Tuesday- Tilapia Bundles

Adapted from Clean Eating

Chef’s Notes: I’ve been avidly trying to keep our fish consumption to once a week, but you can only make tilapia filets in so many ways. This recipe intrigued me; at first I just thought it looked beautiful. Then I realized that they were filled with cheesy tilapia. Hmm… some of you know my personal struggle with wanting only marinara/tomatoes in my pasta. I’ve never been a huge alfredo fan, but I thought I’d put on my big girl cheese pants and give it a curdle! Also, the recipe had a green onion portion that was too hard and didn’t really work, so I’ll save you the frustration. The flavor is light and the cheese will delight!

Plan of Attack:

1. Boil lasagna noodles

2. Prep carrot/ Cook tilapia

3. Melt cheese sauce

Ingredients for 4:

8 oz lasagna noodles (we opted for regular over whole wheat, have to say, twas a good choice)

Cooking spray

1 carrot, shredded

1 tsp olive oil

12 oz tilapia filets

4 oz light cream cheese

½ C 1% milk

1 Tbsp fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)

½ tsp salt

2 oz Gruyere cheese, shredded

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray; set aside
2. In a large pot boil enough water to cooking the noodles according to package directions; drain and set aside
3. Heat a skillet to medium heat. Add olive oil and heat about a minute
4. Add tilapia filets and cooking about 1 ½ minutes on each side, then break fish into pieces using your spatula. Continue cooking until fish is cooked through; remove from heat
5. Heat a medium pot on medium heat and add cream cheese, milk and salt. Whisk until fully melted. Then add ½ of the shredded cheese and whisk until smooth again. SET ASIDE ½ C of the cheese mixture (for the top of the dish), then pour the rest of the mixture into the tilapia and mix in the shredded carrot.
6. Assemble the bundles by laying the lasagna noodles on a cutting board a few at a time and placing about 2 Tbsps of the mixture at one end and rolling. Place in the prepared 8x8 dish and repeat until all are stuffed and rolled. (I really had the jam the last few in, but they did fit!)
7. Top the bundles with the reserved cheese mixture and shredded cheese
8. Bake for 25 minutes
9. Enjoy!

Food for the Brain,

the SupperSmiths, forging one meal at a time

Had to share this gooberific picture of me. SmithCale was playing with the setting on our camera and found a smile detector. Obviously you have to roar smile REALLY big to get it to work.