Something’s Fishy + BlogHer Announcement

Written by on in Dinner, The Lazy Chef, Tidbits and Treats

Glad you all enjoyed my wrap post 🙂 Your comments were all so awesome! It’s amazing what a thin piece of flatbread can do for meal combinations. For those who were wondering where you can find Flatout wraps, the company has a store locator on their site, which you can find by clicking here!

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Last night, I asked the Twitterverse for some help as I got ready to prepare dinner.

As usual, my fellow foodies came through with some great advice!

Miss @HealthyTwists said:

Miss @FoodCents said:

And not to be outdone, Miss @AllVeggedOut gave this advice:

I heart all of you ladies for taking the time to respond to my question. You gave me the motivation I needed to create a delicious dinner, one that I was quite proud of when all was said and done!

Breaded Tilapia with Roasted Almond Green Beans and Whole Wheat Couscous

I’ll break it down into three Lazy Chef components for your convenience 😉

Breaded Tilapia

My favorite thing about tilapia is just how easy it is to make. You can cook it in 5 minutes!

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • 2 tilapia filets
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs

Directions:

Combine all ingredients so that tilapia filets are fully coated in the bread crumbs. Place into a greased pan on the stove and turn to medium-high heat. Cook each filet for roughly 2.5 minutes per side, flipping back and forth until the outside is completely white and breadcrumbs start to brown. It can take anywhere from 5-8 minutes, but once the fish becomes flaky, you are ready to eat!

Roasted Almond Green Beans

These may have been my favorite part of the dish. The addition of stir-fry sauce made them so tasty!

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • 1 can green beans
  • 25-30 chopped almonds
  • 2 tbsp. stir-fry sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle with oil and toss so that the beans are coated with the oil, sauce and chopped almonds. Arrange green beans in a single layer on a flat baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 8-10 minutes or until tender and browned. The stir-fry sauce will take the flavor up 10 notches!

Whole Wheat Couscous

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • 1.5 cups water
  • 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 cup whole wheat couscous

Directions:

Bring the water and oil to a boil on the stove. Add the whole wheat couscous and stir quickly until completely submerged in the liquid. Remove from heat and allow it to sit for 5+ minutes. Fluff with a fork when ready to eat and you’ll have mountains of amazing whole wheat goodness 🙂

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My goal for next time is to follow FoodCents advice and cook the couscous in a veggie or chicken broth with fresh feta. Bobby was a little wary of the couscous to begin with, so I tried to keep it as simple as possible for our first adventure.

There you have it! My goal to cook one new recipe a week has gotten off to a great start. Ever since I became my own boss, I’m more determined than ever to make better use of my kitchen!

***

BlogHer Dream Come True

Ready for that announcement I promised you?

Back in February, my business partner Jill and I entered ourselves into the running for a Room of Your Own panel at BlogHer ’10 in NYC. At the time, we were in the early stages of planning for our business launch and getting ready to start our blog, Pursuing Our Passion.

Little did we know that just over a month later, we’d be chosen to present!!

I’m thrilled to announce that Jill and I will be speaking during the “Passions” session at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 6! This is an absolute dream come true and I can’t thank this community enough for voting on our behalf. You all mean the world to me and I truly appreciate your support!

So…THANK YOU!!!

You can read more on our excitement in this blog post.

Our session will be titled, “Gen Y Passionistas: Leaving the 9-to-5 to Pursue Your Passion.” You can read the full description on the agenda page, but essentially our goal is to share our story and create a discussion surrounding passion, the pursuit and entrepreneurship.

I would love to get your thoughts on what we should discuss in the panel. If you have some ideas for what you’d like to hear from us and chat about – we want it to be an open forum – please let me know in the comments section!

We would love to feature other bloggers who are fueling their passion in some way (whether that’s professionally or personally), so if you would like to chat more about it out of the blogosphere, feel free to send an email to pursuingourpassion@gmail.com.

I’m already excited – and it’s still March!

Thanks again for your help in making our dream a reality :mrgreen:

Abrazos,

35 Comments

  3. So excited for you and Jill!! Congrats on the FABULOUS BlogHer news 🙂 (By the way, I love the fact that you refer to yourself as “my own boss.” So true and so inspriring!)

    That is such a fun idea to ask your “Tweeps” for menu/recipe input. I’m going to have to try that sometime, because the results look tasty!

    We should meet up soon if you’re free Jenn 😉 Have a great rest of your weekend!

  4. Ooh, I’ve never roasted green beans. I’m always looking for an easy vegetable side dish and this fits the bill.

    Congrats on BlogHer! That is great.

