Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Tilapia Fillets

One of the biggest health changes we have made in our family meals is eating more fish.  I have proclaimed Monday nights as Seafood Mondays.  This helps keep me from reverting back to my favorite standby--chicken.  Because I didn't grow up eating fish very frequently, I don't have a ton of recipes stored up and I was initially a bit intimidated because I didn't know how to cook it.  But, I have been won over by frozen fish and here is why:

1. Frozen fish comes individually wrapped, pre-portioned, and in large bags that are on sale often.  This makes getting the exact portions I want out of the freezer quick and easy.
2. It cooks fast!  And for some reason, I never want to make dinner on Monday nights so the quick preparation makes for less time in the kitchen.
3. My three year old loves it!  I actually have to make an extra portion for him.  What more encouragement does a mom need to keep cooking a meal?
4. It's low in calories so it can be paired with higher calorie sides and still make for a healthy meal.

Today's Seasoned Tilapia Fillets is about as simple as it gets and are served with roasted glazed sweet potatoes and salad.

Seasoned Tilapia Fillets Recipe:

Ingredients
4, 4oz Tillapia Fillets
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt or Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning

Directions

1. Thaw fish completely. Place on broiler pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. 
2. Mix Salt, Pepper, and Mrs. Dash Seasoning together in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over fish fillets.
3. Broil in pre-heated oven, 3-5 inches from heat source for 8 minutes or until fish flakes easily, turning once halfway through cook time.

Now on to the sweet potatoes.  These pair excellently with the fish and taste WONDERFUL!!!

We call these treat potatoes in our house....they are a big hit with the whole family.

Recipe for Roasted Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients
4 cups Sweet Potato, diced (about 2 medium)

1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp Honey
1 tsp Cinnamon1/2 tsp Seasoned Salt

Directions

Cut sweet potatoes into 1 inch chunks. Put in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Stir until well coated. 

Spray a pan (stoneware or dark cookie sheet works best) with cooking spray

Roast sweet potatoes at 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally, until they reach desired crispness.

Meanwhile in large bowl, mix cinnamon, honey and seasoning salt. When potatoes come out of oven stir honey mixture with potatoes until potatoes are covered.

Hint: The crisper the potatoes the less they will mush when you stir them with the honey mixture.  I let mine get as crispy as they will get without burning before I pull them out of the oven.

Makes about 4- 1 cup servings

To round out this meal, I serve salad greens with homemade Balsamic-Orange Dressing that comes together in a flash.  

To include this meal as part of a 1600 calorie meal plan, here are some meal ideas:

Breakfast: 403 Calories

1 cup Greek or Plain lowfat yogurt stirred with -Save $0.60 on 2 cups Greek Yogurt

1 Tablespoon natural peanut butter

1 banana sliced

3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean Crisp- Save $1.00

Snack: 145 Calories

1 Whole Wheat Bagel thin

1 Wedge light Laughing Cow Cheese

Lunch: 513 Calories

1 1/2 Cheese Quesadillas 

Black Bean Dip

Matchstick Carrots

Snack: 80 Calories

Apple

Dinner: 454 Calories

Simple Seasoned Tilapia Fillets

Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Spring Greens with Balsamic-Orange Dressing

Total Calories: 1595

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Steak Pesto Pitawich and Shepherd's Pie

One of the greatest benefits to meal planning is when you figure out a way to cook once and eat twice--saving valuable time in the kitchen.

I am a super fan of leftovers.  My lunch is usually a leftover portion of dinner the night before, but when I can create something new from something leftover--that's when I really start to feel excited about eating leftovers.  On Sunday, I made extra Charcoal Steak and Mashed Potatoes, so instead of repeating our Sunday dinner on Monday, I created two brand new meals from our leftovers.  

Meal Number 1: Pesto Steak Pitawich


This simple sandwich can be made in minutes with pre-cooked steak or chicken.  

Recipe Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon prepared Pesto-such as Classico 
2-3 oz cooked Steak or Chicken
1 oz Mozzarella Cheese
1/4 Roma Tomato
1/2 Whole Wheat Pita Round

Heat the sandwich in a 400 degree oven or toaster oven until cheese is melty and pita is slightly toasty (around 8 minutes) If you brown bag your lunch each day and eat at work, I highly recommend purchasing a toaster oven for your break area---so much better than microwaved food!  I have bought one for every place I have been employed that didn't have a cafeteria!  These days my husband comes home for lunch as we eat at home. I ate the sandwich with yogurt sweetened with Truvia (save $1.00) and bananas--pictured here:

Meal Number 2: Shepherd's Pie

For the second meal, I used our leftover mashed potatoes to make Shepherd's Pie.  This version uses Creamed Corn and makes it a little sweet.


