Go Fish

Our family has never eaten fish. Neither Mike nor I ate it growing up and neither of us really knows how to cook it. But, we keep hearing how healthy it is and how good it is for us so we decided to give it a try.

Last week I grilled some marinaded tuna steaks. Probably cooked them too long, but overall they weren't too bad. Both kids thought they were chicken and declared them...you guessed it...mediocre! We told them afterward what they had eaten and nauseous looks overtook them. Just the thought of eating fish made them feel ill.

A good friend shared a tilapia recipe with me and I decided to give it a try last night but not tell the kids what they were going to eat. Usually my kids aren't in the kitchen helping with dinner, but on the night I decide to cook fish I can't get them out from under my feet wanting to help! Katey saw the fillets in the sink and the following conversation took place:

K: What are we having for dinner?
Me: Meat.
K: What kind of meat?
Me: (trying hard not to laugh and not to lie too much) Oh, it's kind of like chicken.
K: It looks like FISH (making gagging noises). Is it tuna again?
Me: No, it's not tuna.
K: What is it, then?
Me: Tilapia.
K: What is tilapia?
Me: Our dinner. It's kind of like chicken. Out of the kitchen!!

We have just sat down to the dinner table when Mike arrives home and proclaims, "Smells like fish in here!" To which I reply, while shooting him a dirty look, "We're having TILAPIA for dinner, not fish!" (Somehow Mike managed to accidentally use the word fish 2 more times in the course of the dinner.)

Seth was the first one to dive in and said that it tasted kind of sour. The recipe called for lemon juice, so that explained the sour. He ate it all without complaint and when asked what he thought his reply was: "It was yucky. I didn't like it but I ate it all anyway." Katey asked if he thought it was mediocre and he said no, he thought it was only so-so!

Katey decided she hated the meat before even taking a bite. We couldn't get her to even finish the small serving that was on her plate. Katey not finishing her dinner is a big deal (kind of like a fish out of water - HA!). At one point Mike asked Katey what kind of an animal a tilapia is. Katey's reply? "Well, it's definitely not a farm animal, that's for sure!" We did finally tell the kids what they ate...and neither were too happy about it, of course.

I didn't get any pictures last night, but this morning I asked the kids to make a face showing me how they liked the fish last night. This is what they gave me: