Healthy Lunch for Kids: Homemade Fish Sticks

We are trying to eat healthier these days.  We usually eat rather healthy homecooked meals for dinner but lunch and snacks are usually quick processed foods.  But today Nicholas helped me make a healthy lunch for them - Homemade Fish Sticks!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon seasoning of your choice (i.e. salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, Tony's, etc)
fresh lemon juice
1 lb. tilapia filets
Canola oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Chop or grind walnuts.  We have a coffee grinder that we use for fine grinding like this.  You want them about the size of breadcrumbs.


3. Combine the walnuts, panko breadcrumbs, and seasonings.  For the seasonings, we used Paula Deen's House Seasoning blend.   I have a jar of this mixed up all the time.  It is made by combining 1 cup salt, 1/4 cup pepper, and 1/4 cup garlic powder.  It goes well with anything!


4. Slice a tilapia fillet down the middle then divide each of the halves into two pieces so you have four strips per filet.


5. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over all of the fish pieces.  We also sprinkled a little bit more our Paula's seasoning blend because I just love it.


6. Carefully roll each stick in the coating you made.


7. Coat baking sheet with canola oil.  Place fillets on baking sheet.  Drizzle about 1 Tablespoon canola oil over the fillets.

8.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes until done.

I served the fish sticks with a few slices of cucumber with ranch dressing, fresh raspberries, and a couple of slices of Monterrey Jack cheese.


It was such a hit!  Both kids said it was the best lunch EVER!  I loved that all of the ingredients are natural and healthy, they contain omega-3 fatty acids, they were baked and not fried, plus the kids can help make it so they learn about preparing food and working in the kitchen.  


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