish but longer if I use brown rice and guess what?  Everyone in the house will eat it!!!  That’s what truly makes this one pot dish a winner to me!
Bean and Rice Stew
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground turkey or beef
1 can drained and rinsed black beans
1 cup of frozen corn
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup uncooked rice (brown rice will increase the cooking time)
1 tsp Better than Bouillon beef flavored
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat Olive oil in a large, deep skillet.  cook onion and garlic til apaque and softened.  Cook the ground meat over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain excess fat. Stir in water, rice, beans and corn.   Season with beef bouillon and salt and black pepper. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until rice is cooked and water is absorbed.
***this recipe is super flexible.  Add to it what you want.  I have a friend who adds salsa to it to give it a different touch.  Use green peppers, add zucchini…really whatever you want to add.
****You can use brown rice with this.  It will increase your cooking time but what I have done before is to cook the rice in the morning and throw it in when everything else is cooked and just heat it through.

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Pasta All'Amatriciana

Sunday dinner for us has usually included a big meal that generally takes a ton of prep and a long time to cook as it is the one day of the week that we don’t have anything going on.  This week was going to be different and I wanted to try a recipe that would help me to feel really good the next morning when I went for my run!  This recipe fit the bill perfectly and one I will be adding to our regular rotation. The balance of salty, smoky and sweet is amazing and I loved the whole wheat pasta that we used with it!

This is a traditional Roman dish and the next time I make it I want to use some good pancetta in it.  I used bacon and loved it so can only imagine how great it would be with pancetta!!!  I think I will also add some red pepper flakes to give it a spicy edge to it…

 

Pasta All'Amatriciana (How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 to 1/3 cup minced good bacon or pancetta
1 small onion, minced
1 (28-ounce) can whole plum tomatoes, drained
1 pound linguine, spaghetti, fettuccine, or other long pasta
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese
Minced fresh parsley leaves

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Place the oil and bacon or pancetta in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until the meat becomes crisp, about 10 minutes.
3. When the meat is done, remove it with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until it browns. Turn off the heat for a minute (this will reduce the spattering when you add the tomatoes).
4. Crush the tomatoes with a fork or your hands and add them to the pan. Turn the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down and the mixture becomes saucy, about 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, salt the boiling water and cook the pasta until it is tender but firm. Drain it, toss it with the sauce, and top with the reserved bacon, the Parmesan, and the parsley. Serve, passing additional Parmesan at the table.

***This is really such a perfectly balanced dish!  Salty, sweet and acidic all in one forkful.  I did use whole wheat linguine instead of white and 2 can of diced and drained tomatoes.

***I calculated this without the Parmesan and Romano cheese as you can sprinkle this on yourself and it came out to 7 WW points based on 4 servings.

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Grilled Pizza for dinner…

The first time I tried grilling pizza was when we were in Toronto visiting my family.  It was something we had all wanted to try but had just never gotten around to doing it. So out I went and bought some grocery store pizza dough (divide it into 4 servings when you get it home) and some fresh and yummy toppings and into the world of pizza grilling we dove!

Mine was simply olive oil, fresh garlic, mozzarella, fresh tomato and basil…

Our biggest concern was that the dough would drip through the grill plates but it cooks up so quickly that there is no real worry to it.  You need to have your grill heated up to about 350F to crisp it quickly.

The trick, I think, to this is to have all of your toppings ready to go on and to not overload the pizza.  You do need to work fast once the bottom which becomes the top is grilled nice and crispy.  We did individual ones for ease of preparation and they worked perfect.  No problem flipping etc…

The second time we made them was here at home and I used my bread machine pizza dough recipe.  We divided this one into 4 to make 4 individual pizzas for us.  This worked perfectly as well and was a bit easier to stretch and shape then the grocery store one…

This one was topped with garlic and herbed olive oil, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano and some homemade arugula pesto…simply delicious!

