For those of you who aren’t fans of the hi-ho-hilarious animated tv show Home Movies, you should stop reading this entry and go rent all four seasons. The title of this post pertains to one specific episode where two of the show’s stars, 8 year old chums and film makers Brendan and Jason, play severely overweight farm boys complaining about the heat while laying down in hay, hands submerged in buckets of deep fried chicken. Here, just watch the clip.
The relevance of this video is that DC was so disgustingly hot and humid today that Colin and I couldn’t help but invoke the key phrase “hungry hot” at mealtime. Today’s dinner was inspired by the heat: Cornmeal-encrusted Tilapia, Coconut Rice, and Mango Avocado Salad.
The tilapia was 7 bucks for 3 filets at Safeway, which I figured was a pretty good steal. I have always been a fan of batter and pan-frying, so this made for a logical main protein. I wanted to jazz up the carb, and I found the easiest recipe ever for coconut rice in the Mark Bittman “How To Cook Everything (Vegetarian)”. I used brown rice, so it took twice as long, but was an easy dish to just leave on the stove for 40 minutes. Making the salsa was practically as easy: pick 3-4 fruits or vegetables (I used mango, avocado, red pepper), chop them up in small cubes, dice some cilantro, squeeze with lime juice. It was wholesome and delicious, and I made enough for seconds and for tomorrow’s lunch. Hurray, budget eating!
