Tilapia cake cobb salad stacks

One of my favorite parts of the weekend is waking up, remembering it's the weekend, and realizing I can do whatever I want with my day. Usually on the weekends we are up and out the door to hike in the mountains, but with the cold weather and the record breaking amount of snow in February, we have been taking it a little slower in the mornings. 

This weekend we woke up leisurely, ate breakfast, read, and relaxed. Or at least we relaxed for a little, before I began to demand some outdoor activity. We bundled up and took the dog on our favorite little stroll up the trails by our hours, wound our way to downtown for some hot chocolate, and then took a little self-guided historic Boulder homes tour. It was all very lovely. 

We ate a lot too. Cold snowy days inevitably seem to contain a lot of good eats. Last weekend when we were getting pummeled with snow, we went to my favorite restaurant, Bru, and ate breakfast pizza swimming in sausage gravy, fried apple rings dunked in a maple creme fraiche, and then to top it off the restaurant gave us a complimentary chocolate beer cream filled donut. It was a really spectacular meal and way more food than two people should ever consume for brunch, but don't think I regret it. Not for minute. 

This tilapia cake wedge salad stack also graced one of our snow day menus. We absolutely loved it. The tilapia cake could also be made with crab or salmon. Tilapia is just more cost effective and with all the other flavors going on here, tilapia works well. This meal is easy and fun. It also includes bacon and blue cheese so there's that. Stack the bacon and blue cheese with a really tasty tilapia cake, hard boiled egg, some lettuce for good measure, and a red wine vinaigrette, and I promise you will be happy. It's a weekend delight.

Tilapia cake cobb salad stacks

Adapted from Seriously Delish, serves 4 

2 eggs, hard boiled and sliced

6 slices of bacon, cooked and cut in half 

Vinaigrette (you could use a store bought dressing too but this is pretty delicious)

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon honey 

1 garlic clove, minced

Pinch of salt and pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

Tilapia cake

1 pound tilapia

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced

3 tablespoons red onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

8 multigrain crackers, crushed

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon greek yogurt, sour cream, or mayo

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

To serve

1 large tomato, sliced

Red onion, sliced

1 avocado, sliced

1 head of romaine lettuce

Blue cheese crumbles

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Start by cooking your bacon and hard boiling your eggs. Set these aside. 

Put all your vinaigrette ingredients in a jar and shake until combined or whisk together. 

Place tilapia in a baking dish and bake 10-15 minutes, until fish flakes easily with a fork. In a large bowl, flake tilapia into small chunks and combine with bell pepper, red onion, garlic, and crackers. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, mustard, yogurt, salt, and pepper. Add the egg mixture to the tilapia mixture and stir well to combine. 

Form 4 patties with the tilapia mixture. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with the olive oil. Add tilapia cakes to the skillet and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. 

Layer lettuce with red onion, tomato, hard boiled egg, tilapia cake, avocado, bacon, and sprinkle blue cheese on top. Drizzle with the vinaigrette. Yum!