Skillet Chicken and Asparagus

Every once in a while I will see a picture of a recipe that looks good to me and I decide to make it but when I describe it to J I am not able to sell it quite as well as the picture sold me.  This was another one of those recipes.  After I bought the groceries to make this and I told him what we were having he was far from excited.  Normally whenever I get home from work so late that I can’t get dinner started before 6:30 I tend to give up and we go out. Even though me starting dinner late and having it ready by 8:00 is no different than us going to a restaurant and eating at 8:00, but for some reason this makes sense in my head. The day that I was planning on making this I got home really late, like after 7:00, which is very abnormal for me, but luckily (for me, not my dog), Jason hadn't even left his office yet by the time I got home, so I just started dinner anyway without any input from him.  By the time he got home I was nearly finished with dinner and he was much more interested in what I was cooking than when I described it.  This turned into one of those dishes that will become a go-to. It was not the speediest dish but I really enjoyed the flavors and I will definitely be going back to it, even though just looking at this you wouldn't think it would be loaded with flavor when the only seasonings are salt and pepper, but this was just very flavorful to me, I think the bacon really added a lot, don't skip the bacon.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 lb asparagus

2 medium yellow squash

1 ½ cup chicken broth

2 tbs flour

4 pieces turkey bacon, chopped

1 tbs lemon juice

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet or dutch oven, heat one turn of olive oil over medium high heat.  Add the asparagus and enough water just to cover the bottom of the skillet to steam the asparagus.  Cook for about 5 minutes, until crisp tender, then remove from the skillet and set aside. Drain out any water remaining in skillet.  Add bacon and cook until crisped, remove from skillet and set aside.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place in the skillet and cook for 10-15 mins, browning both sides but not cooking through.  Remove the chicken and set aside.  Add the squash to the skillet and cook until tender, about 3 minutes.  In a small bowl whisk the chicken broth, lemon juice, and flour then add to the skillet.  Stir frequently and cook until the gravy is thick and bubbly.  Return the chicken to the skillet and cook about another 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  1 minute before serving return the asparagus to the skillet to reheat it.  Serve the chicken and vegetables topped with bacon.

Serves 4, 240 calories, 6 g fat

For essentially being chicken with vegetables this was a very flavorful dish.  I tend to not like recipes that require you to remove from the pan and set aside and cook something new over and over again but this was definitely worth the effort, I will be keeping this one.

Sweet Potato with Cuban Turkey Picadillo

I have really been in a rut lately. I either cook the same old things (lots of tacos) or we go out to eat.  I am trying to start the New Year off better, I’m two weeks in and it hasn’t gone stupendously, but I’m making at least some effort.  My first attempt at something new was this baked sweet potato that got such a big thumbs up that it will be added into my list of go-tos.

4 medium sweet potatoes

2 tsp olive oil

½ cup finely chopped onion

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 lb 99/1 ground turkey

¼ cup dry sherry

¾ cup canned crushed tomatoes

¼ cup dried cherries, roughly chopped

¼ cup pimento-stuffed green olives, sliced into rounds

1 tbs capers

¼ tsp salt

2 tbs chopped cilantro

Heat oven to 425 F.  Pierce potatoes all over with a fork and heat in the microwave for about 12 minutes to start softening them.  Place them on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and finish baking them until tender, another 10-20 minutes. 

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Cook onion until soft, add garlic, cumin and cinnamon and cook 1 minute.  Add turkey and cook through, about 5 minutes.  Add sherry and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add tomatoes, cherries, olives, capers and salt.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Mix in the chopped cilantro. 

When the potatoes are soft, remove them from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes so they aren’t steaming when you try to eat them.  Slice them open and mash the insides with a fork.  Divide the chili mixture among the potatoes and serve.

Serves 4, 400 calories per serving

I could not have been more pleased with this. I think it was flavorful and filling and was really good for lunch the next day. I will definitely be making this again.

Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers

I know I haven’t posted anything in quite a while and I have two reasons why. I am glad you are still here even though there hasn’t been anything new in some time.  So one of my girl friends did the 21-day sugar detox not too long ago and first I need to point out that she and her husband are paleo and in good shape but by the end of the 21 days her husband lost 10 lbs and she only lost a couple lbs but lost 2 inches in her waist.  There were other positive results that came from the experiment as well but I was more impressed with two whole inches in a skinny girl’s waist.
So we thought we’d try it.  While on this detox you can’t eat dairy, wheat, white rice, any potatoes except for sweet, refined sugar of course, honey, maple syrup, or fruit.  So basically you can eat meat, vegetables, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and other uncommon grains like couscous or quinoa. This was mainly hard for us because I absolutely hate eggs and J (thinks he) doesn’t like the uncommon grains and gets tired of sweet potatoes quick.  So by the end of the week I could not even force myself to eat breakfast anymore and J felt the same way about all of the dang sweet potatoes we were having every night. In that first week J did lose a couple lbs, but I of course saw no change in my weight or how I felt, so it was pretty easy to give it up.
So my point in explaining all of this was that during this time I really didn’t cook anything note worthy.  The food I was making was edible but not really that exciting.  Since then I have been trying to sort of modify the diet to something more reasonable, so we aren’t eating near as much pasta and very little cheese or dairy.  I have started eating cereal again for breakfast; I don’t think I can eat another egg for quite a while.
So this lasted a week, and the modification attempt has been going on for a couple weeks, but the other reason why I haven’t had a lot to write about is because I keep ending up finding recipes that I am not really all that excited about but fit the criteria and it is really easy to say I don’t feel like cooking and just go out.  So this diet actually really backfired for us.
After all of this I do have one recipe that I think is worth sharing.  It wasn’t overly complicated and I liked it quite a bit.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced small
1 tbs olive oil
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 large red bell peppers
2 large green bell peppers
1/2 bunch green onions, diced
3 cups fresh spinach
14 ounces fire roasted tomatoes
Salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet to medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and seasonings and cook until no longer pink. Stir in the remaining ingredients except for the bell peppers, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and allow the spinach to wilt and everything else to heat through.

Meanwhile, cut the tops of the bell peppers and remove the seeds and white membrane.   Once the spinach is wilted and chicken is cooked through fill each bell pepper with the stuffing.  Arrange the bell peppers upright in a baking dish and bake until the bell peppers are softened, about 50 minutes.

This was pretty simple and tasty, what made this for me was the roasted tomatoes, it added a nice flavor.

Fried Egg Sandwich with Cheese and Tomatoes

During the week I am not able to make a real breakfast because we try to work out in the mornings then go straight to work from the gym, so for one of my first breakfasts at home I tried a fried egg sandwich.  This was easy and filling.  Food doesn’t have to be loaded with ingredients, or fats, to taste good.  The more I cook the more I realize that simple meals can often be the most appealing, satisfying, sophisticated, and healthy.

4 slices rye bread
4 eggs
1 oz Jarlsberg light cheese
3 grape tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp butter

Break 2 eggs in a skillet set to medium.  Gently pierce the yolk to let some of it run out over the whites.  Once the egg is no longer runny, fold it over so you basically have the two eggs stacked on top of each other and flip.  Finish cooking until the egg is cooked through.  Slide the egg on to one slice of bread, top with a slice of cheese and 1 ½ sliced grape tomatoes.  Season with salt and pepper and top with another slice of bread.
Repeat for the second sandwich.  After both sandwiches have been assembled, add ½ tsp butter to the skillet.  Once it’s melted put one of the sandwiches in the butter.  Cook for about 1 minute to toast and warm up the bread.   Repeat for the other side of the bread and for the other sandwich.  I think this is a good idea because once your egg has been sitting on the bread for a couple minutes it gets a little soggy, this will crisp your bread up so it won’t fall apart or feel mushy at all.

Serves 2, 410 calories, 17 g fat

This was quick and easy but a good start to the day with the protein from the eggs and carbohydrates from the bread and was satisfying with the richness from the cheese without being too high in fat or calories.