Shepherd's Pie Recipe:
1 lb Ground Turkey
1 Can Cream Style Corn
1 cup Raw Shredded Carrots
1 cup Onions, chopped
3 cups Mashed Potatoes
1 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning
1/5 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Directions

Brown ground turkey with onion and discard of grease. Add carrot and salt and pepper to taste.  Layer ground turkey on bottom of casserole dish. 

Cover with can of creamed corn. 

Top with mashed potatoes and sprinkle with Mrs. Dash Seasoning.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until heated through.

Makes 4 servings, 341 calories each.

These meals easily fall into a 1600 calorie day when you eat according to the plan below:


Breakfast:416 Calories
2 Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Pancakes
1/2 Banana
1 Tablespoon Real Maple Syrup


Snack: 80 Calories
Apple


Lunch: 500 calories
1/2 Pesto Steak Pita-wich
Yogurt with Stevia
1/2 Banana


Snack: 100 Calories
Raw Carrot Sticks
1 wedge Laughing Cow Cheese
5 Wheatable Crackers


Dinner: 391 Calories
Shepherd's Pie (1/4 of total recipe)
2 Cups Steamed Broccoli


Dessert: 131 Calories
2 Snicker's Mini Cakes


Total Calories: 1620

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Cheap Steak Dinner and Chocolate Mini Cake Desserts

On Sundays, I tend to relax my eating habits a bit.  We go to church and often have guests for Sunday dinner so a traditional Sunday dinner is often in order---including dessert....it'd be rude not to offer guests dessert right?


This week we didn't have any guests, but the newest member of our family is our Xpress Redi Set Go we got for Christmas.  My husband is absolutely enamored with this thing and he has spent more time in the kitchen in the last four days than perhaps in the last 3 months combined.  Give that man a gadget and he is hooked!


His favorite recipe is Cathy Mitchell's Mini Cakes (Yup, she's the lady from the info-infomercial if you've seen it) with snicker's mini's inside.  I have to admit....they are delectable!  I thought I better figure out how many calories are in them before I do myself in!

So here is a meal plan that includes a traditional Sunday dinner--the meat cooked while we were at church and dessert.  The total calories for the day come out to 1636.






Featured Meal:
Marinated Oven Charcoal Steak with Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Multi-Grain Roll

I'm working on my photography skills as we go along here...the meat portion I ended up eating was actually larger than the picture--about a third of the total steak.  The method of cooking is what is interesting about this recipe so let me get to it.


I purchased Charcoal Chuck Steak (i think it is also called arm steak) a while back because it was buy one, get one free, but it has sat in my freezer because I didn't know how to cook it and I HATE tough meat!  We live on a budget and wasting food isn't an option, so I set out to do some research on cooking this stuff---I was skeptical about the option I chose, but it perked my curiosity enough to try it...


First I marinated the steaks (I used the free one too for another meal).  Here is the recipe for the marinade:

Ingredients

• 2 lb Beef Chuck Arm Steak
• 3 tsp All Natural Dijon Mustard
• 3 tbsp Distilled White Vinegar
• 3 tbsp Marsala Cooking Wine
• 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2/3 cup Onions
• 2 cloves Garlic 
• 1 tsp Ground Thyme
• 1 tsp Montreal Steak Seasoning (McCormick Brand)

I marinated the steaks overnight because I knew I had a relatively tough piece of meat to begin with.  The vinegar breaks down the meat and tenderizes it.

Here is the best part---as I was rushing to get ready to go to church, this recipe only requires about 5 minutes of active time--if that!  Here's what you do:

To cook:
Place meat in a broiler pan or a roasting pan. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

place meat in oven and immediately turn oven down to 475. Cook 12 minutes per pound (for medium doneness).

After cooking time, turn oven off and leave meat to roast in oven for 2 1/2 hours. do not open oven during this time. Meat does not need to be covered or cooked with any liquid.  Here is what the finished product looked like.  It was pink in the middle...about medium doneness.

The meat was pretty tasty, but I did have to warm it up a bit when I got home from church.  it was tender too...especially in the center.  Served with the mashed potatoes, steamed green beans and a roll with jelly this meal totaled 555 calories.  See, you can have your red meat and eat it too!

Now on to dessert....if you didn't receive an Xpress Redi Set  Go cooker for Christmas, I am sure you can make these is a mini muffin pan.   I would guess you would bake them at 350 degrees for about 15-17 minutes...maybe less.  To use all the cake mix, triple the recipe.

Take one cup of dry Devil's food cake mix

1 egg

1/2 cup water

6 snicker's mini's

Mix the cake mix with the egg and water.  Spray muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray, and spoon batter into cups.  Place one mini snicker's into each cup.  Cook (in Redi Set Go) about 7 minutes.  How many calories you ask?  131 for two.  I had one, okay two, with 1/2 cup Blue Bunny Monster Cookie ice cream.  If you haven't tried that---it is a must!  This was a splurge worth taking!