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Really fast Tilapia in Parchment…

Okay, I could have gotten really fancy there and told you that I made Tilapia en Papilotte, which I did but I really want you to try this and figure this title might not intimidate you and you could see how truly easy this recipe is!

I am submitting this recipe to Marye at The Restless Chipotle who is helping to change the way people think about fast food.  It DOES NOT need to come from a box to be fast food!  To see what she is trying to do and to check out all of the the wonderful entries from her last round of Real Food….. Real Quick up head to her site!

In total I think this took me about 5 minutes to pull together and that included going outside and cutting the herbs for it.

Tilapia in Parchment adapted from and inspired by Heart homecooked

4 Tilapia fillets
4 sprigs each of thyme, oregano (1 sprig of each for each pouch)
1/4 cup packed basil leaves, thinly sliced
8 slices of thinly sliced lemon, 2 for each pouch
4 tsp of butter, 1 tsp for each pouch
coarse salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425F.
• Wash fillets and pat dry with paper towels. Season well with salt and pepper.
• Place fillets on top of cut parchment paper (ehow.com and latimes.com have excellent "en papillote" step by step instructions) and top with butter, lemon wheel and herbs. Seal the pouch and cook for 10 minutes.

***you can skip the butter if you are watching your weight.  I added about 1 tsp of olive oil to mine instead of the butter and it is a 4 Point recipe based on a 6 oz. piece of fish.

 

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Mediterranean Orzo Salad

A couple of months ago my sister (I miss you and can’t wait to see you!!!) emailed me a recipe that she had had at a dinner party.  She went on and on about this salad.  Saying it was her new favorite salad and how I HAD to make it right then.  Well, me being me, a couple of months passed and I finally got around to making it.  Guess what?  It was good!  Really, really good!

I did have to change it around and add some different things to it but essentially it is the same.

I will be making this one again and again!!!

Mediterranean Orzo Salad – adapted from the July 09 print issue of House & Home (my changes in italics)

Ingredients:

1 lb. orzo pasta
1 small zucchini, cubed ( I threw it in the pasta water to cook in the last 2 minutes of cooking the orzo)
1/2 of a red pepper, chopped
1 cup black olives, pick your favorite, coarsely chopped
8 oil-packed sundried tomatoes, finely chopped 
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used about 1/4 cup more for flavor)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (you could use white)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
5 oz. goat cheese, crumbled (I used feta because that’s what I had)
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Directions:

1. Cook orzo in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 7 minutes or until just tender.  Drain and rinse with cold water until completely cooled.  Drain again.

2. Combine lives, sundried tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, slat and pepper in a large bowl.  Add cooked orzo and stir well.  Stir in goat cheese and basil just before serving.

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Tilapia with Cilantro and Lime

Loved this fish dish and yes I do eat my peas raw…

Cilantro and lime has proven to be one of my favorite flavor combinations. Something about the crispness and freshness of the two flavors together and how they bring something new out in each of them. This quick and easy recipe highlights all of the things I love and just shines on the tilapia!

I stumbled across this recipe but it was used on salmon and seeing as I didn't have any salmon on hand I rummaged through my freezer and came up with 4 tilapia filets. I try to always keep some on hand for a quick and easy week night meal. It worked out perfect for us this time and the tilapia went perfect with the herb and citrus and was on the table in less than 30 minutes. Now that’s my kind of meal!!!

Tilapia with Cilantro and Lime...adapted from One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
4 (6 to 8-oz.) Tilapia fillets (thawed if frozen)
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions:
1) Combine cilantro, oil, garlic and salt(do not add the lime juice. It will toughen up the fish). Set 2 tablespoons aside.

2) Pour remainder over fish in bowl. Let stand, covered, 10 minutes.

3) Meanwhile, preheat broiler. Spray broiler rack with nonstick cooking spray. Place fish on rack. Brush with 1 tablespoon of marinade. Then broil 4 inches from heat for 7 to 8 minutes, or until fish is no longer translucent and flakes when touched with fork. Brush with remaining tablespoon marinade and top with the lime. Transfer to a serving platter.

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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