Day 5 - Pistachio Crusted Tilapia

I have been a day behind for a bit.  Today I bought a scale as I referred to in yesterday's post, which was written today!  I had another of Jill's Orange Cream popsicles (83 Cal. soooo good!) for a snack and some diet cherry Jell-O (essentially 0 cal, maybe 1?) because I didn't wake up until 5 PM (slept all day and all night).

I decided to make something with the frozen fish we bought a few days ago at Giant Tiger.  Their mascot really should be a Giant Canary instead of a Giant Tiger.  CHEEEEEP!  The basa, tilapia and sole were really inexpensive.  I can't recall offhand but something like $1 per fillet.

Pistachio Crusted Tilapia

Logan Rating
Serves 4  - 364 calories per serving

Ingredients
1 cup shelled pistachios
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
4 tilapia fillets
salt and ground black pepper
2 Tbsp honey mustard (recipe I used below)
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, divided

Directions
In a food processor, combine pistachios, oregano, thyme and garlic powder.  Process until finely chopped and transfer to a shallow dish.  Season both sides of tilapia fillets with salt and pepper.  Brush honey mustard over both sides of tilapia and then transfer to pistachio mixture.  Press misture into both sides of fish.
Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add tilapia and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, until fork-tender.

Honey Mustard Sauce
3 Tbsp prepared mustard
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup mayonaisse

Not my best outing.  I wasn't that impressed with the recipe.  I don't have a food processor (something I have to rectify immediately), so I used the blender and it was a disaster.  It pushed the pistachios to the outside and refused to chop them, so I tried to stop and fork the stuff away from the sides and when that didn't work, I dumped it all into the strainer (I started with the finest size) and it wouldn't go through and by the time I had progressed through all four various sized of strainers/collanders in our house, I have pistachio/oregano/thyme/garlic powder over most of the surface of the shelf, sink and floor.  Eventually I triumped over the useless strainers only by reverting to my inner cave man (Hmph!  Grog beat stupid strainer into submission!  Take that!) and putting the powder part back in the blender and  blended until the sides were sloped and then dropped in the unchopped pistachio pieces back in the top where they promptly flew back at me, bounced off the bottom of the cupboards and hit me in the eye.
Now Grog the Mighty Hunter, half blind and in pain, beating the blender into submission, is forced to hold the little clear plastic center thingy over the hole while carefully pouring the rest of the nuts in through the hole and the slope of powdered nuts and spice ensures that the nuts keep dropping back into the blades and eventually they are all chopped up.  Time for a food processor (or a better blender) for Grog!

Everything else went fairly smoothly, other than Grog bashing his toe repeatedly on the wall corner, stove, fridge and table in successsion until Grog's mother insists he wear her extra pair of crocs to keep the Mighty Hunter unimpaired (Grog think he look fairly ridiki..  ridiklus...ridecel....stooopid in crocs), and was able to finish off the fish.

Not great.  I served it with 2 cups of Imperial Stir Fry each (100 Cal.) with butter on top (and important 70 Cal. for 2 tsp that rates a Mmmmmm!) washed down with Grapefruit Punch (1 can of Fresca with a pouch of Tangerine Grapefruit Crystal Lite and 2 cups of water - 2.5 Cal ) .  Mom thought it tasted unfinished, like it needed tartar sauce or something.  For me, I liked the background taste of the honey mustard, but next time I would process the spices to reduce them to a powdered state and crush up the pistachios in a bread bag with a rolling pin (Grog likes to bash) that way you would get more pistachio flavor and bigger nut chunks in the breading.  I tasted some mahi-mahi once with a pistachio coating at Ric's Grill and liked the taste of it, and that's primarily why I tried this recipe today and found it wanting, definitely not worth the 364 calories.  The punch was the best part of the meal unfortunately.  I would not recommend this until I have fixed it, but thought I would post it anyway.  It wasn't gross, it just wasn't up to par for me.

So my grand total for today is 620 calories (as I slept through 2 meals) and I'm down 18 pounds!

Day 4 - Whoo Hooo! Burgertime!

I bought a scale yesterday.  Weighed myself and was 367.  I know I have lost weight since we started (folks were commenting that my face looked slimmer, apparently you lose it first there) but Mom's scale only went to 300 pounds, and in the interest of not blowing up the only scale she had, I never stood on it.  So I estimated my starting weight at 380, based on how much I typically lose in the first week of a diet (usually 10-15 pounds).

