Lemon-Chili Tilapia with Twice-Baked Squash

Glad it is my turn to try out a few recipes for food.music.wine.love! It is so fun being able to share my journey of  teaching myself how to cook with everyone! Hopefully there will only be success, though I will post the not so great turn outs as well!


 I tend to go to Betty Crocker, Kraft and Pillsbury recipe websites, as well as, other cooking blogs looking for quick and easy meals with a few ingredients... as I am slowly teaching myself to cook. I tend to leave my laptop out while cooking to not only have the recipe out but to also look up cooking terms I do not know and also to have Pandora on! Also checking out member reviews on these sites along with the recipes can help see how real life every day cooks did with a certain recipes and tricks that they found to bet  helpful.


It has been my experience that as I try each new recipe that it takes me slightly longer than it says it should take...do not get discouraged! While it takes me a little longer, practice makes perfect and the meals always turn out yummy!




Cooking Adventures on a cold Sunday February afternoon


Nothing is better than flipping on Pandora, jamming out to my Adele Pandora station on a Sunday afternoon trying out new recipes.  By the way...if you like Adele...check her out at Royal Oak Music Theatre Monday, May 23rd!

The recipes for this latest cooking adventure for food.music.wine.love are Betty Crocker's Lemon-Chili Tilapia and Pillsbury's Twice-Baked Squash. As usual, I use these recipes as guidelines and added my own..umm flair to them.


Here are the links for the full recipes:


Betty Crocker's Lemon-Chili Tilapia


Pillsbury's Twice-Baked Squash

My adventure through Betty Crocker's recipe: Lemon-Chili Tilapia

First off, I played with the ingredients a tad. It called for FiberOne Bran cereal..now since it calls only for one cup of it..I was going to buy a full box of bran cereal that we will actually eat afterwards! I ended up buying Aldi Brand's Cranbeery & Nut whole grain cereal .  Instead of using a rolling pin and sandwich bag to crush the cereal, I used the Magic Bullet..it worked GREAT! For the rub for the fish, I also added a few other spices like Jerk, Lemon Pepper and Paprika . I always say..spice to taste...if it taste good to you..go with it!! I also added a few more random ingredients  to the spicy mayo that is went along with the Tilapia recipe. Once again, spice to taste...I like spicy...Chris not as much...I may have added just a little too much spice for his liking to the fish rub. Ah...you live and you learn! ha! Still very yummy!! I would definitely make this again. It was a lot simpler than I thought it would be!

Lemon-Chili Tilapia with Spicy Mayo dipping sauce

My Adventure in Pillsbury's Twice Baked Squash
I was very excited to try out this recipe because I LOVE squash. The recipe called for buttercup squash but I used acorn squash instead. Acorn squash is similar in size and was also the only type available at the store! The only other change I made to the recipe was the brown sugar...well I should say I did not mean to change it but I misread the directions! Instead of using the brown sugar to sprinkle on top when the squash was done..I may have just put it all into the mixture that is put back into the squash to bake. OPPS! Though it was a great mistake...I enjoyed it better this way because the recipe called for more nutmeg than my liking. The brown sugar evened out the overwhelming nutmeg. The only other ingredient I added was a pinch of cinnamon. Next time I will either add more cinnamon or leave out some nutmeg but I will still add the brown sugar to the mixture. The squash also took about 15ish more minutes to fully cook than then the recipe called for but I was prepared of this after reading a few reviews of this recipe.

Twice Baked Goodness!

I would hands down make this recipe again..and plan to this week. The squash turned out heavenly and it was amazingly good!

Melt in your mouth wonderfulness!!

Wine Pairing

We paired this meal with  Traverse City's own Good Harbor Vineyards Trillium White Wine.

Traverse City's Good Harbor Trillium White Wine

Trillium has apricot, orange peel & floral  aromas with nectarine & grapefruit flavors . Simply..amazing not only in taste but in price, only $8.50 a bottle.

To check out more on Good Harbor Vineyards and Trillium Wine, check out their website:http://www.goodharbor.com/

Overall, this was a wonderful meal! We will definitely be making this again. The tilapia had a great tasting spice coating and the spicy mayo had just the right amount of kick to it, they were a great combo. The squash melted in our mouths! The Trillium wine washed the meal down wonderfully! The dinner was also completed by the addition of a tropical fruit salad in papaya juice ( a can of which I bought at Aldi grocery store!). This meal shows that you can have a great tasting meal paired with a great wine that is light on your wallet. Shopping at stores like Aldi and finding great local wine that are great with an even better price can make for a great night in! Enjoy!

Another food.music.wine.love success!!

Eat, Drink & Be Merry~ Jen Ziemann


*Photos courtesy of my talented husband Chris. Check out Ziemann Photo on Facebook for more of  his talented work!*