Quick and Easy Meal of Lemon Almond Topped Flounder with Veggie Rice Stir-Fry Ready in Minutes

If you don’t have a lot of time but want to prepare healthy meals, these recipes are for you. For the entree make this Healthy Lemon Almond Topped Flounder that bakes in minutes. While the fish bakes, make the Veggie and Rice Stir Fry. This is another quick and easy recipe allowing you to have a meal of fish, rice and vegetables on the table in minutes. And this meal is also suitable for diabetics.

LEMONY ALMOND-TOPPED FLOUNDER

1 lb skinless flounder fillets

1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs

2 tbsps butter, melted

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

1/3 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 10 x 6 x 2-inch baking dish with nonstick vegetable spray. Place fish fillets in a single layer in the prepared dish. In a small mixing bowl, combine the bread crumbs, butter, lemon juice and zest. Mix to blend well. Sprinkle the mixture over the fish fillets and top with the sliced almonds. Bake in a 350 degree oven until tender and golden. The fish is done when the fillets flake easily with a fork. The cooking takes about 7 minutes per 1/2-inch thickness of the fish.

Yields: 4 servings.

VEGGIE AND RICE STIR FRY

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup julienned carrots

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower, broken into bite-sized pieces

1 cup red onion, sliced and separated into rings

1/4 cup Ranch salad dressing

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups Minute Rice

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and red onion rings. Stir-fry the vegetables 3 to 5 minutes until crisp. Add the Ranch dressing and curry powder to the vegetables. Stir well and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add water and rice; bring to a boil. Cover pan and remove from the heat. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

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About the Author

For more of Linda’s recipes and diabetic information visit her at http://diabeticenjoyingfood.squarespace.com

Flounder Fishing Tips and Methods that Work

By Ron Brooks

Somewhere back in my years I got hooked on flounder fishing. I guess it may have been the way my wife prepares the real butter sauteed fillets with toasted sliced almonds and lemon juice. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it! At any rate, flounder are one of my favorite fish to catch. And it took a while for me to learn to catch them.

Spending most of my younger years in South Florida, I missed out on flounder fishing, because the flounder population there is sparse. They prefer cooler waters I think.

Flounder Migration

One particular flounder trip I was on put me in some nice fish, fish that were making their fall migration to deeper water. It was out of Mayport, Florida, and we were fishing the intracostal waterway in and around the mouth of the St. Johns River.

Flounder make a regular migration to deeper water, and settle in the sandy bottom as far as 25 to 30 miles offshore. They will lay in the sand around any natural structure, or around any of the numerous artificial reefs and wrecks. Spearfishermen take some huge flounder around these wrecks in the winter months.

Targeting the fish

My style is to catch them during their migration. From about September through the end of November, they begin to move out of the creeks and rivers and into the ocean. They have spent the spring and summer months spawning and last year’s crop is now large enough to make the migration with the older brood fish. This years hatch is left in the estuaries to grow another year before making any moves. This is why we still catch a large number of very small flounder all the way through the winter. And it is also why longer length restrictions can play a big part in increasing the stocks.

Tackle

My standard tackle is a medium stiff semi-fast taper 7 foot casting rod with a small baitcasting reel – I like the Abu Garcia 5500C on a freshwater bass flippin’ stick. I use 14-pound test line, small enough to be somewhat invisible, and yet large enough to handle other larger species that may take the bait. The terminal tackle is what I call a standard flounder rig: a 4/0-circle hook on a 15 inch 30 lb. test monofilament leader. The leader is tied to a trolling sinker, and the sinker is tied to the line. These sinkers are the type that look like they have a small beaded chain on each end. They are long and slender, and are ideal for dragging across the bottom.

Bait

The bait I use will vary, but by far I prefer a finger mullet between three and four inches long. Smaller mullet are too small for the hook, and larger ones are too large for some of the flounder to get a hold of easily. As the migration moves from September, these finger mullet get hard to find.

If I can’t find any finger mullet, I will opt for mud minnows. With mud minnows, I switch from the terminal tackle I described. I remove the sinker and tie a 2/0-jig head to the end of the leader. If mullet and mud minnows are both scarce, I will opt for live shrimp and use them with the jig head. And if there simply is no live bait, I will go with a pink or red plastic grub tail on the jig head. There have been days that the fish would hit the grub tail better than live bait! Go figure!

Outdoors: Hopefully no more floundering

By Jim DarnellDaily Record Columnist

Fishing was slow. An hour of drifting slowly across the shallow grass flats in my kayak with methodical casts to sand holes and other likely looking spots had not produced one strike.

Then the lure stopped.

Not a hard strike or a jerk. It just felt like grass on the lure.

I set the hook hard and the rod bent like a bow.

The fish stayed deep, hugging the bottom. It had to be a flounder.

As the fish neared the kayak, the big flatfish rolled on the surface and made a power run.

This was my Clint Eastwood fish. Only one fish all day can “make my day” and that’s a big southern flounder.

With the landing net lying in my lap, I eased the big flounder near to the kayak. Then he made a sharp turn and began to peel out again. That’s when the jig head popped out of his mouth and flew over my head.

Heartbreak.

I already had visions of Mr. Flounder stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat dressing.

Hooking a flounder is not so common an event as in years past.

For the past 30 years, the southern flounder population along the Texas coast has been in a slow, steady decline. Then the bottom fell out of the numbers in the mid-1990s. This sharp decline in the population really caught the eye of Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists.

Changes to the fishing regulations, like raising the minimum keeper size from 12 to 14 inches, didn’t seem to help much. The decline continued right on into this decade, with no end in sight.

At public meetings in November 2008, the biologists explained the severity of the situation that was told by years of research data. A potential collapse of the entire flounder population on the Texas coast was just around the corner.

In March 2009 some radical recommendations were presented to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. Bag limits were to be reduced for both commercial (30) and recreational fishermen .

The most radical recommendation was a total close of flounder harvest in the month of November.

The majority of flounder caught on the Texas coast are taken in the peak spawning month of November. This is the month that the biggest numbers of flounder migrate from the bays to the Gulf through fish passes and jetties.

Recreational flounder giggers stick lots of flatfish on cold November nights. Memories of dozens of giggers carrying Coleman lanterns near the Port Aransas Ferry landing are vivid in the memories of many of us.

The commission adopted all the recommended changes with the exception of one. Fishermen will be allowed to retain two flounder per day in November.

This concession was primarily made because of economic consideration. Flounder fishing in November is big business in coastal towns and cities during that key month.

Without the possibility of keeping any fish most retail stores would feel the loss of business big time.

These changes that went into effect Sept. 1 should produce great results. Flounder grow fast. Their life span is only six years.

“We expect that after one generation has passed through the new system (or about six years), the spawning stock biomass of flounder will increase by roughly 80 percent of early 1980s population levels,” Art Morris, fishing specialist at TPWD’s Corpus Christi Field Station, said.

He added, “Due to the fast-growing nature of the species, two years after implementation, we should see about 85 percent of the benefits of the new regulations.”

Let’s hope it works. Flounder is still my favorite to catch and eat.

Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host/producer of the syndicated television show “God’s Great Outdoors.” His column appears every Thursday in the Daily Record.