Cooking for my boys has its challenges. Husband is picky (although he will deny it if you ask him), will not eat leftovers, and prefers “junky” food. Miguel is my fruit, cheese, bread, and yogurt child while William is a meat and potatoes kind of person. William is also entering the “I am 2 years old so I can be finicky about my food” stage. Then, you have poor me…I eat practically anything, enjoy cooking (when there aren’t two children wrapped around my legs) and meal planning, and just want to put a healthy meal on the table each evening for my family.

I have secretly wanted to start a food blog for a long time, but for now I am planning on posting something food related on this blog once a week. It might be something I made for a snack, a dinner, our freezer stash or simply our weekly menu. Some of the recipes are mine, but the overwhelming majority are from family recipes, cookbooks, or blogs. Of course, I will give credit where credit is due.

Let’s get this party started…with Picky Palate's Crusted Cashew Coconut Tilapia and Honey Roasted Carrots. I had bought a bunch of tilapia filets and froze them before dividing them into smaller packs, so this recipe I doubled. I sent some home with our nanny, had a friend come over to eat, and brought some to our next door neighbor…let’s just say I had a bunch of tilapia to cook!

Tilapia recipe from Picky Palate with some minor alterations by me:

2 eggs
1 tbsp water
2 tsp Tabasco

3/4 Cup flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp Lawry’s garlic seasoning (I used garlic powder instead)

1 cup finely crushed cashew pieces 
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt

4 tilapia filets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place eggs, water and Tabasco into a bowl; mix to combine. Place flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a shallow dish. Place cashew, coconut, Panko and salt into another shallow dish. Dip Tilapia into flour then egg dip and then in cashew mixture. Make sure fish is coated well with the cashew crust. Place fish onto a baking rack placed over a baking sheet that’s been sprayed with Pam. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until fish is easily flaked with a fork and cooked through.

4 servings

For the honey carrots, I heated 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium heat until melted. Added a large package of baby carrots, and poured into about 3 tbsp of honey. Stirred and cooked for approx 15 minutes. Removed from heat. Stirred again making sure carrots were coated well. Serve warm. (Recipe from Picky Palate as well.)