Tilapia

Do you like fish?  I don't.  Not so much.  But I eat it because I know that it is so good for you.  We went fishing as a family every summer when I was growing up, but I just never acquired a taste for it.  A few years ago, I decided to see if maybe there was a different type of fish that I might like a little more than the salmon and trout that we caught as children.  I didn't want to spend much money on something that I wasn't sure I would like.  So I mosied over to the frozen fish section and picked out a bag of tilapia fillets for three of four dollars because it was the cheapest I could see.  I didn't have high expectations, but was pleasantly surprised when I actually kind of liked it.  It didn't taste nearly as fishy as I was expecting.  Now, whenever we find a fish recipe, we always switch out the fish that the recipe calls for with tilapia.  Over time, we've come up with this simple way to prepare the fish.  It's easy and fast and you don't get the slimy raw chicken factor...

Place four tilapia fillets in a 13x9 inch baking dish.  Spread a little bit of butter on each fillet.  Sprinkle the fillets with about 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning (or whatever else you have on hand.  We've used lemon pepper seasoning as well).  Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt on the fillets.  Then pour about 1/4 cup of lemon juice on top of the fillets.  We use lemon juice from concentrate, but you can use fresh lemons if it's in the budget.

We then cut up a cup or two of vegetables and sprinkle them around the fish.  Tonight, we used fresh celery and red pepper.  Did you know that celery actually reduces blood pressure?  We add it to as many meals as we can because of my husbands family medical history.  You could use frozen vegetables, too.  If you want to use canned, don't add them until the last few minutes of cooking so they warm up.  Be smart with your vegetables.  The other day I went to buy broccoli and found that it was almost $3 a bunch.  I thought that was ridiculous and made a mental note to check out the frozen stuff.  But while finishing my produce selections, I noticed that there was some organic broccoli on manager's special for just 99 cents.  So I bought that.  Organics don't move as quickly in the grocery store, so they often go on sale just before they go bad.  If you find some, just rearrange your menu so they the veggies can be used soon.  These picture were taken just before I put it in the oven.

Anyway, pop your fish into the oven at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes or until the fish begins to flake with a fork.  This is one of those meals that my kids haven't always enjoyed, but today they ate it all up.  I had paired it with some uncle ben's rice that I got for a quarter (It was on sale for $1 and I had a coupon for 75 cents off).  My kids chose to eat the fish and leave the rice.  Which was okay with me.  My son was convinced that he had the gills.  We told him that the gills are the best part and he, surprisingly, agreed.  So now our kids are fish eaters.  Yay!