Use It or Lose It - Fish Cakes with Tomato Rice and Verde Pinto Sauce

Happy Sunday!
On this edition of Use It or Lose It, my leftovers are as follows:

1/3 cup homemade marinara sauce (not really enough for spaghetti...)
Homemade refried beans (I might have made a TON the other day?)
1 lb frozen fish sticks...
THESE. Generic. 'Fish'. 'Sticks'.

I did not know what I was buying. They're.....edible, but not great. But, I still didn't want to throw them in the trash!

I had a plan:
-Make rice using the marinara and water
-Thaw and mash the fish sticks and form into a patty with some nice spices, Cajun seasoning perhaps?
- Make some sort of bean sauce

Since the patties were going to be cajun flavored, I found a bonus ingredient for my bean sauce:

The bean sauce is simply 1 cup of refried beans, 4 packs of Taco Bell salsa verde, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 tsp of salt. Heat in the microwave.

The rice is 1/2 cup of dry brown rice with 1/3 cup marinara sauce and 1 cup water, simmer covered for 30 minutes, season to taste.




The fish cakes came out very nice, somewhere between a salmon patty and a hush puppy. Certainly better than the fish sticks on their own!

Fish cakes:
1lb cheap frozen fish sticks, thawed
2 eggs
1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp salt
Oil for frying

In a bowl, mush the fish sticks, eggs, and seasoning with your hands until you have a uniform substance that should feel like cookie dough. In a large frying pan or iron skillet, heat up about 1/2 inch of oil. Shape and pat dough into round patties, I got 9 medium-sized ones.  Fry for about 2 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Don't overcrowd the pan; divide into batches if necessary.

Drain patties on paper towels. Serve over rice and top with bean sauce.