Orange Roughy with Maple, Sesame, Ginger Orange Marinade

It's so darn hot outside, it's hard to get motivated to move for fear of breaking a sweat and ruining one's outfit. But excuses, excuses, excuses like these lead to lazy mindsets. I should know. I'm the Queen of it's-too-hot-to-exercise and it's-too-hot-too-cook.

Exercise in the morning if you can or in the late afternoon. Definitely prep supper in the wee hours of the morning so all you have to do when you get home from work is pop something in the oven on your way to change into your lounge wear. Doesn't that sound scrumptious? It is. Now try it. You'll love it.

I'm not perfect. But I'm perfect at never giving up. Try this super easy supper for starters. It takes seconds to prepare the marinade and only minutes to cook. Serve it with steamed green beans, summer squash or corn on the cob and dinner is done.

Tip: If you don't like handling fish, season it right on the butcher paper you bought it in and when it's time to do so, slide it off the paper directly into the pan you'll cook it in.

Morph it: The marinade recipe yields about 1/4 cup of liquid because you're only marinating a small amount of fish. However, the marinade can second as a dressing or a sauce. If you'd like to use it to toss over salad greens, double the recipe. If you'll serve the fish with rice, orzo, kashi or farro and would like enough marinade leftover to spoon over the fish and to moisten the whole grain you serve it with, triple or quadruple the recipe with the exception of the ginger. You may wish to combine all the ingredients except the ginger and then add the ginger in small increments until you're satisfied with the overall taste.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 – 1 1/ 4	pounds Orange Roughy or other white fish such as sole, snapper or cod
	Coarse salt and cracked black pepper to taste
1	teaspoon orange juice
1	teaspoon rice vinegar
1	teaspoon sesame oil
2	Tablespoons Pure Maple Syrup
1	Tablespoon freshly grated ginger

	Preheat oven to 450. Season fish with salt and pepper, orange zest and fresh thyme. Place in 9 x 13 inch baking dish, set aside. This can be done ahead up to several hours.
	In a small bowl, whisk together orange juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, maple syrup and ginger. Taste and adjust seasonings.
	Pour marinade over fish and place in the oven. Cook fish until lightly golden in some places and fork tender, about 15 minutes. You'll know the fish is done when it has gone from pale pink or light white (depending on the fish variety) to a brighter white. In addition to the stark change in color, the fish will also flake apart easily with a fork. Serve immediately.
	Divine Dessert Idea: This meal is so low in calories you might serve strawberry sundaes for desserts. To prepare; slice up a quart of strawberries and toss them with a tablespoon of sugar. Let them stand ten minutes or up to an hour. Add a squeeze of lemon if you have one. Divide half the strawberries among four fancy red wine glasses. Add a generous scoop of strawberry ice-cream to each glass. Top with remaining strawberries. Garnish with optional whipped cream and mint sprig.

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