Back to school now (Baked Tilapia with Veggies)

So school is back in session, which means I will be very busy once again. But I wanted to put this entry in before things started getting too heavy.  I made my own recipe for cooking fish!  It's really not too complicated.  I read a recipe which involved baking tilapia with a slew of other things involved which I did not have, so I used what was available and made something pretty tasty:

2 tilapia fillets
5 mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 potato, sliced
ginger, 1 slice diced
paprika
basil
salt
pepper
olive oil
cilantro

Lay some foil on a baking sheet and cover the foil with some olive oil.  Then take your mushroom quarters and potato slices and lay them out over the foil.  Add some paprika and basil to the vegetables before preparing your fish.  In a separate bowl, massage the tilapia with salt, pepper, and ginger.  Afterwards, layer the fish on top of your veggies and sprinkle some more basil, paprika, and garlic on top.   Garnish with a little cilantro and give the whole thing a little shower of olive oil and bake for ~15 minutes in a 400° oven.  You are now ready to eat!


We made ours with pasta with mushroom/tomato sauce.  Here are the pics: 

I thought the dish turned out wonderfully.  The potatoes went really nicely with the fish and the pasta, and the fish was cooked pretty well.  Here are today's stats:

Time to cook: ~45 minutes (30 minutes to prepare (not counting thawing frozen tilapia) and 15 minutes to cook

Amount of help received: Slightly less than before.  My girlfriend helped me cut everything and helped me decide what to cook with the fish in lieu of other ingredients, but I took a good amount of leadership.

Presentation (according to girlfriend): 3/5 (it looks good, but it's not professional looking)

Tastiness (according to girlfriend): 4.2/5 (It was good.  Putting the potato and mushroom in really helped with the flavor. Maybe cooking it as it's own dish and including some sort of sauce would have been better.)

So another success!  I was really happy making and eating this dish.  I most certainly avoided the Foundry of Failed Creations with this dish :D. Maybe a different hairstyle is in order for celebration :P

Thanks fellow cooks and eaters!

-Stuart-