Low Carb White Chicken Chili

Chili has always been a favorite of mine. When looking for healthier options for some of my favorite meals, I discovered White Chicken Chili. Actually after I started making this I have pretty much decided not to go back to regular ground beef chili unless I just really have a craving for it.

Low Carb White Chicken Chili
Ingredients:
3 15 oz. cans white beans
1 pound chicken breast
1 5 oz. can green chiles
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tsp of coriander
4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper to taste

The best way I have found to cook chicken breast is in the crock pot for 3-4 hours on high. By the time it is finished, it will be falling apart--a great sign to good chicken! Shred the cooked chicken and combine with beans, chiles, tomato sauce, chili powder, coriander and broth in large pot. Stir ingredients well and place on stove on medium-high heat until contents begin to boil. Add cheese and cut heat down to low. Once the cheese is melted, it's ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Healthy Baked Ziti

Love me some pasta. But I also love me some skinny jeans. Decisions, decisions.

Luckily, this dish doesn't have me squeezing into my stretchy pants after I eat a couple of servings. It's fairly light and even the pasta is good for you. Read that again...pasta...good for you. Nom, nom, nom.

Healthy Baked Ziti

1 14 1/2 oz box whole wheat penne pasta

1 pound ground beef (or ground sausage for GREAT flavor, but also adds more fat)

1 tsp. Italian seasoning1 15 oz container fat-free ricotta cheese4 cups finely shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese (save one cup for topping)1/2 tsp. garlic powder4 cups of a low-fat, low-sodium marinara sauce6 oz. grated reduced-fat Parmesan cheese (save three tablespoons for topping)Salt to taste

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Bring pot of water to a boil and add pasta. Cook until soft, set aside. Brown ground beef or sausage in pan. Combine pasta, meat, seasoning, ricotta, three cups of mozzarella, garlic powder, marinara, salt and all but three tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Mix well. Place mixture in a 9x13 casserole dish and cook for approximately 15 minutes or until ingredients begin to bubble. Remove and top with remaining Parmesan and mozzarella. Return to oven for 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Grilled Salmon and Sauteed Veggies

Getting a home cooked meal on the table some days is difficult. Getting a healthy meal on the table is almost laughable. I really do strive to give my family the healthiest meals but there are times when a drive-thru run or something with the word "nugget" in it is about all I can do.

This weekend I made a great grilled salmon and sauteed veggies that were incredibly easy and didn't take a lot of time. First, I warmed my grill to about 375 degrees. While I waited, I wrapped about four ounces of salmon in aluminum foil. If you don't have a scale, four ounces is roughly the size of your palm. I did four ounces for each person. After the grill was warm I placed the wrapped salmon on the grill and left it for about 25 minutes. We left our salmon "naked," but you can certainly add your favorite spices or a few squeezes of lemon. Diced tomatoes are also a great addition!

While the salmon sizzled on the grilled, I sliced up one zucchini and several mushrooms. In a medium frying pan I circled some EVOO around the pan twice and set to medium high heat. Once the pan was warm, I sauteed the veggies for about 5-10 minutes. I like my veggies cooked pretty well so mine are a little dark, but you can always go a little lighter if you prefer.

I was pretty stuffed just from this but a sweet potato would have been a great healthy starch to add for those with a bigger appetite.

Better Than Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole

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Burger Seasoning

Warmer weather means one of my favorite things gets to come out to play: the grill. So far we're keeping it simple with burgers and hot dogs, but ribs and bratwursts are sure to follow later this summer. Friday night I tried out this burger seasoning and oh. My. Goodness. I actually skipped putting mustard and ketchup because of the flavor in this bad boy. Most of these seasonings are probably sitting right in your spice rack. No need to purchase expensive pre-made seasonings or many (if any) additional spices.

Burger Seasoning
1/8 cup salt
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon pepper
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon chili powder (Note: this gives it a bit of a kick. If you've got kids that are not a fan of spicy stuff, you may want to omit this or cut it in half.)

