Healthy Recipe #3: Lemon Garlic Tilapia

I have, for the past 3 years, cut out red meat from my diet, and since my family relies on beef to survive (I swear, they cannot live without it), it is hard for me to live at home sometimes. But, I have found a friend in tilapia. The thing with tilapia is that it is just so easy to use. You can buy them independently packed and, they're cheap! Also, because it is such a mild fish, the sauce you make to marinate it becomes the best part of the meal, which means a lot of experimenting! And as a chemistry geek, that is my favorite thing to do.

Tilapia's Health Benefits:
4 ounces of tilapia has about 20-30 grams of protein! That is more than 50% of your daily value of protein, meaning it can help burn fat like no other animal protein. Tilapia also holds a lot of B12 (about 30% of daily recommended value) and niacin (30%). As well as those two well known nutrients, tilapia also has about 80% of your daily recommended value of selenium! Tilapia is a wonderful source of protein with little fat and no carb. It is a great fish to eat post workout because the potassium can help prevent muscle cramps. All in all, this fish is a great add in to your diet.

Here's my favorite way (at least right now) to make tilapia:

Ingredients:
1 lemon
2 cloves garlic (or the equivalent in minced garlic)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
4 oz serving tilapia

Squeeze lemon juice onto a plate. Add the finely diced garlic, the salt, and the pepper into the lemon juice. Place thawed tilapia into this mixture and let it marinate for about a half hour (or overnight). When you cook it, just put a skillet on medium heat and drop all contents of the plate into the skillet. The marinate will act as an "oil" or the base to cook the tilapia in.

I swear, the tilapia tastes amazing and goes with anything from a side of broccoli to just a simple salad. I LOVE having tilapia with a kale based salad; the two go really well together!

Enjoy!