Salsa Fish, Squash, & Mushroom Cheese Bread

What could be intimidating about a recipe with "simple" in the title? And what could fail to be nommy when served over couscous that was cooked in chicken broth? Nothing!

This fish dish calls for orange roughy or red snapper fillets, but we used up some frozen tilapia that was swimming around in our freezer, and the substitution turned out fine for our taste buds. I also substituted the vegetable broth for chicken broth made from bouillon.

Simple Salsa Fish
Ingredients
1 pound fresh or frozen skinless orange roughy or red snapper fillets, 1/2 to 1 inch thick
1/3 cup bottled salsa
1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic (1 clove)
1 14-ounce can vegetable broth
1 cup quick-cooking couscous
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions or coarsely snipped fresh cilantro
Lime or lemon wedges

Instructions
1. Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels. Measure thickness of fish. Set aside. In a small bowl combine salsa and garlic; set aside.

2. In a small saucepan bring broth to boiling. Stir in couscous; cover and remove from heat. Let stand about 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in green onions or cilanro.

As you can see, we used green onions!

3. Grease rack of an unheated broiler pan; place fish on rack. Broil about 4 inches from the heat until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork (allow 4 to 6 minutes per 1/2-inch thickness of fish). Turn 1-inch-thick fillets over halfway through broiling. Spoon salsa mixture over fish; broil about 1 minute more or until salsa is heated through.

4. Arrange fish on couscous mixture. Serve with lime or lemon wedges.

Perhaps you'll notice our lack of lime or lemon wedges; we drizzled a little lime juice over the end result instead. Perhaps you'll also notice that our fish is not in nice little fillets; we tore the fillets into pieces instead since we had a little less fish than the recipe calls for. Smaller pieces mean more to go around right....?

We enjoyed our salsa fish with squash and peppers and mushroom cheese bread, both featured below!

Summer Squash with Peppers
Ingredients
2 pounds zucchini and/or yellow summer squash, cut into bite-size chunks
1 green sweet pepper, cut into strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 teaspoons Greek-style or Mediterranean-style seasoning blend
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions
In a large shallow roasting pan combine squash pieces and sweet pepper strips. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with seasoning blend and pepper; toss to coat. Roast, uncovered in a 425°F oven about 15 minutes or just until tender, stirring once.

Mushroom Cheese Bread
Unlike the other two recipes which were taken from my BH&G 30 minute meals cookbook, this simple, toasty recipe was found in my winter guard's fundraiser cookbook. Sorry I forgot to take photos of the process and end result. You'll just have to look at it in the photo of the salsa fish and take my word that it's delicious!

Ingredients
4 oz. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
4 oz. sliced mushroom
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 1-lb. loaf unsliced French bread

In a small bowl, combine the mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese and onion. Cut the bread in half lengthwise; spread cheese mixture over cut sides. Grill, covered, over indirect heat or broil 4 inches from heat for 5-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Slice and serve warm.

I must admit that we broiled the bread instead of grilling it since our oven was on the broil setting for the fish anyway. Consequently, we forgot to set a timer for the bread and forgot it was in the oven which resulted in the slightly burnt edges visible in the photo. Luckily the damage was minimal and we still enjoyed the nommy cheesy toast!