One of the best things about working from home is that I no longer have the option to spend all my money on food. At the height of my appetite, when I was pregnant and working in London, I’d buy three meals out daily: Breakfast, second breakfast and lunch. It becomes expensive (and, when you’re visiting the same three sandwich shops daily, a little boring).
One of the worst things about working from home is that I no longer have the option to spend all my money on food. I get SO bored with leftovers, with things-on-toast… true fact: the repetitiveness of eating stuff on toast when I had a newborn is where this blog’s name comes from. Sure, I could keep a fridge fully-stocked of all my favourite foods and make myself tasty and intricate lunches daily, but that would involve consistent effort to visit a supermarket to buy ingredients as well as generate even more washing up than I’m already dealing with.
No thanks.
What’s a girl to do? Especially when she lives out in the sticks with no hope of the occasional spirit-lifting Deliveroo. If I continue to request they consider my area for expansion they may well take out a harassment order on my village.
And so I do the only viable option in this situation. Cycle a roster of lunches that are easy to cook, healthy, and crucially, that I always have ingredients in for. No muss, no fuss. NO EFFORT. Perfect.
This Chinese-inspired fish dish is one such dish. Since working with Fish is the Dish I’ve been trying to eat at least two portions of fish a week, and so always have some kind of fish either in the fridge or in the freezer. When not introducing more fish into my family’s diet I’m hell-bent on getting them to eat iron-rich greens, so those are always hanging out in my salad box, too. And everything else required for this super-easy lunch (or dinner) is always in my store cupboard. Easy peasy!
I tend to just eat this dish as-is with the greens and fish enough for me at lunchtime. If I’m eating this at dinner time with the kids I’ll add rice or rice noodles, but rather than cook these from scratch I’ll embrace the easy way of eating and will use the ready-to-microwave products.
Easy Chinese-Inspired Fish with Green Veg
Ingredients
- 1 Piece of white fish I like to use cod
- 2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Honey
- 1 tbsp Chinese rice vinegar
- 1/2 Clove garlic
- 3 handfuls Mixed chopped greens I use kale, pak choi and cavolo nero
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Start by making your marinade by mixing the soy sauce, honey, and Chinese rice vinegar. You can marinade the fish with this a couple of hours before you plan to eat, but why make things tricky for yourself?
Create a little pocket for the fish out of tin foil (or baking parchment). Using an oven-proof dish, pop your foil in and create a little wrap. Put the fish in your wrap, cover in the marinade and grate your half a clove of garlic on top (omit if you don't like garlic).
Fold up your tin foil parcel so your fish is sealed. Pop it in the oven for ten minutes or until completely cooked through.
Meanwhile, chop your greens and sauteé with a teaspoon of vegetable or sesame oil for five minutes until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper and pop in a dish. Cook the rice or noodles if you're using.
Take the fish out the oven and lay on top of the greens. Cover with the marinade. Enjoy and pat yourself on the back for enjoying such an easy and healthy lunch.
Huge thanks to Fish is the Dish for working with MTT (and making us healthier!)
I work from home also and find it quite boring to eat salads every day. I’ll try this definitely!
Let me know how it goes, Katy!!