I’ve been trying to add more fish to my family’s diet.
Actually about the only fish we ever ate was fish sticks. Raised on mid-western meat and potatoes, fish just wasn’t something that came to mind when I thought about making dinner. But there are a lot of health benefits to eating fish, so I decided we needed to eat more of it.
I’ve been on the hunt for some good fish recipes, and so far I’ve found one that we really like. This Broiled Tilapia Parmesan at All Recipes.
Parmesan, herbs and a touch of mayo make it tasty, and Tilapia has a very mild flavor.
The best thing about this recipe is that I can make it in 20 minutes. Ten minutes to prepare, 10 minutes in the oven and dinner is ready. This is my new go-to meal when I need to get dinner ready fast. I’ve started keeping the ingredients on hand so I can make it at the last minute.
I could use more than one good fish recipe though. My family will probably get tired of this eventually. So do you have any yummy fish dishes to share?
I know there are people who don’t like to cook, but cooking is like therapy for me.
For one thing cooking is creative. Ever produce a perfectly shaped loaf of bread or remove a nicely browned chicken from the oven? They are beautiful. Besides tasting yummy, good food is art. Art that stimulates all the senses — taste, touch, sight, even sound. There’s nothing like the sound of a good steak sizzling on the grill.
With a baby and a preschooler hanging around the house all day, I don’t always have time to blog or airbrush pictures of myself in Photoshop to make my thighs look thinner (Not that I’ve ever done that. A-hem.), but I almost always cook at least once a day. It meets my right-brained need to be creative.
Cooking also presents a mental challenge. Some days after mindlessly changing endless diapers and losing hands of Crazy 8′s on purpose, I need to exercise my brain. At the very least the ability to read and follow instructions is necessary, but often you have to know how to execute certain techniques. If you make up your own recipes, cooking requires knowledge of how flavors mix and compliment each other. It can even take scientific know-how. Baking, for instance, is really a science experiment.
Since I do have to think about what I’m doing while I’m cooking, it’s a fantastic boredom reliever, as well as stress reliever. It takes my mind off other things.
Cooking also has a final and end result. It’s satisfying to have a task that I can complete from beginning to end, and be done with it. The laundry is never all done. The house is never completely clean, but once the cake is baked and frosted, it’s baked and frosted for good. That comforts me deep down to my perfectionist soul.
But perhaps the best benefit of cooking is that it’s a wonderful way to work out my frustrations. Ever knead bread when you were really angry? Oooh, the part where you punch the dough down after the first rise is good for getting out some aggression too. Or how about the food processor? Next time you’re feeling mad at the world pop something in the chute, and grind it up into oblivion. Kids won’t listen to you? Get out your electric mixer, turn it on high and whip some egg whites into submission meringue. It will make you feel better. (I know it’s hard to tell, but I really don’t have an anger problem.)
Try it.
Cooking is cheaper than therapy, and only has one side effect.
Dirty dishes.
You know It’s just a lot easier to Google meatballs than it is to leaf through twenty cook books looking for a recipe. And a lot of online recipe sites have ratings and reviews that let you know if the recipe is any good before you waste two hours in the kitchen making something even the dog won’t eat.
So I thought as a new feature I’d share all the yummy food links I find each week.
A lot of blogs post favorite links from around the web every week. What does it say about me that mine are all food related?
I made Broccoli Cheese Soup and Parmesan Cracked Pepper Corn Grissini (bread sticks) for dinner one night last week. Two more yummy recipes from Cooking light. They both turned out great. David even liked the soup, and no one could get enough of the bread sticks.
I’m not sure it does any good to use light recipes when everyone goes back for seconds. Oh, well.
The Grissini was fun to make, twisting them into curly cues. They make a pretty presentation standing upright in a jar or glass.
I highly recommend the recipes from Cooking Light. The instructions are clear, easy to follow and the recipes are well-tested. They always turn out right. I’ve made things from other respected cookbooks that no matter how closely you follow the instructions, they just don’t turn out. A lot of Cooking Light’s recipes are available at myrecipes.com.
There’s probably nothing light about this next recipe, but I made meatballs last night to go with pasta for dinner. I used the method from Good Eats’ Alton Brown. He bakes his meatballs. They were really easy, quick and delicious. I did change up the ingredients a bit to work with what I had on hand. I think his method would work with any meatball recipe. Alton Brown’s Baked Meatball recipe is on line at foodnetwork.com.
