I'm always trying to figure out how to get regular fish in our diet. We all love it and it's good for you, but it's so expensive, it has the potential to bust the food budget.
We thought it would be good to try fishing, so my brother-in-law took my husband out to one of his best spots for salmon fishing.
He had just gotten a couple the last time he went. And it only cost $30.00 for the license.
Ummm...that $30 ended up coming out of the entertainment budget and not food.
And the search for seafood that will fit into our budget continues.
I have found talapia to be a good, inexpensive fish that works well in recipes using snapper or any white fish. And it's not nearly as "fishy" as snapper could sometimes be.
The meal pictured above used a pound of talapia (5 small fillets) that was $3.99. I sauteed some onion and garlic, added some chopped tomato and kalamata olives and let it cook for a few minutes. Then I spooned the sauce over the tops of each fillet I had placed in a baking pan (a trick I read about is to turn under the thin ends of the fillets so they don't get too overcooked while the thicker part is cooking), and baked at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until the thickest part of the fish flaked easily with a fork.
I'm sure if you've been reading here awhile, you will see a trend I have toward these Mediterranean flavors...but I do think you will love this, too.
Since all the vegetables pictured came from the garden (roasted green beans, corn, tomatoes, onion, even garlic), and rice is pretty cheap (about .30), only the fish and kalamata olives were the costly ingredients. I buy the olives at Costco in the large container and it lasts a couple months (because they have so much flavor, you don't need tons of them). I'm estimating the amount I used to cost about .75, so I'm still at my goal of around $5 for the meal- even with fish included!
Sweet.
I'd love to hear how you get fish into the frugal food budget!
-Jami
