Frugal Fish Dishes

It's Lent here in our household, so we have been eating quite a bit of fish and seafood.  I wanted to share some pretty cost savvy meals that we have done this month, as well as in the past.  

Salmon Filets:

We eat salmon filets more often than anything else.  In a non-stick skillet we heat them with lemon juice and sea salt.  In the oven we squirt lemon juice and spread dijon mustard on top and back at 350 degrees F until cooked to preferred doneness.  And either one of these we will eat with potatoes (roasted usually with sea salt sprinkled on them) or on top of a salad with tomatoes and sauteed onions.  When using these on salads we find no dressing is required!

Tilapia Filets:

Oh, tilapia, how I love you!  I introduced Garret to this wonderful fish just tonight, and he was mighty impressed.  And at less than 13 for a bag of 12 filets, the price cannot be beat.  We figured it up tonight that if we eat it 3 times a week that still means only buying one bag each pay period, which is damn smart to me.  Six meals worth of protein for less than 13 dollars! 

With tilapia I like to keep it simple.  I squirt some lemon juice on top and then grind some fresh black pepper.  I sprinkle some dried basil and parsley and stick it in a 350 F oven for about 15-20 minutes.  You just want to make sure this fish flakes when you drag a fork across a piece of it.  Do not overcook it though, as I found it gets tough.  If you want to see a photo of how ours turned out, please see my other blog.  

Shrimp:

Recently we found a dollar off coupon for some frozen cooked shrimp that was on sale for $3.99.  So for $2.99 we got a decent sized bag of shrimp.  What we chose to do was buy Bertolli's frozen pasta dinners.  Our favorite is the one in a tomato basil sauce with penne, shrimp, red peppers and asparagus.  It's supposed to serve enough for 2 people, but we tend to have leftovers, even when we didn't alter it.  But now what we do is add another 15-16 shrimp, 8-12 asparagus spears (it's not quite in season here yet, so we have been using the frozen bagged kind, which seems to work well for this meal), I saute up a large onion or 2 medium onions, and cut up a red bell pepper.  Then I add a little bit of olive oil (because the directions say to use a non-stick skillet with a lid, but ours doesn't have one so we use our stainless steel-----but the olive oil is a good way to stretch the sauce as well).  I also add dried basil, parsley, minced garlic, and salt and pepper.  Last time we made this it actually ended up making 6 servings instead of 2!  And we basically only added extra veggies and protein so it was healthier.  This meal could easily be made without the frozen pasta meal, and I highly recommend it-----the flavors do very well together.

Smoked Salmon:

I am talking more of the kind called lox than the filets.  British smoked salmon.  It's yummy by itself, on sandwiches with cream cheese, and of course on a bagel.  But my favorite smoked salmon sandwich is smoked salmon and cucumbers with boursin cheese.  It's amazingly delicious!  Yes, smoked salmon is not always the most frugal, but it is a strong taste, so a little goes a long way.  When we pick up a large package of it on sale for around 5 dollars, we can usually make it last for several meals.  

So, hopefully this has inspired you to look at fish as a frugal option.  I know that people usually think fishsticks or frozen battered fish filets or popcorn shrimp when they think of frugal fish dishes, but I have to say we've found that overall those actually seem to cost more than some of our favorite options.  And allrecipes.com is a wonderful place to look for simple fish dishes.  

If you have any delicious recipes to share, please do!