  6. WOW! Dinner looks like it turned out awesome. Glad you got so many fab suggestions 🙂 I am so hoping to make it to blogher, I’d love to hear you speak about your experiences. Hope you’re having a nice Sunday. I’m hoping Sunday lasts forever 🙂

  7. Jen, congrats on BH!!!!!!! Stoked for y’all!!!!

    Using some hicken or veggie broth gives the couscous more flavor, but do not go anything more than 1/2 borth & 1/2 water, as you do not want too salty.

    I have tons of easy uses for couscous, so let me know.

    HAPPY WEEKEND!!!!! It’s golfing weather hear

  11. I am going to Blogher. It sounds like an interesting panel and something I should attend because I would not be able to give it all up.

  13. Yay for the blogher announcement!!!! So excited for you two!! I wish I could be there…maybe, we’ll have to see how my schedule works out!

  14. CONGRATS! I’m totally up for perusing passion (I can’t even figure out what t shirt to throw on, much less what I want to do in life). I’m just starting out blogging, but I think it’s so great how there is an awesome community support!
    Katherine
    whataboutsummer.wordpress.com

  17. That BlogHer news is so exciting, you’re going to knock it out of the park!

    I just made a big scary career move to get back on track with my passion, and the thing that scared me the most (and what I hear most from other people mulling over similiar moves) was having the financial security to make the transition. I kept on putting off the leap until “my finances were better,” but I finally realized that the monetary side of things would never be perfect, and that I’d have to trust that things would work out. I (and I think a lot of women) would be interested to hear what you had to say about preparing yourself financially to leave the comforts of a steady paycheck and benefits package. (Oh how I miss those employee 401k contributions!)

  20. congrats on the invite! that’s going to be so great for you and the new business!

    also- that dinner looks so freaking good- it’s breakfast time here and I want that on my plate- not oatmeal!

  21. That is so awesome Jenn!!! Congrats and now I wish I was attending BlogHER10 to see you all, but, I traded it for BlogHERFood10 🙂

    Good luck and I can’t wait to read about how it goes!

  28. BIG congrats Jenn! I’m so excited for you guys being chosen to present–I know you will have some amazing information and inspiration to share! 🙂

    Yummy dinner! It looks fantastic.

  29. OK so I’ve been away from blogging forever!!! I’ve missed your posts!!! So…please tell me I did not miss the wedding yet…

  31. Just found your blog this afternoon…I made your black bean fiesta dip tonight, and my hubby practically guzzled it down! Your dinner looks fabulous – I love cooking tilapia – it’s my go-to meal when I can’t think of anything else to cook and I’m never disappointed! As far as couscous goes, I have a great recipe from Martha Stewart’s magazine Everyday Food – this whole meal only calls for five ingredients and it’s a major hit whenever I serve it for guests:

    Serves 4 :: prep time: 10 min :: total time: 35 min

    8 chicken thighs (skin-on, bone-in)
    2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise
    1 cup couscous (I use whole-wheat – just as tasty!)
    1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
    2 tbsp. red-wine vinegar

    Season chicken with salt & pepper; place, skin side down, on rimmed baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes (oven at 450 with rack in upper third of oven).
    Turn chicken skin side up. Scatter zucchini around chicken and season with S&P, toss with pan juices and cook for another 7-10 min until chicken juices run clear.
    Meanwhile, bring 1 1/4 cups water to boil in small pot; season w/S&P. Remove from heat, stir in couscous. Cover, let stand 5 minutes. Fluff couscous w/fork, then stir in parsley, vinegar, roasted zucchini, and 2 tbsp. pan juices; season with S&P.
    Serve chicken with zucchini couscous mixture.
    YUM!

    Oh, and congrats on the BlogHer thing! A year after I graduated from college, I quit my “day job” to pursue a career in opera – my passion! Since that scary day (when I quit the super-secure awesomely-paying but TOTALLY boring job), I have earned a master’s degree in vocal performance, I get to SING for a living, and for the past 5 years I have owned my own voice teaching studio. I LOVE my job(s), and the funny thing is, nearly 60% of the employees from my former job have been laid off due to the economy – guess my decision wasn’t so risky after all!

    Good luck with everything! Being your own boss is great, right?!

    • Heather ~ Thank you so very much for this recipe! I really appreciate you stopping by my blog and am glad you and your hubby enjoyed the black bean dip. Seriously, thank you! Your story is so inspiring – I would love to hear you sing sometime. So very glad you are now doing what you love – and you’re right, the decision is never as risky as it seems at the time. I would love to chat with you more. You rock 🙂

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