Easy Roasted Asparagus

You'll never guess where I found this recipe.....Budget Bytes. I think I'm slightly addicted to that blog. It's Spring time, at least it supposed to be Spring, it's almost 100 degrees here today (bleh, Texas), and that means asparagus area in season. Jay and I love asparagus. The kids seem to be hit or miss. I tweaked this recipe a little and omitted the lemon zest. I didn't want an overpowering lemon flavor. I served them alongside salmon and a spinach salad.

1 bunch of asparagus, thoroughly washed and trimmed

Olive oil

1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Salt

Pepper

Lemon

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Place cleaned, trimmed asparagus on foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the top. Add crushed garlic, salt, pepper, and the 1-2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice. Toss to coat. Place asparagus in a single layer.

3. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip with spatula and cook for another 10 minutes or until tender.

Review - Fast, easy, delicious. What more could you ask for?

Scheherazade Casserole

Um, yeah I couldn't pronounce it either, so I looked it up. My Google U degree tells me this:

1. Scheherazade - pronounced shuh-her-uh-zah-duh

2. The fictional wife of a sultan and the narrator of the tales in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments

What that has to do with this dish I have absolutely no idea. I found the recipe in my Moosewood cookbook. It's excellent! Everyone liked it a lot. I think Jay tolerates a lot of my meatless mains, but he really liked this dish. Eli ate two bowls full. Josie ate it, but she would have done better if the bell peppers were invisible. I've modified the original recipe because I wasn't able to find dried raw soybeans. I substituted canned chickpeas. I read a couple other versions of this dish online and some used white beans, but I think that would be too mushy. The texture of the bulgur and the chickpeas was nice. This was also my first time cooking bulgur. I'd heard of it before, but had no idea what it was. I'll hopefully stumble across another recipe for bulgur because I have a box full of it now. 

1 cup raw bulgar

1 cup boiling water

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cups minced onion

3-5 large cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 large bell pepper, diced

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes

3 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup finely minced parsley

1 1/2 cups feta, crumbled

1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly oil a 9x13 baking dish.

2. Place the bulgar in a small bowl. Add boiling water, cover with a plate and let stand for 15 minutes.

3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Saute onion, garlic and seasonings for 5-8 minutes. Add bell pepper and saute about 5 minutes more.

4. Place chickpeas in a food processor. Pulse until beans resemble coarse crumbs. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the bulgar and sauteed vegetables. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste. Add 1 cup of the feta and the parsley. Mix well.

5. Spread mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle remaining feta on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes more. 

Review - Excellent!!! This dish really shocked me. I've had a string of so-so dishes lately, you know the kind of dish that's good and everyone eats it, but you don't really have any motivation to make it again or type up the recipe and post it to your blog (ahem). Between the fish sticks and this casserole I feel like I'm back on track. Go me!

Tilapia Fish Sticks

If you haven't discovered Budget Bytes  yet you're seriously missing out. These fish sticks were a hit with the whole family. They were easy to make and the best part is that there are only six ingredients and you can pronounce them all (at least I hope you can pronounce them all), which isn't the case of the ingredient list on a box of frozen fish sticks. 

1 lb. tilapia fillets

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. cajun seasoning

2-3 eggs, whisked (I ended up needing three)

1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Slice each filet length-wise into two or three pieces (depending on width) and then horizontally to yield 4-6 sticks.

2. Prepare the breading station by collecting three bowls. In the first bowl combine the flour and cajun seasoning (or salt, pepper, any other seasonings). In the second bowl add the whisked eggs. In the third bowl place the panko bread crumbs.

3. Bread the tilapia sticks by first coating in seasoned flour then dipping in egg and finally coating in panko crumbs. Place the breaded sticks on a plate until all of the sticks have been breaded.
4. Heat a large skillet with vegetable oil over medium/high heat. When the pan is very hot it is ready for the fish (a drop of water will sizzle furiously when dropped in the skillet) . Place half of the sticks in the pan and cook on each side until golden brown in color. Drain the fish sticks on a plate covered with paper towel.  Cook the second half of the fish sticks the same way. Serve with tartar sauce. 

Sorry, no picture. We were hungry.

Tartar Sauce

1/2 cup mayonaise

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 chopped dill pickle

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp dill

Mix everything together in a bowl. Cover and chill.

Review - I was kind of shocked at how good these were. I was also shocked that both kids ate them. I usually  have to coerce them to eat fish. I'm pretty sure Josie thought it was chicken, even though I repeatedly told her they were fish sticks. I wasn't totally sold on the tartar sauce recipe. It was good, but it could be better. You can be the judge. The fish sticks were awesome and I'll definitely be making them again.