I'm a Culinary Genius

GUYS GUESS WHAT.

I created my own recipe today! I'm super proud of myself, because I've never really considered myself to be much of a cook. Lately, though, I've been getting more into it. But see, here's the thing: I'm a single, self-conscious, poor college student. That means:

1 - I'm on a pretty limited budget.

2 - I'm working with pretty limited supplies.

3 - I'm short on time.

4 - Eating anything that's not chock full of health benefits increases my self-loathing.

What's a girl to do? Most recipes you find out there may fit one or two of those qualifications, but very, very rarely do they fit all four. Thus, my diet has been pretty monotonous and involves a discouragingly high number of microwavable meals ('sup, sodium).

Yesterday I decided that I would have tilapia today, which is always a good thing because that meant I had time to thaw it overnight in the fridge instead of under running water for 10 minutes, which I'm always a bit sketchy about doing. Normally when I cook tilapia it is epically boring--it's just plain fish. I don't really have many spices, and what I do have doesn't do much to make the fish taste any more exciting, so it's been pretty lameski. I have part of a red bell pepper right now, so I thought I might dice some of that up and bake it with the tilapia today and see what happened.

BUT THEN.

I remembered that I have salsa in the fridge, left over from my many Mexican pizza meals (whole wheat pita + salsa + chicken + cheddar. 10 minutes at 350. Highly recommend it). And I was like IDEA! Salsa + tilapia = win?

Indeed. Indeed it does.

So, out of the goodness of my heart, I shall share my recipe with you. I don't believe in measuring things like ever, so if you're one of those people, I'm very sorry. No measurements here.

Pescado con Salsa (that's what I'm going to call it).

1 tilapia filet thing

Salsa

Cheddar

Mozzarella

Cooking spray

Brown rice

1) Preheat oven to 400 F

2) Spray pan with cooking spray, ideally something low-fat

3) Place tilapia in pan, spray with cooking spray

4) Spoon salsa onto fish

5) Put in oven for ten minutes

6) After ten minutes, remove fish from oven

7) Sprinkle a pinch of cheddar and a pinch of mozzarella over fish (or whatever cheese you like)

8) Put back in oven for ten more minutes

9) Serve on a bed of brown rice (or whatever rice you like)

10) ENJOY!

I found that the tilapia keeps the fish nice and moist, which was always my problem. I dried it out way too much when I'd bake it. But the salsa solves that problem, plus adds a nice dose of vegetable to your protein. Stick it on the complex carbs (brown rice) and ladies and gents, you've got yourself a complete, tasty, healthy meal.

You're so welcome.