On The Menu: Tilapia with Peppers and Olives

The past few weeks have been full of new dinner recipes for us! Typically I try to only work in one or two new recipes into our meal plan each week since they tend to take more time to prepare, but for some reason I've been on a new-recipe kick lately!

On the menu for last night was: Tilapia with Peppers and Olives (over Herbed Basmati Rice). I incorporated three recipes into our meal - I promise it's not as complicated as it sounds! In fact, the whole meal was very easy to prepare and didn't take very long at all.

First up: the fish! The original Tilapia recipe (found here) calls for the fish to be pan fried. Our kitchen stove doesn't have a vent over it, so whenever we cook anything, the smell permeates the entire house - awesome for things like cookies; bad for things like fish. So, I decided to bake the tilapia instead (it helps with the smell, trust me!).

I did a quick search online and decided on a Paula Deen recipe (found here). I adapted it a little bit: I used slightly less butter, cooked the fish in a glass Pyrex, and found that our fillets needed 20 minutes instead of 12 (maybe they were thicker?).

Next, I got started on the rice. I think the original intention of Tilapia + Peppers was to limit the amount of carbs in the meal, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that last night...so we added rice.

I did another quick search and decided to try my hand at Ina Garten's Herbed Basmati Rice. I took a few more liberties with this recipe (seeing a trend here?). First, we have a rice cooker that I absolutely LOVE, so I cooked the rice in that instead of in a pan. The rice cooker is easy and fast and turns itself off when the rice is done so you don't overcook it (genius!).

I added the rice, water, salt, and butter to the cooker and let it go to work. At this point I went on with prepping the pepper part of our dinner, but I'll  wrap up the rice part now so I don't confuse you!

Since I decided to make this side dish on a whim, I didn't have a bunch of the herbs listed in the recipe on hand. I only had fresh parsley and dried herbs. You gotta make due with what you have! So, once the rice was done, I added some chapped parsley, dried rosemary, and some S&P. I let the rice sit a bit while we prepped the rest of dinner.

Now on to the last part - the peppers! This is where I actually followed the original recipe pretty exactly (except for the part where I cooked the fish differently - ha!). Here are the ingredients and instructions:

Tilapia With Peppers and Olives

Ingredients

1 tablespoons olive oil

S&P

2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 green), thinly sliced

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup pitted green olives (sliced lengthwise)
{We used garlic olives from the olive bar at our super market and they were perfect}

1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Cook the peppers and onion, stirring often, 5 minutes.

Stir in the olives, parsley, lime juice, and S&P into the vegetables. 

Serve with the fish.

I just love brightly colored veggies! Don't they just look healthy?

You might be able to tell that I also added in some orange pepper - the red, green, and purple were begging for it!

Scoop some rice into the bottom of a low-bowl, add a few scoops of veggies and peppers, and top with tilapia!

This meal was SO good. We were both thoroughly impressed with it! The flavor profile is Mediterranean - the lime and the herbs keep the dish bright and light, and the olives give each bite a good tangy taste. We'll be making this again for sure!