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    $5 Dinners | Budget Recipes, Meal Plans, Freezer Meals

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    Tilapia with Pan Roasted Tomato & Pesto Sauce

    February 22, 2013 by Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom 6 Comments

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    tilapia with pan roasted tomatoes & pesto sauce

    If you want dinner on the table in less than 10 minutes…this recipe is for you!

    While the tilapia is baking, the sauce is roasting in the pan…put it all together 10 minutes later…and boom.

    Ka-boom.

    Served with a side of bread and some veggies…supper in minutes, y’all.

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    Tilapia with Pan Roasted Tomato & Pesto Sauce

    This recipe looks super fancy, but it's so easy to prepare!
    Prep Time5 minutes
    Cook Time10 minutes
    Servings - 4 servings

    Ingredients 

    • 4 tilapia filets
    • Salt and pepper
    • 1 Tbsp olive oil
    • 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
    • 2-3 Tbsp store bought or homemade pesto sauce
    • Side dish - bread, brown rice, quinoa and veggies

    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a glass baking dish, large enough for all the filets. (I used a 9x13.)
    • Place the tilapia in a baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until the fish is white and flaky all the way through. Cooking time may vary, depending on thickness of the filet.
    • Once you put the fish in the oven, whip up the sauce. Add the olive oil to a medium sized skillet over medium-high heat. Add the halved tomatoes and pesto sauce. Let the tomatoes sweat out and start to roast in the pan. Once the skin starts to get a little "shrivel-y," remove from heat.
    • Plate each fish filet and pour the sauce over each serving.
    • Serve Tilapia with Pan Roasted Tomato and Pesto Sauce, along with a side of bread, rice or other veggies.

    Yes…seafood is generally more expensive to cook with…but you can still make a delicious and low cost meal with it…even if it is a little more than $5. By pairing expensive ingredients, like seafood, with other inexpensive ingredients like rice or bread, and seasonal veggies…you’ve got a great, well balanced and “fancy” meal for not too much outta the pocketbook. (Also, my “never pay more than” price for seafood (either frozen or from the case) is $3/lb. You’d be surprised how often it’s on “unadvertised sale.”)

    Also, here are a few other ways to use homemade pesto sauce!

    See more $5 Dinners Popular Recipes here

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    Filed Under: Budget Friendly Recipes, Fish Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Rice Recipes Tagged With: popular recipes

    Comments

    1. Lynn says

      February 23, 2013 at 7:05 am

      Wow! I wish I could find Tilapia for $3 a pound! I gotta move to Texas!

      Reply
    2. Tammy says

      March 4, 2013 at 6:07 pm

      I was all set to make this and realized I was out of pesto. 🙁 But I did have basil frozen in butter so I used that in lieu of the oil and pesto. I imagine this dish would be so awesome with pesto, but it was quite delicious the way it was! Thanks for a great recipe!

      Reply
    3. Katrina says

      March 3, 2014 at 9:46 pm

      My biggest issue is trying to find frozen tilapia that is not from one of the NO-NO places like China or Vietnam.
      I can get a great bag of frozen fillets and we love them for dinner but quit buying them when it came out NOT to buy if from those places because of pesticides, poisons, improper food or feeding them things that are not meant to be eaten, etc.

      Any ideas or brands or places to get them? We live in Pacific NW. And I cannot afford FRESH.

      Reply
      • Harold Bowden says

        October 5, 2014 at 2:19 am

        Katrina, if you have a local Costco, they have frozen tilapia that are raised cleanly (no bad stuff fed to them) and in humane conditions. We buy it all the time and it is delicious, white and very clean smelling.

        Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. Amy’s Notebook 02.27.13 | The Motherload says:
      February 27, 2013 at 7:59 am

      […] Tilapia with roasted tomatoes and pesto would make a quick and flavorful dinner. (@ $5 Dinners) […]

      Reply
    2. WHOLE FOODS August 2013 Menu | OAMC from Once A Month Mom says:
      August 1, 2013 at 4:53 am

      […] Tilapia with Pan Roasted Tomato Pesto Sauce […]

      Reply

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    I’m Erin Chase…

    Also known as the
    $5 Dinner Mom.

    I have a little problem. I cannot make a meal that costs more than $5.
    It’s a fun challenge,
    and my pocketbook
    thanks me.
    Want to join me?

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