Budget Kitchen: Lemon Pepper Tilapia with pan-fried Baby Potatoes

Let’s learn how to cook some simple meals with our budgets in mind.

Lemon+pepper+tilapia+and+pan-fried+baby+potatoes.+Photo+by+Jessica+DeMarco-Jacobson.

Lemon pepper tilapia and pan-fried baby potatoes. Photo by Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson.

Ingredients (you can buy all of these at Aldi):
1.5 lb bag of multi-colored skin baby potatoes
Approximately 1 lb of fresh tilapia fillets
2 tablespoons of lemon pepper seasoning
3 teaspoons of olive oil
Cooking spray
Black pepper
Paprika
Salt
Aluminum foil
2 tablespoons of roasted garlic hummus (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of basil (optional)

  1. Place one tilapia filet on a cutting board. If you have an extra filet, freeze it for future usage. Rub one teaspoon of olive oil evenly on the filet.

    Photo by Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson.
  2.  Evenly pour one tablespoon of olive oil on the filet, then rub the seasoning evenly across the fish. Then, flip the filet over and repeat.
  3. Spray a non-stick pan with cooking spray; then place the filet into the pan and set the stove to medium heat. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of paprika onto the filet.

    Photo by Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson.
  4. Wash your cutting board, then dry it. Take out 10 small potatoes and cut each of them into fourths. Check the fish to make sure it’s not burning! If it’s already golden-brown on the bottom, then flip it over.
  5. Drizzle two teaspoons of olive oil over the potatoes; then, sprinkle them with salt and black pepper until evenly coated.
  6. Pour the potatoes into the pan along with the fish. If you haven’t already, flip over the fish. You can tell the fish has finished cooking when it looks something like this:

    Photo by Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson.
  7. Remove the fish when golden-brown on both sides and wrap in aluminum foil. Continue cooking the potatoes until they are also a golden-brown; then, remove them from the pan.
  8. (Optional) Place two tablespoons of the hummus on your plate, then sprinkle the basil over it.
  9. Enjoy!