"Funny" Fish Tacos

As many of my friends and family have heard me bemoan, Mexican food is pretty hard to come by were we live in the South.  And by Mexican food, I mean things that actually resemble what I ate when I was in Mexico and when we used to live in Southern California.  We've had to explain what a tamale is ("no, you don't eat the corn husk"), fish is actually normal in a taco, and chile rellanos are not smothered in velveeta.  We've found a couple good places, but I have been attempting to create healthy versions of some of our favorites.

I cook a lot since it so much cheaper to feed our three ravenous boys healthily.  I've been working on healthy and quick recipes that I can easily make in about half an hour since between homework, soccer and bath time with our crew, nights are pretty busy!  So last night I came up with a new recipe for healthy fish tacos:

6 tilapia fillets (divided for 12 tacos)
1 cup flour
1 egg
cumin
chili powder
paprika
celery seed
salt
pepper
tortillas
diced red onion
shredded cabbage
salsa

I split each fillet into two in preparation for breading.  Into the cup of flour spread out on a plate, I added my spices, about a teaspoon of each with just a little salt and pepper.  I mixed it up and coated each piece of fish with egg and then the flour mixture and placed it in a pyrex to bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degree rather than frying it to make it healthier.  We made tacos and topped them with onion, shredded cabbage and salsa.  I made Mexican rice and sauteed some bell peppers and onions to go with it.  It smelled so good and I was so proud of how it turned out that I took a photo thinking that I could put it up on my blog with my recipe (amazing how pride goes before the fall, right!).

We sat down, prayed and began to eat.  And it was terrible. 

The fish was bad.

The recipe was great, but no matter how good the recipe it, it can never atone for bad ingredients.  Sadly, Brian and I realized it was bad after Ethan ate a ton and he spent the rest of the evening with a stomach ache and Brian went and picked up Little Ceasers pizza.  We at least got the pizza with veggies, such was our attempt to be healthy after our foiled fish taco attempt. 

So, perfection in the motherhood department evaded me again!  I think that is why I am such a big fan of grace and the verse in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that says "My grace is sufficient for you..."  As much as I try and stuff doesn't go quite as planned, it is okay.  I'll be trying again later this week (with new fish of course!) since it actually tasted really good other than the weird fishyness.  I'll post an update later about the soon to be successful version!

But, I've been left wondering, what would have happened had a TV chef encountered the same fateful bad fish?  I'd love to see their out-takes; it probably looked like my dinner table last night!