Fish, Recipe
Were you one of those kids that got to eat fish sticks for dinner growing up? If so, I’m jealous.
I always felt like I was missing out because we never ate fish sticks. Of course I made up for it when I moved out on my own. I can’t tell you how many times I cooked a ‘gourmet meal’ of fish sticks and tater tots.
Now, I’m not going to mess with tots- those deserve to stay in their original fried potato form, but the fish sticks could use a little bit of growing up.
Imagine my husband’s surprise when he came home to this in the fridge.
For a moment he thought I’d become Awesome Wife and was cooking him some Angus beef for dinner. Then he looked closer.
He was disappointed to see it was tilapia, but my status was upped a little when I told him it was for homemade fish sticks.
[Tweet “Easy Homemade Baked FishSticks”]
by with a Side of Sneakers
- 2 tilapia filets
- 1/4 c almond milk {or other milk}
- 1/8 t cayenne pepper {adjust for spiciness preference}
- s & p
- 1/2 to 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- splash of lemon juic
Salt & pepper both sides of the fish fillets. Cut into sticks {or wedges}.
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Mix almond milk, cayenne pepper, and some extra black pepper into a small dipping bowl. Fill another small bowl with panko breadcrumbs.
Dip fish pieces in milk mixture, letting extra milk drip back into bowl. Then dredge in panko breadcrumbs, coating thoroughly.
Arrange on baking sheet. Cook for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, flipping half way through. Broil a few minutes after baking to increase crispiness, then drizzle with lemon.
I was fresh out of tots, so I went for the next best thing….roasted broccoli.
I’m not kidding when I say everything tastes better roasted.
Toss broccoli in olive oil, pepper, and garlic {optional}. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, or until brown & crispy.
Drizzle roasted broccoli with lemon juice. Optional: sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Twenty minutes later, fish sticks were served! With the oh so mature and sophisticated dipping sauce of ketchup mixed with hot sauce.
Almost as good as the boxed stuff.
One of the filets was delicious, but the other? Not so much. Ever hear the saying if something’s too good to be true, it’s probably not?
Well, I’m guessing the was a reason for the ridiculously cheap price that I didn’t notice until I got home…
No wonder I stick with the frozen stuff.
Travel
After stopping for lunch at Berry Hill, the gang headed to our friend’s farmhouse in the country.
If you ever told me I’d post something about four wheelers, catching dinner, or anything with camo, I’d have been skeptical. But you have to try something at least once before you judge it, right?
The view of the land was amazing- I knew in an instant it would be a relaxing trip, even if it was super short.
As soon as we got there, we changed into fishing gear and headed down to the pond.
You know you’re on a farm when you have to drive to the pond. 😉
Wiley immediately jumped in the pond- he was ready for a swim. 🙂
The other pups stayed back at the house and had a field day running around the tennis court.
Our hooks kept getting stuck in the algae instead of catching fish, so we sent two of the boys off on a paddle boat to fish in the middle of the pond. They needed a little help getting started, but Katherine gave them a good push, and they were off!
You boys better get to fishing- we’re hungry for dinner!
Back on the shore, Katherine caught a fish- way to show up the boys!
This is when it started to rain. We just ignored it and got soaking wet. Fast forward a few hours later, and we had dinner!
Chris got to work cleaning the fish while I got the rest of dinner ready inside.
We made fish tacos! I sautéed the fish and added a little taco seasoning, then set out loads of taco toppings, with some Spanish rice on the side. I also made some traditional ground beef tacos in case there wasn’t enough fish (but I didn’t eat any of those.)
Since dinner was Mexican themed, I celebrated our catch with a margarita on the rocks. It was good, but boy that mix was sweet. It kind of burned my throat, although I suppose that could have been the tequila doing the burning….
After dinner Katherine and I went on a picture-taking extravaganza. It was just so beautiful- I loved being surrounded by nothing but nature. Being away from everything makes you realize how much “noise” you’re surrounded by in a city- even in a neighborhood there’s always background noise- cars, planes, people yelling, lawn mowers…. Here it was just quiet, except for the occasional barking dog and the croaking bull frogs. 🙂 Here are some of my pictures from the weekend.
Remember the puppy we found on the side of the road? We left her at the house with some food, water, and blankets, but she found us down at the pond fishing and decided to take a nap in the rain.
And then laid down under the table as we ate dinner. Think we found a new friend? 🙂
I have a feeling if no one claims her David & Ashley might have a new pet. Since she was hanging out with us we had to give her a name. So meet Sassy 🙂 [As in sweet sassy molassey, we found a dog!]
After dinner the husband took me on a ride on the four wheeler- it was my first time on a four wheeler and it was awesome!! I loved how fast we could zip through the woods- I’m glad I wasn’t driving though. 😉 We came back covered head to toe in mud. It was awesome.
The husband and his friends come up here all the time for “boys weekends”, and I’m never jealous that he gets to go and I don’t….but next time I might be. 😉
