400 Calories or Less?

For the last 10 days, I've been counting calories using an app I downloaded called My Fitness Pal.  I've sorta become addicted to it.  I love adding in my calories and seeing if I can stay under the goal of 1360 that the app gave me.  I'll quickly admit that I don't always stay under the goal, especially because I love sweets and I began doing this the same week as B's birthday, my birthday, Peyton's birthday and a co-worker's birthday too.  All of these birthdays came with A LOT of cake!  I'm proud to say though that I did stay under for 5 of the last 10 days :-)  Here's a picture of what the app looks like on your phone... (credit: myfitnesspal.com)

So, basically it just helps you keep track of how many calories you ate and most foods are already stored if you search for them, so I can input my foods pretty quickly (plus it continues to store foods you eat often).  The main reason I like it is because it's helping me make better choices, and that's really my main goal.  So with all this calorie counting going on, I have had to find some low calorie dinner recipes (so that I can eat chocolate cake and stay under my goal) so that I can get used to making healthier choices :-) Looking through my recipe bookmarks, I found a recipe that I had bookmarked months ago.  It was super delicious and low calorie, low fat, very easy (like under 15 minutes) and yummy!  Who doesn't want a recipe like that?!

 

Szechuan Shrimp (credit: cookinglight.com)

Ingredients 

Cooking spray 

1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp 

3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (spicy- so add less or more depending on your preference) 

1/2 cup light sesame-ginger dressing (such as Newman's Own) 

4 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces* 

2 tablespoons lightly salted toasted soy nuts, coarsely chopped*

*My changes:  I left out the green onions and soy nuts simply because I didn't have either.  I did add in chopped yellow onion.  It was realllly good, so I don't think you need those two ingredients.

Preparation

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; coat with cooking spray. Coat shrimp with cooking spray; add shrimp and red pepper to pan. Stir-fry 2 minutes. Add dressing and onions. Cook 3 minutes or until shrimp are done, stirring constantly. Sprinkle evenly with soy nuts; serve immediately.

Here's the nutritional info:

Amount per serving

Serving Size- 1 cup of shrimp

• Calories: 190
• Calories from fat: 18%
• Fat: 4g
• Saturated fat: 0.6g
• Monounsaturated fat: 0.3g
• Polyunsaturated fat: 0.6g
• Protein: 29.5g
• Carbohydrate: 7.9g
• Fiber: 1.4g
• Cholesterol: 252mg
• Iron: 4.4mg
• Sodium: 708mg
• Calcium: 72mg 

Yep! It's that simple.  I served it over 3/4 cup of cooked rice (150 calories- no butter or salt) and 1.5 cups of steamed broccoli (30 calories- no butter or salt).  So the total calorie count came to 370 calories and I was FULL!  It was good.  It was simple.  I'll make it again.  And I wanted to share :-)