Lemon Garlic Tilapia

This is a dish I've made previously, but tonight I served it with a couple of different sides. This is also a recipe that I learned from...last time, I decided that there was way too much lemon juice involved, so I was able to correct that on my second go 'round. The recipe is from allrecipes.com. You'll see it's a baked dish, which normally qualifies it for a FIAFI meal. However, you can only "forget it" for about 15 minutes, as you'll need to begin preparing your sides to serve along with it.

Tonight I served a veggie medley (corn, carrots, green beans, and peas) and a small-portion side of whole-grain linguine. I used frozen veggies--something I don't usually do, but it's definitely cheaper than buying the ingredients separately, and I can only use 1-2 servings as needed. And I'm not a fan of whole-grain pastas, but I'm learning to appreciate them a little more; they are a good 30-40 calories less per serving than regular pastas. (However, I did add a fraction of those calories back by sprinkling about a teaspoon of grated Parmesan cheese on the linguine.)

This was a quick and easy dish to make, and I also had a little fun with the presentation. It's a 243 calorie meal, but you can make it less than 150 calories by not serving the pasta.

Chicken? Again?!

After all that ranting and raving over beef, you think I'd never go back to chicken or fish. But woman cannot survive on cow alone. Wait...that's not right...

I guess I'm just holding out...waiting for a special occasion, maybe; I don't think I'm ready to deplete my freezer full of top sirloin too quickly. Therefore, I have to throw in a chicken dish here and there. Maybe even pasta from time to time, but pasta's not a significant low-calorie dish. There's always fish, but I feel like I should have gills by now, as much as I've eaten in the last three weeks.

I also had this handy-dandy recipe in my inbox, sent from campbellskitchen.com, for Herb Baked Chicken. It was very good--and easy to make, since it's one of those FIAFI ("fix-it-and-forget-it"...a term I usually reserve for anything baked, slow-cookers, and rice cookers/steamers) meals. Of course, anytime you're using soup, you're going to forfeit the "low" in low-calories. You can make up for about 50 of those calories, though, by substituting brown rice for white rice. (I used a long-grain brown and red rice blend we recently picked up from Costco.) I also used chicken breast tenderloins, but you can use boneless chicken breasts, and even cut those into tenderloin-sized pieces. I'm not usually a fan of bone-in anything...unless it's a rib-eye or T-bone steak.

(There we go back to the beef again!)

In this recipe you can use either thyme or rosemary. I chose to use rosemary; I think it adds a ton of flavor to any meat, but especially to chicken. Prep time for this dish is about five minutes, and you'll bake it for a total of one hour. (Stop halfway between to spoon in the soup as noted in the recipe.) The rice choice made for an interesting mix of colors, and for just over 300 calories, this was a deeeelish chicken dish!

Where's the Beef?

My apologies for the significant gap between my previous post and this one. I can explain: You see, this low-calorie diet started off pretty well, but then I began to realize I was basically playing it safe by finding different ways to flavor tilapia and chicken. Sure, I had some salmon (you know, mix it up a bit) and a couple of low-calorie fast food meals (now there's an oxymoron), but there was definitely something missing... Beef.

Now, I love a cow as much as some eastern religions do, but for entirely different reasons. I always thought it'd be nice to raise cattle. Not only is it a lifestyle (I'd finally get to be a real cowgirl), but it's a profitable market. Then I realized I'd probably just eat all my profits, so maybe it's not such a good idea after all.

And are you familiar with Kobe beef? No, not the west-coast beef that wears a purple and yellow jersey and dunks a basketball... I'm talking about the cows that are grass/natural grain fed (even given beer in the UK) and have their back-sides massaged for a more tender, flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth marbled meat. (OK, who else is imagining one of those Chick-fil-A cows in a pair of fuzzy slippers and plush robes at a day spa?)

[Excuse me just a moment...I need to grab a paper towel to wipe off the keyboard. I may have been salivating as I typed.]

