The past few weeks have been an intense time of activity and change: a wedding of close friends, some quality time for bub with the extended family but away from his familiar home comforts, and this week, incredibly, the end of my maternity leave and return to the world of paid employment.

So, to mark our family’s first steps into our new time-juggling arrangements, I offer you one of our favourite fish dinner ideas, which we love for its simplicity, versatility, healthfulness and tastiness, and that it takes minimal time to put together and pop into the oven.  Just the thing for that mad rush after work and before bub’s bedtime, when everyone in the house is tired and hungry and, to avoid mayhem and meltdown, all must happen in a mercilessly small window of time.

Fish in a bag

The quantities below are for one serve, but it’s a recipe designed to easily scale up for however many people you need to feed.

1 fillet white fish, about 150-200g (I used dory here, but have used snapper too)
generous handful of baby spinach leaves
3 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 garlic clove, very thinly sliced
olive oil

Green salad or steamed greens, to serve

Preheat the oven to 200C.

As the fish and vegies will be cooked in individual foil parcel ‘bags’,  lay out a 50cm length of foil for each person’s bag.  First drizzle some olive oil, then make a bed of spinach the leaves, lay the fish fillet on top, arrange the tomato halves around, and lay the garlic slices on top of the fish.  Season well with salt and pepper, and drizzle over a bit more oil.  Fold up the foil (any way that works for you, really) so that it is fairly well sealed to enable the fish to steam.

Lay out the parcel(s) on an oven tray, and bake for 15 minutes.  Open one parcel after this time to check if the fish is cooked through – thicker fillets may need more time.  Serve with a green salad or steamed greens.  Also great with mashed potato.

Yield: however many you need