Well it appears that winter has finally caught up to us, but
luckily that means its almost time for one of my favorite holidays of the year,
a day solely devoted to eating as much food as humanly possible, THANKSGIVING!
However, with the amount of eating I am planning on doing on that glorious day
of elastic waistbands and no food baby judging, I need to eat a little
healthier in the time leading up to Thanksgiving. So this week we’ve got some
delicious (and super easy) fish recipes!
I know some people don’t like fishy because of its “too
fishy” taste. Well tilapia to the rescue! (PS, how do you actually pronounce
tilapia, I grew up with till-ah-pee-ah, but other people claim its actually
tih-lah-pee-ah). Anyways, tilapia is a very neutral, non-“fishy” tasting fish,
and if that doesn’t convince you try covering it in a thin layer of Parmesan
and pesto and tell me if you can detect any fishy-ness!
Pesto Parmesan Tilapia
Taken from Pinch of
Yum
Ingredients
4 6-ounce fillets of tilapia
¼ cup basil pesto (or whatever pesto you have around)
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup freshly chopped tomatoes
Instructions
1)
Preheat broiler. Pat tilapia dry with a paper
towel and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil that has been sprayed
with cooking spray or olive oil (to prevent fish sticking)
2)
Sprinkle each fish filet with 2 tablespoons of
cheese (or more or less, just try to get a thin layer covering the fish). Broil
fish for 10-11 minutes, or until the fish is no longer translucent and the
cheese is browned on top.
3)
Pull the fish out and top with a tablespoon of
pesto (I personally just add as much pesto as I can, amounts are really up to
you) and a handful of tomato pieces.
4)
Eat and enjoy!
Notes
If you don’t have any tomatoes around, not a problem, I
never seem to and find that the fish is absolutely delicious sans tomatoes.
Any kind of pesto you have would work here. I’ve only used
homemade basil pesto (that my mom made, I don’t have enough basil for that!)
but I know you can get really good pesto at Trader Joes and Schnucks.
This dish is easily changed depending on how many servings
you want to have. I usually just make one filet, grate parmesan until I can
cover the fish, and just spoon on as much pesto as I can!
~
While I do love me some tasty tilapia, salmon is always my fish of choice. Sadly whenever I tried to just pan-sear it I always ended up with slightly overcooked, dry salmon. Not my favorite. Luckily I found this easy recipe that keeps the salmon moist and tender while also imparting tons of flavor. Bonus, you don’t have to do hardly any work, just let it cook!
Honey Salmon in Foil
Taken from Damn
Delicious
Ingredients
¼ cup of honey
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pounds of salmon
Instructions
1)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet
with foil.
2)
In a small bowl whisk together honey, garlic,
olive oil, vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper.
3)
Place salmon on baking sheet and fold up all
four sides of the foil. Pour the honey mixture over the salmon.
4)
Fold the foil over the salmon, making sure to
completely cover it, and seal the package (crinkle together and fold over the
edges)
5)
Bake in oven until fully cooked, about 15-20
minutes (depends upon thickness of salmon)
6)
CAREFULLY open foil package and serve! (I like
to spoon the extra honey mixture over the salmon when I serve it, why let any
of that deliciousness go to waste?)
Notes
Again, this recipe is easily changeable as to the number of
servings. I tend to make either the whole honey mixture or just half of it and
pour over a single salmon filet.
If using dried herbs, the flavors are more potent, so you
only need a third of the amount of fresh herbs you would use. Hence using 1
teaspoon of dried thyme in place of 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme (3 teaspoons to
1 tablespoon).
~
All this healthy food is wonderful and all, but lets get
real, I always need some dessert. And I haven’t gotten around to sharing a
dessert recipe yet! If you know me you know how big of a sweet tooth I have,
and therefore how surprising it is that I haven’t provided ONLY sweet recipes
so far! These pumpkin chocolate chip bars are delicious, fudgy (without having any
chocolate other than chocolate chips in them!), moist, and wonderful. A
seasonally appropriate dessert that is easy enough to whip up quickly, but
tasty enough to bring along to Thanksgiving dinner. But you’ll probably want to
test them out before bringing them to figure out if you’ll really want to
share!
Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
Taken from Averie
Cooks
Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
1 large egg
¾ cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips + 2 tablespoons for
sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
1)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 inch
pan with cooking spray.
2)
In a large-microwave safe bowl, melt butter
3)
Wait momentarily to add the egg (don’t want to
cook the egg yet! We want dessert, not scrambled eggs!). Add the egg, pumpkin,
brown sugar, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon. Whisk until smooth
4)
Add the flour and stir until JUST combined.
Don’t over mix!
5)
Stir in 1 ¼ cups of chocolate chips.
6)
Pour batter into pan, smooth top. If desired,
sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips on top.
7)
Bake for about 32-33 minutes, or until done (a
toothpick inserted in middle should come out clean or with a few crumbs, NO
batter. Cooking time can vary)
8)
Let bars sit at least 30 minutes before slicing
and serving (I get about 9 bars out, rumor has it that you can make it 12, but
that requires extra sharing and smaller pieces)
Notes
I don’t bother buying pumpkin pie spice, instead I make my
own, or rather I just use all the spices that are IN pumpkin pie spice, its
really just a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and ground cloves.
Equal parts ginger and nutmeg, three times as much cinnamon, and equal amounts
of allspice and cloves, slightly less than ginger. If you want to be super
precise with it, Betty Crocker calls for 3 tablespoons of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons
ginger, 2 teaspoons nutmeg, 1 ½ teaspoons allspice, and 1 ½ teaspoons cloves.
The next day these bars will be even tastier (if that’s
possible) as the flavors have gotten a chance to meld. And while I hate saying
that (it always sounds to me like bakers are just trying to prove their
superiority when they use phrases like that) its actually true! Though I still
eat some the day I make them!
