Top Model Tilapia...

...which is to say, I had so much fun messing around with these recipes that I forgot to watch America's Next Top Model. Probably for the best. What follows are recipes for a tasty tilapia dish and two veggies sides, all super easy, pretty healthy, and yum. This evening of simple and improvised eating was brought to you by love, sweet love. Yes, the kind of love where a girl goes weeks and months without cooking three of her favoritest, healthiest foods, all because her darling boyfriend despises them, leaving her bereft, and craving them all, right now, at once!

Happily, new roomie was down to try the goods. We chomped, and I chased the whole shebang with a Heine and some chocolate ice cream :)

The Menu
Tilapia in a Confetti Cream Sauce
Maple Mustard Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli Soup with Cheddar

Tilapia in a Confetti Cream Sauce
1/4 white onion
2 cloves garlic
kernels from one ear of fresh corn, boiled
1/2 red pepper
1/4 c. fresh parsley
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. half and half
2 Tbsp. corn meal
ground black pepper
ground sea salt
ground red pepper flakes
1 lb. tilapia

1. Process everything except the fish until you get a thick, greenish, and generally unappetizing looking goo. I'm curious to try this and keep the consistency more like a salsa or salad, but creamy and a little vomitous is how it went (and worked!) on the first go.
2. Place tilapia fillets in a baking dish (I used glass. Thanks, dishwasher!). Cover with the veggie cream sauce and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Maple Mustard Sweet Potatoes
1 large sweet potato
2 Tbsp. creole mustard
2 Tbsp. grade B maple syrup
1 Tbsp. olive oil
ground sea salt
ground black pepper

1. Wash potato thoroughly, then give the skin a good rub down with some olive oil. Cut in half, then in quarters, then into thin, french-fryish slices.
2. Place slices in a narrow baking dish and add remaining ingredients. Mix well until potatoes are coated.
3. Bake at 350 for at least an hour. At 35 minutes, remember to pop in the tilapia.

Broccoli Soup with Cheddar
1 16oz container Imagine Organic Broccoli soup
fresh broccoli
Cheddar cheese, grated

1. This barely qualifies as a recipe, but hey, why not? Make it about 5 minutes before the other two dishes are finished.
2. Heat soup in a pot, add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Steam up the broccoli. I do this in a white-trashy sort of way involving a moist paper towel and a microwave, but you're probably a little classier. Put a few big pieces of the steamed broccoli into a pair of small bowls (I used ramekins).
4. Pour the heated soup over the fresh broccoli and top with Cheddar.

Final note: Don't be afraid to overspice these babies. Tilapia, sweet potato and broccoli are mild and gentle, and a little heat is required to bring them onto the dance floor.