So here is how the day plays out to stick to 1636 calories and have your cake and eat it too.

Breakfast: 266 calories

Thomas' Bagel Thin

with 1 wedge Light Laughing Cow cheese

1 Banana

Lunch: 555 calories

Oven Charcoal Steak* with 

Mashed Potatoes**

Steamed Green Beans

Sweet Multi Grain Roll


*Make extra and use your leftovers in a Steak Pita-wich
**Make extra and use your leftovers in Shepherd's Pie

Dessert: 311 calories
Chocolate Mini Cake
1/2 cup Blue Bunny Monster Cookie Ice Cream

Dinner: 504 calories

Leftover Tortilla Soup (from yesterday)

1/4 avocado

orange

Total Calories 1636

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Curry Chicken with Hummus and Caramelized Onions and Peppers

Welcome to Kitchy Mama Meals on my first official day of blogging.  I've gone public to friends and family and I would welcome your comments, encouragement....and your help passing along a link to my blog to some of your friends and family.  Take a few moments to click around and check out Kitchy Mama Meals and let me know what you think!  Now...on to blogging....

New Year's day! A day of new beginnings, resolutions, and hope for real change.  If you are like many of us, part of your goals for this year include losing weight.  But if we are honest, we still want to have our cake and eat it too--meaning we want to eat healthy without feeling like we are depriving ourselves of the joy that comes from eating GOOD FOOD!  Here's a New Year's Day menu that will keep you on track and still give you something to snack on during the big game!

Featured Meal:
Curry Chicken w/ Hummus and Caramelized Onions and Peppers

We operate on a pretty tight budget, so eating out has become a luxury---especially since having kids.  This meal is an adaptation from one of our favorite restaurants and it makes me feel like we're eating something special even when we don't leave the house.  As a bonus--it is pretty inexpensive to make, quick to cook, and makes for great snacking that doubles as a meal.

For the Hummus:
I like this recipe for hummus because it is made with commonplace ingredients.  Tahini is still hard to come by in Kansas!  Ready in under 5 minutes--you will never buy hummus from the store again.

Recipe:

• 1 can Garbanzo Beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil  Save $1.00
• 3 tbsp Lite Sour Cream
• 3 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp Ground Cumin
• 1 Garlic Clove
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Directions:

Drain and rinse garbanzo beans.  Simply dump all ingredients into a food processor.  Blend until smooth and creamy--2-3 minutes.  Blending is key...I just keep blending until I like the texture.  

For the chicken and vegetables:

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Olive Oil, divided
• 12 oz Chicken Breast
• 1/2 tsp Salt, divided
• • 1/2 tbsp Curry Powder
  • 1 tsp Ground Cumin
  • 1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
• 1 cup Red Bell Peppers
• 1 cup Orange or Yellow Bell Pepper
• 1 medium Onion, Sweet

Directions

1.Cut chicken into small pieces and cover with spices, reserving 1/4 teaspoon salt.

2. Chop onions and peppers into thin slices. 

3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in non-stick skillet. Cook onions and peppers with remaining salt until brown and carmelized (20 minutes over medium heat).  Remove from pan. 

4.Heat remaining oil and cook chicken until heated through and no longer pink. 

While the onions and peppers are cooking, I throw pita rounds into the oven at 400 degrees.  I literally just put them on the rack.  I cook them until they are slightly toasty, but still soft.  when they come out of the oven I cut them into triangle wedges and split them apart.  If you have more time, you can cut the pitas into wedges before cooking them and place them on a baking sheet.   This will result in a crisper pita more like a cracker.  

As I mentioned before, we eat this meal when we want to feel like we have been to our favorite restaurant so I plate it up like we are at a party.  I also add some carrots to try to trick my family into eating some raw veggies with the meal.  We plan to eat this in front of the television during the game--we rarely eat in front of the television so this makes it seem like an even bigger treat!

As promised, here is a 1600 calorie meal plan for the entire day, including the meal above:

Breakfast- 362 Calories

2 Banana Nut Muffins
1/2 cup Plain Yogurt sweetened with Stevia and Cinnamon

Snack- 121 Calories
banana

Lunch- 490 Calories
Hummus and Toasted Pita
with Curry Chicken and Caramelized Onions and Peppers
Raw Carrots

Snack- 160 Calories
2 Clementine Oranges

Dinner- 429 Calories
1 bowl Tortilla Soup* with Avocado Slices (1/2 of medium avocado)
2 cups Side Salad with Chili-Lime Dressing

*I always make extra soup and freeze it or eat if for a meal the next day.

Total- 1564 Calories

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