Healthy "Reuben" with Coleslaw

The other day we were having coffee at our coffee shop and I picked up one of the magazines and actually found a good idea.  I try pretty hard to plan out my week’s meals so that I can go to the grocery store just once a week, but I’m not always good about it and I’m not always good about pairing the right meals together during the day to make sure we get the total calories and nutrients we need.  So in this magazine, Clean Eating, they have 14 day plans of meals that include breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks with the total the calories, fats, etc for each day.  I thought this was a good idea to give us a specific plan on what we should eat throughout the day every day to help stay on track.  We’ve made it through the first 4 days and so far it has worked really well for us.

They have a website,  www.cleaneatingmag.com , where you can download all of their meal plans, it even comes with a shopping list.

I went through one of the Winter meal plans and picked out the meals and snacks that I thought looked good and then substituted in some of my own low fat/low cal recipes as well.  The biggest problem with this is it is a meal plan for one person, and they have you make one serving of everything just about, so there is a lot more cooking involved than even I normally do.

The first recipe I tried, and modified for my needs, was the clean Reuben.  I don’t think I can say this is anything like a Reuben but it was still good and surprisingly filling.  J loves Reuben’s so he was on board with trying this, but once he saw it he was a little scared he would still be starving after dinner, but we were both stuffed and satisfied.

Sandwich
½ lb pastrami seasoned turkey
2 oz Jarlesberg light, sliced
4 slices rye bread

Coleslaw
2 cups shredded red cabbage
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1/2 cup shredded carrots
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¾ cup plain Greek yogurt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt

Dressing
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
5 grape tomatoes, diced
Dash of salt to taste



Prepare the coleslaw: In a medium bowl combine cabbages and carrots, stir in vinegar, yogurt, salt and pepper.  Let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing: In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, tomatoes and salt until well mixed.  While stirring, mash the tomatoes to release their juices.  Set aside.

Assemble the sandwiches by dividing the dressing among the slices of bread.  Place 1 oz slice of cheese on each sandwich.  Top with the turkey then pile about ¼ cup coleslaw on top of the meat.  Finish with the second slice of bread and press firmly.  Broil the sandwiches either in toaster oven or oven for 2 minutes, flip and broil for 2 more minutes.  Serve with ¾ cup coleslaw on the side.

Serves 2, 525 calories, 12 g fat

You pretty much have to get it out of your head that this is a Reuben, because it’s not, but it is a pretty good turkey sandwich.

Chicken Biryani

This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and I am sad to admit I was a little disappointed with it.  I think the dish tasted good, and like normal, this was quite a bit better for lunch the next day, but it did not taste much like biryani that I have had in restaurants.  Now that could be because the Indian restaurants I go to may not be as authentic as I think, but all I know is is this recipe did not taste like what I had anticipated.  There are quite a few Indian restaurants in Houston, and we have found a couple that we go to that we think are really good, but the Indian people we know tell us “they are crap”, so I will give Cooks Illustrated the benefit of the doubt and assume this is what biryani tastes like, and I just haven’t actually had real biryani before.  I do not want to discourage anyone from trying this dish as it was really pretty good, and not really that difficult, just be warned that if you have had biryani before this may not taste the same.  I also want to warn you that this will stink up your house.  I made this for dinner on Friday and I think by late Saturday afternoon the smell was finally gone, so I wouldn’t make this if I was having anyone over the next day.

