Two foods that I enjoy that go bad quickly are spinach and fish. It can become discouraging because they aren’t cheap foods either.
So, if you remember the tips from the Dietitian, JoAnn Daehler-Miller, from the University of Iowa Student Health and Wellness, she said a good way to make those foods last longer is to cook them.
I found two recipes that are not only easy to make, but have a lot of ingredients in them that I already have in my apartment. I didn’t see a point in going out and buying a bunch of ingredients for an extravagant meal for just myself.
Recipe 1: MaMa’s Supper Club Tilapia Parmesan
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
2 lbs tilapia fillets (orange roughy, cod or red snapper can be substituted)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
1/4 teaspoon seasoning salt (I like Old Bay seasoning here)
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
black pepper
1 dash hot pepper sauce
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In buttered 13-by-9-inch baking dish or jellyroll pan, lay fillets in single layer.
Do not stack fillets.
Brush top with juice.
In bowl combine cheese, butter, mayonnaise, onions and seasonings.
Mix well with fork.
Bake fish in preheated oven 10 to 20 minutes or until fish just starts to flake.
Spread with cheese mixture and bake until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
Baking time will depend on the thickness of the fish you use.
Watch fish closely so that it does not overcook.
Makes 4 servings.
Note: This fish can also be made in a broiler.
Broil 3 to 4 minutes or until almost done.
Add cheese and broil another 2 to 3 minutes or until browned.
Thank you Mama’s Supper Club in Wisconsin.
For this dish, you can take or leave the lemon juice and the hot sauce. I personally like them both so I used them. This recipe was easy to make and I enjoyed it.
This meal only cost me $6 because like I said, almost all the ingredients I already had in my apartment. The fish I bought was from HyVee.
Recipe 2: Egg Muffins
Makes 12 muffins (2 eggs each)
Ingredients:
1 carton of egg whites or 24 egg whites.
Options:
Baby spinach
chopped onion
chopped red pepper
chopped jalapeno
chopped ham or canadian bacon
chopped mushrooms
Sriracha sauce
shredded cheese
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Choose ingredients you prefer to use and maybe mix it up, so you have something different every day. chop if necessary.
-Spray pan
-Add chopped ingredients to each cup
-Add 1/3 cup liquid egg whites or 2 egg whites per cup
-Bake for 30 minutes.
-Immediately remove and let cool on a rack. Once cool, place 2 in a ziplock bag with no air to keep them all week in the fridge. In the morning, remove from bag and heat in microwave for 1 minute.
My favorite thing about this dish is that you can put in it whatever you like. The only major ingredient that is required are the eggs/egg whites. For mine I just used whole eggs because they are cheaper than the egg whites. For a carton of eggs at HyVee it is $1.69.
So for my egg muffins I chopped up yellow and orange sweet peppers and one tomato (plus the spinach of course). I didn’t have a chance to buy sausage or bacon for it but next time I am definitely going to add it. Again, you can take or leave the hot sauce. I liked it personally because it added a little extra kick of flavor to the muffin.
It is so easy to make and lasts the whole week for breakfast. This meal only cost me $10 and that was because the spinach was a bit pricey.
Health on a Budget 