Mix all ingredients in something you can seal--a sandwich bag, Rubbermaid/Tupperware container, etc. Shake well. Sprinkle conservatively over meat and fold in well, continuing to add mixture as you go. You can also use one of these to combine seasoning and meat. Cook to your liking and enjoy! : )

Copycat Chick-fil-A Nuggets

My almost four-year-old, Thomas, could eat his body weight in CFA chicken nuggets if I would let him. At four bucks per kid's meal, that gets a little expensive, not to mention with some of the added stuff in fast food meals, I really don't like to give it to him that often. I was thrilled when I found a recipe online that seemed pretty healthy. The only prob: peanut oil. Since Brian and Dylan are mildly allergic to peanuts, I try not to take too many chances when it comes to peanut stuff and since we all eat the same meals, I wanted to make sure it was something we could all eat. The following recipe doesn't taste exactly like CFA because, well, I'm not CFA, BUT I personally think they taste better and are a bit healthier since they are cooked with canola oil.

Copycat Chick-fil-A Nuggets
1 egg
1 cup skim milk
1 pound boneless chicken breast
1 1/2 flour
2 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons pepper
Canola Oil

Combine egg and milk in a medium bowl. Cut chicken into nugget-sized pieces and drop into milk mixture. Place chicken and mixture in refrigerator for a minimum of one hour. Longer is better, but one hour will work. In a one gallon bag, mix flour, powdered sugar, salt and pepper together. Shaking it should mix it pretty well and can be a simple way to get the kids involved in meal prep.
After the chicken is done marinating, place chicken in bag with flour mixture. Shake well and make sure all nuggets are coated with flour. If more flour is needed, sprinkle more into bag and add small increments of sugar, salt and pepper as well.
Place canola oil in medium to large and bring to medium high heat. I usually wait about 10 minutes and then place one test piece of chicken into the oil. If it starts to fry, it's ready. Continue to place chicken pieces in one at a time and be incredibly careful while doing so. Young kiddos should be far away from the frying station. The nuggets do not take long to fry so even while you are placing uncooked nuggets in, you will need to pull golden brown nuggets out.
Allow to cool before serving. These are very hot straight out of the fryer.

Enjoy! : )

Homemade Salsa

I always love heading to any of our local Mexican restaurants in the area, but feeding two adults and three kids gets super expensive. So we occasionally opt for the tacos or enchiladas out of the box (don't judge me) and toss in some store-bought tortilla chips and salsa for some extra yummies. To me there is nothing better than the real stuff in the restaurant so when I got my hands on this recipe from my aunt, I couldn't help but make it in bulk, freeze it and thaw it out when we need some. This is the original recipe, but you can double, triple, etc. if you prefer to prepare in bulk or have a large party.

Homemade Salsa
Two 10 ounce cans diced tomatoes and green chiles
One 28 ounce can whole tomatoes with juice (You can also use diced tomatoes since everything will be blended together)
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 whole jalepeno, chopped (with or without seeds--depends on how spicy you want it!)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 lime, juiced

Blend ingredients together in blender or food processor. Note: Even this recipe makes A LOT of salsa. Make sure you have a large food processor before starting or split into two mixtures in a blender or small food processor.

Taming the Picky Eater

When Brian and I first started dating I remember him giving me a rundown of a typical meal when Jason and Dylan were at his place: McDonald's burgers and nuggets, sandwiches, snack foods and lots and lots of sweets. After I began making meals for them, I quickly learned that Jason pretty much only ate a few things: chips, some types of crackers, protein bars, yogurt and McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries. If we ventured out to a restaurant other than McD's, Brian frequently brought yogurt or a protein bar to feed Jason because he refused to eat anything else on the menu.

After a few weeks, I had to speak my mind on the matter. I researched some ways to get him to eat new things and so far this is what has worked for us.

