Nutty cod!

So, it's Lent. The time of year when Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays (well 'good' Catholics such as myself). We all know I'm an angel 0:-).  Honestly, I couldn't even tell you why we're not supposed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent, but I do my best to follow this arbitrary rule.  I think there's some story about the fish industry doing poorly, and this was a way to boost sales.  It's either that or I missed the reading in the bible that explained why.  I'm pretty sure it's the latter, but I digress. 

What to have for dinner tonight??  Filet mignon!!!  Just kidding.  I do not want lightning to strike me dead.  Cod it is!!  Plus, it's on sale, only today, at my local grocer.  I kind of just threw together tonight's dinner.  I actually didn't feel like moving from the couch, but a girl's got to eat and so does the man of the house. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  I grabbed a baking sheet, generously applied some cooking spray (olive oil spray of course), and laid out my two pieces of cod on the sheet.  Seasoned each piece with a little salt and pepper, and squirted some spray butter over the top.  You might have just said to yourself, spray butter?  But really it's the best on corn on the cob in the summer, but also comes in handy when making fish!  And, we all know you can't prepare cod without a squirt of lemon juice.  Well, you could, but what fun would that be?

Time to make the topping.  Microwave 2 tablespoons of butter (I use I can't believe it's not butter) for about 25 seconds, and throw in enough wheat breadcrumbs to soak it up.  Then, evenly spread the butter/breadcrumb mixture over the cod.  Tonight, I had some crumbs at the bottom of some nuts I had purchased.  It was a mixture of candied pecans, cashews, and almonds, so I decided I'll throw these on top too.  What an amazing addition to the topping!  The nuts almost caramelized on top of the bread crumbs creating a nice sweet flavor to go with the mild fish. Oh yeah! In case you're wondering, you should cook the fish in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

We decided to skip the starch tonight and supplement our fish with some asparagus.  Rinse the asparagus and snap the bottoms off at their natural breaking point.  Place them in a baking dish, toss with olive oil, throw in some minced garlic and place in the oven for about 10 minutes.  You'll know its ready when it turns bright green but is still firm.  Plate and enjoy!

Now that I've eaten, it's back to the couch for some relaxing...