Lemon Garlic Tilapia Sheet Pan Dinner

Lemon Garlic Tilapia with Roasted New Potatoes and Vegetables

I've been seeing a lot of posts on social media about sheet pan dinners. The premise is easy and pretty darn smart, if you ask me. You choose a few vegetables, a protein, a fat, a few spices and/or herbs and flavorings and roast it all on one sheet pan. After reading several recipes here's what I came up with, Lemon Garlic Tilapia with New Potatoes and Zucchini. I know, there are green beans on that plate as well. They were actually leftover from a previous dinner, but there is no reason you couldn't roast them along with the rest of the dinner, If you like them well done, you could put them into the oven with the potatoes, for crisp tender, add them when you add the fish and the zucchini. Just be sure to place them in a single layer and add a little oil and salt and pepper to them You could also drizzle a a tablespoon of the Lemon Garlic sauce you made for the fish on them during the 2nd part of cooking if you wanted to.

This dinner is very Weight Watchers friendly too, Meaning low cal and low fat. The fish weighs in at 2 Smart Points for 4 ounces and the small new potatoes are 2 points each. I used a very little bit of butter, 1 T. butter for the entire dish and a little olive oil for the potatoes and zucchini.  My dinner weighed in at 10 points for a big plate of food! Fish plus 3 halved potatoes and plenty of zucchini and green beans. For the record, let me say that the plate shown belongs to my husband, who eats a little heartier than I do!

Try this. It's quick and easy and clean up is a breeze -- only 1 pan to wash along with measuring spoons and a measuring cup, all of which went into the dishwasher. Feeling lazy? Use some non-stick aluminum foil to cover the sheet pan. No clean up!

This could easily be doubled for a larger family, just use a bigger pan.

Lemon Tilapia Sheet Pan Dinner
serves 2

2 Tilapia  filet about 4 oz. each
1 T. butter
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 T. lemon juice
pinch of kosher salt
generous pinch of dried dill
1 large garlic clove, minced (about 1 tsp), divided use

8 new potatoes, scrubbed and dried, sliced in half
2 T. olive oil, divided use
1 small zucchini, washed and sliced into 1/2 inch rounds

Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

Make your sauce for the fish. Melt the butter in a microwave-able measuring cup. Stir in 3/4 of the chopped garlic and cook for 20 seconds to heat it through. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and dill or an herb of  your choice. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a medium to large cookie sheet (use one with a good rim) toss the onions in 1 T. of the olive oil. 
Spread them out to cook evenly, cut side down. Like this:

New potatoes, cut side down.

Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes. While potatoes are cooking, toss the zucchini with the other T. of olive oil. After 15 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and turn the potatoes over and push them to one end of the pan. Sprinkle them with the remaining garlic and a little Kosher salt. Add the zucchini to the pan in the middle and the fish at the other end. Drizzle the garlic-lemon butter mixture evenly over the fish. Sprinkle fish and zucchini with a little salt and pepper. If desired, sprinkle a little dill or rosemary over the potatoes. I used dill this time, but since I grow rosemary, I'll probably use that next time. Here's the way mine looked when it was ready for the 2nd trip into the oven:

Dinner prepped and ready for 2nd part of the roasting process. 

Cook for the 2nd time 15 more minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Mine was perfect after that amount of time.  I sprinkled ours with some onion garlic chives from my garden for a little fresh green goodness. Parsley would work also, or leave that out all together. 

Enjoy! 

Quick and Easy Tilapia

Just like everyone else, I am trying to eat a little healthier in the new year. While I never make formal New Year's Resolutions -- I think that sets you up to fail! -- I do want to be a little healthier, a little thinner, feel a little better, etc., for 2012. In the spirit of all things quick and healthy, here is, perhaps, one of the simplest dinners on earth, Baked Tilapia With Tomato Topping.

Easy Baked Tilapia with Tomato Topping and Roasted Vegetables

I must confess that most of the fish I purchase comes frozen from a big, box store near my house. While I know that this may not be the BEST fish I do know that it is an inexpensive way to get more fish into my diet. I buy bags of frozen tilapia and try hard to make dinner taste good and different, so no one gets tired of it. Last night, I took some extra help from the aforementioned big, box store and used a jar of "Bruschetta Topping" on my fish. I drained the topping of excess juice before I put it on the uncooked fish, and then I grated some fresh black pepper on that and gave it a spritz of lime (we were out of lemon, so why not?). It was delish! Baked for 25 minutes at 350 degrees, it met all the weeknight criteria: quick, tasty, healthy, inexpensive and ready in under 30 minutes! Served with some roasted veggies, it was light and I finished my evening feeling very virtuous indeed. Try this next time you are rooting around and eveyone is yelling "What's for dinner, Mom?!?!"

Blackend Tuna, On the Grill or On Your Stove

Here's another "fish" post, because we love to eat fish, especially in the summertime! This week, we had blackened Tuna. It was so hot outside, I decided to do it inside, and it worked really well. All you do is buy some Ahi Tuna steaks, and some Paul Prudhomme Blackened Redfish Magic. You need some melted butter -- about 1/2 stick for 3 - 4 small tuna steaks -- and a heavy, hot frying pan. We happen to have a non-stick, stainless steel grill pan, and that works absolutely perfectly! (If you follow my blog and were waiting for salmon spread, I have not forgotten you! I simply forgot to take a picture, so I will be making some very soon, and posting next week, I promise!)

First, you've got to get your pan really, really hot. Get out 2 small, shallow dishes, big enough to hold a tuna steak. Put several heaping tablespoons of the blackening mixture into one. Melt the butter in the other dish, and dip the tuna, flipping to butter both sides. Then, carefully dip the tuna into the spice mixture. Put a drop or two of oil into your hot pan, and lay in the tuna steaks.

Cook them about 2 - 3 minutes on each side and DONE! Delicious, rare, tender, blackened tuna for dinner. How easy is that? Try it w/a fresh salad and my super simple summer dressing, which I have listed below. You will notice that the pesto I posted earlier made a reappearance for this dinner, over linguine instead of ravioli, it's yummy over either.

Super Simple Summer Dressing for Salad

1 large lemon

1 clove garlic

3 - 4 T. extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground pepper

a little salt

2 fresh basil leaves, cut into slivers ("chiffonade" style)

Crush and chop your garlic clove, as small as you can, or grate it into the olive oil. Zest half of your lemon and add it to the jar. Squeeze all of the juice into the oil, being careful to avoid adding the seeds. I use a small sieve over the top of the jar to help me. Add the basil, several grinding of fresh pepper and a pinch of salt. Put the lid on the jar and shake, shake, shake it until well blended. Pour and enjoy.