Recipes, Housekeeping, and Coupons

I tried this recipe tonight and it came out great. I found it in while flipping through Good Housekeeping in the waiting room of the dentist office. Then I went home and found it on their website. This was interesting because last week I got one of those coupons from Kroger that is printed out with your receipt, for a free 1 year prescription to Good Housekeeping. At first I thought NO...I cannot get that. Only moms are allowed to read that. I have a few more years before I can have one in my home. But then after realizing they have recipes in them, I thought hmmm....might be a good idea. I made Greg review the coupon and scan it for fine print, asterisks, and ambiguous binding contracts. He declared it scam-free so I mailed it in. I am now looking forward to reading up on some home tips and new recipes.

Speaking of coupons, does anyone cut coupons? Is it worth it? Abby mentioned in her blog recently that she started clipping some coupons and was pleased with the savings. A few weeks before that I had purchased the Sunday paper to do a little coupon experiment to find out if they are worth it. I excitedly sat down with the paper and a pair of scissors, eagerly looking forward to hours of coupon cutting bliss. I was disappointed to find few usable coupons. Most of the grocery inserts were just advertisements. Like, get excited, red seedless grapes for $2.99 a lb. No, I am not excited about that. That is not a pretty little coupon with dashed lines enclosing it that I can cut out. That is not helpful at all. I go to the same store for grocery shopping, and I just look at the prices of food when I'm there and decide whether or not it is worth it. I do not need to look through non-coupons before I go. Maybe it was just a bad week for the coupon section in the Chronicle. If anyone has good coupon tips, please let me know. I think I will try again, and see how it goes. Sometimes Kroger mails me coupons, and they are really good ones so I love using those. But those don't come that often so I need a better source of coupons.

Ok here is the recipe. And it is great because it is a recipe for the full meal.

Almond Crusted Tilapia

2 lemons
2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
1/2 teaspoon(s)salt
1/4 teaspoon(s) coarsely ground black pepper
4 (6 ounces each) tilapia fillets
1/4 cup(s) sliced natural almonds
1 small onion, chopped
1 bag(s)(12-ounce) trimmed fresh green beans
1 package(s) (10-ounce) sliced white mushrooms
2 tablespoon(s) water


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. From 1 lemon, grate 1 teaspoon peel and squeeze 3 tablespoons juice; cut second lemon into wedges. In cup, mix lemon peel and 1 tablespoon juice, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper.

Spray 13" by 9" glass baking dish with nonstick spray; place tilapia, dark side down, in dish. Drizzle tilapia with lemon mixture; top with almonds, pressing them on. Bake 15 minutes or until tilapia turns opaque.

Meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil on medium-high 1 minute. Add onion and cook 5 to 6 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Stir in green beans, mushrooms, water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper. Cook about 6 minutes or until most of liquid evaporates and green beans are tender-crisp. Toss with remaining 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Serve bean mixture and lemon wedges with tilapia.

* Instead of the lemon mixture on the beans & mushrooms, I added 1/2 tbsp. of worcestershire, 1/2 tbsp. of soy sauce, and 1/2 tbsp. of sesame oil. Mmmmm!