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!!

Pasta, Salad and stuff

Today was a long day.  We had an Evangelism Tea at our church.  It was a lot of fun. My big sissy came all the way down from Richmond and sat with me.  It was a good time.  Unfortunately, I was rather melancholy when I got home.  I think it was because the speaker's message really struck a chord with me topped off by the fact that I guess I am worried about my husband's test results and my current job status.  WHEW....that is a lot!

This morning while lounging in bed before hitting the shower, I watched the new episode of Trisha Yearwood's cooking show on Food Network.  I love her cooking show but I was especially interested in it today because she was having her husband, Garth in the kitchen.  I really like him and I love Trisha because she is so REAL.  Her recipes on the show today were very diverse.  I have to admit I will never try her black bean & tofu lasagna.  My family would probably run me out of Dodge if I served tofu!  The Ty's Thai Salad sounded lovely.  The peanut butter balls looked delicious and deadly!

After the tea today, I headed to the grocery store alone with my melancholy self to buy milk and eggs.  After hugging my favorite cashier  Oshaine ( and trying to remember to only call him Shaine) I meandered through the produce department.  I suddenly found myself craving the salad I saw Trisha make.  I started throwing things in my cart and trying very hard to keep a count on the amount of money I was spending.

Here is the link to the original Trisha Yearwood recipe:

Trisha Yearwood's Ty's Thai Salad

So I started out by chopping up my cilantro.

There is something earthy and luscious about the smell of cilantro.  It speaks to my heart somehow and I truly love it.  Lately I have been trying to find different ways to use it.  Next I smashed three cloves of garlic. I confess, the Italian in me had me adding more garlic.  Her recipe only calls for two but I added one more.  I love it when I get the smell of garlic on my hands.  I know I am weird.

The dressing for the salad is the strangest I have ever tried.  Two cups of olive oil and one whole cup of sugar!  It was actually very tasty, not to mention a vibrant green!

Here it is in all of its green glory!  It was very, very sweet.  The ingredients were few and basic, olive oil, sugar, cilantro and garlic.  Quite the dressing!

After making the dressing I began to chop up my red cabbage, Napa cabbage and cucumber.  Now I have to make a confession:  as I chopped away (at the same time making my main dish of chicken and pasta) I completely forgot about the edamame. I also had neglected to buy a green onion while at the store, although I am proud of myself as I bought all the ingredients from memory with the green onion the only thing I forgot.  But alas, I forgot to include the edamame in my salad.

I threw some fresh, ripe avocado on top of my salad and three tablespoons of the cilantro lime dressing.  It was a yummy salad.  This was my very first experience with Napa cabbage.  I did not like it very much.  It was kind of curly and weird.  I am not sure what I should substitute it with? Any ideas?  I did like the red cabbage and the addition of the avocado.

I guess I am off to clean up my disaster I left in the kitchen from trying a new recipe.  Sometimes I turn into a tornado of disaster when trying a new recipe!  Don't forget to set your alarm to get up in time for church tomorrow!

Potatoes, Parrots and other GREEN things

Tonight's dinner was cube steak, baked potatoes and corn.  I wanted REAL steak but feeding a family of five + one requires some frugalness!  I needed steak as I have been dying to make a chimichurri sauce ever since I had it at a restaurant. And I must say, it turned out beautifully!

This is what I did:

(1) large bunch of cilantro, stems chopped off
(1) large bunch of Italian parsley, stems chopped off
(3) cloves of garlic, chopped and smashed
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
water

I do not own a food processor.  If I did, I definitely would have used it!  I put the most of it in my Kitchen Aid blender.  I added the garlic and then (1) tablespoon of the oil, vinegar and water.  I pulsed it for a minute then continued to add the liquid ingredients a tablespoon at a time until I got a smooth-like consistency.

I then transferred the ingredients to a bowl and let sit and "marry" while my son (God bless him) went outside in the 29 degree cold weather on the back porch to grill my steaks! He put the fire pit on to keep his backside warm while the front side of him was kept warm by the grill! It was not too bad for him out there!

I guess by now you are wondering where the potatoes and parrots come in, right?  We had one baked potato left over after dinner.  Our parrot LOVES potatoes!  I cut open the potato and put it in his cage where he happily proceeded to eat it.  He is such a goof ball.

Dinner was successful overall.  There was no steak or chimichurri left over. And the last potato went to the parrot!  This is a picture of me and Louie! My lovable, crazy Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot!