"Fish"-ing for dinner: a working mom's dinner solution

If you are a parent working outside the home or a stay-at-home parent, I am sure you can relate to my dilemma:

How do I prepare the kind of dinner during the week for my family that is the quality of what I cook for my family on the weekend?

Since going back to work last October after Davis was born, this has been an ongoing dilemma for me along with the continuing struggle of keeping a balance between work and parenting.

Sometimes, a plain chicken breast and boring vegetable just won’t suffice for dinner. The trouble is that both Dan and I want to spend time playing with our son, Davis, when we get home from work.  We want to make the most of that precious time we have before he goes to bed. This is one of the blocks of time on a Monday through Friday basis in my life that I do not want to spend cooking.

Be that as it may, we both still need to eat!

Almost one year after returning to work, I am starting to come up with recipes that feel like what I would cook on the weekend (simple but somewhat creative) but that I can still prepare and eat at a normal hour. We are not a 9 p.m. dinner household. That’s more like our bedtime most nights!

In the last year, I have discovered that fish is one of the easiest proteins to cook fast.  Not only is it healthy, but it doesn’t require a mass amount of prep work to turn it into something special. On Monday night, I stopped at our local fish market on the way home from work and purchased Atlantic Cod. A flakey, white fish, Atlantic Cod is a very mild fish and also relatively inexpensive. I also picked up a few lemons and a dried-spice rub that contained rosemary, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, sage and oregano.

After giving Davis his bath before bed, I made the "Davis hand-off" to Dan for pajamas, bottle and bedtime and went downstairs to prepare dinner. I preheated the oven to 385 degrees in order to create the perfect condition for roasting the cod. I pulled out my favorite baking dish and drizzled enough olive oil in it to coat the bottom. Then I placed the two pieces of fish in the pan, drizzled each with a small amount of olive oil and the squeezed the juice of two fresh lemons over the fish. I then sprinkled a small amount of the spice rub on the fish. Finally, I cut the last lemon into thin slices and placed it on top of the fish. A finishing touch before hitting the oven were a few kalamata olives I added to the baking dish with the fish that were nearing the end of their days if not eaten soon.

The fish went into the oven after about 2 minutes of prepping and after approximately 17 minutes, it was ready to eat!

To accompany the fish, I made some couscous which has become a staple of weeknight dinners at our house. We have seriously become couscous junkies with part of the appeal being that it cooks in about 5 minutes.  Yes, we like instant gratification in my house. I added a small amount of butter and garlic powder to give it a bit of flavor. While at the fish market, I also picked up a beautiful salad of chickpeas, feta, tomatoes, kalamata olives and onions. It was the perfect accompaniment to the fish.

By 7:30 pm (approximately 20 minutes after I began cooking dinner), with the table set and a sleeping baby, I sat down with my husband to a perfect dinner. It felt like a weekend dinner and we both agreed we needed to pinch ourselves to remember it was Monday night.

Five Spice Fish
(serves 2)

Fish Ingredients
*3/4-1 lb of Atlantic Cod (or a similar mild, flaky white fish)
*3 small lemons
*Olive oil
*Handful of Kalamata olives (optional)
*Dusting of spice rub (see recipe below) for each piece of fish

Details
*Preheat oven to 385 degrees.
*Coat bottom of medium-sized baking dish with olive oil.
*Place fish in baking dish.
*Drizzle olive oil over the fish and squeeze the juice of two fresh lemons over the fish.
*Sprinkle the Five Spice Rub (see recipe below) on the fish.  You only need a little to lightly dust the top of the fish.
*Cut the third lemon into thin slices and place on top of the fish.
*Add the kalamata olives to the baking dish (optional).
*Bake for 17-20 minutes or until cooked through.

Five Spice Rub Ingredients
(makes enough for you to store long-term in a sealed jar or container)
*1 tablespoon dried Rosemary
*1 tablespoon dried sage
*1 tablespoon garlic powder
*1 tablespoon dried, crushed oregano
*1 tablespoon dried red pepper flakes

Details
*Mix with a fork and store in a glass jar for continual use.