15 cardamom pods, preferably green, smashed with a chef’s knife
2 cinnamon sticks
3 inch piece fresh ginger, cut into ½ inch thick coins and smashed with a chef’s knife
1 tsp cumin seed
5 quarts water
3 bone-in chicken breasts
6 tbs butter
4 small yellow onions, sliced thin
2 jalapenos, chopped fine with seeds and ribs
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 ½ cups basmati rice
1 tsp saffron threads, lightly crumbled
½ cup dried currants or raisins
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Put all of the seasonings in a cheesecloth and secure with twine.  Put the cheesecloth in a large pot of water with 2 tsp salt and bring to a boil.  Allow the water to simmer for 30 minutes, the water should turn red and be fragrant.
Meanwhile, season both sides of chicken breasts with salt and pepper and set aside.  Heat 3 tbs butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat until foaming subsides; add half of the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and dark brown about edges, 8-10 minutes.  Add half of the jalapenos and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Transfer onion mixture to a bowl and wipe skillet clean with paper towels and repeat with second batch of onions, jalapenos, and garlic.  Transfer to bowl with rest of onion mixture, season lightly with salt and set aside.  Wipe out skillet with paper towels, return heat to medium high, and place chicken breasts, skin side down in skillet, one at a time.  Cook without moving chicken until well browned, about 8 minutes, then flip chicken and brown second side, about 8 minutes longer.  Transfer chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm while the remaining breasts are being cooked.
If necessary return the water to a boil and stir in the rice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Drain the rice through a strainer.  Transfer the rice to a medium bowl and stir in safforon and currants/rainsins and season with ¼ tsp salt.  Reserve the spiced water and discard the spice bundle.  Spread half of rice in the bottom of a Dutch oven, topped with half of the onion mixture then the chicken, skin side down.  Evenly sprinkle with cilantro over the chicken then top with the remaining onion mixture and cover with the remaining rice.  Pour 1 ½ cups of the reserved cooking liquid evenly over the rice.
Cover the Dutch oven and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Uncover and check the bottom of the pan, if dry, add up to 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid and cook for an additional 20-30 minutes or until the rice is tender and chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken to a plate and debone.  Stir the rice and spoon biryani into individual bowls and top with chicken.

Serves 8, 450 calories, 14 g fat

I served this with naan bread which the one I bought was about 85 calories for half of a piece.  I think if I was having this as my whole meal and not having bread with it I would have made this into 6 servings and split each chicken breast into 2 servings.  That would have made this closer to 600 calories per serving, but a large portion of rice.
I think I started cooking at 5:00 and we were eating dinner before 7:30, so quite a bit of time, but I think it’s worth it every once in a while to try something totally different and practice new techniques in the kitchen.
I also buy my spices at an Indian grocery store; they have tons of whole spices for a fraction of the price.  I buy a small(ish) bag of whatever I need and store it in the freezer.  Since I don’t cook Indian food all that often it takes me a while to get through a whole bag of spices.

German Pancakes

My husband, J, usually works on Saturdays so when I happen to have eggs in the refrigerator I like to make breakfast before he leaves.  This morning he requested German pancakes.  I have no idea if they are actually German or what it is that makes them German, I just know that they are super easy and really good.  I actually like these more than regular American cake for breakfast type pancakes, sorry mom; those are one of her specialties. 

3 tbs unsalted butter

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup flour

½ cup milk

1 tbs sugar

¼ tsp salt

Pinch of seasoning like nutmeg or cinnamon if you like

Preheat the oven to 425.  Put the butter in a 9 or 10 inch pie plate or cast iron skillet and put in the oven while it’s preheating.  Meanwhile, whisk the remainder of the ingredients in a medium bowl until all of the flour is evenly distributed and there are no clumps.

Once the butter is melted remove the skillet from the oven.  Once the oven has reached temperature pour the batter into the hot skillet and immediately return it to the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes till it is puffy and browned on the outside.

Remove the pancake from the skillet and sprinkle with lemon juice and/or powdered sugar (both are optional).  Slice and serve.

Serves 2, 384 calories, 23 g fat

Lemon Garlic Chicken and Potatoes

After nearly 3 years of trying to sell one of our two houses, we finally sold one, thank goodness! We are moving out next weekend so now starts the packing.  This meal worked out pretty well on a night when I wanted something that didn’t taste like minimal effort but was.  I had a few vegetables to chop and a marinade to make and that was basically it, I just had to let it bake while I sorted through cobweb covered stuff in the back of a closet in a room that I never even go into.  Why oh why do I have so much junk?  What’s weird is about 90% of the extra stuff that we have are books.  Classic literature, the entire set of Harry Potter, How To books on every random thing J ever once had an inclination to try to make himself and never has, and text books like you wouldn’t believe.  Our closet could probably serve as a library for a small University.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 Yukon gold potatoes
½ lb green beans
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
¼ cup olive oil
3 tbs lemon juice
1 lemon
4 cloves garlic
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Stir together the oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Slice the squash into strips then toss the green beans and squash in the marinade then remove to a baking dish using tongs.  Chop the potatoes into ½” pieces and stir in the marinade.  Remove and spread on top of the vegetables.  Bake the vegetables for 25 minutes to give the potatoes enough time to cook.  Meanwhile, let the chicken sit in the marinade.
After 25 minutes place the chicken on top of the vegetables and return to the oven for an additional 30-35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove from the oven and allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving to keep it moist and tender.

