Fish Fry for the Brain Dead

Sorry for not posting Weds.  I'm totally fried.  My in-laws visited for the weekend and then my husband left for the week on a business trip.  Needless to say I'm totally zonked.  Note to self, never ever ever have house guests before Kyle goes away ever again.  Entertaining and then parenting solo do not make for a good combination.

All complaining aside, Ms. Laela had a kind of fun milestone today.  She has learned to talk to her Daddy on the phone.  She figured out how to open the phone and start chatting.  Little did I realize that she'd hit my speed dial and was actually leaving him a message haha.  It was pretty darn adorable!

On the food side of things, Laela and I have been on a fish kick all week.

Here's a good old fashioned fish fry that you can cook in less than five minutes with only half a brain functioning.

You'll need:
1 cup flour
1 cup corn meal
1 lb fish- deboned and cleaned (I prefer catfish or tilapia for this recipe, and you can pick up filets for pretty  cheap at your local grocery - don't feel like you need to clean your own fish!!)
Old Bay
Oil (a lot of recipes use peanut oil, but Laela can't have that, so I used olive oil)
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 sprigs of thyme

• Place your pan (as usual, I prefer cast iron) on the stove top, add a few good glugs of oil (I used extra virgin because it was on hand and I'm not ready to introduce Laela to anything peanut yet) and bring it to medium heat. 
• Combine your flour, corn meal, Old Bay and Thyme in a bowl.
• Combine your lemon juice with a 1/4 cup of water.
• Dip each filet of fish (you can cut the fish into strips if you'd like, it makes no difference in flavor, just shave a minute or two off of the cooking of the fish) into the liquid and then dredge it in the flour/cornmeal mixture.  Then gently place it in the pan.  Continue to do this until there is no room left in the pan.  Do not overcrowd the pan. 
• Cook the fish for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes per side.  (You'll notice that the fish will look "cooked" up the side when it's ready to be flipped and will appear flaky (especially if you fork it gently) when it is finished cooking.
• Place each cooked piece of fish on some paper towels you've set up on a plate to sop up some of the grease.
• If you're a salt lover like myself, sprinkle some sea salt on your fish once it's fresh out of the pan.
• Serve!

I love serving this fish with some Basmati rice with red peppers, tomatoes and kidney beans.  Just follow any Basmati rice recipe and add some salt, pepper, garlic and whatever grilled veggies you're in the mood for!

My camera is being wonky.  I'll post pics of this yumminess later!