Tuna Croquettes: YUM!

Do you remember my discovery that ground turkey is disgusting? The texture was just gross. But I have found something even more disgusting than ground turkey. CANNED SALMON. Yikes. That is some nasty stuff. I had planned on making salmon patties for dinner. I got out my can of salmon, opened it, and was revolted. I realized that it had LOTS of little bones in it. And some kind of black slimy stuff. When I dumped it out to pick out the bones, I discovered that the black slimy stuff was skin. It was too much. I couldn't do it. I threw it away. And I got out some tuna and got to work.

And I'm so glad that I did! These were so very good. I know that it probably sounds crazy to gush about how wonderful tuna croquettes are, but these are definitely something you should try. The ingredients are all things that you probably have on hand: tuna, onion, bread, eggs, lemon juice, some herbs. It's all combined and shaped into patties that are lightly fried in olive oil. So good!
By the way, my mom used to make salmon patties for us growing up. I HATED salmon patty night. I called her and asked how she could stand to make the patties with the nasty canned salmon. She said, "I use the salmon that comes in a pouch. It's boneless." Oh. I had no idea the stuff existed! I knew that tuna came in a pouch, but then again, I'm not a salmon connoisseur, either. Anyway, who needs canned salmon? Use tuna and make these instead!

Tuna Croquettes

Adapted from Three Fat Chicks

15 oz. canned tuna, drained well

1/3 c. minced onions

2 c. soft bread crumbs (whirr about 4 pieces of bread in your food processor)
1 T. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. dill

2 T. fresh parsley

2 eggs

olive oil for frying

Mix all ingredients together well. Shape into croquettes (patties) and fry in olive oil until golden brown. (To get my patties all the same size, I used a small ice cream scoop to portion them out, then flattened them. It worked pretty well.)

Chili-Rubbed Tilapia

David and I are pretty wimpy when it comes to spicy foods. Neither of us can tolerate heat very well, so when I found this recipe for Chili-Rubbed Tilapia, I was a little wary of trying it. It sounded so good though, that I went ahead and tried it. It turned out to be one of the best things we had last week for dinner!
The original recipe included a side dish of asparagus, but I decided to go with broccoli. It's not that we don't like asparagus (in fact, we love it), but it's just kind of expensive. We wait around for spring to harvest Mama's asparagus, and we have it at least three times a week. Oh, we get spoiled in the spring. The broccoli was a pretty good substitute, but I'll have to try it again this spring and use some fresh asparagus.

Chili-Rubbed Tilapia with Broccoli and Lemon

Adapted from a recipe from Heather's Website

1 lb. fresh broccoli, cut into florets

2 Tbs. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt, divided

4 tilapia fillets (about 5 oz. each)

1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

1.5 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Bring 1 inch of water to boil in a large pan. Place broccoli in a steamer basket; place basket in pan. Cover and steam for 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Transfer to a large plate; spread out to cool.

Combine chili powder, garlic powder and 1/4 tsp. salt on a separate plate. Dredge fillets in mixture to coat. Heat 1 Tbs. oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add tilapia and cook 5-7 minutes, gently turning halfway. Fish will be done when it is opaque in the center and flakes easily. Remove fish from skillet and cover to keep warm. Immediately add lemon juice, remaining salt, and 1 tsp. oil to pan. Add broccoli and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly until broccoli is coated and heated through. Serve broccoli with tilapia.

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

Usually, during one shopping trip at the beginning of each month, I purchase all of our meat for that month. I always get tilapia fillets, pork chops, flank steak, chicken and a little ground beef. Those are our staples, but if we have a recipe we want to try that calls for a different cut/type of meat, we'll probably go ahead and get it, but I try to keep fish, pork, flank steak, and ground beef because they're all so versatile. When I have those things in my freezer, I'm always confident that I can come up with a quick, tasty dinner in no time at all.

I noticed that we hadn't been eating much of our fish (probably because it was shoved underneath about 6 bags of frozen blackberries!), so I decided to look for something new to try. Our go-to fish recipe is Italian Tilapia, but I've blogged about that before, so I needed something new! I visited The Sister's Cafe because I knew I'd find something tasty there! Of course, they didn't let me down. When I found a recipe that called for butter, mayo, and parmesan cheese, I knew I was on to something good. I put this together in no time, and once again amazed my husband at how quickly I got supper on the table. Really, it took longer to gather the ingredients than it did to put them together and cook the fish! David and I enjoyed the fish; you'd think it would be "heavy" with the mayo, butter, and cheese, but it was surprisingly light. It's not exactly diet food, but if you monitor your intake all day, it's not a calorie budget-buster by any means. I won't repost the recipe...I'll just send you here so that you can get it straight from The Sisters! Enjoy!

Italian Tilapia

The other night, I remembered that I have a ton of tilapia fillets in the freezer and that we hadn't had any in a long time. This is a super-simple, light, and tasty meal. You can probably make it with ingredients you have on hand.
I started out with about 5 tilapia fillets. The "stuff" I put on top is usually enough for 5-6 fillets, just depending on their size and how much you like to have on top of your fish. First, grease a cookie sheet (one with sides), and put your tilapia fillets on it. Salt and pepper them to your liking.
Then, I mix a can of (drained) diced tomatoes, some sliced black olives, a couple of cloves of garlic, some lemon juice, fresh parsley, and fresh basil. Then I layer the mixture over the tilapia, like this...Then, you bake the fillets in a 350-degree oven for about 12-15 minutes, or until your fish flakes easily. We had a starch-filled dinner this time...peas and corn. It was delicious!

Italian Tilapia

4-5 tilapia fillets

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

4 oz. sliced black olives, drained

3 cloves garlic, minced

juice from 1/2 of a lemon (or more if you'd like)

chopped fresh parsley (or you can use dried)

chopped fresh basil (or you can use dried)

feta cheese, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet and place tilapia fillets on sheet. Salt and pepper to taste. In a mixing bowl, mix tomatoes, olives, garlic, lemon, parsley, and basil. Spread tomato mixture evenly over each tilapia fillets. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork. If you'd like to use the feta, put it on when there's about 5-7 minutes left of baking time.