Meals, Week Two - and Sauteed Fish Sticks recipe

Happy Thursday! The weather here is frightful – we have had absolutely frigid weather this week. The number on the thermometer was the same if you were using °C or °F. All week. Winter finally decided to show up and I guess it made up for all the warm weather we've had until now. We're all bundled up in our parkas, staying inside as much as possible.

Anyway . . . as I mentioned here, I'm trying to prepare healthy meals for our family and make a new dinner every night for three months!

Here's a recap of our meals from last week. I've decided that I'll only add in the amazing recipes - nobody wants to make a recipe that's 'okay.' And maybe one of these days, some of the recipes I pick will be online somewhere so I can link to them instead of re-typing them!

Last week:

• Sunday: Steak and Baked Potato with stir-fried veggies – This is a standing favourite in our house and, as usual, was delicious. Mr. E has this BBQ thing down J
• Monday: Salad with Chicken – We cooked the chicken the day before so this was a quick and easy dinner before a night of activities. Salt and pepper chicken is a staple in our house – quick and easy. We make a few breasts on Sundays, so we have a quick and easy dinner or lunch. (Roast the chicken breasts on a foil lined baking sheet for about 20 – 25 minutes at 350°). We made a quick balsamic vinaigrette and called it dinner.
• Tuesday: Pork Tenderloin with Succotash – Mr. E to the BBQ rescue again J And who can resist a dinner that has succotash in it? Doesn't it remind you of Sylvester in Looney Tunes (please tell me that someone else remembers that he used to say "sufferin' succotash")?

•  Wednesday: Cheese Stuffed Shells – This didn't happen due to timing. I had plans to prep this on Tuesday night and pop it in the oven when we got home, but that didn't happen. So, the boys had tortellini (their all-time favourite pasta) and I had leftovers.
• Thursday: Turkey Pasta Casserole – I originally thought this would work, but we decided to switch this meal to Friday (it took a while to cook). And then I was too tired to cook on Friday, so we ordered pizza. This is real life for us – very little goes according to plan.
• Friday: Sauteed Fish Sticks – So we made these on Thursday night instead. After pulverizing the fish in the food processor, they turned out pretty well. They didn't stick together as well as the picture in the magazine, but everyone said they were a keeper!
• Saturday: Spaghetti and Meatballs – a family favourite J You can't go wrong with spaghetti and meatballs around here. And with home-made sauce and whole wheat pasta, it's really healthy.

Here's the recipe I'm going to share this week:

Sauteed Fish Sticks
*recipe originally published in Clean Eating magazine, April/May 2011.

A few slices of whole-grain bread (to make into bread crumbs)

1 egg

¾ lb boneless, skinless tilapia fillet

Crack egg into a medium bowl. Chop tilapia as finely as possible (I discovered the food processor worked best) and add to egg. Add ¼ cup bread crumbs to tilapia mixture, then use hands to thoroughly combine.

Divide fish mixture into 8 equal portions, 2 ½ inches long. Pour another ¼ cup bread crumbs into a large or flat-bottomed bowl. Dredge each stick in bread crumbs, pressing lightly to coat both sides.

Heat 1 ½ tsp oil in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add fish sticks to pan and cook, covered for 4 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. Use heatproof tongs to gently flip sticks over and cook for another 3 minutes or until both sides are golden brown.

I also made oven french fries to go with these - fish and chips!J

So far, so good on this goal of mine - let's see how long I can keep it going.

Cheers,
Kim