A recent trip to Mitsuwa, our awesome Asian market, proved too tempting. The fish had just been sliced, placed in the cooler while I stood there. I pressed on the fish like Ming taught me to do to see how fresh it was… solid as a rock. It was beautiful, and it cost about the same as the rolls of sushi I had in my cart. I decided to take the leap, and I’m so glad I did. I paired this with some of my famous TiaraMaki rolls, and this is how I made the tuna:

I only had a 1/4lb slab of fish — plenty for the two of us, especially when paired with some salmon for the sushi. I cut it into two sections, in case I screwed one up.

For the marinade I used 1.5 tbsp of Tamari soy sauce, 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground ginger (The Ginger People make my favorite) and a splash of lime juice. I marinated the fish in a zipper baggie for about 45 minutes before cooking.

In my sauté pan on medium I heated up about a tablespoon of dark sesame oil. When it was hot, I put the fish face down, keeping my tongs handy while I watched the searing progress. I found recipes online that called for up to a minute per side, but I quickly found that letting it cook for that long would quickly cook the fish all the way through. So I just watched, and for about 20-40 seconds on each side I seared the tuna. When it was done I placed it on a layer of paper towel and quickly put the plate in the freezer to keep the fish from cooking longer.

That was it.

Seriously.

My husband declared it amazing and quickly ate it up. I’m actually not a huge fan of this dish, but even I could admit that the freshness of the fish paired with the bite of the ginger made this phenomenal. And it was so easy! I know it won’t be long before he asks me to make this again.

I served this on a bed of chinese broccoli greens that were stir-fried with carrots, mushrooms and onions in just a little soy sauce. Very plain, but beautifully simple.

Part of fine cooking on a budget means minimizing waste and utilizing leftovers, and one of my favorite ways to do that is by making my own breadcrumbs. For the first time, though, I tried something different.

A recent dinner party left us with a couple baguettes, which we used to make homemade garlic bread, full of butter and real garlic. Then we did something dumb; we left the garlic bread out overnight. It was fine, but too hard to eat. Instead of tossing it, I decided to try something new: garlic breadcrumbs!

They’ve been in my fridge for awhile waiting for a purpose, but I found it when I made some delicious breaded tilapia. I mixed the garlic breadcrumbs with The Spice House’s Chesapeake Bay seasoning (The Spice House’s version of classic Old Bay).

I took the tilapia fillets and pressed them into the garlic breadcrumbs and panfried the fish in a little bit of olive oil. The flavor was light and crispy, and absolutely wonderful. I served it with butter-and-garlic orzo and broccolini (sometimes called baby broccoli).

Another great discovery made entirely by accident! Be creative in the kitchen and good things will happen!

This Mother’s Day we didn’t get together with family, since we spent the day before at my husband’s college graduation surrounded by both our families. After joining some friends for an absolutely amazing brunch at Over Easy—where I had the smoked salmon omelet and became inspired to host a brunch with friends, for Mother’s Day dinner we decided to make something fancy that we most likely could not make if we happened to have kids, a tongue-in-cheek celebration of our freedom as non-parents.

The rest of my Mother’s Day, what wasn’t spent cuddling with my boys—our cats Pippen, Romeo and my husband—was spent going through and reorganizing my spice rack after another stop at Penzey’s, where we replenished some things and picked up a couple new things to play with.

To prep this, I rubbed the tilapia with some lemon zest and dill weed before sautéeing it with a tiny bit of olive oil. We picked up some locally grown baby broccoli (which might be my new favorite veggie!) and purple asparagus from our local Trader Joe’s, which I steamed in our Black & Decker Handy Steamer. To finish it off I sautéed some leftover penne pasta with butter, a dash of lemon juice, dill and fresh garlic.

Paired with some sangria, this was an unbelievable way to end the weekend!

Tilapia used to frighten me. It still kind of does. Often found at my favorite grocer for between $2 and $4 for a bag of 6 delicious filets, I simply didn’t trust it. And yet I’m surprised every single time I make it how utterly delicious it is and I understand why it’s become one of my husband’s favorite meals

I served tonight’s fish up with some fresh green beans sautéed in Spanish olive oil with garlic and onions, and some yellow rice. I usually serve Vigo brand yellow rice, but I had a coupon and picked up Mahatma for the first and last time. While I love Mahatma’s wild rice and cheddar broccoli rice, the yellow rice was FAR too salty for my taste.

I grilled the fish, as I always do, in my Mario Batali cast iron grill pan and put some sliced oranges on the side because citrus + fish = delicious. Wild Vines Frutézia Tropical Blend wine added some sparkly sweetness to the mix.

I’m always looking for great new ways to cook tilapia. Any ideas? What’s your favorite tilapia recipe or technique?