We went to Wal-Mart and bought a Taylor "The Biggest Loser" Scale (kinda fits, doncha think?) for $40.  This afternoon after I woke up after a 17 hour sleep (I am an imsomniac and often don't sleep for days and was awake most of the weekend and put the dinner party on with about 2 hours sleep, so Mom didn't wake me until I woke up on my own today) I was down to 362.  Yay!  Whoo Hoo!  Terribly exciting and all that.

Yesterday I had Orange Cream Ensure (Mmmmmmmmmmm! and only 250 Cal.) for breakfast after swimming laps at the pool, 1 can of regular Canada Dry Ginger Ale (140 Cal.) to settle my stomach as I wasn't feeling well before I lay down, Butter Pecan Ensure (250 Cal.) for lunch, Jell-O (0 Cal.) for a snack and for supper we decided on a Hamburger Patty.  Mom is still craving red meat (for the iron her blood needs to regenerate I suppose) after giving blood at the Red Cross a week ago and so I was going to make fish but we decided on the red meat for the iron and so I whipped up some more meatloaf, but crustless, mildless and eggless this time (175 calories).  It had a tendency to break apart as cooking so I would recommend cooking it with an egg in to hold its shape, however that means adding another 50 calories, so it is entirely up to you.  I fried them up in a non-stick frying pan without any oil, but you could throw them on the BBQ but I would only do this if you add the egg as it would have a tendency to fall through the grating!

Hamburger Patty

Serves 4 (I refroze the other two in the fridge) - 187 Calories (175 without the egg)

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs or soda crackers

1/2 cup onion

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 Tbsp minced garlic 

1 stalk diced celery

1 Tbsp prepared mustard

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

3 Tbsp minced parsley

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Add all ingredients together in a bowl, mix together with hands until spices and onion, etc. are evenly distributed.  Shape into four large 1/3 pound patties.  Cook in frying pan or BBQ on medium-low heat until cooked through, about 15 minutes.  Serve with salad or veggies.

After supper I had a Orange Cream Ensure Popsicle (83 Cal.).  Kudos to Jill Alana for suggesting this!  It was so good!  You just take the Orange Cream Ensure and pour it into your popsicle mold (mine made 3 from one bottle so 83 calories each) and it was so delicious.  I shared some of mine with mom, but not much because it was so nummy.  I also made up some Grapefruit-Tangerine Crystal Light (5 Cal. for a singles packet) and froze it in popsicle molds.  It was pretty bland so next time I'm going to half the amount of water in it.  I was munchy while fixing the table leg that fell off during the dinner party (made things a bit exciting!) and I munched on some regular corn tortillas chips (about 200 Cal. - we haven't quite got rid of everything non-fattening out of the house yet, still some stuff left over)

All in all my caloric intake yesterday was 1098 calories.  I wish I had left off the stupid chips, LOL!  I would have been a hundred under instead of 98 over.  Still, not bad.  1100 calories and I was quite satisfied.

Just a note, one of my friends mentioned "Keeping it off is not nearly as hard as getting it off!  NEVER reward yourself with food! Yeah the steak sound good, but you're setting yourself up for failure. Stop revolving around food!! Reward yourself with stuff (new sneakers, a massage or tickets to a ball game, anything but food)! Part of winning is changing your perspectives... especially about food"  I agree with what she is saying, you can't reward yourself and survive.  Think how many times we go out to eat to celebrate or reward ourselves with a Blizzard or other treat, or how often we console ourselves with a pint of Chunky Monkey (input your favorite ice cream here!).  I agree that we have to put that aside and do other things.

But I don't want to give up good food.  And I have no desire to exist the rest of my life eating rabbit food or diet food.  What I am attempting to do with this blog and with my life, for that matter, is to outline a course of action in which I can and am losing weight, then maintain the weight, all with great tasting food.  Some things I have to give up, bread being one of my main offenders, and someday in the future I will be able to add some of it back (in moderation), but I am convinced like my mom's friend that just ate two bites of whatever he wanted, if I can control portion size and content, why can't I eat steak when I want to?

Let me know what you think.  I would welcome the criticism, good or bad!