Tonight was my night off from cooking, so my knight in shining armor made dinner! Whoo-hoo!! Because of Lent we’ve been incorporating a lot more seafood into our diet on Fridays. Since he’s from the east coast and loves seafood he’s been ecstatic. I on the other hand had a difficult time with it, mostly for lunch. Peanut butter sandwiches weren’t quite enough and I didn’t want tuna fish with all the mayo, etc. However, it offered up an opportunity for me to try different kinds of fish and found there were a few I liked – especially bass and escolar. 

I realize Lent is over and it’s not Friday, but since we found a good fish market in town we bought some more fish last week that we wanted to incorporate into our weekly meals. He specifically had a recipe for tilapia that he wanted to try. We’d also come across a bunch of healthy sweet potato recipes and had some baked sweet potato latkes on Sunday night with steak. The recipe was very hearty, so he didn’t cook it all and saved it for dinner tonight.

The latkes took a considerable amount of effort on his part Sunday night to grate. The good news is he has some strong biceps that were up to the challenge. Now, I didn’t necessarily love the latkes. They weren’t bad, don’t get me wrong, they were just a little too sweet for me as a side dish and I found it overpowering with the meat both nights.

The tilapia on the other hand was magnificent! He actually added some Cajun seasoning to it that gave it a touch of a kick. He said the only thing he’d change next time would be less salt. Since I know nothing about cooking seafood, I’m not really sure why. But, I trust him; he has an uncanny ability to taste something and be able to tell exactly what it needs more or less of. I just trust what the recipe tells me.

Lemon Garlic Tilapia

Ingredients:

• 4 tilapia fillets
•  3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
•  1 tablespoon butter, melted
•  1 clove garlic, finely chopped
•  1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
•  Pepper to taste
• Cajun seasoning to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Rinse tilapia fillets under cool water, and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Place fillets in baking dish. Pour lemon juice over fillets, then drizzle butter on top. Sprinkle with garlic, parsley, and pepper.
4. Bake in preheated oven until the fish is white and flakes when pulled apart with a fork, about 30 minutes.

Baked Sweet Potato Latkes

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds grated sweet potatoes
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Coat two baking sheets with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Drop by quarter-cupfuls onto the baking sheets. Flatten with a spatula.
3. Bake for 25 minutes. Flip and bake for an additional 10 minutes.