Baked Dijon Tilapia

My hubby and I try to maintain a pretty strict grocery budget each week, which can be challenging for me when I come across a recipe I really want to try but need to do more shopping in order to complete it. In order to keep the marital bliss as it regards to the grocery budget, but still be creative in the kitchen, I like to have a little competition with myself to see how many meals I make during the week using ONLY the things we have stocked in our shelves or in the fridge. This was one of those weeks and let me tell you, you can still make a pretty amazing main course with your pre-stocked freezer & random condiments.

First of all, you need to find some kind of cheap, tasty, yet healthy staple that you can count on for nights like this. We've become accustomed to keeping either Kroger or Meijer brand frozen bags of Tilapia fillets in the freezer. Tilapia is a light, flaky fish, perfect for "fish-beginners" that don't really love a strong fishy taste. When they are on sale, you can get a bag of 5 individually frozen fillets for around $3, which is great! Just defrost the fillets on a plate in the fridge during the day or night before and they'll be ready to use when you get home from work. Now, what to do with the fish?

Last night I decided I wanted to bake the Tilapia to minimize the amount of fat/oil used, but wasn't sure how to flavor it. I try to keep either homemade breadcrumbs (see below) or a bag of Panko (Japanese, light fluffy consistency) breadcrumbs around for baking fish -gives me a kind of "glorified fish stick" feel and reminds me of my childhood:) When you do your own breading, most recipes want you to dredge your protein in flour, then egg wash, then breadcrumbs. I did a scan of the refrigerator door and decided to mix a 3-1 ratio of Dijon mustard & light mayo to use as the glue for my breadcrumbs and it worked out great!

Ingredients & Recipe:
Printable Recipe

• 2 thawed Tilapia fillets
• 3 Tbls. Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbls. light mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
• olive oil for drizzling

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare cookie sheet/baking dish with a piece of foil, lightly sprayed with vegetable spray (ex: PAM spray). Use a fork to combine the mustard and mayo in a cereal-size bowl. Dump breadcrumbs into another cereal size bowl and season with S&P. Now, liberally slather the fish fillets with the mustard/mayo mix, then dredge each fillet into the breadcrumbs on all sides and place onto your baking dish. Drizzle the top of each fillet lightly with olive oil (this helps the breadcrumbs get golden brown) and bake 12-15 minutes until you get a nice golden color and the fish looks to be flaky. (No need to flip the fillet's during baking).

You Could Also Try...

• Season your breadcrumbs with whatever you have a taste for! Use paprika, sesame seeds, dried herbs, even grated Parmesan cheese, to name a few ideas. We added red pepper flakes in the finished dinner pictured at the top of the page! Mmmm!
  
• Don't love the flavor of Dijon mustard? Use the same "glue" method, but use a whisked/scrambled egg instead.
  
• Make your own breadcrumbs by using stale crusty bread. Toast chucks of bread on a cookie sheet in the oven for a few minutes, process chunks in a Mini Chop/food processor until you have a fine consistency, continue to toast in the oven to dry out a little further.

So overall, don't be afraid to look into the fridge and create something new! As long as you know what the "method" is (for this case, using something to keep the breadcrumbs on the fish and then baking), then the world is your oyster (or Tilapia....haha)...