Fish Tacos

We made fish tacos for dinner on Friday. They were great! We kind of just made up the recipe. I even cut and breaded the fish!!

I started with 2 pretty large filets -- we used tilapia. (The cod was from Russia and we both agreed we'd rather go with the tilapia from Costa Rica).

I cut the tilapia into chunks and then breaded them. I put some Italian breadcrumbs in a bowl and then added Old Bay, cayenne, chili powder, and cumin.

Then I cooked the tilapia in olive oil. 

For fixings, we used romaine lettuce, black olives, tomatoes, cucumber, and green peppers. (Rob has a thing about cucumber on his tacos -- it's not something I grew up with, but it's okay). We also had taco sauce, shredded cheese, and guacamole.

I did put more Old Bay on one side of the fishes once they were in the pan. (You can never have too much Old Bay, amiright?)

 Then we put it all together!

And served with some coleslaw.

They had a bit of a kick and were mighty tasty, if I do say so myself!

Just Load the Dishwasher

Rob and I both have Yahoo email accounts, so we often see the stories they have on the Yahoo! homepage. Frequently, the headlines of these stories are intriguing -- "how to get your dream job," etc. But then when you read the article it's filled with common sense things -- dress professionally at your interview. So, we sometimes joke about these stories. I got sucked into one of these stories and it really stuck with me. It was about how to keep on top of household chores with a busy schedule. One of their golden nuggets of advice? Take care of the dishes everyday -- just load the dishwasher and do the few pots.

That really made Rob and I peeved because we don't have a dishwasher. We frequently lament how much more we could do if we didn't have to spend hours every week washing dishes. We both agreed that we'd definitely be able to stay on top of the dishes if all it meant was loading the dishwasher. As it stands now, we get often get behind and our kitchen quickly becomes a disaster.

This week we were able to catch up on the dishes! Rob thought I was joking when I said, take a picture. I was not.

This was the first time in probably a month that this happened. (Well, except for the couple days after Rob got out of the hospital and my Mom came to our apartment and did the dishes like 3 days in a row. <3)

Sometimes you have the celebrate the mini coups.

Pumpkin Soup with Shrimp

Last year for some reason Rob got really into Jambalaya. Now that the weather has gotten colder we decided to make it the other day. Right next to the recipe for Jambalaya was a recipe for Pumpkin Soup with Shrimp.

Spiced Pumpkin and Shrimp Soup (Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book – 12th Edition, ) Start to Finish: 30 minutes Makes: 4 servings (about 5 ¾ cups) Ingredients 2 medium onions, sliced 2 medium carrots, sliced (1 cup) 1 tablespoon snipped fresh cilantro 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger ½ teaspoon ground allspice 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 14-ounce can chicken broth 1 15-ounce can pumpkin 1 cup milk 1 8-ounce package frozen peeled and deveined cooked shrimp, thawed Plain yogurt or dairy sour cream (optional) Snipped fresh chives (optional) Instructions 1.    In a large saucepan cook onion, carrots, cilantro, ginger, allspice, and garlic in hot butter, covered for 10 to 12 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring once or twice. 2.    Transfer vegetable mixture to a blender container or food processor bowl. Add ½ cup of the chicken broth. Cover and blend or process until nearly smooth. 3.    In the same saucepan combine the remaining 1 ¼ cups broth, the pumpkin, and milk. Stir in blended vegetable mixture and shrimp; heat through. If desired, serve topped with plain yogurt and chives. 247 calories per serving.

It was definitely different, but pretty good.

I will say this -- it takes more than 30 minutes to prepare. One of my pet peeves is recipes that put in the ingredients "peeled shrimp" or "sliced carrots" like then they don't have to account for that work of getting those things together like when I get home from work I just magically have sliced carrots ready to sautee to put in a soup. Oh, we also bought raw shrimp on accident, so that was another thing that took awhile.

But, it was hardy, great for a cold November evening with some fresh baked Pillsbury french bread. 

Getting Back to Normalcy

So, once again, it's been awhile since I've posted. But, we've been busy.

Rob's lung collapsed spontaneously. Seriously.

So, for two weeks I was shuttling back and forth from the hospital, work, and briefly being at home. Rob's been home for over a week and actually went back to work today! So, things are starting to get back to normal.

We actually went to the gym yesterday!

So, slowly but surely life is getting back to normal and I hope to be able to post more often again!

Oh, and I'm so glad that Rob is okay.