Perfecting my go-to meal

Lately I have been really scatterbrained as far as dinnertime goes. I used to plan one week of meals and then go shopping once a week for all the things I needed for those meals. I haven't done that for at least a month now. yesterday Mark got home and we had nothing for dinner. We took a walk to the grocery store and picked up ingredients for my Quick Go-To meal: fish, couscous, and veggies.


(I used salmon instead of tilapia in this picture)

menu:

About 1 lb. tilapia (or your preferred fish) with lemon pepper
Couscous with pine nuts, tomatoes, and onions
parmesan green beans
garlic french bread

I had everything on hand but the main items--fish, couscous, green beans, and bread

Putting It Together:

1. drizzle a little olive oil in a frying pan and heat up
2. boil water for couscous
3. turn on broiler for bread
4. start cutting ends off green beans

When oil is hot enough (I believe it should have a ripply look on the bottom of the pan), throw tilapia on and pepper liberally with lemon pepper. (I have this really good grinder lemon pepper from trader joes that isn't very strong so I completely cover the top of the fish)

If water is boiling, add couscous, stir, cover, and remove from heat

Throw green beans in microwave safe bowl with a little water and microwave for 4 minutes.

butter bread and throw in broiler for a couple minutes(DON'T FORGET ABOUT IT!!!!!!)

check/flip fish

chop up tomatoes, green onions or whatever you want to add to your couscous

(CHECK BREAD!!!)

When fish is ready, should be flaky, opaque and golden around edges, put on plate and set on table

throw green beans into hot fish frying pan and sprinkle liberally with parmesan and stir occasionally

Drizzle 1 or 2 tablespoon olive oil into couscous and then mix with tomatoes, onions, pine nuts, etc.

When green beans are done--parmesan will be browned and crunchy--put them on a plate. Add a little red wine vinegar (or something acidic like lemon juice) to the frying pan to get all the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan from fish and green beans. heat for maybe a minute then pour into couscous and mix around.

This has been the best version of this meal so far. I like this meal because it's balanced and tasty as well as fast. Especially with Mark's help, I can whip this all together in about 20 minutes and yet it seems so fancy. Enjoy!

If you have any further suggestions or questions, please share.