We’re a busy family, as most families are. Normally it’s a challenge to get everything done in a day–and all the things that need to get done, simply don’t. Add to this challenge our desire to eat healthy home-cooked meals as much as possible. In spite of our best efforts, we sometimes have to ‘grab a quick bite out’. Hey…we’re only human.
But how great is it when you can make a healthy meal at home in about the time it takes to order in or go pickup take-out?! We’re talking less than 30 minutes from the time we started making dinner, to the time we were sitting to eat dinner. Not bad for a busy family on a busy weeknight. Seriously–we need more of these recipes. Oh, and I should mention that it was a big-time winner with even our pickiest little eater.
So here’s the low-down on how we (um…well…Nelson) did this. First of all, Nelson had some tomato sauce in the fridge–he’d made a big batch of his Nonna-approved tomato sauce (but feel free to use your own favourite tomato sauce/recipe) on the weekend when he had some more time. That helped. Then, on this day, on his way home from work, Nelson made a quick stop at our local fish market (Off the Hook–we love those guys–great suggestion on the cod). Now start the clock…Nelson put some sauce in a baking dish, placed the fish on the sauce, seasoned it with salt and pepper, then poured a little more sauce on top. He tossed that into the oven and in 15 minutes (the time it took him to make a side dish), dinner was ready.
This simple dish is quick, easy, and scrumptious… it only looks like something that would take way more effort (of course, if you want, you can tell your friends that you spent hours in the kitchen preparing this meal–it’ll be our little secret).
We’re all busy–we totally get that–but hopefully our success with this meal will encourage you to give it a try the next time you’re short on time but really want to eat well. On that note… eat well, friends!
- 4 cups of your favourite tomato sauce (we used left-overs of our own nonna-approved tomato sauce)
- 2 lbs fresh cod loin cut in two pieces
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1½ tsp course salt
- Preheat the oven to 450 ºF.
- Cut the cod loin in two pieces.
- Add salt and pepper evenly on both sides of the fish.
- Pour about ¾ of the tomato sauce into a wide, medium sized baking dish.
- Place the two pieces of fish over the tomato sauce evenly spaced.
- Pour the remaining sauce over the fish.
- Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, serve hot and enjoy.
[…] that you’re set for a variety of meals. You can make veal sandwiches, pizza, pasta and even fish. Today I decided to make easy three-meat […]