Firecracker Tilapia.

Tilapia was the fish that we had on the menu for tonight. But I never wrote down how I had planned on cooking it. So I winged it. Ok, I didn't really wing it. My mother in law gave me Secret Restaurant recipes for Christmas, so I flipped through it until I found a fish recipe. Which just happened to be one from Chili's. I'd never heard of it or tried it, and I didn't have all the ingredients it called for, so I did have to improvise that is why I'm claiming to have winged it.

Fire Cracker Tilapia (makes 2 filets)

WW points plus: 5 pts per serving

2 Tilapia filets (3-4 ounce each)

1 tsp olive oil

1 Tbsp garlic, minced

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce, reduced sodium

1 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

1 tsp to 1 tbsp Chili garlic sauce (depends on how spicy you want it)

2 Tbsp Brown sugar

4 Tbsp Panko Bread crumbs

Turn Broiler in oven on Low.

In a saute pan, heat oil on medium, add garlic and saute 1 minute. In a small bowl mix Soy Sauce, Vinegar, Oyster Sauce, Chili Garlic Sauce and Brown sugar. Pour into pan with garlic. Stir until sauce thickens and is bubbly. Turn stove eye off.

On a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil spray with PAM, then spray 1 side of Tilapia with PAM, place sprayed face down. Spray top then sprinkle with Panko crumbs. Then spoon garlic mixture over the top to cover. And place under the broiler 8-10 minutes or until the fish is flaky.

We served it with Broccoli, and I was going to do rice, but didn't have any brown rice (how did I run out of that?? eek) So instead I did a Fresh steamer bag of Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrots in Cheese sauce.

I have to admit the fish was better than I thought it was going to be. The sauce and panko crumbs made it a little crunchy, and was a great texture to the flaky fish!!

Flounder for the first time.

I usually stick to Tilapia when thinking about fish. Because it's mild and not a real "fishy" fish, if you know what I mean. But I have been know to go out of my comfort zone and try something that I would not normally pick...

Tonight being one of those times. I found this recipe in a Low fat/ Low Cholesterol cookbook. It sounded kinda weird, but I thought what the heck... I'd give it a try 1 time.... ok, now maybe more. It was light and the sauce actually came together really nicely and tasted good. The only downside was that flounder is expensive... or at least it was at Publix this past week. OH well. just another thing I will have to watch for on sale.

Flounder with Mustard Sauce over Spinach (makes 4 servings)

WW pts: 3 pts.

4 Fish Fillets (sole or flounder) 4 ounces each

1/4 cup of fat free or light ranch dressing

3 tbsp fat free plain yogurt (I used Fat free sour cream)

1 1/2 Tbsp Plain mustard

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic salt

8 ounces spinach, fresh

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rinse fish and pat dry. Place in a 13 x 9 pan. In a small bowl, stir together the ranch, yogurt,mustard, pepper and garlic salt. Spoon evenly over the fish.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until the fish is flaky. I did it for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove stems from spinach. Rinse spinach thoroughly. Drain well. Heat non-stick skillet over med-high heat. Cook the spinach until wilted, a minute or two. Arrange spinach in a single layer. Top with baked fish.

We served it with some frozen green beans that I boiled and then sauteed in garlic and pepper.

Salmon Burgers.

I know I make most everything from scratch and I like it that way. But a few weeks ago my WW leader Vicki told us about a Salmon Burger that she bought at Kroger individually wrapped and made it. She said it was pretty delicious and at 1.99 each it was still cheaper than if I were to have to buy all the ingredients to make a Salmon burger... So for tonight's gourmet meal.... I put 2 Salmon burgers in the oven while I made Sweet potato fries. The burger didn't have a strong Salmon taste, but let a little lemon-y aftertaste, which was good. It is definitely something that I will buy again. I put ours in the oven b/c I wanted them Crispy, but the package said you could microwave or pan fry it. Then just topped the bun with Lettuce and tomato. Simple and really good.

Each Burger is 4 pts. which is better than some Turkey burgers.

Here is the recipe that I have posted previously for the Sweet Potato Fries. The points vary on how big a potato, but I usually get a large one and count it as 3-4 pts.

Sweet Potato Fries

1 Sweet Potato per person

PAM

Pepper

garlic salt (optional)

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. With a sharp knife, slice the sweet potatoes into thin slices. Spray a cookie sheet (If they are bigger potatoes, I have to use 2 sheets) with PAM. Spread the sweet potato slices in 1 layer across the cookie sheet, Spray the tops of the sweet potato with another bit of PAM. Sprinkle with Pepper (and salt if you want).

