Lemon Pepper Tilapia with Brown Rice Asparagus

Lemon Butter Sauce with Garlic and Basil

Since I started the workday at 6:30 am and was on back-to-back calls through 11:30,  I decided to work from home. The bonus of this opportunity was that I decided to grill some turkey burgers for lunch. While flipping the patties, I noticed that some of our lemons were ripe for the picking and was inspired to make lemon pepper tilapia for dinner.

Start by preheating you oven to 375 degrees. Place the tilapia fillets on an oiled baking sheet - I used a foil wrapped ceramic flat (the foil is my fail-over to make the clean-up easy) pan. Slice a lemon into thin strips and place on top of the lightly salted fish.  Take a 1/4 stick of butter and gently melt in a small saute pan. Add pepper, the juice of one lemon (two if you want it really tart), two cloves of finely diced garlic (for which I used two Dorot garlic cubes) and some finely diced basil (also two Dorot cubes in my world). Gently stir over medium-low heat until all the components are mixed together.  Once completed pour over the fish and place it into the oven for 12 minutes.

Easy Prep for a Tasty Meal

I tried something different with the asparagus tonight. I had a some leftover turkey bacon that I decided I wanted to use up so that got diced and thrown into the stir fry pan. Add a 1/4 stick of butter (at least I am consistent on the butter tonight), two cloves of diced garlic (again, in my world that is two Dorot cubes) and asparagus tips. Saute covered for ten minutes over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until done.  To further jack things up, I added a package of fresh & easy microwave brown rice (don't judge, seriously, three minutes in the microzap - it is kind of hard to screw up rice) to the wok and mix it all up.

Plate the rice and pull the fish from the oven.  Remove lemon slices and pour the baking pan drippings over the top of the fish. In a little less than fifteen minutes you will be enjoying a great dinner. 

Lemon Pepper Tilapia with Brown Rice Asparagus