Lemon-Pesto Butter Tilapia with Spiced Pumpkin Loaves

As fall goes into full gear, it's time to pile on the pumpkin goodness. For dinner, I made a spiced pumpkin bread. This is not to be confused with being "spicy" but just flavorful, or spiced. It's warm and delicious with the perfect texture. The recipe makes two loaves, so serve both if you are expecting a big audience or freeze one as soon as it is cooled to room temperature after baking. Just wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in a plastic bag that is sealed and air tight! If you do that, it can stay frozen for many, many months. Simply let it defrost overnight when it's time to thaw it out.

Along with the bread, I made tilapia with a lemon-pesto butter. I'm a huge fan of pesto straight-up, but this version make it a little less tart, mellowing the flavor for casual pesto fans versus hard-core pesto eaters. The lemon flavoring complimented the pesto perfectly. I also prepared a southern corn succotash (previously featured) to round out dinner.

Difficulty: easy
Time: 1 hr 15 min
Cost: $13.66



Spiced Pumpkin Loaves
Time: 1 hr 15 min

Ingredients:
3.5 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cloves
1 1/3 c brown sugar (packed)
3/4 c fat free milk
1/3 c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 can pumpkin (15 oz)

(this recipe is based upon a similar one from Cooking Light)

Get your oven pre-heating to 350 degrees.

Measure and put the flour into a large bowl, using a knife to level the flour in a measuring cup before pouring it into the bowl. Add the baking powder, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking soda, and cloves. Mix well.

In a separate (smaller) bowl, mix the brown sugar, milk, oil, vanilla, eggs, and pumpkin. Mix until well combined.

Make a well or hole in the middle of the dry flour mixture. Pour the wet mixture into the well and then mix just until combined with a smooth texture and no extraneous bits of flour that are not well incorporated.

Grease two loaf pans with cooking spray and divide the pumpkin mix evenly between them. The bread will rise a fair amount, so you want a comfortable margin.

Bake for 1 hr or until done (check with a toothpick to the center.) Cool on a wire rack until you can eat them.

Lemon-Pesto Butter Tilapia
Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
3 tbsp butter (or fake butter), softened
2 tbsp pesto
2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp shallots, diced
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 lb tilapia
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Make sure your butter is softened before starting. Mix it in a small bowl with the pesto, basil, shallots, and lemon rind. Once this is well mixed set it to the side.

Heat a pan over medium high heat. Add the oil and let that heat as well. Sprinkle the tilapia with black pepper evenly and add it to the pan. Saute for about 5 minutes on each side or until done. (Keep in mind tilapia cooks quite quickly and may be done faster than that.)

Remove the pan from the heat, but keeping the fish in the pan, slather the pesto butter on top of each fillet until it all used up evenly. Enjoy!