Serves 4, 580 Calories, 23 g fat

Homemade Spaghetti, Pasta and Sauce

Last week we went on vacation to see the MIL.  It was a much needed break from work but it is good to get home and back into our routine.  J had to work on Sunday so I decided to make a somewhat time consuming dinner to occupy myself during the day.  I find if I just sit at home with no pressing work to do I just end up watching TV, and if there is food in the house, eating.  Since we don’t have cable, watching TV for a good part of the day is actually pretty boring, but I somehow turn super lazy when I am home alone, not really sure why.  So I decided to make homemade pasta, spaghetti sauce, and rolls, which all turned out fantastic.  I also got quite a bit of housework done, and also watched some TV, so this didn’t take quite as long as I had thought it would.  I still wouldn't recommend this much work for a weeknight though.

Fresh Pasta Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
½ tsp garlic powder
Corn meal for dusting

Make a well with the flour on a clean work surface (optimally a warm countertop or cutting board, not stainless steel).  Crack the eggs in the well, add the salt and garlic powder, and gently whisk the eggs.  With your hands bring up the flour on the outside of the well into the egg, trying not to break the wall and letting the eggs spill everywhere.  Continue to incorporate all of the flour until it forms a ball.  Knead the dough until it becomes elastic and smooth.  If it doesn’t seem to be holding together well, add water to it, 1 tsp at a time, and continue to knead.  It should take about 10 minutes to knead it to the desired texture.  Flatten the dough into a disc, dust with corn meal and wrap in plastic wrap to rest for 30 minutes.  

Cut off the desired amount and wrap the rest up and store in a Ziploc bag, trying to evacuate as much air out as possible, and store in the freezer.  Work with about 2 oz at a time; flatten a piece out with your hands or rolling pin so the pasta will fit through the roller.  On the largest setting, roll the pasta.  Fold the pasta in thirds then roll again, repeat one more time.  Begin lowering the setting by one and rolling the pasta until desired thickness (for spaghetti roll to 2).  Set the rolled pasta sheet aside and continue to roll out the desired number of sheets for your recipe (1 oz of pasta is 1 serving).  Do not put the pasta sheets on top of each other or they will stick together.  When you have all your sheets rolled out, roll them through the cutter to make your noodles.  Set the noodles aside in mounds while you cut the remaining sheets and dust each mound with flour to keep the noodles from sticking together.
When ready to cook, put in boiling water and cook until the pasta is al dente, 3-5 minutes.

Yields about 15 oz (15 servings), 75 calories, 1 g fat


Spaghetti Sauce

6 lbs tomatoes, chopped
1 cup onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp crushed red pepper (if desired)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbs fresh basil
1 lb ground turkey, 99/1
1 cup mushrooms, sliced

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt, and peppers in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil.  Cover the dish and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove the dish from the oven and mash the tomatoes to break them down.  Return the sauce to the oven uncovered and cook for another 45 minutes.  Remove the sauce from the oven, season with oregano, basil, and salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the turkey and mushrooms in a large skillet over medium heat.  Once the turkey is no longer pink, add the sauce and heat through.  Make sure both the turkey and mushrooms are cooked before adding the sauce, you don’t want to boil them.  Season with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to taste if needed.

6 Servings, 200 calories, 5 g fat

I sort of forgot about pictures while I was making all this, so I failed you on that one, but I was very pleased with the meal.  It may be more time consuming than Ragu and store bought pasta, but there us a significant difference, well worth the effort.

Spanish Rice

I have discovered a simple way to make Spanish rice a little healthier.  Now this is definitely not as good as the real thing, but it doesn’t take too much effort and there is no lard involved so that's a plus.