Bake for 20 minutes, flip the potatoes over and you can bake for another 20 minutes, or put the broiler on low and broil them. If you choose to broil them, watch them closely, because they will crisp up pretty quick on you.

Too much heat.

There is a double meaning to that.... I'm tired of the heat. Plain and simple. Heat indexes of 100+ need to disappear. It's just not enjoyable to go from 100+ degrees to thunderstorms that scare my toddler.

Then comes the accident of sprinkle Cayenne pepper on your fish, while trying to talk to a toddler.... Hot Fish. woops. We still ate it, and believe it or not, it ended up pretty good with our salad with crumbled Gorgonzola Cheese. The cheese in the salad made it a little cooler and creamy and salty bite.

Tell me if you can see the Cayenne Pepper in the photo... so I obviously had to name it:

Cayenne Tilapia (makes 2- 3 ounce filets)

WW pts: 1.5 per filet

2- 3 ounce Tilapia filets (most portion size suggests 4 but the frozen once we bought were 3)

Crushed Cayenne Pepper

Black Pepper

Cumin

PAM

Preheat the oven to 375. For each fish, tear out a 9 inch-ish square of aluminum foil. Then spray the center with PAM. Place fish in center of foil where you just sprayed. Sprinkle with spices (taking caution with the Cayenne). Fold foil over fish, then fold in the ends to seal the packets. Bake for 30 minutes or until the fish flaky when broken with a fork.

* Like I said before we served it with a salad with Tomatoes, Gorgonzola Cheese crumbles and Fat Free Ranch. And Green beans. So our whole dinner was 5.5 pts. I'm actually pretty full from this meal!!!

Another newbie.

I have now had to add another 3 ring binder to my kitchen... full of all the new recipes that I've found online, ripped out of magazines, and gotten in the mail. So tonight since we had fish on the menu, I thought I would flip through my binder and poof I found this recipe that I've had for a while, but never tried.... and wow am I sorry I hadn't tried it sooner.

Baked Tilapia with Corn and Tomatoes (makes 2 Fillets)

WW pts: 2 points per fillet package

2 cups frozen whole kernel corn, thawed

1 can (14.5 oz) Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes with garlic

1/2 chopped onion

1/2 tsp dill weed

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

2 Tilapia fillets, thawed

1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine corn, drained tomatoes, onion, dill, cumin and pepper in a small bowl. For each packet, lay two sheets of regular foil on top of each other. Place about 1/4 of mixture on the foil, then place tilapia on top, then top with 1/4 of mixture. Bring up short sides of foil packet and double fold the top. Place packets on baking sheets and bake for 20-30 minutes until the fish is flaky. Once the fillets are done, I put the contents of the packets on a bed of brown rice.

I also had some steamed broccoli. So our whole meal was 5 pts and it was really good. We will be keeping this recipe!!

Crock pot Tilapia... who woulda thought.

I certainly wouldn't have thought of putting fish in aluminum foil and in the crock pot. But thanks to Eat at home cooks.com... we tried it. And it was surprisingly good. I did notice that 2 of the pieces sauce was a little thinner than mine, but the one I had was A.W.E.S.O.M.E. it was something different, but I'm thinking you could do it in the oven in the Aluminum foil quicker. But since I'm at home I put the fillets in there frozen and let them go. And a great point bargain! Our whole dinner was 4.5 pts... which if you can see from our plate, was a lot of food.

Crockpot Tilapia (makes 4 Tilapia fillets)

WW pt: 3 pts per Fillet

4 pieces Tilapia (thaw if your going to do oven, or you can do frozen for crockpot)

1/4 cup light mayo

1/3 cup Cheddar cheese

2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese

3 Tbsp Lemon Juice

sprinkle of salt and pepper

Mix everything but Tilapia in a bowl. Then get four sheets to place Tilapia in. Spread a spoonful of mixture on the A. foil, then place Tilapia, then another spoonful on top. Fold the A. foil up like a little pouch. Repeat with remaining fillets. Then if you are going to do it in the crockpot, place them in there, and turn on low for 3-4 hours. If you do it in the oven, I would think 375 degrees for 30 minutes would work.

We served it with Broccoli, Summer Squash (from our garden) and a small potato. Fresh, delicious meal. The only thing that would make that meal better... would be to have a scoop of ice cream for dessert.... Ho Hum.... probably a good thing I don't have any ice cream in the house.