Lemony Fish Pie

I love finding new ways to cook fish, especially recipes that are easy to re-heat so I can take them in my lunch.  This fish dish was easy to make and really tasty.  I used peas and carrots in it, since I had them on hand, but you can use whatever vegetables you like.  I think this would be a great meal to make for fussy kids who may not like fish, because with all the lemon in it you can't really taste the fish.  And there's mashed potatoes on top, what kid doesn't like mashed potatoes?:)  

When I made this I made it into 4 small pies, to make it easy to bring in my lunch, and because I love individual servings, like these Vegetable Pot Pies.  But if you want one big pie just use a deep-dish pie plate.  

Lemony Fish Pie

(Adapted from Chatelaine Magazine)

2 large potatoes, peeled and diced

1 pound white fish fillets, such as tilapia

1 tbsp all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil (I used coconut oil, it left a bit of coconut taste in the dish that went well with the lemon)

2 cups vegetables, cooked 'al dente' (I added a bit more)

3/4 cup whipping cream, divided

1 tbsp dried dill

Zest and juice from 1 lemon

Boil potatoes until tender, about 10 minutes.  Cut fish into bite-sized pieces and toss with flour and salt.  Preheat oil in a large saucepan over med-high.  Add fish and cook for 2 minutes, add 1/2 cup of cream, vegetables, and dill.  Cook until thickened, about 2 more minutes.  Stir in lemon juice and zest.  Transfer to baking dish.

Mash the drained potatoes with 1/4 cup of cream.  Spread over the vegetables and fish.  Broil until golden.  Enjoy!

Triple Lemon Bread

I am a big fan of lemon desserts.  Actually I prefer lemon to (gasp!) chocolate.  Lemon pie is my favourite pie, and that's what I get instead of cake on my birthday...unless my mom makes me a cheesecake, cheesecake will always win The Battle of Desserts.  Mmm, I could really go for some lemon cheesecake with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries on top.  Why am I thinking of this?  Just torturing myself while I'm stuck at work.  Anyway, back to the lemon bread.  This is a new recipe I tried, from Kraft's "What's Cooking?" Magazine.  It was really delicious, moist, and lemony!  And so easy to make, everything mixes up in one bowl.  It takes about 4 lemons to come up with 1/4 cup of zest, but only 1 to get the juice, so you end up with a few leftover, zested lemons.  I sliced them up and put them in a jug with water and a bit of sugar so I had fresh lemonade to drink.  Yum, yum!

Triple Lemon Bread 

(Makes two loaves)

1 cup boiling water

1 pkg. lemon jelly powder

1 pkg. lemon cake mix

3/4 cup oil (I used vegetable)

1/4 cup lemon zest

4 eggs

Topping:

1 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly butter 2 loaf pans.  Pour boiling water over jelly powder in large bowl, stir until completely dissolved. Add rest of ingredients (except for sugar and juice) stir to moisten, and then beat with mixer until well-blended.  

Pour into pans and bake for 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Pierce loaves with a fork all over, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together, and then pour over top of loaves.  Cool the bread for 30 minutes before removing from the pans, then place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Lemonade:

Slice 2 lemons and put in a pitcher.  Juice one lemon and add to pitcher.  Add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water.  Stir and add 3 cups cold water.  Refrigerate for a few hours, the longer the better.  Taste before completely filling up a glass, you may want to add more sugar and/or water.

Easy Peasy Pasta Salad

This is such an easy pasta salad to make, and you can make it with such a variety of ingredients.  I usually put tuna in mine, and then add some kind of combination of vegetables.  Peppers, green onions, cherry tomatoes, peas, carrots, asparagus, and/or cucumber.  Basically I use whatever veggies I have on hand.  If I use carrots or asparagus I always partly cook them first so they aren't too crunchy.  Just throw them in with the pasta while it's cooking for the last 2 minutes or so.  If I don't have tuna on hand I will make it with cut up hard-boiled eggs, which is also good if you want a vegetarian dish.  I find the best pasta to make this with is farfalle (bow tie).  The shape of them just seems to work really well with the mayonnaise and vegetables.
This 'recipe' is pretty basic, it's completely up to your own tastes as to what, and how much, you put into it.  I'll write the ingredients for the salad pictured, but it's just a basic outline for whatever you like.

Easy Pasta Salad:

1 can of tuna, drained and flaked
5 cups of cooked pasta, cooled
1 yellow pepper, cut into small pieces
1 carrot, cut into thin slices and blanched (toss into cooking pasta for last 2 minutes of cooking time)
1/2 cup of fresh peas, blanched
1/4 cup mayonnaise
pepper, to taste

Toss all of the ingredients together and serve!

Grilled Twice Baked Potato Sandwich

I recently saw a recipe for a twice baked potato grilled cheese, and liked the idea, but thought having potatoes and bread together would be a little too filling and starchy.  So I had this idea, a grilled cheese like no other, because it has no bread.  I used thinly sliced potatoes instead, and filled the inside with cheese, bacon, and green onions, you know, the most delicious part of a baked potato:)  And then served it with sour cream to dip in.  It was so good.  And it was much faster to make than a traditional baked potato.  Plus, if you ever find yourself craving a grilled cheese but have no bread you can make it this way.  (I hardly ever have bread, when I do buy it, it goes moldy before I eat it all.)  The outside of this sandwich was golden and crispy and the inside was a gooey, melty mess of cheese, bacon, and onions...perfect.

For this recipe I am just listing the ingredients, it's up to you how cheesy and bacony you want the sandwiches.  Each potato makes about 2 sandwiches, since only the biggest slices are used, but if you want to make smaller sandwiches, or bite-sized ones, you could get more out of each potato.  I just used the leftover potato to make hash browns the next day.

Twice Baked Potato Sandwich:

Large potatoes (The bigger the better!)

Cheddar cheese, sliced

Cooked bacon

Green onions, sliced thinly

Vegetable oil

Sour Cream

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Wash the potatoes, leave the skin on.  Slice the potatoes lengthwise, for the largest slices possible.  Make each slice about a 1/4" thick.  Place the slices of potato on a foil lined baking sheet and lightly brush each one with vegetable oil.  Turn over and brush other side as well.  Bake for 10-15 minutes, turning half-way through.  They should be tender, but not so cooked that they fall apart. (Mine took 10 minutes.)

Place slices of cheese on half of your potato slices, then add bacon and green onions.  Top with remaining potato slices.  Preheat a large frying pan over medium heat.  Cook the sandwiches slowly so that the potatoes have a chance to crisp up and the cheese melts.  Cut each sandwich in half and serve with sour cream.  Enjoy!