½ green bell pepper, diced

½ small yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic

1 cup brown rice (or white if you prefer)

2 cups water or chicken broth

1 tsp cumin, ground

1 can rotel tomatoes with chilies

Salt to taste

1 tsp olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a medium pot to medium-high heat.  Add the onion and cook until softened, then add the bell pepper and garlic and cook until the pepper is softened.  Pour in the water/broth and bring to a boil.  Add the rice and return to a boil.  Cover the pot and reduce the temperature to medium.  Cook for 15 minutes then remove the pot from the heat but leave the lid on.  Allow the rice to sit, with the lid on, for another 15 minutes.  All of the water should be absorbed by then and you should have fluffy rice.  Add the cumin, rotel and salt to taste.  The seasoning is kind of what makes this dish, so if it’s under seasoned it won’t be good.  Add more cumin if you think it needs it and don’t be afraid with the salt, add a little at a time and taste, I think I used about ½ tsp.  You can return the rice to the burner on medium for a couple minutes to cook out some of the tomato juice if it looks soupy.

Serves 4, 200 calories, 3 g fat

Fish Tacos with Jicama Slaw

I don’t really eat much fish but I know I should.  So every once in a while I buy some and then end up having to put it in the freezer because it never actually sounds good.  I am going to tell on my husband right now.  Yesterday he went out for lunch and ate oh probably 2000 calories in one meal.  So needless to say, he didn’t need much for dinner last night.  Since he is the one that usually vetoes the fish, I went ahead and cooked it last night since he wasn’t eating much.  

2 tilapia filets

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

1/3 cup jicama, julienned

1/3 cup carrots, julienned

¼ cup red onion, thinly diced

2 tbs cilantro, chopped

Juice from 1 lime

Small handful of shredded cheese (I am still using that dang Manchego cheese, it is like never ending)

4 corn tortillas

Heat olive oil in a skillet to medium-high heat.  I like to use a cast-iron skillet that has ridges in it, that way I can get char marks on the fish.  So depending on what type of pan you use will determine how much oil to add.  For this type of pan I add enough oil so that the ridges are able to get oiled by tilting the pan a bunch first, but the fish won’t be sitting in oil while it’s cooking.  Season both sides of the fish with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper then cook in the pan until flaky.

For the jicama slaw, I prefer to cook the red onion for a couple minutes to take the bite off, but if you like raw onion then that isn’t necessary.  I do it in the same pan I will cook/cooked the fish in.  Mix the julienned vegetables, red onion, cilantro and lime juice.  Season with salt to taste.

Slice the fish and assemble in 4 warmed tortillas with the slaw and cheese. 

Serves 2, 335 calories, 8 g fat

This turned out pretty decent, but I think I overstuffed the tortillas.  This may have been more lady like to eat it in 3 tortillas each and the tortillas I got were only 35 calories each so no biggie.  I have noticed sometimes diets make you forget to eat like a lady, good thing I am already married, sorry J.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

At the end of the week the last meal usually ends up being an episode of Chopped.  I try to make something with whatever ingredients I have leftover in the kitchen from the beginning of the week.  This is a real simple dish that I have modified to be more waistline friendly while still being flavorful.

1 large chicken breast
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1/3 green bell pepper, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
4 oz linquini
1-2 tsp cajun seasoning
Olive oil


Emeril's cajun seasoning (~2/3 cup)

2 tbs salt
2 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs black pepper
1 tbs onion powder
1 tbs cayenne pepper
1 tbs dried leaf oregano
1 tbs dried thyme 
1 tbs lemon pepper seasoning

Cook the linguini to al dente.
Heat one turn of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet.  Slice the chicken into 1" pieces and season with the cajun seasoning.  Cook the chicken through and add the vegetables.  Cook until crisp tender then remove from heat and stir in the sour cream.  Serve over the linguini.

Serves 2, 425 calories, 7 g fat

The original recipe called for heavy cream and I honestly don't see any deficiency in flavor by substituting with sour cream and it saves about 50 calories/serving.

I like to have this cajun seasoning on hand all the time so I make this 2/3 cup batch and store it in the freezer.  It adds a ton of flavor to a creamy pasta sauce like this or can be used for blackened chicken or fish.

