Revamping Recipes: Faking It In Style

You know what you do when you have no money, no time, no food in the fridge but you want to appear like all your marbles are carefully aligned in your head and that you may actually be a good cook?  You fake it.  That’s right, you fake it till you make it.  That’s what I did this week.  I’ve convinced my roommates I am a good cook. It must be that they’ve been away from home for so long they’ve forgotten what really good cooking actually is.  I can assure you I am not there yet.  This week, though, I made something that was super easy, budget friendly, and made me look like a pro, while I secretly laughed at my roommates for thinking such an absurd thing.

Here’s what I started with (minus the olive oil not pictured): Some egg noodles, a bunch of spices that can be used in any kind of Italian dish, some olive oil or butter (not pictured) and then the star of the show.  At most major supermarkets they sell these individual servings of fish, ranging from salmon to tilapia with a few in between, in the frozen foods section for about a dollar each.  I stock up on these from time to time and leave them in my freezer until I feel the urge to cook one up.  The one that I chose for this dish was tilapia in a lemon herb sauce.  It’s sounding fancy already!

I then simply cooked the pasta, tossed it in some olive oil, but you can use butter, and then annihilated it with the spices.  Left at that, you have just simple buttered noodles, something I ate almost every week growing  up and still love.  The spices are what make people think it’s fancy even when it’s not.  Bonus points if the herbs are fresh.  Then, there are many ways you can cook the tilapia, but to really make the food gods mad, I MICROWAVED it!!  That’s right, I slapped it on a plate and microwaved it for about five minutes.  Sure, I probably should have sprayed the plate with non-stick spray because it stuck and then the fish fell apart, but if I had not made that mistake, this would have been absolutely picture perfect.  And, it already came in a lemon herb sauce, so I had to add nothing to it.  What do you think, would I have fooled you as easily as my roommates?

   And let me tell you, not only is this super easy and quick to make, but it tastes good and includes fish which is good for you!  Can you even go wrong?  I don’t think so.  This was great for me because I will be moving back home in less than two weeks until February when classes start up again, so I need to get rid of all of my food.  I’m basically down to pasta and this fish, so that’s what I will be eating many nights until I leave.

Now that I have shared my fake-it-till-you-make-it recipe, I want to hear yours!  What do you make when you want something delicious but don’t have the energy, or perhaps the know-how, to make something fancy?

This post is a part of Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.