Something fishy is going on here....

So I've just finished reading the book "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto," by Michael Pollan, and am attempting to make some drastic changes to some of my eating habits, which I'm sure will slowly unfold in front of you within future posts...
Anyhow, one "rule" I've put into motion is to eat fish at least twice per week. This is not a difficult thing for me, as I LOVE fish, but I wasn't in the habit of making fish at home. First attempt: Tilapia With Cheesy Roasted Pepper-Chipotle Rice. The full recipe can be found HERE.

I check the recipe, cross-reference with my pantry. These are the things I need from the store:
1 jar roasted red peppers
4 tilapia or snapper filets
Chipotle salsa
Pitted kalamata olives, halved

I stop at Haggen's since it's on the way home from work, and I have to admit I love their mini-carts... Smaller than a regular cart, bigger than a basket. First on my list: the peppers. Find the jars of peppers, and most of them are preserved with other herbs! This certainly will not do... I find two jars to pick from that are not soaking up other herbs and grab the cheaper of the two (on sale for about $4.99 I think it was... ouch).
Next up, Olives: Yum. And so convenient - right next to the peppers! After wanting to spit the price of the peppers right out of my mouth, I decide to go with the olives that are NOT yet pitted. I can slice and pit some olives right? Especially for the difference in price! Another $5 gone on olives that I have to slice and pit myself... Great - this is not going the way I'd hoped so far.
Off to the meats counter for some fresh tilapia or snapper! Snapper: $9.99/lb... that seems a bit much... Tilapia: they only have pre-seasoned, which isn't going to work. I bow my head and walk over to the frozen fish: Bag of tilapia, 8 individually wrapped filets, $8.99! But what would I do with the rest of them... oh well I'll figure that out later.
Onto salsa. Chip aisle, right? Looking through all the Pace Picante's and such, no chipotle. Weird. Where would I get that?... I have a coupon for some gourmet looking salsa, but if it's not with the Pace (AKA the only Salsa I know, aside from Resers in the refrigerated section!), where would it be??? Hispanic Foods aisle. Found the brand I have the coupon for, reasonable price, so many flavors! No plain Chipotle. Pineapple chipotle will have to do I guess.
I get home, the recipe was actually pretty easy (especially if you have a food processor for that roasted red pepper!), although next time I'll spring for the olives that are already pitted. Absolutely delicious, if I may say so myself, although I didn't actually have to, as the two other diners that evening said it for me! Never mind that one was my mom and the other was Jared... They both said it's a "do again" recipe and I had to agree.
Later in the week, I did the rice again as a side to some enchiladas, but added some pepperoncinis (3) that we had in the fridge for some extra kick, and I bought a pepper and roasted it myself in the oven on the Broil setting - MUCH more economical, and I'll be certain to do it that way next time I cook it as well.
As for the rest of the tilapia, I found a recipe for Lemon Garlic Tilapia.
Jared and I cooked it up with some roasted asparagus and focaccia bread. It was awesome, and the cleanup was some of the easiest cleanup on a meal that we've done together so far!
Those were our two servings of fish last week, both recipes we'll be certain to do again, probably many times over. As my friend Megan is off picking up items for the first tilapia recipe, I felt the need to post before she had a chance to make it, create her own blog, and steal the thunder of my discovery :)