Dinner & Groceries

Monday, October 6, 2008

My class went the whole time tonight, despite my teacher telling us in the beginning that she was going to let us out early. (I'll forgive her, since she canceled 4 more classes for the rest of the semester!) So I was pretty hungry by the time Kris & I left school today. I was planning on heating up a jar of White Chicken Chili that I'd picked up a few weeks ago, and spicing it up with some grilled veggies and some other things. However, Kris decided he wanted to run to Hy-Vee and pick up some fruit.

Of course, our "Fruit Run" turned into all of this:

We bought apples, nectarines, grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, Naturally More Peanut Butter, deli ham, organic roasted red pepper hummus, fresh salsa, Organic White Cheddar Tortilla Chips, 3 different kinds of squash, spinach, protein & fruit smoothies (for Kris), organic blueberry preserves, turkey sticks, bananas & 3 fresh tilapia fillets. AND: my first pumpkin of the year! :-)

Since we were at the store, I decided to nix the chili plan and go for some fresh fish instead. So the entire way home (20 min. for us) I thought about how to cook the tilapia and what to serve it with. I knew that I DIDN'T want to use anything Chipotle-flavored tonight. But I couldn't decide between sweet or savory. I went with BOTH!

Garlic-butter tilapia & maple citrus veggies & apples.

For the tilapia, I just heated up a tablespoon of Brummel & Brown in my large saute pan, along with a heaping spoonful of minced garlic. I seasoned the fillets with sea salt and ground black pepper, as well as a little bit of garlic salt. I cooked the fillets about 5 minutes on each side and then covered the pan, reduced the heat and cooked for 5 more minutes.

Meanwhile, I'd thinly sliced a Cortland Apple and added it to a saute pan sprayed with extra virgin olive oil. I sauted those for a couple of minutes, then added a bag of frozen "Spring Vegetables" (summer squash, green beans, asparagus, carrots, etc... not sure why they are 'spring'). I added some orange juice and sugar free maple syrup, covered and brought to a boil. I let the veggie/apple mixture simmer for about 10 minutes until the apples were slightly tender.

The flavors went amazing together! Kris raved the food and I was more than satisfied w/ my little cooking experiment. I don't even need dessert, since the veggies/apples were pretty sweet. It was dinner & dessert all rolled into one!

Ahhhhh.... well it's already 8:30. I'm going to get everything ready for tomorrow and then hop in bed and continue reading my book. WHAT A LONG DAY!