You can enjoy fish on a budget

Have you seen the prices at the fish counter lately?

During Lent, which begins today, prices tend to dip some, yet the more budget-friendly alternatives for meatless meals continue to come from a can.

Fresh salmon and tuna can run upward of $20 a pound while canned salmon, for instance, runs about 30 cents an ounce. A can of tuna costs about 22 cents an ounce.If you take care how you prepare canned tuna or salmon, your dinner guests won't give these seafood options a second thought

Take these salmon-potato cakes, for example. They cost about $1.50 per serving and are reminiscent of salmon croquettes, but quicker and simpler to make.

The flaked fish is combined with onion and thawed, frozen hash brown potatoes (which can cost less per pound than fresh) and bound together with beaten egg, Dijon mustard and dry bread crumbs.

The recipe is easily doubled; just cook the cakes in batches and keep them warm in a 200-degree oven. The pasta bake is just a healthy, modern take on tuna casserole that brings together whole wheat pasta and low-sodium soup with tuna, vegetables and low-fat cheese for a hearty, meatless meal.

A curried couscous and faux seafood salad uses inexpensive surimi ("formed fish" in Japanese), which is sold as imitation crab, lobster, shrimp and scallops. It's not canned, but close, and is widely available in the seafood section of most grocers.

This seafood product - which is made from mild, white fish such as pollock - does a wonderful job standing in for the real deal at a fraction of the cost (usually just $2 to $3 per pound).

The couscous is cooked in bottled clam juice, which gives the salad an extra boost of fresh, ocean flavor.

This budget seafood salad can be prepared for less than $1.75 per serving. Add some salad greens and crunchy breadsticks to make it a meal.

•Associated Press contributed to this report.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>Recipes</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> </div> <div class="recipeLink"> <ul class="moreLinks"> <li><a href="/story/?id=358491" class="mediaItem">Modern Tuna-Pasta Casserole </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=358490" class="mediaItem">Curried Couscous and Faux Seafood Salad</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=358488" class="mediaItem">Bread, Tomato and Tuna Salad</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=358487" class="mediaItem">Spanish Salmon Bake</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>