Lemony Non Snicket

So the recipe challenge is

Leeeeemmons.

There is nothing better than the smell when zesting lemons. It's majestic.

Also, I play a lot of Fruit Ninja. Especially during Important Work Conference Calls. And Fruit Ninja told me that warm lemons produce more lemon juice. And I thought...Hmmm. Okay. Lemons it is!

So I went to Costco. I wasn't hungry, but still spent $100 more than I wanted to spend. I have a love/hate relationship with Costco. I love it, but would be internally cheering if it burned to the ground. So would my checking account. So I have changed my motto from Never Costco Hungry to Never Costco with Money.

I also forgot to get lemons. But thankfully King Soopers (dumbest. name. ever.) sells them.

So here they are. Being warmed. Next to a pot plant. Hey it's Colorado. legal and whatevs.

I suddenly want Doritos.

I choose to make two recipes. Mostly because I needed a side dish for my entree. And I King Sooper'd Hungry and may have bought 4 too many lemons.
Lemon Trout Recipe
and
Marinated Veggies

I started out using tilapia, because I am a rebel. A recipe rebel. I mixed all the ingredients together, then read the reviews where it said use 1/6 of the flour. So I scrambled to pull out as much flour as I could. Here is the final product.

Plastic wrapped fish slices. Like fish sticks. Except less plastic.

I discovered that I don't like zesting half a cup of juice. It sucks. 10 minutes of mindless zesting. Zest zest zest. Then zest. So I enlisted some help juicing. Five lemons later, I had my required amount of juice.

Zesting is much harder than juicing. Just saying.

Here are my fish filets, swimming in their zesty juice.

Pre-Ceviche

 

 

Also...inspiration

The cheap one is mine. Because I don't have 'standards' apparently

I added some rice to the rice cooker, with some lemon juice to make the rice all lemony.

I did not turn out lemony. I turned out like white rice with no flavor.

So after the 60 seconds in the lemon juice I threw them in the pan and let the fish fry begin!

It turned out deliciously crunchy fish looking. And made my whole house smell like fish. YAY FISH.

I am stinky. Deliciously and stinky.

At this point I threw the marinated veggies into a pan and begin the frying process. The recipe calls for way too much oil. The veggies were soaked in oil and soggy.
They also tasted like LEMON. LEMON VEGETABLES WITH LEMON.

Would you like some oil? I have some. I have a lot.

Here is the finished product.

Ignore the picture in the background. It's aliens. Aliens in bad 80's hyperwear.

Honestly? The lemon was FANTASTIC. It tasted just right, the lemon flavor wasn't overpowering at all. 
I ate all the vegetables but I won't make them again. Mixed with rice they were just okay.
The fish made up for it. Just writing this made me want to make it again.

Except I won't. Because of the zesting.