What's for dinner Wednesdays--Baked Tilapia

Okay two nights in a row, three if you count Sunday, but I actually did that post in the 'evening' hours, instead of the wee morning hours of the 'night before' like the last two posts............ By the time I finish typing this post, it will officially be BE Wednesday and the rest of my Wednesday is FULL to the brim, so knocking out my blog post early is the only way it would have gotten done this week. My friend with the blog who also does 'What's for Dinner Wednesdays' suggested I add this recipe one night while we were 'talking' on facebook. So Nicole, this one is for you, sista.
This week's installment of What's for Dinner Wednesday features my current favorite 'quick' main course, baked Tilapia. Now I am a farm wife with likely hundreds of dollars worth of beef in my freezer, but I also say variety is the spice of life and once in a while we eat 'other stuff' :) One of my current favorite, quick foods to prepare is tilapia. What's a tilapia? Hmmmmmmmm, well it's a fish, I couldn't tell you where its from, what it looks like or anything else, but I will mention, it tastes pretty darn good. I buy it in big bags at our local Sam's Club. It comes in a big bag, like this:

Inside the big bag, each portion is frozen and packaged singly. That's probably one of the things I like the best. I didn't know that was how it would be the first time that I purchased it, but it sure makes things handy. I can make a couple for The Farmer and I for lunch, or several depending on who is home and how hungry I guess everyone might be.

The first thing I do is line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, mostly because it doesn't seem to stick to the foil as bad and makes clean up a lot quicker. I try and remember to preheat the oven to 375 degrees right now as well, sometimes that doesn't always happen, but we will pretend I remembered today. The first thing on the foil is about a tablespoon each of Olive Oil and Lemon Juice. I usually make 6 or so filets, if you are making less or more add the first two items accordingly.

This picture isn't very pretty but its oil and lemon juice. I make sure the whole pan surface gets covered and then turn both sides of each  FROZEN (no thawing, bake these guys frozen!) filet in this concoction to dampen them, so the stuff in the next step 'sticks' to the filets.

Okay next step, into a cereal bowl, add about 1/3 cup of corn meal, 1/3 cup of bread crumbs, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, and I am really guessing here, worse than the first three ingredients, 1 teaspoon each of season salt and lemon pepper. (Remember I am not a measurer, so these are guesstimates) I think mix them together. I will sprinkle this mixture onto the first side then flip and again onto the second side of each filet. (thinking I will never make money at writing easy to read recipe instructions) It will look like this:

Once you've covered both sides, slide that guy in the oven. It will need to bake for 30 minutes, at 375. While its cooking, you will likely have time from an adult beverage, might I suggest this..............

Tonights selection was a frozen strawberry margarita, from my 'bucket' in the freezer. You have time to sip away OR, time to prepare your sides, at our house, its generally a veggie and some sort of pasta, usually macaroni and cheese. We dont usually have a potato, unless they are mashed, as most of the scallop 'boxed' potatoes or frozen french fries don't go along with the lower oven temp to bake the fish. So drink that margarita or cook those sides, because pretty soon out of the oven will come this:

If you were lucky enough to get the moisture (lemon juice and olive oil) right and a good cover on the 'breading' they shouldn't stick and aren't too soggy, I make this once a week and have for months and about half the time mine isn't perfect, but I have NEVER EVER thrown any out. I am going to pretend that its because of my great cooking skills and not the fact that teenage boys will eat EVERYTHING and ALL OF IT that you put in front of them.
Sitting here moments after midnight thinking that instead of typing I should be sleeping as there's a long day ahead,
From Tulip~
KH
:)