Miso-glazed Tilapia with Ginger-Scallion Noodles

I get tilapia at Costco in bulk, because my kids eat fish so quickly that often the adults only end up getting a tiny piece.  The noodles are a perfect accompaniment. This meal is deceptively fast to make.  We looked at the clock and realized we only had about 40 minutes, which was plenty of time.  Granted there were two of us, but we also had a bunch of kids running around asking for more grapes and milk, etc.  Plenty of time to plate and enjoy!

Miso-glazed Tilapia
If you've ever gotten a container of miso, or fermented soybean paste, you might find that you use a few tablespoons and then it sits in your fridge for a long time.  Although it has a pretty long shelf life, in the fridge, eventually I get sick of seeing it in there.  I use it sometimes as a flavoring for stir-fried noodles- but you have to be careful, because it can be salty.  The original recipe has the fish cooking in the oven, but it's so much faster just to pan-fry it.  Heavily adapted from Ellie Krieger, The Food You Crave.

3-4 tilapia filets
1/2 c white miso paste
2 T honey
2 T water (maybe more if your miso is really old)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 T rice wine

Mix the miso, honey, water, sesame oil, and rice wine together with a fork. Coat the tilapia filets, and pan-fry in 1-2 T cooking oil for 3-4 minutes on each side or until they are done.  You can let this marinade overnight if you wish.

Ginger-Scallion Noodles
I easily tire of pasta with red sauce.  This is actually a faster go-to, since the Chinese noodles cook a lot faster.  Get everything chopped and ready while the water is boiling, and toss together at the end.  You can substitute all kinds of leftover veggies, like carrots sliced thinly on the diagonal.  Fancy.

1 T ginger root, peeled and minced
1 package of Chinese noodles, cooked (may susbstitute spaghetti, just please don't tell me)
3-4 scallions, chopped (yes, green part too!)
2 c spinach, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
2 T water
1/4 c chopped cilantro

In a large saute pan, heat 1-2 T cooking oil and add ginger root. Add noodles, and stir to coat.  Add sesame oil, soy sauce, water if needed.  Follow this with the spinach and scallions, and cilantro last. Take off heat once the spinach is wilted, about 2-3 minutes at most.

Garnish
I had half a green pepper, so I stir-fried it with 1/4 onion, a tsp rice wine, and a pinch of minced ginger that I stole from my noodle prep. This is the garnish you see in the picture- entirely optional.

No one likes noodles and "Nemo" here...

More Nemo please!
(Yes, they call their fish Nemo.  The fish that they eat.
Anyone else find that a little disturbing?)