I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Pan-Fried Fish, Mashed Potatoes, and Grilled Veggies

I usually blog about a particular dish I make, but since the fish and the veggies were both a bit of "advanced" cooking, and the mashed potatoes are great for my diet, I decided to do a whole meal.

So a good way to get in protein and healthy fats is fish. I love seafood. Granted, I usually love it when I can't cook it (Steamed Crabs, Grilled Shrimp although I'm sure I could do that, Crab Cakes, etc), but it's great. Brain food. We try to cook fish now and again, and more than just fish sticks, which are easy, but incredibly unhealthy. Pan frying is the easiest way I know how to do it. I know I could broil, or grill, or straight up fry it, but I haven't done those yet and I don't feel like screwing around, so I just stick with pan frying.

You can do fish with a lot of good sides, but recently, we'd done pan fried catfish with mashed potatoes and fried squash. That was yummy, so I stuck with those sides. Mashed potatoes, and GRILLED squash. Added in mushrooms too.

So, without further ado. A full meal for fish consumption.





Pan Fried Fish with Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Squash and Mushrooms

1 lb of fish fillets, divided up into 4 equal sections
2 cups white cornmeal
salt, pepper, old bay, Cajun seasoning (No specific amounts needed, just enough to season to your taste)
1 cup egg whites
1/4 cup water

2 medium to large summer squash
1 package sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
seasoning salt (We used Tastefully Simple, you can use whatever you want)

1 package Idahoan mashed potatoes
2 cups water


Pan Fried Fish
1. In a bowl, combine egg whites and water
2. In a seperate bowl, put cornmeal in. Add seasonings and stir to your liking. You should put enough in that you can start to see some particles in the cornmeal when well mixed
3. For each fish filet/piece, dip in egg white bowl several times, then transfer to cornmeal bowl and coat well with cornmeal mixture, so that entire filet/piece is covered. Repeat for all fish
4. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, place on medium-low heat, and arrange fish inside.
5. Turn fish every few minutes until both sides are crispy and browned

Roasted Squash and Mushrooms
1. Cut squash into slices and open package of mushrooms
2. Pre-heat grill on Medium-Low heat for 3 minutes
3. Sprinkle seasoning salt on one side of veggies and place this side face up on the grill
4. Baste all vegetables on tops with extra virgin olive oil
5. Heat for a few minutes, then turn all veggies
6. Sprinkle with more seasoning salt, then baste with more extra virgin olive oil
7. Turn as needed until vegetables are softened and at desired char levels

Mashed Potatoes
1. Boil 2 cups of water
2. Remove from heat and add whole package of Idahoan Mashed Potatoes
3. Stir flaked until all are moistened
4. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir with a fork to fluff potatoes


Per 4 oz fish, 1/2 cup Mashed Potatoes, 1 cup of mushrooms and squash

490 Calories
20 grams fat (14 g comes from the estimated 1 tbsp of ev olive oil that is in the vegetables)
49 carbs
31 grams protein


Notes

• For the fish, your discretion on which kind. We like catfish because it's naturally tastier, but Giant was all out when we did our shopping. I went with Tilapia, which is low fat, but still had some. The hard part with those lower fat fish are they are naturally bland, so you need to find some way to spice/season them up.


• A good way to add some flavor to the blander fish is to spoon 1 tbsp of salsa on top of the fish when serving


• Idahoan Mashed Potatoes rock. 1/2 cup is 110 calories, 2 grams of fat. And they make flavored, like Roasted Garlic, Four Cheese, etc


• 2 summer squash and 1 package of mushrooms made enough to feed 3 people. I would reccomend going with more if you can