Italian Style Fish & Pasta Recipe for Busy Moms Sam’s Club Style

We’ve always been busy but it seems that since Amber started Kindergarten a few weeks ago we entered into the throes of busyness–full speed ahead!

Hubby is taking 17 credits this semester towards his Electrical Engineer degree–the easiest of which involves many squiggly lines and calculus equations that make my eyeballs cross, then Amber is in kindergarten which here is from 7:55 to 2:30 each day & will be starting ballet again soon, I’m working from home 30 hours a week, and Tyler is still home full time and I’m doing pre-k with him 2 mornings a week. Needless to say with all of that I’m going from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day—and still need to manage to fit in exercising, laundry, and cooking, and grocery shopping at Sam’s Club into the equation!

Now more than ever I have to rely on a schedule and a plan to make sure nothing is slipping through the cracks, and when it comes to planning on our meals it’s especially important since I’m still making a home cooked meal each night. So once a week I sit down and plan out our meals for the week (breakfast, what to pack Amber for lunch, and our dinners.) Then I stick them on a dry erase board on our fridge–not quite as fun as some of those ideas I’ve seen on Pinterest, but it works!

I’m always been known for loving my “cheat night” meals and now they’re more important than ever so I’m always on the lookout for fast, easy, semi-homemade meals! When I’m creating our meal plan each week I try to include a good mix of homemade and semi-homemade meals–here’s an example of this weeks plan! (pardon the chicken scratch, I normally don’t show this off!)

 Menu Plan

Monday – Taco Pizza – emeals recipe–post coming soon

Tuesday – Italian-Style Fish & Pasta – this recipe!

Wednesday – Mini Pizzas — Recipe coming soon and you use the extra sauce from this recipe for them!

Thursday – Tuna Casserole – another hubby recipe, coming soon!

Friday – Homemade Chicken Pockets

Saturday – Bob’s Hot Bottom Chilli

Sunday – Chicken Cord on Blue

From Pinterest to in-store displays I’m always on the lookout for meals to add to our rotation–so I always pay attention when I see store demos since they’re a great place to find deals and new recipe ideas! Since I figured you might too I thought I’d let you know about these 3 great, fun demos that will be at Sam’s Club soon! #SamsDemos #cbias

• September 17:  Italian Style Fish and Pasta (sound familiar? go try it for yourself!)

• September 19: Smoked Sausage Pasta OR Quick ‘N’ Easy Chicken Parmesan

• September 24: Chicken dippers

Now on to the fun part of the post–the recipe! Now–something important first–when I first heard of this recipe my first response was not, ummm, over enthusiastic! I just couldn’t wrap my mind around how fish and red sauce would go together–but never fear–this is *absolutely* delicious!!! Everyone in our family gave it two big thumbs up, including the two picky kiddos, and I will be making this again for sure!

Italian Style Fish & Pasta Recipe

Ingredients:

4 Treasures from the Sea® Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia  — So good that both my Mom-in-Law *and* hubby both thought I made it fresh and from scratch (true story)! None of us could believe it was frozen fish!!

2 Cans Hunt’s Tomato Sauce

1/2 Package Daily Chef™ Spaghetti

4 TBSP Olive Oil

1/4 small onion

2 TBSP Minced Garlic

1 1/2 TBSP Italian Seasoning

(checkout the latest Sam’s Club coupons before you shop!)

First you’ll want to pre-heat the over for your tilapia–you’ll cook it according to the package directions. Next you’ll want to finely chop the onion–I like to buy my garlic pre-minced to save time but it’s hard to match the taste of fresh chopped onion so I always do that myself! Then you’ll heat 2 TBSP of oil in a sauce pan and add onion & cook until translucent.

Next add the garlic and saute until both it and the onion are slightly brown and smelling delicious!

Next you’ll add in 2 cans of Hunts Tomato Sauce and the Italian Seasoning–this recipe makes quite a bit of marinara style pasta sauce, but I love saving the extra and using it on mini pizzas!

Busy Mom Tip: Make a big batch of marinara style sauce with Hunts Tomato Sauce and save the extra for mini pizzas!

Bring the sauce to a simmer. Now cook the tilapia and the spaghetti!

When the spaghetti is cooked and drained toss it with the remaining 2 TBSP of olive oil.

Serve the fillet on top of the pasta and top with the sauce. Enjoy!

 Have you ever tried Fish & Pasta together? What did you think of it?