Parmesan Pesto Broiled Fish

Welcome to a brand new week!  

Hope that your weekend was fabulous and you are re-charged for a new week!

Mine was a great combination of all of the wonderful things in my life!  

Friday night was our annual mom's Christmas shopping adventure, 

which is one of the best gifts in itself, to just have time together!  

In general, we are a pretty low key group, so the fact that we didn't get home until midnight 

speaks volumes about this tradition.  

Good clean fun and lots of laughter!  

The kids formed an assembly line on Saturday to help me with Christmas cards.  

They excitedly stuffed, stamped and labeled the envelopes, 

but no one was willing to seal, so that job came back to me.  

It was so great to see them all smiling and working together,

 even as they called 'switch' to change tasks. 

Another weekend highlight included the Nutcracker collection display at Milton College, 

where we saw a friend's collection along with a couple of the kids' classmates.  

It was also super cool to check out a bit of Milton College, 

something I had only seen or heard of from afar. 

Saturday was also a beautiful winter evening for the Janesville Jolly Jingle Holiday Lights Parade.  

To the best of my knowledge, this was Janesville's first holiday parade and 

we can't wait to see this grow!  

We were excited to check out the holiday events that were planned and 

see lots of familiar faces along the way.  

The flat tire when we got back to the car, however, was not part of our evening plans! 

While the tire was being changed, Alayna and I brainstormed the silver linings, 

including that we were with some wonderful friends who came to the rescue.  

He helped Jerry put on the spare while she dropped off another friend, scoped out dinner spots and ultimately picked up pizza to just hang out at home.  

Just can't complain about those little bumps in the road, when blessings are so abundant!

Now, here we are, back at the start again with another week of meals ahead of us.  

This broiled fish recipe was a huge hit with my whole family!  

The creaminess of the sauce along with the crispness of the cheese was a perfect combination 

to go with any white fish of your choice. 

Best part…it is quick! Ready in just about 10 minutes!  

The fillets of fish are just lightly seasoned with salt and pepper on a baking pan.  

I prefer to line my baking sheets with foil for ease of clean up. 

Pop the fish under the broiler for just about 5 minutes. 

While the fish are getting started, 

so shall the sauce. 

One half cup of mayonnaise, 

one tbsp of Pesto

(this can be store-bought or click here to make your own!)

and one quarter cup of grated Parmesan. 

Finally, add 2 tsp of lemon pepper seasoning.

After the first 5 minutes of broiling, 

top the fish with the sauce and spread into a thin layer, 

then back under the broiler it goes. 

While broiling, 

the sizzling of the cheese could be heard…

music to my ear! 

Love the gorgeous color and texture that came out of the broiler after just 

2-3 minutes. 

Just serve it up with some rice and edamame for a quick, fabulous, healthy weeknight meal!

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Bake Time: <10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1# of fish fillets of your choice

Salt and Pepper - to taste

1/2 cup of mayonnaise, 

1 tbsp of Pesto

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan

2 tsp Lemon Pepper seasoning

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil. 

Lightly season thawed fish fillets with salt and pepper. 

Broil for 5 minutes or longer for thicker fillets. 

While broiling, mix up mayo, pesto, parm and lemon pepper sauce for topping. 

Remove fish and spread a layer of Parmesan Pesto sauce on top. 

Return to the broiler for 2-3 minutes until the cheese is lightly browned. 

Serve up with your favorite veggie and starch for a healthy, balanced, quick and easy meal.  

Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chops

Hey everyone, we made it through Monday.  Whew...that was a close one!

Nah, just kidding, I spent it at a dinosaur museum with Landon and his 2nd grade class.  So fun to see how your kid really is in school.  I sent Jerry numerous texts to let him know that Landon is really good in school.  I was pleasantly surprised.  He even saved a seat for me at lunch and wanted to sit with me on the bus. Melted my heart!

Was still home in time to fulfill the requested pork chops for dinner, although I had not yet decided on the preparation.

I was feeling particularly homey and traditional and not very adventurous at all, so I decided to go back to my roots, the days in the R&D lab schlepping batters and breadings with some home-style Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chops.

This takes a little longer than the easy shrimp teriyaki, but I promise you it will be worth it.

Let's get started!

The first layer on the meat (or any other substrate) is considered the pre-dust.  Primary purpose is to add some flavor that won't burn/cook off and also to facilitate the adhesion of the next two layers.

In bowl 1, used a half cup of all purpose flour, some seasoned salt and pepper. Probably nearly a tbsp of seasoning salt and more like a half of tsp of the fresh ground pepper.

The 2nd bowl is the batter, in this case, was 3 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork.  Two probably would have been sufficient...I hate throwing excess away.

Finally the breader, in a loaf pan, was a cup of Italian bread crumbs mixed with a cup of grated Parmesan with some lemon zest grated in for good measure.

Once the breadings are ready and waiting, let the coating begin! Use a fork to dredge the chop through the seasoned flour, just a brief coat on each side.  Shake off any lose flour before dipping the floured pork into the egg bowl, covered both sides.

Finally, the chops are ready to be breaded.  The combination of fine bread crumbs and cheese makes it very easy for the breading to stick.

After placing the chop in the breading, I used my hand to scoop some breading on the top of the pork and then pressing down gently with the palm of my hand to make sure there is good coverage before removing it from the breading and shaking off the excess…that will only burn in the oil.

Now that they are breaded, we can move on to the cooking stages.

The first step of the cooking process is to pan fry the chops for a few minutes on each side to set the breading and establish nice texture and color for the finished dish.

 After 3-4 minutes on each side in the melted butter and hot oil, they are placed into a baking pan and finished in the oven at 425 F for about 15 more minutes.

While the chops were finishing, there was some time for sautéing green beans in melted butter and topped with chopped almonds and Kosher sea salt.  Just don't add the almonds too soon or they will scorch.

The sautéed green beans was a nice change for us, so often I (over) cook them in the microwave, this way they actually had some texture left.


This meal was met with rave reviews, all 8 of the chops were devoured by the family in one sitting...so much for leftovers!