Well, I took the medicine the doctor prescribed, and it made me so drowsy! I took it around 11 p.m., and I was still groggy at 3 p.m. the next day. I had to cancel my hair appointment, because I was in no condition to operate a motor vehicle. That was some pretty powerful stuff. It did make me stop itching though. I just took half a pill last night, so I was much more alert today, and the itching was still gone.
I told you how well Wade was sleeping, and then his teething started up again. So he’s not slept so well that last couple nights. I knew I’d jinx it if I said something.
And finally, the Turkey Spinach Meatloaf was not a success. I mean, it turned out alright, but no one liked it.
I did try another new recipe tonight that was a hit, Open-face Turkey Apple Sandwiches. I guess turkey is a running theme when it comes to cooking light meals. Anyway, I’ll post the recipe this weekend when I get a chance.
I’ve been getting a lot of complaints about my cooking lately.
Not from my husband.
No, from David, my four-year-old.
He informed me recently that pancakes are among one of my many culinary failings. “They’re not perfect like Grandma’s, and they’re too brown.” What he meant was my HOMEMADE pancakes are not perfectly round and evenly golden like the FROZEN ones my mother gives him at her house. (Just for the record, the ones I made were not burned.)
When we went to McDonald’s for breakfast a few days later, David pointed at the pancakes we ordered and said, “Look Mommie. That’s how you’re supposed to make pancakes.”
He told me my hamburgers have the same problem, and said that we need to purchase a burger mold he saw advertised on TV. “Your stove doesn’t make them right Mommie. Buy it.” I guess I should be glad he placed the blame on the stove that time.
Last night when I pulled some drop biscuits out of the oven for dinner he looked at them and asked, “Don’t you ever make flat biscuits?” He wanted the ones that come refrigerated in a cardboard tube.
Sometimes for lunch I make him little pizzas on hamburger buns, and he asks for “real” pizza. “Real” pizza comes from Little Caesars.
If I make homemade Mac&Cheese he tells me it’s the wrong kind. The right kind? Kraft of course.
I make dinner most nights, and most of what we eat I make from scratch. I even made a lot of David’s baby food, and I still ended up with a kid who would rather eat food from a box or a drive-thru.
If we went to Mexico for dinner tonight he’d ask where Taco Bell was so he could get a “real” taco.
Who wants an Enchirito?
I did something the other day that I vowed to myself I would NEVER, EVER do as long as I lived in my whole entire life even if the world as we know it ceased to exist.
I bought pre-cooked bacon.
Sshh! Don’t Tell anyone!
I used to pass incredulously by the pre-cooked bacon thinking how profuse and extravagant to spend $3 for 12 measly pieces of bacon when that same price gets you a whole pound of raw. I was not so lazy and slovenly that I couldn’t take the time to cook my own bacon.
But I was tired and I only needed a few slices, I justified.
Checking that no one was looking, I quickly pulled the offending product off the shelf, threw it in the cart and buried it under a bag of chips like it was a dime bag .
At the check out I didn’t make eye contact with the cashier, sure she was judging my indolent purchase.
But you know what?
I LOVE it!
I think I’m hooked.
First I put it on chicken sandwiches with Swiss cheese. If ever God created three foods to be eaten together, it’s those three. So tasty! Who needs Arby’s?
Then I had a couple pieces for breakfast.
You know you can warm that stuff up in the microwave and it’s just as greasy, salty and full of fatty goodness as regular bacon?
Today for lunch I crumbled some and put it on my salad.
D-I-V-I-N-E!
All of that scrumptiousness and non of the greasy, splattery mess.
I have two pieces left. Then I’m gonna have to go by some more.
Oh, the shame.
I found the recipe for these Hamburger Muffins on Kaboose.com. If you’re not familiar with Kaboose, head over and sign up for for their weekly emails. You’ll get all kinds of kid and family friendly food, craft and activity ideas.
These Hamburger Muffins were fun and easy to make with a few simple ingredients, and pretty cost effective too. They also happen to taste like yummy mini-meatloaves. My husband, who claims to not like meat loaf, liked these, and my son even had to grudgingly admit they were good.
Hamburger Muffin Recipe
3 tablespoons butter, softened
12 slices white bread
1-1/4 pounds ground beef
1 egg
1 small onion, chopped1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Cooking Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter one side of each slice of bread, and press each slice butter-side down into the cups of a muffin tin.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground beef, egg, onion, cream of mushroom soup, salt and pepper until well blended. Fill each bread cup with the mixture. Sprinkle shredded Cheddar cheese over the tops.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until meat is cooked through.
