Baked Fish Fillet with Rice and Broccoli

The preparation of the fish dish is done first, as this needs to go into a 350 oven for about 30 minutes, or until the fish is cooked throughout. Just before I take the fish out of the oven, I shut the oven off, and put the oven to Broil. I waited for the top of the fish to brown a bit and then took it out of the oven and let it rest a few minutes while I finished the rice dish.

First, I used cooking spray on the pan, then I sprinkled a little Garlic Powder, Onion Powder and Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Seasoning (RRPG). Place the fish fillets in an even layer in the pan, covering the seasoning, today's fish choice was Snapper. I have also made it with Sole and Basa fillets.

Sprinkle some Black Pepper, and a very little RRPG, then spread some Peppercorn Ranch Dressing over the fish - not too much. You could use whatever creamy dressing you have in your fridge. I didn't add any salt, as there is enough in the RRPG and the dressing. Place dish in hot oven and start on the rice.

I used leftover fried rice, but I didn't have enough and didn't want to cook anymore. I minced some sweet onion (I cut the sweet onion as small as possible, since one of my girls doesn't like onion) I then shredded some cauliflower. I used about 1 Tbsp of Olive Oil and added the onion to the medium hot pan.

When the onion was just translucent, I added the cauliflower to the pan. Since the cauliflower isn't very moist, I added about 1/2 cup water (you could use chicken stock too) to the pan and let it cook for a few minutes, stirring often (that's where the helpers are great).

When the cauliflower was tender - not hard and not mushy, I added the left-over fried rice and mixed it all together. I re-heated the rice in the microwave before adding to the pan (to make it go faster, but you don't need to), then I shut the pan off and spread the rice mixture on a platter. If you will notice, you can't really tell that there is cauliflower in the rice mixture.

This is why I only had one visible vegetable - the broccoli, because the other vegetable was hidden in the rice. I did not add any extra seasoning to the rice, yes it was leftover and had been seasoned already. However, if I used rice that hadn't been seasoned yet, I wouldn't add anything because the juices from the baked fish will be poured over the rice, giving it all the flavour it will need.The broccoli was cut into small pieces and put into salted boiling water for a few minutes then drained. The cheese sauce was a package mix (Nacho Cheese Sauce) made with one cup of milk in the microwave and some was poured over the cooked broccoli.

Here is a view of my work space. I have 2 more Snapper fillet frying in the pan, these two just didn't fit into the baking dish at the time, so I decided to cook them and use them for some other dish in a few days (probably seafood chowder).

I hope this meal gave you an idea of what to cook some day. I did forget to mention, I sprinkled some dried Parsley over the fish as a final decorative touch.

ENJOY!