Quick And Easy Tilapia Recipe

You will need

Tilapia

Zesty Italian salad dressing

Olive oil

Butter

Border blend

The fish

For this recipe, as the title suggests, we're going to use 1 pound of Tilapia. That should of course be enough to feed two people, but if you have a large family or bigger appetites, just simply double or triple this amount.

I buy my fish frozen, in bulk, at Sam's Club. Typically a 3 pound package of fish will cost around $3.00-$3.50 per pound, which is actually a great price considering even Tilapia will run around $5.99 per pound in the regular grocery store. I love fish. I hate paying high prices for it. So the Sam's Club bulk frozen package is great for me. Plus, each piece of fish is individually wrapped. Use what you need and store the rest.

Marinate the fish

To marinate the fish, make sure you've thawed the pieces. Put two or three capfuls of lemon juice concentrate into the bottom of a glass bowl (or freshly squeezed if you have a lemon handy), then place the thawed Tilapia pieces into the bowl. Pour in enough zesty Italian dressing to cover the fish pieces. Let that marinate for about 30-minutes to an hour. My suggestion? Go for the hour if you have the time. You won't be sorry.

Make your Border Blend

If you follow any of my recipes, you'll notice I use a lot of my own stuff. Perhaps I'm creative. The reality is I'm really cheap. Of course, I do like to experiment as well. Whatever the case, if you've never made your own spice blend before, then here's a great one to start with. I call it Border Blend because it uses spices that are commonly found in Mexican dishes.

Find yourself an empty spice container and we'll get started. Here's what you will need:

3 tbsp. ground cumin

4 tbsp. dried cilantro

1 tbsp. onion powder

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. chilies

Combine all of the ingredients into the spice container, pop the cap back on, and shake it up vigorously. Having a good sized container is important if you are going to mix the spices in the container, you want to have enough room for the spices to combine nicely.

One note as well. If you like hot (I don't) add more chilies to this. 1 tbsp. is barely noticeable. 2-3 tbsp. would really heat this up.

Note: If you use a lot of spices, and especially if you like to create your own blends, buying spices in bulk saves a ton of money as well.

Cook the fish

For this, simply put about 1/2 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp butter or margarine into a large skillet. Once the oil is hot and the butter is melted, add the Tilapia pieces, seasoned on both sides with the Border Blend into the hot pan, and cook on medium heat for about 3-5 minutes per side. When cooking fish like this I like to cook them on lower heat slowly. Fish burns really easy if you're not careful. Plus, this also lets all of the flavors dig nicely into the meat.

Just cook the fish until it's flaky and white.

Serve it all up

I served mine with a homemade rissoto rice dish and a simple vegetable side made with 1 can of French green beans, drained, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, and about 1 tbsp. of imitation bacon bits.