Family - may we love them, enjoy them and belong to one

It’s been a rough month; my father passed away, we’ve paid our last respects at his funeral and I’ve been processing what is next - it’s been hard. Like most of you, I’ve thought of my parents as immortal - but of course we know they are not - they are human just like we are. They will live and die in the same way we will; sometimes quickly and sometimes painfully. But the most difficult thing to reconcile - I’m the older generation - moving down that path and I’m not sure how I feel about that. 

A couple things about my Dad - he had a great sense of humor, his laugh was infections and he told the best stories; the most memorable were about his karate belt - they were legendary. I recall as a child asking him over and over to tell me the karate belt story; they came in multiple variations but the story generally had a hero who was totally surround by some enemy, had the misfortune of losing most of his gear (except the karate belt, which he wore) and in the end it was the karate belt that frightened the enemy and saved the day.

We are now back on track and cooking up a storm - I’ve been incorporating fish into our meals every so often - because I enjoy a well cooked piece of salmon/tilapia and because it is a healthy alternative. I’ve also been searching for recipes that don’t take an hour to make because after i work and workout it’s close to 6 and if it takes me an hour to make dinner we are eating at 7ish - not my fav but it’s better than 9 right?

I’ve seen a number of “sheet pan dinner” recipes and after looking in the fridge I decided to give one a go. I started with french cut green beans, an onion in quarter inch dice, peppers sliced, fresh mushrooms and a couple of pieces of tilapia. 

I’m going to start by apologizing because this was one of those dinners where you cook but don’t measure. What I can say is I used the following ingredients:

Veggies

1 handful of fresh french cut green beans

1 lb fresh mushrooms

1/2 large red pepper - sliced

1/2 large yellow or orange pepper - sliced

1 large onion - diced 

2 pieces of tilapia

Marinade:

Olive oil 

Garlic - most likely 4 cloves

Low sodium soy sauce

Grated ginger

And I prepared them accordingly:

Rinse and clean the green beans and put them on a stoneware pan (I used my Pampered Chef larger bar pan)Clean and quarter 1 pound of fresh mushrooms - add to pan. Wash, quarter and derib 1/2 red and 1/2 yellow (or orange or green) pepper. Clean and dice an onion into 1/4 to 1/2 inch

Place each veggie in a separate row on a sheet pan, pour marinade on top and toss all veggies with marinade. Cook veggies in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven add fish, toss in marinade and cook until is opaque and flaky @ 10 minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!

Love the people around you, there are no guarantees in life and every day is a gift.