This recipe started as a Creamy Chicken, Mushroom and Wild Rice Casserole from Womansday.com.  As you can see from the title I did not use chicken because in the process of trying to clean out my freezer and pantry by instituting a personal No Buy Month I had no chicken in the house.  I always have chicken in the freezer.  So, as I got halfway through the recipe and realized that was the only thing I was missing I decided to try it with Tilapia.

I have several family members who do not like mushrooms.  Normally I would put them in anyways but because I had baby spinach I wanted to use up and the idea of cheese, spinach and fish together sounded appealing to me I left out the mushrooms in the recipe.

I love playing with recipes and using them as a jumping off point to create things I know my family will like.  This is one of those dishes.  Taking pieces of recipes and blending the flavors we love to create new combinations.

Ingredients:

•  4 tablespoon(s) butter, plus more for the dish
• 1 1/2 cup(s) wild rice blend, such as Lundberg
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 bag of fresh baby spinach any tough stems removed
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoon(s) fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoon(s) all-purpose flour
• 3 cup(s) fat-free half and half
•  2 cups Gruyère, grated
• 1/2 cup of Monterey Jack cheese, grated
• Kosher salt
• pepper
• 2 lbs. Tilapia, mine were frozen but I highly recommend starting to thaw in refrigerator before using for a quicker cooking dish
  
• Morton Season Salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.   Spray a 9 x 13-in. casserole dish with non-stick spray.
2. Cook the rice according to package directions.
3. Meanwhile, heat 2 Tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender and turning translucent, 6 to 8 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook for 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl and toss with the spinach.
4. Wipe out the skillet and heat the remaining 2 Tbsp butter over medium heat. Sprinkle the flour over the top and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the half and half. Simmer, whisking often, until thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add spinach mix to the cheese,  rice, salt and pepper; stir until the cheese melts and the sauce is just smooth.
5. Place the rice mix in the bottom of the pan and cover top of pan with aluminum foil.  Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Remove pan from oven.  Uncover and place Tilapia over the rice (Brown, bottom side facing up).  Bake about 20 more minutes. Do not recover pan with aluminum foil.
7. After 20 minutes turn the fish over so the white top is facing up.  Sprinkle with Morton Season Salt if desired.  This gives the fish a bit of flavor.  Return pan to oven and bake until fish is cooked through.   Fish will be warm in center and no longer translucent.
8. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving to set rice.

My fish took quite awhile to cook through but as I said I was cooking it from a frozen state.  In total the dish took about 75 minutes to cook.  I believe without the frozen fish I could take off about 20 minutes.