So, you can see, there's a serious void that needs filling in my diet. And tonight I decided to take care of that; I found a low-calorie beef teriyaki recipe at allrecipes.com (one of my favorite recipe sites). This recipe was perfect for two reasons:

1) Just look at it. It looks so darn good...all 259 calories of it! (See all that beef in there?)

2) Because it was so low-calorie, I had room for dessert.

Hey...I ALWAYS save room for dessert!

"Hibachi" Tilapia & Asparagus

Well, today is my first official day of dieting. Mark is on a low-calorie diet to lose a few pounds, and (sadly) he talked me into it, as well. Actually, it was totally my choice, but we mulled it over and I decided, why not...I could lose a few pounds, too. I've been trying really hard to gain weight for so long, but with football season over and my more inactive lifestyle taking over, I have noticed some "collection" (if you will) of chunkiness in some not-so-desirable areas on my body. By losing a few pounds, I can be more lean...and have the "aesthetic muscle tone" that you'd expect to see on a personal fitness trainer.

Having made this decision, this cooking blog is about to take a turn in the "low calorie recipes" direction. But know that I am still a sucker for red meat and carbohydrates (and must still consume a good portion of both protein and carbs to maintain energy and to build muscle), so I work extra hard during the day to burn calories just so I can consume them at dinnertime!

(And, yes, I run an extra 60 minutes at least one day every two weeks in order to make a trip to Coldstone for a delightful ice cream treat. In a waffle bowl. And there's usually a good amount of cookie dough in there somewhere, too.)

Tonight's menu is easy: fish and a veggie. We had some fresh tilapia leftover from last week that we froze, so all we needed to pick up was a bunch of fresh asparagus. I added some salt, crushed black pepper, and ginger and garlic to the fish, then pan-seared the tilapia fillets on medium-high heat (four minutes on one side, 2-3 minutes on other). I did the same for the asparagus to achieve a hibachi-style flavor and texture; however, I skipped the salt and added one tablespoon of soy sauce to the pan.

The result was quite fabulous...and delicious. And all less than 200 calories. I think I'm going to like this diet thing. ;-)

Low Calorie Dinner

Both of us were just getting back home from Fourth of July weekend in NC, and tonight is the only night I'm cooking at home this week. So I wanted something quick. Cheap. And easy. Baked ziti fit the criteria well, but Mark has decided (as I was just informed) to go on a low-calorie diet to get back down to a "target" weight. (My "target weight" is anything greater than 135 and less than 160... What?! I like big targets; they're easier to hit!) He suggested chicken or fish--no heavy carbs--so baked ziti was a no-go.

I am not easily daunted by sudden challenges, but I knew this one was going to be tough, as I have never cooked for a specific diet before. (Not to mention I love, love, LOVE carbs.) So to the computer I went, and quickly found several low-calorie/low-carb recipes. Most recipes were chicken and fish (and vegetables...but man cannot survive on veggies alone), but I did find a handful of beef recipes that were in the 260-300 calories per serving range.

I decided to prepare a recipe I found on allrecipes.com called "Normal Chicken." Sounds kind of boring, I know, but with only three ingredients (chicken breasts, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce)--and 185 calories per serving--this recipe was more "simple" than normal. I did add a fourth ingredient--brown sugar--and the final meal was a far cry from normal. I would definitely put this dish in my Top Five All-Time Favorite Dinner Dishes. (That's an unofficial list I should actually consider maintaining. Maybe I'll refresh it every month or two, and see what meals get bumped out of the top five and which new meals make an appearance there for the first time. Even better, an award would be in order for the meal that maintains a top-five status the longest. Hmmmm...)

This is a baked dish, too, so it's one of those fix-it-and-forget-it type (FIAFI) dinners...my favorite! I prepared the rest of the meal in a rice cooker/steamer (white rice and steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots), so tally up another FIAFI for the chef!

With the rice, this meal was less than 500 calories; only chicken and veggies is about 250 calories. Not too shabby for a low-calorie/low-carb dinner. And who'd have thought diets could be so darn deeee-lish?