Simple Fish Tacos with Corn and Tomato Salsa by My Fitness Pal blog

Still no church cookbook but I am continuing my quest to make exceptionally healthy and fulfilling meals for my family and stay at 400 calories or less. I'm really enjoying the adventure of cooking in new ways. Tonight's recipe was found after hitting Google up for "Recipes with 400 calories or less".

Google led me to the Fitness Pal blog and "14 Filling Dinners - 400 calories or less". The recipe that caught my eye was the Fish Tacos. Truthfully I have always been afraid of cooking fish. I was never taught how and it seems pretty intimidating to me.

You can find the recipe right here:

Simple Fish Tacos with Corn & Tomato Salsa

I decided to use Tilapia instead of Mahi-Mahi. I also decided to get a frozen bag instead of buying it fresh. I'm not really sure how to buy fresh fish so frozen worked for me. I was in a little bit of a rush at the store and missed a few ingredients. One important one was the coriander for the rub/sauce that went on the fish before it was baked. I ended up using more cumin in place and it worked. I did learn something new: coriander is basically dried cilantro.

When I made the corn and tomato salsa the recipe said to cut the grape tomatoes in half. I did not like how large that left the tomatoes so I cut most of them into thirds. I also forgot to purchase the shallot so I used green onions in place of the shallot.  It was very good.

First bite of the taco was amazing! I loved it and it tasted better than any I have ever had in a restaurant. Yeah, I know, I made them but it was wonderful. I baked the tilapia and it turned out perfect. I will definitely make this again!

Womans Day magazine recipes

We are finally back in our home. Unpacking is continuing and I have no idea where my church cookbook is but I hope to find it soon and resume my testing of each recipe in the book. Until then I have been looking for healthier ways to feed the family.

The March 2017 issue of Womens Day has four recipes that are 400 calories or less. The first one I made tonight was the Meatball soup. It was a little bit labor intensive because of the grating of the fresh ginger. Outside of grating the ginger, it was a fairly easy recipe to make. I admit I was a little nervous broiling the meatballs but it worked very well. I am not going to list the recipe but instead I have provided the link to the website as this is not mine.

Gingery Meatball Soup with Bok Choy

My take aways for this recipe:

• I only bought one head of Bok-Choy. Truthfully the recipe was not exactly clear. It said four heads and about 12 ounces. I believe it actually needed four separate ones but not sure. I felt like the one I bought did not provide enough greens for the soup. Next time I make it I will use more Bok-Choy. 
• It was the very first time I have ever tried Bok-Choy and was not sure how to use it. My little friend Google told me that the stem parts are edible as well so I tore the leaves into the pan but chopped the stems up so that they would cook quicker.
• The ground chicken was very, very sticky. I have no idea what I should have done to make it easier to roll the meatballs.
• I made my meatballs too big so the cooking time under the broiler was longer for mine.
• I did not chop the cilantro up well enough. Mine had large pieces of the leaves and that just did not work out well. Next time I will chop finer. 
• The husband liked it but the son did not. I liked it but felt the cilantro was too strong and that it needed more garlic.

As if trying one new recipe was not enough, I also tried a second recipe from the same magazine and same set. I have provided the link to the website as this is not my recipe.

Sweet and Sour Pork and Vegetable Stir-Fry

My take aways for this recipe:

• This recipe was quite delicious. The only problem is it did not have enough sauce. I do not know if it was the recipe or if it was me as I followed it completely except for the bean sprouts.
• The only reason I did not add the bean sprouts was because Kroger did not have them today.
• I think next time I will try this with chicken as my hubs cannot have very much pork.
• I will also double the hoison sauce mixture
• Everyone like this one - hard to believe a serving is only 317 calories.

Overall it was a successful meal. It was very challenging for me to use new ingredients I had never tried before. I hope you give it a try and I sure wish Womens Day would let me know some more info on both recipes.

Glad to be back!!