Good Things Come in Fours

One of the great things about having a blog that chronicles my meals and often details healthy recipes is that my friends and family are constantly talking to me about yummy meals they’ve prepared. 

I am always taking mental notes about all the ideas they give me and I owe tonight’s dinner to my friend Leah, who told me about this easy recipe this weekend. 

Dinner a la Leah

It’s no secret that I love fish, but I tend to gravitate to more flavorful fish like salmon and trout.

I often steer clear of tilapia because I find it a little bland. However, I nabbed two tilapia filets at the grocery store last night because they were the cheapest white fish available behind the seafood counter and Leah’s recipe called for a white fish.

To prepare the fish, I lined a cookie sheet with foil and sprayed it with cooking spray before placing the tilapia filets on top. I then sprayed the filets with cooking spray and sprinkled them lightly with garlic salt. After broiling the fish until it was fully cooked (less than 10 minutes), I topped the filets with a mixture of Parmesan cheese and basil and placed them back in the oven to broil until the cheese became slightly brown and crisp.

Parmesan Basil Tilapia

 The result was a very flavorful and cheesy fish filet!

Flavorful Fish

Another Yummy Bite

I enjoyed the Parmesan basil tilapia with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts for some added nutrients.

Gotta love and easy and delicious dinner!

Of Possible Interest

• 5 Healthy French Fry Alternatives (FitSugar.com)
• Healthy Family-Friendly Dinners Under $10 (Health.com)
• Decoding Food Labels (dailySpark.com)

Four Your Enjoyment

I saw this cute little post on the new blog ChicagoCuisineCritique.blogspot.com and thought it would be a fun one to duplicate on PBF! I always love learning more about you guys, so feel free to participate on your own blog or share four things about yourself in the comments section of this post.

Four Jobs I’ve Had

• Lifeguard
• Public Relations and Marketing Assistant
• Marketing Manager
• Writer/Editor

Four Places I’ve Lived

• Harrisburg, PA
• Palatine, IL
• St. Petersburg, FL
• Orlando, FL

Four TV Shows I Love

• Friends
• So You Think You Can Dance
• Cash Cab
• Man v. Food

Four Places I’ve Traveled To

• France
• Costa Rica
• Hawaii
• California

Four Blogs I Visit

(Note: I visit a lot more than four blogs daily but thought you might enjoy these blogs that are not from the healthy-living blog community.)

• J’s Everyday Fashion (This girl has serious style)
• Style Me Pretty (FANTASTIC wedding blog)
• The Didactic Pirate (A hysterical college English teacher’s  random musings)
• The Daily Puppy (Not a blog, but it features an adorable picture of a new puppy every day)

Four of My Favorite Foods

• Ice cream
• Peanut butter
• Shellfish (clams, mussels)
• Pasta with marinara sauce

Four Places I’d Rather Be

• Romantic vacation with Ryan
• At home with my family
• At the beach with friends
• Back in Chicago with my girlfriends

Now it’s your turn to tell me four things about you:

• What are your four favorite foods?
• What four TV shows do you love?
  

Simple Salmon

Last week after I made trout for dinner, I realize two important things:

1. Fish is tasty
2. Fish is super easy to make

I think fish will begin to surface in my evening meals with more regularity because of these two lil’ factors.

Salmon

Tonight I prepared salmon by sprinkling the fish with a mix of lemon, basil and thyme spices before broiling it in the oven for about 8 minutes, until the fish was flaky and cooked through.

Fishy Fishy

Along with the fish, I enjoyed roasted broccoli and organic garbanzo beans.

Roasted Broccoli

Garbanzo Beans

My Plate

I love how broiling fish creates an almost crusty layer  on the of the top of the fish.

This entire dinner was ready in 15 minutes. Love that. 😀

I’m off to flip through some bridal magazines and wait for Ryan to arrive home from his motorcycle class. (Ryan is taking a 3-day motorcycle license certification class. No, he does not have plans to buy a bike. He’s just doing it for fun. Boys will be boys. 😉 )

Returned in Full-Force

My mom used to make fish for dinner several times a week when I was growing up.

I went through a phase when I was so sick of fish in high school. Of course I made what my mom prepared, but I would cringe when I found out fish was on the dinner menu.

Fast forward to college and when I would come home to visit, all I wanted was a homecooked meal that included fish.

Maybe my craving stremmed from the fact that I didn’t eat fish away from home since I had a meal plan in college and didn’t really trust the fish prepared on campus. Or maybe I now wanted fish because we moved to Florida and the fish we ate was super fresh and often caught earlier that day during one of my dad’s spearfishing trips. Either way, my love for fish retured in full-force.

These days I don’t make fish all that often because it can be pricey, but when I saw beautiful filets of trout on sale at the grocery store yesterday, I had to pick some up.

Trout

Fish is not only delicious and nutritious, but it’s also easy to prepare, which may be what I like most about it!

I prepped the trout by sprinkling a seasoning of Nature’s Place lemon, basil and thyme that Ryan’s mom gave to me after I complimented a dish she made that used the yummy spices.

Spice Things Up

This flavor combo is perfect for poultry, red meat or fish. Gotta love the versitility!

To cook the fish, I placed it on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray and broiled it for approximately 10 minutes, until it flaked with a fork.

Fishy Fishy

Ready for Eatin'

Along with the fish, I enjoyed a mixture of lentils with sauted onions and carrots.

Lentils, Carrots, Onions

Dinner!

I went back for another small piece of fish because it was so delicious!

I really need to start integrating fish into my diet more regularly. It’s too good to continue to ignore.

• Do you like fish?
• How often do you eat fish?