Tilapia, Cheese Grits and Sauteed Greens

I bought a new Giada cookbook this week - Weeknights with Giada - which is where the prior entry for Chicken and Tarragon came from as well as the tilapia dish we had last night.  Yes, I already have tons of cookbooks whose potential has not been fully realized, but after flipping through this one in the bookstore, I was struck by the ease of a number of recipes that looked more complex than they are.

Broiled Tilapia with Mustard-Chive Sauce was an extremely easy and satisfying fish dish.  The sauce is what makes this dish.  I simply seasoned the actual fish with salt and pepper as called for in the recipe.  I found the fish itself a little uninspired.  The yogurt and lemon in the sauce is tangy, and compliments the fish well.  This is definitely a light entree, and is great for an evening where you want want something healthy fast.  The fish itself takes less than 10 minutes to cook.

To prevent the meal from being too healthy, I made cheese grits.  I find cheese grits to be a great and easy side dish for many different dishes, whether fish or pork or beef.  The recipe is quite simple.

Recipe for Cheese Grits
4 cups water
1 cup Quick Grits
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a medium sauce pan.  Stir in the grits, and reduce to a simmer.  Stir frequently for 5 minutes to prevent the grits from lumping.  Add the cheese, butter and spices.  Transfer the grits to a baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes at 350.

To offset the cheese grits, we did have a healthy vegetable, so at least two of the three things on the plate were healthy.  I sauteed spinach and salad savoy.  For those that don't know what salad savoy is (and I did not until last week), it is a lettuce from the kale family.  The head of savoy we received through our produce co-op was white with purple and green tips.  I believe it can also be purple with green tips.  The combination of the spinach with the savoy was a nice contrast.  The savoy remains crunchy as compared to the wilted spinach.  I sauteed with a little olive oil, minced garlic (1 clove) and seasoned with salt and pepper.  It took about 5 minutes.  Without the cheese grits, this dinner would have taken about 10 minutes.

Tilapia with the yogurt sauce, grits and greens