Blackened Tilapia with Zucchini and Tomatoes

The countdown until I go to Mexico, finally travel out of the country for the first time, and have to be in a bathing suit for the first time has begun! Ah! You all know what this means? Healthy and clean eating as much as possible for the next 10 days! Don’t get me wrong, there will be plenty of celebrating over the next week leading up to graduation, but I will try to make healthy meals for myself to stay on track! I also will be starting Month 2 of Insanity on Monday, so that will help with the beach bod as well.

Before I get into this recipe from my dinner last night, I want to give you all a quick update on my Aaron Carter concert that I know a few of you are curious about. Well, let me just say it was fabulous! There were two openers which got us even more excited and then out came Aaron Carter!!! I should mention that he did have two male backup dancers/singers that were also twins. (I got a good laugh out of that). But Aaron sang some of my favorite 90’s hits and I got to relive my childhood for about 45 minutes. And that’s not even the best part! He came out supporting Penn State wearing a PSU sweatshirt; he obviously was sweating after 5 minutes of performing, so he took it off and threw it into the audience. Who snatched it up you may ask? This girl! Don’t believe me? Here’s proof of Aaron himself wearing the sweatshirt and then the highlight of my night when I got a picture with him in it. Yes, you could say I absolutely loved my life on Wednesday.

Ingredients

Tilapia: 1

Olive Oil: 1 tablespoon

Old Bay Seasoning: 1 teaspoon

Lemon Pepper: 1 teaspoon

Zucchini: 1/2 medium

Grape Tomatoes: 6, cut in halves

I first thought I was going to cook my tilapia in the oven, hence the aluminum foil underneath the next few pictures. This is also why I added a olive oil and old bay rub first, but I decided to cook it in a skillet after a small issue arose with our oven. (fire alarm went off, a little smokey apartment, but it’s all good!) So, I mixed olive oil and blackened old bay in a small dish and rubbed it over the entire piece of tilapia.

I absolutely love a little kick to tilapia or really any fish to give it more flavor, so I added some more dry blackened old bay and lemon pepper on both sides. If you would rather a milder flavor, just skip this step and it will still come out very tasty!

How good does that tilapia look? You can turn on your stove and heat up a skillet while you quickly chop your veggies. I cut a half a zucchini into slices and then cut each slice into quarters. I cut some grape tomatoes in half as well to make a fun veggie salsa for on top of the fish.

Add the tilapia to the skillet and let it cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes or until it starts to get flaky. Then add your vegetables to the skillet and let them cook until the zucchini becomes translucent and the tomatoes begin to wilt. You can remove your tilapia when it’s done if the veggies still need a little more time. The vegetables in a little bit of the tilapia seasoning is absolutely delicious. Place the vegetables on top of the tilapia and now you have prepared a delicious dinner for one!

You can always make more if you’re cooking for your family or friends. I never was a huge fan of leftovers and this literally only took 15 minutes to make, so I will be making this fresh next time I want it as well! 

 

This is just one of the meals that I hope will keep my healthy eating on track and allow me to get into that bathing suit in 10 short days. I literally can not wait to finally make it out of the country and see a different culture, lounge on the beach, and take full advantage of the all inclusive food and drink 🙂 I hope you guys get a chance to try this fun dish because it is so perfect with this warm weather coming around.

 

If we had a grill or were allowed to have one of my balcony I would say definitely grill your tilapia if you have the chance. Literally nothing better than fresh fish on the grill. Yum, yum, and more yum! Have a fabulous weekend and enjoy the sunshine!