February 23rd, 2011

When I plan dinners I find I like to go old school and do a protein, carb, and veggie.  I mix it up with different combinations and sometime don’t do a protein and sometimes skip the carb.  But I normally like 2-3 things on the plate and always a vegetable or salad.  Keeping that formula in mind, I have to admit something.  I absolutely LOVE breaded fish and chicken.  Absolutely love it.  I blame both of my grandmas, they both loved to bread and fry things and the result was always delicious. There are 3 downsides to this. 

#1 Not the healthiest thing and I don’t like buying new, bigger clothes.

#2 It’s time consuming and causes the kitchen to be a mess setting up a flour, egg, and breadcrumb assembly line.

#3 It makes the house smell like a greasy pit for 36 hours.

Don’t get me wrong, I will still bread things.  To combat #1 and #3 I normally will bread chicken or fish and put on a baking sheet in the oven and spray with cooking spray.  It does the trick.  But I think I found a trick to combat #2.  I had a bunch of tilapia filets and was in the mood to bread them, but not in the mood for counter mess and egg and breadcrumb caked hands.  I laid the fish all out on a cutting board, slathered them with mustard, then sprinkled whole wheat panko bread crumbs.  The breadcrumbs stuck to the fish.  I then transferred to my baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and did the same thing on the other side and baked in the oven.  The only mess was the cutting board.  Loved it and they tasted great with slathered Dijon mustard as the base.

Out of the oven.  Of course keeping with my meal formula, there’s the carb and veggies!

Wheatberries with herbs, craisins, white raisins, and pistachios.

Arugula salad with roasted zucchini and edamame.

Dinner!