Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Tilapia, rice, and broccoli dinner

This might easily be the tastiest, easiest, and most "elegant" dinner I've made yet!  I am pretty proud :-)

We bought some frozen tilapia that I wanted to use up so I got creative, using a recipe on the bag...modified.  In a small bowl, I mixed a chopped roma tomato, chopped green pepper, dried onion flakes, garlic salt, black pepper, and olive oil. This was all eye-balled.  The recipe also called for cilantro and lime juice but I didn't have those. Would have been a nice touch but didn't need them.  At least a bit of lemon might have added some nice flavor.

On a sheet pan, I made a little shallow bowl with aluminum foil, put the tilapia down, then spread the mixture on top. I closed the bowl and baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. 

While the fish was cooking, I made some white rice (I always just make the quick rice with a bit of butter and salt) and steamed fresh broccoli.  For the broccoli, I shredded cheddar cheese when it was nice and hot from the microwave and let it melt.  We use white cheddar seasoning for popcorn so I sprinkled that, salt, and pepper and shook it to mix. 

Side note: one of the handiest gadgets I have from Pampered Chef is the large micro-cooker, which is how I steamed, drained and mixed the broccoli!

This all came together in less than a half hour and even my 6 year-old ate it all!