Here we are in Week 1 of my fabulous meal planning, and I'm already making changes. I promised the recipe for fish tacos, and that's next, but I'm also including my recipe for black beans and rice, which I ended up serving with the tacos instead of the avocado. Avocados are temperamental little buggers, no? And lesson learned - not a good side to plan to serve with fish unless you buy them ripe the day you plan to eat them. I bought 3 on Sunday (at the ridiculously dear price of $1.29 each, ugh) but they weren't quite ripe on Monday. Any other meal I would just push back a day, but not so much fish...don't need that sitting around the fridge, waiting on a few fussy avocados to be ready for the party. But all's well that ends well, because I spied a can of black beans in the pantry and remembered how much we all love black beans and rice, and that worked out much better.First, the fish tacos. (Side note: I love tacos for family dinners in general. Serving tacos lets me feed the whole family the same meal, but everyone can fix them exactly how they like them. Makes it easy to make everyone happy). These are so easy it's not even a real recipe. This is per taco.
Ingredients:
1 small flour tortilla
1 cod fillet (about an inch thick)
One generous pinch of taco seasoning (I just used good old McCormick)
One lime slice
Your toppings of choice: diced tomato, shredded Mexican cheese blend, shredded iceberg lettuce, sour cream, salsa
Directions:
Wash fish and pat dry. Sprinkle both sides of the fish with taco seasoning, squeeze lime juice over the fish. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add a small pat of butter and about one tablespoon of vegetable oil (not olive oil). Add fish, cook approximately 4 minutes. Flip, cook approximately 2 minutes on the other side. (Cooking time with fish is the hardest thing to get right. You want your fish cooked all the way through, to the point that it flakes easily but isn't dry). Remove from heat, let stand for a minute or two, and then flake with a fork. Build your taco as desired.
Next, black beans and rice. I've blogged a different recipe for these before here, which is naturally delicious, but after playing around with the recipe some more over the past few months, I actually like this one a bit better.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 gloves garlic, minced
Red pepper flakes, according to taste. (I try not to make this too spicy so the boys will eat it, so I do just a pinch. If I weren't making it for little ones, I'd make it a generous pinch, or maybe 2)
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup long grain rice
1 teaspoon salt
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed.
Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 2 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add water, rice, black beans, and salt. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer until all the water is absorbed. (Note - I often have to add just a bit more water to get the rice and beans to the slightly-overcooked-consistency that seems to make them taste just right).
Enjoy!
