Rachael Ray for a Day

It’s Sunday! That means work tomorrow. Boo. And a new recipe. Yay!

I stuck with Tilapia today. But I did switch up the couscous for quinoa. Following are two recipes: 1 for the Tilapia and 1 for the Quinoa Salad. The Tilapia was juicy and fresh. And the Quinoa Salad was perfect for a hot summer day. The grapes make all the difference. Enjoy!

As always, this is based on my taste so be sure to adjust based on your taste and let me know what you did and how it turned out!

Serves 4

Tilapia Recipe

4 Tilapia filets
1 tsp garlic powder*
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper**
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lime cut into 4 wedges and then halved – 8 pieces

Preheat oven to 450

Use 1 tbsp of olive oil to coat the bottom of the baking dish. Clean the filets with cold water and pat dry. Place filets in baking dish. Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Rub half of the dry rub on one side of filets. Flip filets in dish and rub the other half of the dry ingredients on the filets. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of oil over the fish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork. Squeeze two pieces of lime over fish as soon as they come out of oven. Serve filets with remaining pieces of lime.

*I prefer fresh garlic. I went ahead and used the dry garlic powder but, as expected, didn’t really taste it. So I recommend using fresh garlic. Either cut garlic in wedges and tuck into fish or mince and combine with dry ingredients and rub into fish. I will try it this way next time.

**I didn’t have cayenne pepper so could not use it. But I wanted to include it for you because it was in the original recipe and I know that it has such a distinct flavor that I didn’t want you to miss out!


Quinoa Recipe

1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups water
4 jalapenos
3 stalks of green onion – thinly sliced
Queso Fresco – crumbled*
2 cups red seedless grapes – halved
Juice of 1 lime – about ¼ cup
Salt
1/8 cup and 1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven (or small toaster oven) to 400

Cut stems of jalapenos and slice jalapeno in half lengthwise. Remove seeds (or keep based on your heat preference). Place on aluminum foil that has been coated with 1 tbsp oil. Sprinkle jalapenos with salt and roast in oven (I used a small toaster oven) for 15-20 minutes.
While jalapenos are roasting, bring 2 cups water and 1 cup quinoa to boil. When it starts to boil, reduce to simmer and cover. Let cook for 10 minutes or until quinoa absorbs all the water and fluffs with fork.

While jalapenos are roasting and quinoa is boiling, slice green onions, halve grapes, crumble cheese and prepare lime dressing for quinoa salad. Combine ¼ cup of lime juice and 1 tsp salt. Slowly whisk in 1/8 cup of olive oil. At this point, the jalapenos should be ready. Remove from oven and let cool. Once quinoa is ready, pour lime dressing into quinoa. Slice jalapenos into small chunks and sprinkle into quinoa along with green onions.

Sprinkle Queso Fresco and red grapes on salad right before serving.

*The store did not have Queso Fresco so I substituted Queso Blanco and it worked just as well. It was salty and stood up well to the heat from the quinoa – as in, it didn’t melt when I sprinkled the chunks onto it. So don’t worry too much about your quinoa turning into a weird version of mac and cheese.

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This meal was amazing! I was blown away by the flavor combo between the grapes, cheese and jalapeno in the quinoa salad. Very unexpected and very, very good. Love it when that happens!

I loved preparing this meal not just for the yummy result but also because it was SO easy. The order in which things are prepared makes a difference so the following is how I went about it. The meal was ready in under 30 minutes. Eat your heart out Rachael Ray!

I preheated big oven to 450 and small toaster oven to 400.
Prepped the jalapenos and placed in toaster oven.
Prepped quinoa and placed on stove to boil.
Cleaned fish and placed in baking dish.
Prepared dry rub, prepped fish and placed in oven.
Cut green onions, halved grapes and crumbled cheese and prepare lime dressing.
Removed jalapenos from toaster oven.
Removed quinoa from heat and poured lime dressing in and sprinkled in green onions.
Cut jalapenos and sprinkled into quinoa.
Removed fish from oven.

Served fish and quinoa salad along side bowl of cheese, bowl of grapes and remaining wedges of lime.

I hope you have a chance to try this out - especially the Quinoa Salad. You will not be disappointed!