There's a first!

Born to crock is something like 1 1/2 years old now. (Can you believe it?) People have asked me if I've ever crocked anything that was inedible. We came close. Once. 

And then today happened. 

I saw this frozen package of tilapia shoved in the back of the freezer when we invaded Brad's place. It takes a lot for me to be in the mood for fish, so it stayed there. Until today. 

Today, I shoved it in the crock pot. The package said it'd be steamed and ready to eat in 5 minutes. I didn't do that. (But maybe I should have?)

What fun things are in Brad's pantry? Day 28.

~2 frozen tomato, basil, and garlic tilapia filets by Beacon Light (It expired in 2010.) 

~aluminum foil

Place filets in "boats" of aluminum foil. (Don't do this.)

Place "boats" in crock pot. (This, either.)

Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. (Please?)

2 servings (For the garbage disposal.)

Do. Not. Make. This. Promise me you will not make this. It made the house smell like fish. (Eew.) It didn't flake apart. (Double eew.) I took a bite and ended up spitting it into the sink. (Triple eew.) All of the lemon juice and tarter sauce in the world would not make this edible. And it wasn't just me. My other half couldn't stomach it either and he LIKES fish. Yeah, so don't do what I did. Unless you want to order wings from the local wing place like we did. (And then we didn't like the wings, either. Boo!)

Something's fishy.

The gluten-free crocking website I've been using has 70 chicken recipes listed. I asked my other half to pick a number. He picked 69. (Of course.)

This recipe made me nervous. If you've been following along from the beginning (or have spent 30 seconds with me in a seafood restaurant), you know I'm not a seafood person. I HATE the smell of fish. I somehow convinced myself that I was completely okay with going to the store and buying fish sauce. I even shoved it in my cart after reading the ingredient list and reading the first ingredient: anchovies. As I was opening the bottle, I got some fish sauce on my hand. I thought I was going to gag. It smells SO BAD.

"Vietnamese Roasted Chicken" (6 quart pot)

~4 chicken thighs (Mine had skin and bones, but I deskinned them)

~1 1/2 T gluten-free soy sauce

~1 1/2 T fish sauce

~1 T olive oil

~ 1 1/2 t sugar

~1/2 t pepper

~4 garlic cloves, chopped

~rice, cooked (I used a mixture of white and brown because we had a smidge of white left.)

Add chicken to crock pot.

Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl.

Pour mixture over chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

Serve over rice.

4 servings.

This was really good. I think the yummy garlic in it made me forget about the fishiness. That's what I keep telling myself, at least. There's no possible way I like anchovies.

Here, fishy fishy.

Since I'm kind of new to the whole liking fish thing, I didn't know what to do with the 2 filets staring me down in the freezer. Here's what I did:

"Orange Tilapia" (6 quart pot)

~2 frozen tilapia filets
~1/4 c orange marmelade
~1 T lemon juice
~salt
~pepper

Lay out some aluminum foil.
Sprinkle both sides of fish with salt and pepper and place on foil.
Pour lemon juice on fish.
Dump marmelade on top of fish.
Wrap fish in foil.
Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

2 servings.

This was different. At first, I couldn't decide if it was a good different or a bad different, but my other half liked it, so I decided it was a good different. I really wish I was a bigger fan of fish.

Something's fishy.

The entire meal takes less than a half hour in the oven and gets me to eat fish, so it's an awesome go-to.

"Coconut Crusted Tilapia" (6 quart pot)

~2 coconut crusted tilapia fillets from Safeway's/Genuardi's meat case
~1 T lemon

Pour lemon over fish.
Wrap fish in aluminum foil.
Place in crock pot.
Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

Mmm...tilapia. It loses the crunchiness this way but the flavor is still there and it's super yummy.

Here end's "Been Awhile Week". Happy weekend! 

Like dip di-dip di-dip Doo-bop a doo-bee doo.

One of our sans crock pot go to meals is what we've creatively nicknamed "Fishcorn" which is one of our favorite things to shove in the oven/boiling pot of water when we don't have a lot of time to cook. It takes no effort to make and 30 minutes to cook. It's a breaded tilapia fillet from Safeway and an ear of corn. We also have a  seafood place nearby that we've (again) creatively nicknamed "The Fish Store". They serve lots of fresh seafood and you can add an ear of corn for $1.  

Tilapia is the only fish I actually enjoy eating other than canned tuna. Even then, I pretty much drown my tilapia in lemon juice. THAT is why I picked this recipe.

"Lemon Pepper Tilapia" (3.5 quart pot)

~2 fresh tilapia fillets
~3 T butter, softened
~1 T lemon juice
~1 t salt
~1/2 t pepper
~1 T fresh parsley
~1 T fresh chives

Mix last 6 ingredients in a small bowl.
Coat both sides of fillets with mixture.
Wrap fillets in aluminum foil.
Cover and cook on low for 2 hours.

It was good, but it wasn't lemony enough for my liking.

I kept running across a recipe for crocked corn on the cob. Yes, it takes 12 minutes on the stove top, but if you find/create a reason to crock corn on the cob (Like maybe you have no water, but you do have a electricity and a crock pot...?), this is what you do:

"Corn on the cob" (3.5 quart pot)

~corn on the cob (I used 2 ears, but you can use as many as you can fit in your pot)
~Aluminum foil

Shuck corn.
Wrap corn in aluminum foil.
Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.

It's corn on the cob. Crocked. Simple as that.