In Which I Pretend to Be a Food Blogger

I really do love to cook.

I just don't do it often enough. Between working three nights a week, the vast and endless world of Chicago restaurants begging us to eat on their patios instead of in our condo, and the fact that my husband could happily eat a bowl of popcorn instead of a meal any day of the week, my motivation to cook isn't exactly through the roof.

However, I'm discovering that I have surprisingly strong opinions on how I want Matilda to perceive food, meals, and eating in general, so our days of flopping in front of the TV to chow down on one of our beloved Trader Joes freezer meals are dwindling. I'm actually so excited we have a baby to motivate us into changing our lazy habits - with a city full of farmers markets and our half-share in a CSA starting right around her six month birthday in August, we have no excuses not to eat healthily and well at home.

There's a restaurant near us with this amazing earlybird any-fish-any-way special that has become a huge joke between Joshua and I. We love this place - Glenns Diner for you Chicagoans - and we are obsessed with this elusive special and yet we have never, not once, been able to remember when it ends and make it on time. Well! It turns out it ends at the geriatric hour of FIVE pm, and we were reminded of that this week when we thought fish sounded good and we were thinking it was still shockingly early in the evening. After some frantic iPhone searching and an ill-advised left turn into traffic, we discovered that at 5:33, we were going to miss it. We really didn't want to spend a ton of money on dinner, but now we were in a seafood-or-bust mood, so out of the blue I decided to make fish tacos at home.

We made a quick detour to Trader Joes and sat in the car for a minute searching for an easy recipe online, which I then promptly ignored (this is why I cannot ever bake anything! It's like I get mad at the recipe for being so bossy). We grabbed a few ingredients and within an hour were eating a healthy, delicious, completely homemade meal. Why do we not do this more often? I have absolutely no idea.

We Will Never Ever Make It to Glenn's Before 5pm Fish Tacos

Marinade

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice from 1/2 a lime

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

1 tsp garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne

Salt/Pepper to taste

Tilapia fillets (we found 3 large frozen fillets at Trader Joes for $5.97. Is this a good price? I have no idea, I don't buy fish).

I'm also not a food blogger, so voila! Ingredients dumped in a bowl! And that is exactly what we did - whisked everything together, brushed it over both sides of the fish, let it sit for about 15 minutes, and then put the fillets in individual foil packets for the grill.

Fish, marinating pre-grill. The photography dwindled during the foil to grill process because a certain four month old SOMEONE needed to eat. Joshua is the grilling expert in our house, but I do know that white fish needs to be cooked until it's opaque and easily flakes with a fork. Grilling time is going to vary but for us with the fish in foil that took ten to fifteen minutes.

Slaw Topping

2 cups shredded green cabbage

1/2 cup greek yogurt (you could use sour cream or mayo or some combo of these, but we love the tang and protein of the yogurt)

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

juice of 1/2 lime

Salt/Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, toss with cabbage and chill while the fish is grilling. Take pictures of the random ingredients still sitting around on your counters because the light is so pretty.

That corn and chile salsa is from Trader Joe's (like everything we eat, fresh and frozen, apparently) and it is deliciously sweet and a little spicy. It's totally not necessary but a nice bonus topping to the tacos.

Toppings

4 corn tortillas, warmed on the grill

1 avocado

1 jar of corn and chile salsa, awesome for the reasons listed above.

When the fish is done, break it into pieces with either a fork or clean hands (see Joshua up there with his sparkly clean paws?) and place into warmed tortillas. Slice up avocados.

Get really excited about smushing up avocados in the next few months and feeding them to your baby. Or if these don't happen to be your circumstances, get really excited because these tacos are wicked good and you are about to eat them. Top with the cabbage slaw, the corn salsa, avocado slices, look at the clock and realize 7pm is a much more normal time to eat dinner than before FIVE at Glenn's.

Enjoy...