Nordic Trip: Iceland & An Easy, One Pan Tilapia Dinner

Enjoy the views from the first installment of my Nordic Trip adventures starting with Iceland! Meanwhile, if you are looking for a quick and easy fish dinner recipe, look no further. All you need is 1 pan, a few ingredients and viola you’ve got yourself a clean, satisfying and healthy fish dinner.

I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve last posted and I hope you’ve all been enjoying the last bits of summer here. I myself have been away on a fabulous Nordic Trip and it started with Iceland. Iceland has been at the top of my bucket list for many years now, but I knew that I wanted to go in July because that was the warmest month. However, I haven’t been allowed to take vacation in July for many many years now, so now that I finally had July open, I knew that was something I wanted to do. I did so much there even though I only had 4 days I could easily spend more than one post on it!!

Now going in July does mean that it is bright ALL the time, seriously you’d think it was noon at 11pm so a place with black out curtains is must if you need it to be dark to sleep. However, that does mean that you shouldn’t expect to see the Northern lights. Granted, going a little bit later like around now, you might get lucky as apparently winter there starts Aug 15! Crazy.

The weather in Iceland can be nutty. I got SUPER lucky and it was relatively warm (about mid to low 60s during the day) and it didn’t rain, or snow, or get super windy while I was there. Apparently last summer it rained every single day. So, if you are thinking about going, I urge you to pack warmer things, and for sure include a rain jacket and windbreaker of some sort. Since I only had a backpack with me for my entire trip, I mostly just wore leggings, a cami, thermal top, fleece and if needed I brought my cold weather lightweight jacket that was great especially on top of my fleece.

In terms of food, it is INCREDIBLY expensive in Iceland so be prepared if you are planning on eating out. Think easily 40 dollars for a lunch. So, I brought snacks with me and only got a few things from the local grocery store including Skyr Icelandic yogurt (very good, tastes like greek, but my face did not like the dairy sadly). It was helpful therefore, to have a place with a fridge. I did not buy any meals in a restaurant, or cafe there as I wanted to spend money on experiences instead.

So, let’s get started with the experiences! I started by booking a spot for the Blue Lagoon. I recommend going early because it is much less crowded and, in my opinion, much nicer and more relaxing. You must book a time for entrance. The comfort package comes with a towel, drink of choice, entrance fee, locker, and silica mud mask. The water was warm, but there were areas of the lagoon where it would get really hot. There were also waterfalls, a swim up bar, a mud mask bar and a sauna. They have a restaurant and shop on site if interested. It was really convenient to book transport from the airport to the Lagoon and then from the Lagoon to where I was staying as I was buying my tickets. Given the proximity the airport and not much else, I recommend doing it directly from or directly before the airport.

As for site seeing, I think your two (or 3) main choices are to either rent a car/camper, book day tours/multiday tours, or spend your entire time with a tour group. I personally am not a fan of tour groups as I like to be able to do things at my leisure and see what I want. Normally, I would have considered renting a car to do everything, but it was expensive, roads and conditions there can be treacherous and gas is also pricey. So, I didn’t want the stress of it. So, I opted for various day trips. There was a multiday adventure package that I really wanted to do, but alas, I didn’t have enough time. So, I did one day for the Golden Circle (a loop that hits most of the main attractions of Iceland) and also for snorkeling the Silfra fissure which was awesome.

This is where the tectonic plates are visible and you can swim in between the continents (America and Europe). There is a spot where you can have one hand on Europe and your foot on America! Very cool. The water is frigid so you definitely want a dry suit. On the way back you can walk on the intercontinental divide, which is essentially no man’s land as it is not owned by anyone. Very neat. Fun fact, the American tectonic plate is what was used at the wall for Game of Thrones for any GoT fans out there.

Spent the next day exploring the city of Reykjavik. Checked out the famous Hallgrímskirkja church (yeah, don’t ask me how to pronounce it), got free coffee at their public library!! (major win on that find) and checked out their exhibits, window shopped, looked in the gift shop for the Art Museum to name a few things.

I did another day for Southern Iceland which included highlights such as hiking to touch a glacier, mulitple waterfalls, Vik, and the black sand beaches. I really actually liked doing it this way as I felt I got to do everything I wanted to and made Iceland a great stopover place. (Ask me if you are curious about stopovers!)

Granted, as I mentioned, I didn’t really try any of the typical Icelandic foods and I think I’m ok with that. I don’t really see the appeal of fermented shark, sheep’s head or sour ram testicles soooo… yeah I was ok with it haha, but let me know what you thought if you have been and tried any of these things!! So, as fish is a big part of the diet up there, I thought I’d give you a quick, clean and easy fish recipe. Feel free to swap out the veggies if you want 🙂 Enjoy!

Print

Easy One-Pot Tilapia Dinner

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword clean, fish, green beans, main course, potatoes, tilapia

Prep Time 5 minutes

Servings 1 meal

Author AZ@…And A Dash of Cinnamon

Ingredients

• 1 tilapia filet thawed
• ~1.5 cup green beans
• 1 potato
• few dashes garlic salt
• few dashes onion powder
• cooking oil/butter

Instructions

1. Heat your pan with your cooking oil or butter

2. Dice your potato and snap your green beans (if using fresh)

3. Add potato and beans to your pan toss with a few dashes of onion powder and garlic salt

4. Cook for 10 minutes or so until i starts to brown. Meanwhile, add onion powder and garlic salt to the fish and add to pan. Flip fish and turn the veggies until golden brown and tender.

5. Serve and eat!

Recipe Notes

You can tailor this recipe as you please with the spices and veggies etc. 

Feel free to make more than one to be able to feed as many mouths as you want 🙂

Omit, or swap the potato for a low carb option

I link up with Deborah and Sarah’s, and  the fit foodie mama’s Meatless Monday, #recipeoftheweek,What’s for Dinner

Follow my blog with Bloglovin