Homemade Fish Sticks

I have a love/hate relationship with fish sticks.

I love them because you can dip them in ketchup, and I love anything that gives me an excuse to eat more ketchup.

I hate them because typically they are processed and have way too much breading that to be honest isn't all that tasty and I mean really can you actually tell what kind of fish (or for that matter, parts of a fish) are under all that breading.  And I like to know exactly what I am eating.  Thank you very much.

Enter the homemade fish stick.

Recipe: (from How Sweet It Is)
makes 12 fish sticks
3 tilapia (or other white fish) filets*
2 egg whites, beaten
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Lay a wire rack on a baking sheet and spray with olive oil or other non-stick spray.  Cut each tilapia filet once down the middle then in half, making four 'sticks' out of each filet.  Season with salt and pepper.

In a bowl, beat the 2 egg whites.  In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese.  Dip each fish stick in egg whites then panko mixture, pressing to adhere.  Lay on the wire rack and spritz with olive oil.

Bake for 10 minutes, flip, then bake for 10 minutes more.  Serve hot!

*I had thawed 5 filets already, so I prepared all three of them and still had lots extra of both the egg whites and panko mixture, so don't feel limited by the '3 filets' rule...

Verdict:
First of all, I had to use two baking sheets (because I also made some sweet potato fries), a wire rack, and two bowls...  Then there were the salad fixings.  Oh my was that more than more poor counter space can handle.  About 1 mixing bowl and two baking sheets more than my counter space can handle.

I think I would make homemade fish sticks again when I have more counter space (let the house hunt begin!) because I did enjoy them.  Apparently Alex is not a fan of tilapia, so I would try another kind of fish....

But all in all, they were not greasy, perfectly breaded, and I loved the flavor of the parmesan in the breading.  I mean I still dredged those sticks through copious amounts of ketchup...  I go through ketchup withdrawal in the winter.  And that whole tartar sauce thing?  Not in this house!

These sweet potato fries were the perfect side dish.  And, bonus, they cooked at the same temperature and for the same amount of time!  Um, how often does that happen?