Charlie has been a picky eater since he started solids, so if he actually likes a dish, it may very well be a hit with your little ones too! I’ve really been trying to get our family to eat more fish so I made this tilapia dish last week, and both Charlie and Olive ate it up — truly a glorious feat!
Tilapia is the most popular farmed fish in America. But, this New York Times piece questioned the nutritional value of farm-raised tilapia, which are fed corn and soy, so I’m going to make sure to buy only wild tilapia from now on. This is the type of thing I probably wouldn’t have thought about before having kids. But now I just want to make sure that I’m feeding them the most nutritious food possible (that I can get them to eat of course!).
I love that I only need to buy fish to make this dish because I always have the other ingredients on hand. Prep time is only a couple of minutes, so I can cook side dishes while it’s baking in the oven and get dinner on the table within 30 minutes. It’s quick, easy, tasty, and healthy!
Ingredients:
3 tilapia filets (1 for me, 1 for Mr. Bee, 1 for the kids to split)
2 tb butter
2 cloves minced garlic
salt
pepper
dried parsley
dash paprika
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. I always do this because it makes clean-up easier. Melt the butter in the microwave (or in a saucepan if you’re less lazy than I am), mix in seasonings, and baste both sides of the tilapia filets. Charlie and Olive love garlic and herbs, so I’m not shy about being generous with them. I’ve also made this with some grated parmesan cheese on top, but I omit salt if I’m using cheese. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Charlie had corn on the cob as a side dish, and Olive had asparagus sauteed in butter with a little bit of salt and pepper. She actually loves asparagus; Charlie does not. One of the tricks I also use to get Charlie to eat is give him this little condiment shaker filled with grated parmesan cheese. When he’s a part of the food making process, he eats much better. This dish is now a part of our regular rotation of dinners.
Enjoy!
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Looks so good!!!
squash / 13199 posts
So yummy looking
pomegranate / 3716 posts
This sounds delicious! We rarely buy white fish because I don’t know how to cook it… Will give this a try!
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
yummm one of our favorites!
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
That looks amazing! Wish my LO liked fish.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
Going to try this tonight! I have some tilapia in the fridge and I’ve been looking for motivation to cook it. Given how easy this recipe looks, I just have to get off my butt and do it!
ETA – had no butter so I used EVOO and covered the fish in Parmesan cheese, pepper, dried parsley, and cayenne pepper. DD ate it all up!
pomegranate / 3658 posts
Mr. Bee, it really isn’t possible to get wild-caught tilapia; the market for it is just saturated with farmed. Some good alternatives, though, include Atlantic wild-caught cod or haddock, or Pacific or Alaskan cod/halibut. Alaskan wild-caught salmon is a very sustainable and nutritious fish too, though of course a totally different flavor.
hostess / eggplant / 11068 posts
Totally going to try this as LO loves fish.
squash / 13764 posts
This is so funny–I literally made this EXACT dish for dinner last night
grapefruit / 4669 posts
Sounds delicious! I could go for some right now, actually.
pomegranate / 3503 posts
Yum. This is how we make a lot of our dishes actually. We just change up the herbs.
persimmon / 1329 posts
i actually would love if you and the other bloggers or even posters would feature one recipe a week!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
looks good!
honeydew / 7916 posts
@PawPrints: I was wondering if there was such thing as wild-caught tilapia; I don’t eat tilapia because of this issue. Thank you for providing alternatives! I could see trying this with cod or halibut!
grapefruit / 4400 posts
I gotta do this for me & C when she gets older… not so much for the hubs. Boooo to him being a picky eater!
pomegranate / 3716 posts
Bought some tilapia and will try this for dinner tonight!
pomegranate / 3053 posts
That looks quite tasty!
hostess / wonderful apple seed / 16729 posts
Sounds great and with the sides… I want to go out and get corn, asparagus and tilapia, right now!
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
Looks delicious and is simple enough to make!
GOLD / grape / 85 posts
oh my – will be menu planning this one for next week.