Tilapia is a mild, white fish that usually picks up the flavor of what it is cooked in. It is inexpensive as well - but often because it is farmed.
This is a dish based on an Olive Garden recipe combining herbs, tomatoes and tilapia.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Rinse fish, pat dry. Season both sides of fish fillets with salt and pepper, set aside on plate.

2. Combine garlic, onion and basil in small food chopper and pulse until chopped.

3. Heat oil on medium in a large skillet. Add chopped vegetables and sauté until they begin to soften.

4. Add tomatoes and cook until they are fully cooked. If you used the canned tomatoes, simmer for about 2 minutes.

5. Add wine & oregano, cook 1 minute more.

6. Add broth and cook 1 minute more. (Shown at right is our sauce simmering with some added brussel sprouts to have as a side dish.)

7. Add fish to sauce. Sauce should barely cover fish. Simmer until fish is cooked throughout. This usually takes about 6 minutes on one side, then flip it for 6-8 more minutes on the other side. You’ll know when it is done because the fish will be white and easy to flake with a fork.

Serve fish with wild rice or over whole wheat angel hair pasta. Spoon sauce over the top. Make it a meal with french cut green beans on the side.

Fricassee can refer to how a chicken is cut, or dredging it in flour and then pan searing in butter. This recipe refers to neither of those items. It is easy and flavorful, but time consuming.

Note: allow 8 hours or overnight to marinate the chicken. That step only takes 5 minutes, but the chicken will sit in the fridge afterwards.

Ingredients

1/8 C Dijon or Spice Brown Mustard
1/8 C chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 TB chopped fresh thyme, divided
2 pounds chicken, we use boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper to taste
2 TB olive oil
1 large onion chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine, we use Chardonnay
1 cup chicken broth

Directions

1. Combine mustard, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1 1/2 teaspoons thyme, and chicken in a large zip-top plastic bag; toss well to coat. Chill 8 hours or overnight.

2. Remove chicken from bag and discard marinade.

3. Heat olive oil in a deep saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook 5 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from pan.

4. Add chopped onion to pan and sauté 4 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add garlic to pan and sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in wine and chicken broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in 1 tablespoon parsley and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons thyme.

5. Return chicken to pan. Cover, reduce heat to med-low, and simmer 25 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and keep warm.

6. Cook sauce, uncovered, over medium heat 4 minutes. Pour sauce over chicken, and sprinkle with remaining parsley.

Serves 4.

You can also add 1 C chopped mushrooms to the sauce if desired during step 5.

We served this with whole wheat linguine pasta and steamed french cut green beans.

Each Thanksgiving MessyMom thinks of a flavor to blend through our dinner meal. Usually the girls pick some fresh orangesoff our tree and we incorporate orange zest, orange peel, orange juice, etc… This year our lingering taste was that of sage. Sage is actually a member of the mint family. It is commonly grown as a kitchen and medicinal herb or as an ornamental garden plant.

*NOTE: For these recipes you’ll need 1C chopped onion (combined), so you can chop one tennis-ball sized onion and have enough to split between the 2 dishes.

Herb Roasted Turkey Breast with Pan Gravy

Ingredients

1/2 C onion, coarsely chopped
1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp sage
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 fresh bay leaves
4 tablespoons butter
4-6 lb turkey breast
Salt and pepper
2 TB flour

Turkey

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a roasting pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Mix chopped onion, lemon juice and sage.
3. Stir in the olive oil and a shake of salt. Set aside.
4. Put the bay leaves and butter into a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until the butter is melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Rinse turkey and pat dry. Remove anything from cavity, if necessary. Put the turkey breast on a work surface.
6. Carefully run your fingers between the skin and the flesh from 1 end, being careful not to pull it completely off, creating a pocket.
7. Stuff the herb/olive oil mixture under the skin and spread evenly. Season the turkey breast with salt and pepper.
8. Remove the bay leaves from the butter and place in center of roasting pan. Transfer the breast to the roasting pan. (The heat while cooking will release the bay leaf oils and flavor the turkey.)
9. Pour half of the bay butter over the top of the turkey.
10. Place the turkey in the oven and decrease the temperature to 400 degrees F.

(Start stuffing here, see recipe below…)

11. After 40 minutes, pour the remaining butter over the turkey breast. Roast for an additional hour or until cooked through.
12. Remove turkey from oven, transfer to a platter, cover with lid or aluminum foil, and let rest for 15 minutes before carving while you make the gravy.

Gravy

1. Pour juices from the hot roasting pan into a saucepan. Heat over burner on medium heat.
2. Sprinkle 1 TB flour over the pan juices, and cook, stirring constantly, for a minute.
3. Add another TB flour and cook, stirring constantly, for a minute.
4. Bring to a simmer and stir until thickened.

Slice the turkey breast on the diagonal, and serve with warm gravy.

Sage Whole Wheat Stuffing

To make our Thanksgiving stuffing, MessyMom saves the ends of our loaves of bread for a few months. For some reason the kids here don’t like the first or last piece of bread. They call it the “butt”. The bread butts line our freeze door and get used for french toast, bread pudding and stuffing.  The night before Thanksgiving they get defrosted and recycled into a yummy stuffing side dish!

Ingredients

12-16 slices stale whole wheat bread
1C finely chopped onion
1C finely chopped celery
3/4 C chopped pecans
1 tsp sage
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 beaten egg white
8 oz. sage flavored sausage
3 1/2 C chicken broth (ours is organic free range chicken broth)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
3. Take 8 slices of the bread and tear them into small pieces. Place the pieces in a food chopper, and process into coarse crumbs. Measure the crumbs. There should be 4 cups (adjust amount if necessary).
4. Take remaining slices of bread and cut into 1″ cubes. There should be 4 cups (adjust amount if necessary).
5. Place bread crumbs and cubes in a mixing bowl.
6. Add onions, celery, pecans, sage, black pepper and egg white. Mix well.
7. Brown sausage in a small pan and break apart into crumbles with spatula as it cooks.
8. Stir sausage into stuffing mixture.
9. Slowly add the broth as you continue stirring. Loosely spoon stuffing into your prepared dish.
10. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes.

Enjoy your sage infused special meal!