Vegetable Risotto

Last night was one of my favorites, vegetable risotto.  Watching Gordon Ramsay yell at people all the time over risotto had me a little intimidated by it initially, but one day I just tried it and it’s really not that hard.  Granted he would probably throw me out of my own kitchen if he saw my risotto but it tastes good to me.  So the way it works is you coat the rice in fat then slowly add hot stock to the rice and that releases the starch.  This creates a rich, thick creamy sauce.  You have to stir the rice constantly so you are kind of stuck in front of the stove for like 20 minutes, but I think it’s completely worth it.  You can use lots of different combinations of vegetables but this time I actually went with what was in season and did a summer squash risotto.

3 tbs butter, divided

1 clove garlic, minced

2 zucchini squash

1 yellow squash

3 cups mushrooms

½ cup peas

1 ½ cup Arborio rice

Dry white wine

Chicken stock

¼ cup parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

You will need a total of 4 ½ to 5 ½ cups of liquid and you can divide that between the wine and stock however you like.  I usually do about 2 cups wine and 3 cups stock.  There are a lot more calories in the wine than the stock so you can cut it back or out if need be.

In a large saucepan melt 1 tbs butter.  Add the mushrooms and cook until browned.  Dice or cut the squash into bite-sized strips and add to the mushrooms.  Season the vegetables with salt and pepper after each addition.  Cook until the squash is crisp tender.  The squash doesn’t take as long to cook as the mushrooms so that’s why you want to start cooking the mushrooms first. Remove from heat and set aside.  The sauce pan that I use is big enough for either the vegetables or the rice so I put the vegetables in a large bowl and use the same pan to cook the rice.

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer in another pot.  Melt 2 tbs butter over medium high heat in your rice sauce pan.  Add the rice and stir to coat well with a wooden spoon.  Cook until the rice is translucent, 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add ½ cup of the chicken stock and stir constantly.  Continue stirring the rice until all of the liquid is gone then add ½ cup wine.  Since the wine is cold or room temperature I add it slowly so it heats up quickly in the pan.  Stir the rice constantly until the liquid is absorbed.  Continue the process with the rest of the chicken stock and wine until the rice is thick and creamy and softened. Once the rice is fully cooked add it to the vegetables, stir in the cheese and peas and additional salt and pepper to taste if necessary. 

Serves 4, 525 calories, 12 g fat

A typical risotto is much creamier than this because you usually add more butter and cheese but this is one of the few times where I actually don’t think all that extra cheese is needed.  The rice makes the dish creamy and a little bit of cheese adds to it and makes it just a little bit richer.  It of course would be nice if it had more cheese, but I actually don’t think it’s necessary.  This also makes a good lunch the next day.

Don’t be intimidated by Chef Ramsay, just try it.

Hatch green chile chicken enchiladas

Being that it’s hatch green chile season I thought I’d try to make enchiladas with a hatch green chile sauce. This is not a meal to make in a hurry.  It wasn’t that difficult and there wasn’t that much going on, but there was enough to do and enough mess being made that I have to take my time or I get rushed and screw things up.  I was not quite as pleased with the enchilada sauce as I was anticipating, but it wasn’t bad at all.  The next day it was actually quite a bit better so it may not be a bad idea to make the sauce the night before and let it sit.

1 ½ lb chicken breast

1 tbs cumin, ground

½ tsp salt

olive oil

16 hatch green chiles

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 roma tomato, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz sour cream (fat free)

3 oz Manchego cheese, grated

12-16 corn tortillas

Lay the chiles out on a roasting pan and broil until the skin is blackened and bubbling away from the chiles.  Turn the chiles so that they are roasted all the way around.  Remove the chiles to a plastic or paper bag and allow them to steam for 20 minutes.   Open the bag or remove the chiles from the bag until they are cool enough to handle.  Peel off all of the skin, cut off the stem, seed and dice the chiles.

In a large skillet heat 1 turn of olive oil to medium heat.  Season the chicken breasts with cumin and salt and cook them in the skillet.  Once fully cooked remove the chicken and set aside to rest, at least 5 minutes.  The chicken will go into the oven eventually so err on the side of undercooked rather than fully cooked and dried out.  Cook the onion and the garlic in the chicken drippings until tender, not browned.  Add the diced chiles and tomato to the onion and stir.  Season the mixture with salt.  Transfer the salsa to a bowl and add the sour cream. 

