I tend to have a lot of friends that are picky eaters which makes them hard to cook for. That in itself is fairly ironic since I used to be the pickiest of eaters and now it has come around to bite me in the ass.

I have just started enjoying eating fish in the last three years, thanks to being able to get some of the best seafood anywhere during my frequent trips to the Outer Banks of NC, but I have not yet found an easy way to cook it. Until now.

I was watching Dave Lieberman on Food Network, whom I really enjoy for his simple recipes, when I saw him cook a wicked easy fish that looked really delicious. It was a Baked Seabass with Garlic and Herb Bread crumbs. Since at the time Sea Bass was pretty expensive I opted to go for Cod which was a bit cheaper but any white fish will do.

1. Preheat oven to 350o F
2. Coat at baking dish with butter or non-stick spray
3. Place the fish in the dish and season with salt, pepper, lemon zest, lemon juice, and thyme
4. Melt a 1/2 stick of butter in a large skillet with 3 smashed garlic cloves. As soon as the butter starts to bubble, turn off the heat and let the garlic infuse the warm butter for a few minutes.
5. Remove the garlic from the butter. Add the bread crumbs and lightly toss until all the butter has been absorbed. Turn the heat off, stir in 1 cup parsley and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
6. Spread the bread crumbs over top of the fish and bake for 12-15 minutes.

This dish is simple and comes out amazingly flavorful and even a novice fish cooker like myself can make like a pro in very little time.

Heres the original recipe on FoodNetwork

I try to cook meals that are a bit healthier for me and usually they turn out comparable to the full fat / not-as-healthy versions but this recipe plain stunk! There is nothing more disappointing then having a grand idea for breakfast the night before, get all excited to make it when you wake up, and then immediately want to throw it away. Dejected. Totally let down. Hopefully, this doesn’t happen to you as often as it does to me because I hate being left hungry in the mornings!

I’ve been following a self-modified version of the Abs Diet from MensHealth and its been going great (down 4 pants sizes!) and when I saw their Cinnamon Stuffed French Toast I thought it would be perfect for my pre-football game Saturday morning breakfast. Boy was I wrong! I really think the problem was the stuffing, the texture of the ricotta just didn’t work for french toast and it definitely wasn’t sweet enough. I think next time, I’ll try a low fat cream cheese based filling like this.

Stuffed Cinnamon French Toast

• 2 Tbsp part-skim ricotta cheese
• 2 slices whole-grain bread
• 1 tsp honey
• Pinch + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp 1% milk
• Handful of fresh berries

*the original recipe called for sliced almonds which I didn’t have, but i didn’t think it would have made that much of a difference in the end.

1. Spread the ricotta on your bread, drizzle with honey and a pinch of cinnamon.
2. Add your top slice of bread and proceed with your typical french toast making procedure.

It was terrible, but I ate it anyway, probably b/c almost anything is good with fresh blueberries! Is it just a bad recipe? or did I do something wrong?

recipe on MensHealth.com

Thanks for stopping by KitchenNoob.com. I am by no means a good cook, but I’m getting better with each mean. I do like to eat so thats one step in the right direction eh?

I’m not really sure what direction this site is going to take but I hope its a tasty one that maybe you can take a thing or two from for your own enjoyment. I love to grill, use the smoker, cook Italian and feed all of my friends till they are fat and happy. I haven’t had too many complaints yet, but thats probably b/c they are just nice people.

Please stick around by subscribing to my RSS Feed here or by email here Subscribe to KitchenNoob by Email

As I am just getting started, I’d love any help you could provide with getting the word out and I’ll gladly return the favor for you.

Thanks in advance,
Evan

P.S. I’ve added a little about myself on my ‘About Evan’ page, which you can find here.