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.

Chicken Tacos with Peppers and Onions

J’s favorite meal is tacos.  Any time I can’t come up with something to make or when all my ideas get vetoed, I default to tacos.  After lots of meals of ground turkey with rice and beans where the closest I might get to a vegetable was the occasional avocado, I decided to change it up and add something that is a little more vegetablish.

2 ½ lbs chicken breast, cut into thin slices
2 yellow onions, sliced
2 green bell peppers, sliced
1 tsp chicken fajita seasoning
8 corn tortillas
1 tsp olive oil
Salt to taste

In a large skillet add the olive oil and heat to medium-low heat.  Once hot add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once the onions have softened and started to turn a golden color, add the bell peppers and cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The onions should be a golden brown color, not fried.  The key here is low heat for a long time to get the onions caramelizing instead of frying. Season to taste with salt.

Meanwhile, season the chicken with the fajita seasoning and cook in a skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink.

Serve the chicken, peppers, and onions in a warmed corn tortilla. Super simple, but more interesting than ground turkey.



4 Servings, 620 calories, 12 g fat
75% of the calories come from the chicken, so if you need to you cut back on the chicken in favor of another pepper, feel free to try other colors.

Sweet Cornbread

This cornbread is more like corncake.  O will admit the day after I made this we actually ate it for dessert.  It has a really light and fluffy crumb and is very sweet.  This was probably the best cornbread I have ever had, definitely the best I’ve ever made.  It’s very quick and easy to make and for a low cal main dish like chili you can easily include these calories, especially if you make this 12 servings.  Just be careful, it’s so good you will have a hard time not eating a second piece!

1 cup corn meal
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbs and ½ tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Soak the cornmeal in the milk for 10 minutes.  Mix in the remaining ingredients then pour into a cast iron skillet or a greased muffin tin.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

If you bake this in a muffin tin you can easily make it 12 servings, but if it’s baked in a cake pan or cast iron skillet I have a much easier time cutting 8 servings than I do 12 and calorie wise you really should strive for 12.

12 Servings, 182 calories, 6 g fat
8 Servings, 272 calories, 10 g fat

Turkey Chili

This is one of those meals that I throw together when I don’t have a lot of time.  I think chili is one of those dishes that everyone has a very specific flavor they have in mind, and none are wrong.  You can easily change the meat, the types of beans, and adjust the seasonings to get a variety of different flavors.  This is a real good dish to find a base recipe then experiment and season to taste to get the flavor you want.

1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
1 lb ground turkey, 99/1
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
6 oz amber beer
1 tbs hot sauce
1 tbs cocoa powder
15 oz can black beans
15 oz can butter beans
15 oz can kidney beans
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 avocado
5 tbs shredded cheddar cheese
3 tbs cilantro

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are beginning to brown.  Add the meat and break up into small chunks as it browns.  Add the salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder and finish browning the meat.  Once the meat is cooked through pour in the beer and let it cook down and boil off the alcohol.  Add the cocoa powder, hot sauce, beans and tomatoes.  Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for as long as you can wait to eat, preferably about an hour, but you can eat it right away if you are in a hurry.  Ladle chili into bowls and top with shredded cheese, cilantro, and avocado.

5 Servings, 470 calories, 12 g fatIf you don’t normally buy beer you could cut it out.  I think it changes the flavor a little but not so much that you would really miss it if it was gone and it would save you about 15 calories.  The cocoa is the dominant flavor for me in this recipe.

Sweet Potato Macaroni and Cheese

I found this recipe on Delish.com and really liked the concept, but I had to adjust it to decrease the probability of giving my husband a heart attack.  I was very pleased with how this turned out, I do not think my adjustments resulted in anything lacking at all.  It was rich, creamy, cheesy and full of flavor, and saved a ton of calories and fat.  I think the type of cheese you use will definitely make or break this dish.  I suggest going for a semi-hard cheese with a strong flavor.  I found a chipotle Gouda that was very good.  I have tried making macaroni and cheese before with various types of cheeses and have found on occasion it turns out gritty like the cheese didn’t get creamy or melt fully or something.  This cheese turned out really creamy and the flavor was strong enough to add taste but wasn’t overwhelming at all.

5 cloves garlic

1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced into ½” rounds

1 tbs olive oil

1 cup elbow macaroni

1 tbs butter

2 tbs flour

1 ½ cup skim milk

4 oz cheese, like Gouda, cubed

1 tsp rosemary

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp bread crumbs

Boil a pot of water big enough for the sweet potatoes.  Once the water is boiling add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.  Remove the garlic and blanch in ice water.  Return the water to a boil and add the sweet potatoes, cook for 5 minutes to soften.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat then add the softened sweet potatoes.  Stir and turn regularly to prevent sticking.  Cook the sweet potatoes until they are caramelized and seared on both sides.  Remove from the skillet, dice and set aside.

Cook the macaroni to al dente and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the flour and stir frequently, cook for 3 minutes.  If you don’t cook the flour long enough your sauce will taste like flour, but be careful not to let it burn either, that also won’t taste good.  Slowly add the milk to the flour while stirring continuously.  You are now stuck at your stove, don’t stop stirring.  Stir the milk to dissolve the flour in the milk and keep the milk from burning on the bottom of your pot.  After some time the mixture will start to thicken then boil, once it boils reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 2 minutes.  Add the cheese and stir to melt it.  Mince the blanched garlic and add to the cheese mixture.  Add the seasonings, diced sweet potatoes, and the pasta and stir to combine.  Dish the macaroni and cheese out into a small greased baking dish or 4 ramekins and top with the bread crumbs.

Broil in the oven to brown the bread crumbs and heat everything through. Enjoy a rich, cheesy, flavorful macaroni and cheese without the guilt.

Servings, 4 sides, 370 calories, 15 g fat

Date Night Pizza

Since we went out to a really nice restaurant on Friday and are now over budget with a week to go, we decided to stay in on Saturday and have our date night at home and cook something together.  Our kitchen is really pretty tiny, and it is a little difficult for two people to be cooking at the same time, so we have to make something where one person preps and the other is at the stove so we aren’t bumping into each other.  So for us the most logical conclusion to this predicament was pizza, our favorite food ever.  I let J cook the toppings and marinara sauce while I made the pizza dough.  I found yeast that is specifically for pizza dough that doesn’t require rise time and was able to make dough for two pizzas in no time at all.  I just used the recipe and followed the directions on the package and was pretty pleased with the results.

Pizza Dough, 1 12-inch pizza

1 cup flour plus additional ¾-1 ¼ cup flour

1 ½ tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

1 package Fleischmann’s pizza crust yeast

2/3 cup very warm water

3 tbs olive oil

J’s Sausage and Black Olive Pizza

1/3 – ½ cup marinara sauce (made from canned basil and oregano tomatoes, pureed and seasoned to taste with garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper, and basil)

10 oz sweet Italian sausage, removed from casing, minced and cooked in a skillet

¼ cup black olives, diced

½ cup mozzarella cheese

Taylor’s Artichoke and Ricotta Pizza

½ cup ricotta cheese, nonfat

4 oz goat cheese

1 cup mixture of artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and black olives (my HEB has this with the cheese)

½ cup sliced mushrooms, browned in a skillet with a little olive oil

1/3 cup tomatoes, diced

Preheat oven to 425 F.

For the pizza dough (I made one at a time), mix 1 cup flour with the salt, sugar and yeast then stir in the warm water and oil.  Mix until you have a ball of sticky dough and all the liquid is absorbed.  Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and begin adding additional flour ¼ cup at a time while kneading.  Once the dough gets to where it is only slightly sticky and is elastic, knead it for about 4 minutes then roll it out on a greased pizza stone or cookie sheet.   You can roll this out nicely with a rolling pin but I actually just pressed it out with my hands.

For J’s pizza he topped with sauce, sausage, black olives and cheese then baked for 15 minutes.  For my pizza I mixed the cheese together then spread my cheese and topped with the vegetables.  I used what the package called select tomatoes, or something like that, which was basically a mixture of different types of small tomatoes, so I had a few different colors which was pretty until hidden by the artichokes.  My pizza I baked on a cookie sheet and so I think I ended up rolling it out thinner and I cooked it for closer to 20 minutes so mine was more thin and crispy while J’s was thicker and softer. 

I was really pleased with my pizza, the dough was pretty good and very easy.  You could easily start adding seasonings to this to make some pretty good crust.  The mixture of ricotta cheese and goat cheese was awesome and complimented really well by the artichoke hearts.  Pat on back for that one.

When it comes to pizza neither of us have much self control at all, so I will tell you how many calories were in the entire pizza and you can decide for yourself what is a reasonable serving size because I don’t want to tell you how much I ate (hey at least wasn’t the whole thing, lay off me I’m starving).

Sausage and Black Olive Pizza

1926 calories, 80 g fat

Ricotta and Artichoke Pizza

1851 calories, 77 g fat

A big help to get the calories down on these pizzas without forfeiting much flavor would be to make one batch of dough and cut it in half.  This will make 2 thin crust pizzas and save you a whole 650 calories per pizza, then you could come a lot closer to eating the whole thing and not feel near as terrible.

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

Gordon Ramsay's Shepherd's Pie

I have just recently discovered Shepherd’s pie. Growing up chicken pot pie was much more of a common thing for me, but when I discovered that there is something similar but with mashed potatoes, holy cow. I have tried a few different versions, but then one day I saw Gordon Ramsay make his Shepherd’s pie and thought that is the one for me.  I hadn’t ever had lamb before; I can’t eat beef or pork because they don’t agree with me so I pretty much just steered clear of all meats other than chicken and turkey because I knew those were ok.  But when I saw Chef Ramsay’s Shepherd’s pie with lamb, I thought well maybe I will just try it and see how it goes, and thank goodness it went well because oh man I am hooked.

1 package lamb chunks (0.88 lbs) or 1 lb ground lamb (I like the chunks but use whatever you like)

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 carrots, diced

¼ cup peas

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp rosemary

¼ cup red wine

¼ cup chicken stock

6 oz tomato paste

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Olive oil

2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes

3 tbs butter

½ cup milk

¼ cup parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until soft enough to mash.

Heat one turn of olive oil in a large skillet or a dutch oven.   Season the lamb with salt and pepper and cook until browned on all sides, stirring constantly.  Once the meat is browned remove it to a plate.  Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion begins to brown.  There should be a sufficient amount of grease in the pan from the lamb but if not add more olive oil to cook the onions.  Add the seasoning, peas, and carrots and return the meat to the skillet. Mix well to coat the vegetables with the seasonings then add the Worcestershire sauce and continue to stir.  Add the tomato paste and wine and stir, add the stock and stir.  Allow to cook for ~3 minutes to boil off some of the liquid and cook the vegetables then remove from the heat.  If using a skillet transfer the lamb mixture to a casserole dish.

For the mashed potatoes, mash the potatoes with the milk and butter.  The potatoes should be light and fluffy.  This will be better achieved with the Yukon gold potatoes than with russet potatoes.  Chef Ramsay adds 2 egg yolks to the potatoes and I have tried it with and without the eggs and I see no difference other than extra calories, but if the eggless potatoes are lacking to you feel free to add them.  Season the potatoes with salt and pepper to taste.  Top the lamb mixture with the potatoes and spread over the top so there are peaks in the potatoes and they cover the entire dish.  Top the potatoes with the parmesan cheese and bake for 20 minutes to set the pie.  Allow to rest a few minutes before serving, it’s hot.

4 Servings, 580 calories, 20 g fat

I have seen a few recipes online that claim to be Gordon Ramsay’s Shepherd’s pie and they are all different, so I don’t know how close this is to his real recipe, but I think it’s pretty dang good so I stick with this one.

I am not a big wine drinker, especially red, but I really like to cook with it.  The flavor of this sauce with the lamb is just amazing.  I don’t know how anyone could eat this and not have a huge crush on Gordon Ramsay, he is amazing, and that’s not even considering his awesome hair!

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.

Meal Planning

I thought it might be a good idea to go through my meal planning process and start setting goals for the budget.  So what I do is, every Sunday, or Monday if I get distracted on Sunday, I plan out my meals for the week based on what I have left over from the week before.  I also like to at least consider what the Tuesday grocery store flyers say will be on sale and what’s in season, but I usually just end up making what sounds good.  I have the Pepper Plate App for my Kindle where I can schedule the meals for the week and type up a grocery list.  I also use www.caloriecount.about.com to calculate the nutritional value of my meals.  It is a lot better for me if I calculate the meals before I cook, that way I am much more aware of what is influencing the meal and what my goals are.  I have noticed that sometimes they will give you different information so you have to use common sense and double check the values if they look funny.  I use www.livestrong.com as my confirmation.  There are a ton of websites and apps for your phone that will calculate nutritional information I have just been using calorie count for a long time so a lot of my recipes are stored there.

My menu for this week

Sunday plus 2 lunches – Thai Basil Stir Fry (6 servings)

Monday – Cilantro Chicken, Potatoes and Broccoli

Tuesday plus 2 lunches – Chicken Enchiladas (6 servings), Spanish Rice, and Salad

Wednesday plus 1 lunch – Vegetable Risotto (4 servings) and Salad

Thursday  plus 1 lunch – Cajun Chicken Pasta (4 servings) and Salad

Friday – Should cook but no plan yet

I like to keep a decently stocked pantry and plenty of vegetables so I have most of the things I need on hand all the time and then I just have to replace them every once in a while.  I like to keep different types of rice, homemade pasta in the freezer, pastas I don’t make like penne, bread crumbs, a bag of onions, and all kinds of spices.  For standard spices I go to Penzey’s because they are really good, not cheap, but good.  For any Indian spices like cumin, cardamom, turmeric, etc, I buy at an Indian grocery store.  They are ridiculously cheap there, every store I’ve been to has been.  They are always “expired” so I buy them as whole seeds.  Spices that are old and already ground will not be as flavorful as whole spices freshly ground.  I buy large quantities and store them in the freezer.

So for my grocery list this week I had to purchase the meat and almost all of the vegetables.  I already have the pasta and the rice, but I did have to replenish my stock of Arborio rice for the risotto, but now I will have enough for quite a while and I do like to make risotto pretty often.  So you can see that buying in bulk may make your grocery bill a little high one week but when you use the ingredients often it evens out over all.  And when I say bulk I don’t mean I have turned my laundry room into a pantry filled with 50 boxes of cereal and 100 1-lb bags of rice like on those coupon shows, I mean I purchase 2 or 3 bags of rice when they go on sale or a couple packages of chicken and freeze what I don’t need.  I am not denying those people are “saving” tons of money, but in my opinion having 50 bottles of ketchup that I got for $2 doesn’t do anything for me when I go through 1 bottle of ketchup a year. Who wants 50 year old ketchup?

So thinking about this, I realized that counting cost/serving based on my grocery bill for the week didn’t make sense since I already had a lot of the ingredients.  So I am going to try to break down the cost of the meal based on the amount of the ingredients that I actually used, regardless of when I paid for them.  We’ll see how that works, sounds like a lot of work.