Preheat the oven to 350.

To prepare the enchiladas, first slice the chicken thinly.  Warm the tortillas in the microwave for ~15 seconds so they are pliable.  Place a small handful of chicken in the center of a tortilla then a scoop of sauce alongside the chicken.  Roll the tortilla and set in a large baking dish with the seam on the side up against the wall of the dish.  Repeat with the remaining tortillas until all of the chicken and sauce is used up, laying each rolled tortilla sideways with the seam up against the last one in the dish.  Sprinkle the cheese on top of the enchiladas and bake until the cheese is melted and the chicken is reheated, about 10 minutes.  If you don’t put the enchiladas in the oven fairly quickly the tortillas will dry out and crack, no longer looking like pretty little rolls.   

This made 14 enchiladas for me and I had to use 1 large pan and 1 small pan. Serves 7, 417 calories, 16 g fat.

Machego is a Spanish sheep’s milk cheese and has a very distinct taste, kind of sweet and buttery, not real overpowering.  If you can’t find the cheese or are nervous about trying it you can always use Monterey Jack instead.

I was planning on making Spanish rice with this, but we may or may not have eaten a substantial amount of chips and salsa before dinner and decided to skip the rice and basically only ate the enchiladas because they were ready. Sad, I know.  But I do highly recommend the hatch chile salsa roja (or something like that, it's the red hatch green chile salsa) from HEB.  It is very good; I just wish I could figure out a way to eat it without having to eat so many chips.  I have considered a spoon but I just can’t bring myself to do that.

Cilantro Chicken

I found a recipe on another food blog that I wanted to try.  The picture was really pretty, it was really easy, and it had really good reviews so I thought I’d try it.  Unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectation.  I definitely think it is good to look for new recipes and try new things, but you can let me be the experimenter on this one, don’t waste your time.

 2 chicken breasts

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs toasted sesame oil

2 cloves garlic

1 ½ cup cilantro

Pulse the soy sauce, oil, garlic and cilantro in a food processor until the cilantro and garlic are roughly chopped.  Pour the marinade over the chicken in a sealable plastic bag and let sit in the refrigerator for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 425.  Bake the chicken on a roasting pan for 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

It was as simple as you could get but to me it just tasted like sesame.  This is the way I always cook my chicken breasts though, they always turn out very tender and juicy.

Falafel and Tzatziki

Last night I had another interesting request, falafel.  I do realize how lucky I am to have a husband who wants to try things other than meat and potatoes and will eat pretty much anything I put in front of him.  This was super easy but how I made it turned out to not be as low cal as I normally like. There were two things I did that I probably should have thought about before eating. Sometimes I forget to count calories until after I've already eaten, not quite as effective that way.  First, I pan fried the patties the whole time, I probably could have seared the outside to get a good crisp then baked them on a rack to heat them through.  Second, those pita pockets were deceptively high in calories, each one was 160 calories so even though we needed 2 pockets worth of falafel, we didn’t really need to pita pockets.

Falafel

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 tbs flat leaf parsley

1 small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

4 whole wheat pita pockets

Add everything but the oil to a food processor and pulse until the beans and onions are a course meal.  Form the mixture into 10 patties.  If it’s not sticking add a little water.  Heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a skillet to medium heat.  Pan fry the patties and turn so both sides are browned and crispy.  Remove the patties from the skillet to drain on a plate with paper towels. 

Tzatziki

¾ cup Greek yogurt

½ cucumber, diced

1 tsp lemon juice

1 clove garlic, minced

Salt to taste

You need your food processor again.  Add everything to the food processor and pulse until the cucumber is no longer chunky.

And that’s it, super simple.  I was a little rushed last night so this was all I did, but if you have a little bit of extra time, to make the tzatziki better you can put the yogurt in a cheese cloth or non-terry cloth kitchen towel and drain out the water.  There is most likely a few different things in your kitchen you could use to do this.  You could use a colander over a bowl or one of those big strainers set over a bowl. 

Serves 2, for the falafel, pita pockets and tzatziki it was 750 calories and 21 g fat.  One pita pocket and less olive oil would have helped a lot.

With this I had a salad with mixed greens, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, and a balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing.