Summer Veggie Tian with Lemon Pepper Tilapia

The other night Josie came over for dinner and we were both really craving veggies and fish. If you have the same craving I would highly recommend the meal we made. We slightly adapted the recipe from Saveur Magazine.

Summer Vegetable Tian - Serves 6 as a Side Dish (great as leftovers)

• 1 medium eggplant, peeled
• Salt
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 5 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Pepper
• 2-3 medium zucchini, sliced diagonally (to make larger)
• 4 ripe farm grown tomatoes, sliced
• 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
• 1 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced into as many thin pieces as possible
• Baking Dish
• PAM
• Have Oven Preheated to 400 degrees.

Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes then place in a colander in the sink. Generously sprinkle salt all over the eggplant and let sit for at least 15 minutes to drain the bitterness out of the eggplant.

Cook the onions in 3 tablespoons of EVOO in a skillet over medium heat for about 8 minutes. Then add garlic, salt and pepper to the onions and cook for at least 2 minutes, until you start smelling garlic and before the garlic turns brown. Spray your baking dish with PAM and add the onion/garlic mixture to the dish.

Onions and garlic cooking away!

To the same skillet add 1-2 tablespoons of EVOO and keep over medium heat. Squeeze your drained eggplant to get excess liquid out of the eggplant. Add the drained eggplant to the skillet and saute for about 8 minutes, until soft, season with salt and pepper. Add the cooked eggplant to the onion/garlic mixture in the baking dish and stir to combine.

Eggplant added to the onion/garlic mixture in the baking dish.

Arrange the zucchini and tomato slices in overlapping layers in the baking dish over the eggplant/onions/garlic. Top with 1-2 tablespoons EVOO, Italian Seasoning, and Salt and Pepper.

All the veggies layered up. Josie did a fabulous job with this!

Bake the dish (400 degrees) for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and add the fresh mozzarella slices on top of the veggies. Put the dish back in the oven for an additional 20-25 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Everything tastes better with CHEESE, our finished veggie tian.

With the veggies we decided to serve a very easy to prepare fish, tilapia. We thought that lemon pepper would be a nice flavor next to the veggies. Be prepared for the easiest fish recipe ever.

Lemon-Pepper Tilapia - Serves 3 (me/Joe/Josie)

• Baking Sheet
• Aluminum Foil
• 3 fresh tilapia fillets (less than $7 for all 3 at Schnucks that night)
• 3 teaspoons EVOO
• 1 tablespoon (more or less) of Lemon Pepper Seasoning (I buy it in the shaker of the seasonings, very easy to shake on)
• Have oven preheated to 400 degrees (already done with the veggies)

Lay a large piece of aluminum foil on the baking sheet, this means NO CLEAN UP, so I would highly recommend this step. Place the 3 tilapia fillets on the foil. Add 1 teaspoon of EVOO to each fillet. Rub the EVOO over the top and bottom of each piece of fish. Shake the seasoning in an even light layer over the top and bottom of each piece of fish. Place the baking sheet into the oven and leave it there for 15-20 minutes, I find that 17 minutes is basically perfect. The fish is ready to serve nearly immediately.

Our yummy dinner. We didn't even miss a large carb side, we all were very full after this meal!

This was a great, fresh, summer meal. Of course we needed a tasty beverage with our meal and one of our favorite summer beers is the O'Fallon Wheach beer. It is a wheat beer with peach flavor from O'Fallon, MO and hit the spot!

The best local summer beer!!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Dinner - J+J Style

Josie and I wanted to put an Italian spin on a traditional dinner. We made a creamy, lemony orzotto topped with sliced chicken cordon bleu with prosciutto, provolone and basil with a side of sauteed zucchini.

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU

We decided to jazz up chicken cordon bleu with the help of Rachel Ray's original recipe found here. Below you can see the recipe we came up with.

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - butterflied then pounded to 1/4 in. thickness
• 6 pieces thinly sliced prosciutto (This only cost us a total of $1.17 at the Schnucks deli. This goes to show you that you can use a costly product if used in small quantities.)
• 4 pieces provolone cheese
• 4 basil leaves - sliced into small pieces
• Kitchen twine
• 1 tablespoon EVOO

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Lay the pounded chicken breasts on a flat surface and place 1.5 pieces of prosciutto on top, then a slice of provolone, then 1/4 of the cut basil on top of that.

Roll the chicken tightly lengthwise. Secure with 3 pieces of kitchen twine (1 at the top, 1 at the bottom, 1 in the middle) that you double knot then cut off the excess twine. 

Put a large saute pan over high heat and add the EVOO. Place the chicken in the pan with the seam side down. Sear on all 4 sides (approximately 1.5 minutes per side) so that there is no pink visible on the outside of the rolls. Move the seared chicken to a baking dish sprayed with PAM. Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Let cool for at least 2 minutes after removing from the oven. Remove the kitchen twine. Slice the chicken at a diagonal.

LEMON-BASIL ORZOTTO

We love orzo and we love risotto...combining the two sounded AMAZING so we had to try this recipe from Kelsey Nixon. We made a few edits and you can see how we made our recipe down below.

• 2 tablespoons EVOO
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 cup orzo pasta
• 1/2 cup chardonnay 
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 5 basil leaves cut into thin slices
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 large lemon, juiced
• salt and pepper

In a medium sauce pan add the EVOO and shallots. Saute over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the orzo and toast for 2 minutes while stirring. Add the wine and cook until absorbed.

Gradually add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Cover and turn the heat to low. Let cook for 10 minutes then remove the lid and let cook for 5 more minutes. By this point the majority of the liquid should be gone.

Stir in the Parmesan, basil, lemon zest, whole milk and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Heat on low for an additional 2-5 minutes for flavors to combine and more liquid to be absorbed. Serve immediately.

SAUTEED ZUCCHINI

This is a staple side dish we ate growing up and we continue to make now. Super easy and super tasty!

• 2 green zucchini
• 1 tablespoon EVOO
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch thick rounds then cut the rounds in half (half moons). Heat a large saute pan over medium-low heat, add the EVOO, sliced zucchini, and season with salt and pepper. Saute zucchini for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 2 or so minutes. After placing the warm zucchini on the dinner plate top with grated Parmesan cheese. Beware, these zucchini will go fast, so yummy!

Here is how our dinner plate looked...

Mangia bene!!