1) Make a plan and stick to it.
None of our success would have been possible if we didn't stick to what we have told him from the beginning. There was A LOT of pouting and crying when we first started doing this, but we made it clear that he needed to start eating more than junk food.

2) No short order cooking.
I made it clear that I was not Waffle House or Burger King at dinner time. I would prepare a meal and he could eat it or not. Giving him a separate meal from the rest of the family was not an option, including when we went out to eat. If he chose not to eat then he could wait until the next meal or snack in 3-4 hours. (Jason is a very healthy height and weight for his age so we knew we were not starving him. I would not recommend this for any child who is underweight.)

3) Fix his plate.
Knowing that he would never put a hamburger on his plate, we put everything served at a meal on his plate. This at least put the food item in front of him where he could be exposed to it more than usual. We didn't heap corn on his plate the first time, but did give him a small scoop of it and encouraged him to eat it.

4) Don't force feed him.
As much as we wanted to "make" him try something, ultimately the decision was his on whether or not to eat. Creating a stressful time for him at mealtimes was not going to help him try new foods and was just going to leave us feeling stressed.

5) Don't withhold dessert.
This one was the hardest for me to stick to. I grew up being told that if I didn't finish my dinner, then I wouldn't get to eat dessert, thus making me finish my "icky" food so I could get the good stuff. All this message does is confirm that the veggies and protein on your plate are "icky," and you've got to finish it to get to the good stuff. One small dessert is okay for even the pickiest eater. Remember that not all desserts have to be super sugary--strawberries and low-fat Cool Whip can be just as sweet as a piece of cake.

6) Include things he will eat.
Sure, we can have potato chips for dinner...with a piece of baked chicken and green beans on the side. If nothing on his plate looks appealing, then he's not going to eat anything. Sprinkle a few things he likes and he's more apt to try other things on his plate.

7) No seconds until everything on your plate is finished.
Early on, Jason tried to get us to give him extra bread or french fries but would not touch the other things on his plate. We simply told him if he was still hungry he could finish what was on his plate and then get seconds, or he could wait until dessert or snack time. This is a little different from #5 because we were not withholding the item from him, just limiting it and making sure he doesn't get full on the wrong things.

8) Be encouraging.
When Jason would try something new, even if he didn't like it or even if it was something not particularly healthy, we practically threw him a parade to show him how proud we were of him.

9) Get his input.
I would often ask for his request for dinner so he felt included in the meal preparation. As he is getting older I am also letting him help out with meals more often. One night all the boys made their own pizzas. Jason did not eat his, but he at least participated and was introduced to something new.

10) Be patient.
Don't expect a miracle overnight. We have been doing this for about a year and a half, and since we only have him about 45% of the time, it is taking a little longer than we would like. Jason has still not tried any type of beef or pork but has tried different variations of real chicken. He also eats a good range of fruits and vegetables and has toned down on the sweets.

Cream Cheese Pie

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Use mixer to cream the cream cheese, add condensed milk and then lemon juice and vanilla slowly (mixing whole time) so you don't get lumps. Pour into graham cracker crust and smooth with spoon or spatula. Chill in refrigerator until set. Overnight is best, but I have thrown it in the freezer when I was short on time.

Best Steak Marinade

Meat is good. Meat with flavor is even better. I love a good, simple steak from time to time, but sometimes my mouth waters for something a little more. This is actually my dad's concoction, but I hope you will enjoy it!

Best Steak Marinade
3/4 bottle of Moore's Original Marinade
1 cup Zesty Italian dressing
Montreal Steak Seasoning

Rub steaks with seasoning. Use pretty liberally for the best flavor. Combine Moore's and Italian dressing in a container or gallon sized Ziploc bag. Place two steaks in marinade for 4-5 hours in refrigerator.

That's it. It's THAT easy. Now grill to your liking, add some awesome sides and enjoy!

My sides:

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Ruth Chris' Barbecue Shrimp

Cheddar Bay Biscuits 



Chicken Tortilla Soup

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