Faux Chicken Parmesan

Do you guys every go through phases where you just don’t want anything to do with certain foods?  Lately, that’s how I’ve been feeling about meat. I just have not been craving it! 

While at Target over the weekend, I picked up a box of Morning Star Chick Patties.  I think I’ve contemplated buying these dozens of times before, but never sealed the deal.

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Over the weekend, I cooked one of these patties up in the oven and had it on a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat.

No sauce.  No veggies.  Just the faux meat and bun.

It was glorious.  It seriously reminded me of the chicken pattie sandwiches from high school.  I know that sounds disgusting, but in this instance it’s actually a very very good thing. 

Then, the other night I had a VISION: Faux Chicken Parmesan… Healthified, no less: 

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Shut the front door!!!!

First up, grab a spaghetti squash and halve it…

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I swear, every time I try and halve a squash I have flashes of severing a finger.  I think to myself, “is this it?”  Is this the day that I lose a finger in the name of squash??

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Once it’s halved, scoop out the seeds, and pop this puppy onto a cookie sheet into a 415 degree over for 30 minutes.  I ‘m no fan of mooshy squashoodles.

Next, I grabbed some leftover pasta sauce from the freezer.  This was Nature’s Basket Roasted Garlic:

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Why do I get such joy from stock piling individual servings of goods in the freezer?  It’s uncanny really. 

I defrosted the sauce a bit in the microwave, then tossed in a pan and added a hodge podge of seasonings including:  red pepper flakes, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, parsley.

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Once the squash was done, I pulled it out of the oven and used a fork to scrape out the innards.  Then popped 1 chicken pattie and some broccoli into the oven to do their thang.

Once the pattie was cooked through, I combined all my delicious and oh-so-easy ingredients:

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Faux-chicken-parmesan MASTERPIECE.

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I am in love with these patties… seriously, if you haven’t tried them DO IT.  Just make sure you cook them in the oven (and not the microwave) and you’ll get a crispy delicious bit of faux-meat-heaven.

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Mmmm hmmmmmmmmmmm….

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This WILL be making frequent appearance in my tax season dinner diet.  For sure.

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Stats on 1 serving faux chicken parmesan (1/2 squash, 1 pattie, 1/2 cup sauce):  274 calories, 44carbs, 7g fat, 12g protein, 8g fiber

Lest we not forget….. the winner of my Luna Bar giveaway is…….

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Meagan!  Yay!!!  Email me with your mailing adddres and I’ll get the bars to you ASAP!

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Healthified Chicken Parmesan Sub

What’s better than a dinner that only takes 15 minutes to get into your belly?  A dinner that only takes 15 minutes AND is healthy AND tastes delicious!

Lately, I’ve been craving bread.  Buns, muffins, bagels, pizzas, you know the deal.  So tonight, I thought I’d make a healthified chicken parmesan sub.

I topped a Joseph’s Low-Carb Pita with a 1/4 cup of Classico Fire Roasted Tomato Garlic Pasta sauce (leftover from yesterday’s pizza), and 3 ounces of grilled chicken (leftovers from the weekend).  I added some red pepper flakes, dried oregano, black pepper, and garlic powder.

Then I thinly sliced a light mini babybel cheese round into four thin discs and tossed that on top along with some banana pepper rings:

In another pan, I added 2 cups broccoli and a ¼ cup of garbanzo beans (leftovers from the couscous garbanzo bean salad).

Everything into a 415 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Beautiful.

So friggin’ tasty:

 

I love roasted veggies

 

Melty and amazing

So is it still considered a chicken parmesan sub if I didn’t use any parmesan?  Chicken Babybelesan sub perhaps 😉

Stats on the sub:  228 calories, 13g carbs, 7g fat, 33g protein, 5g fiber

Stats on the broccoli/beans:  110 calories, 22g carbs, 2g fat, 8g protein, 9g fiber

Altogether:  338 calories, 35g carbs, 9g fat, 41g protein, 14g fiber

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Leftovers makeover

I find most of my meal planning revolves around whatever leftovers I happen to have in the fridge.  On a typical day I am cooking for one person, which leaves me with the option to eat the same things for several days on end or reincorporate the leftovers into new dishes.       

For lunch today I wanted to use up some leftover chicken I had grilled up earlier in the week, and I had some leftover tomato sauce from the 10 cheese pizza I made Friday.  So I decided to make a chicken parmesan inspired wrap, healthified of course.  (AKA leftover chicken, leftover sauce , NO cheese, on a Joseph’s middle east bakery low carb pita–seasoned up with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and dried parsley)       

chicken parm wrap with roasted brussel sprouts

 

 Aren’t Jarrod’s dishes lovely? 😉    

After lunch we finished up the light tent.  Now we just need to get some lights!       

       

For my afternoon snack I had apples and some chocolate PB2.       

       

Chocolate PB2 = fabulous!  I need to work this into some shake recipes…        

Tonight we visited our friends Tim and Jaci at their newly purchased, exquisitely decorated townhouse.  Tim prepared a feast complimented with onions galore.       

Roasted potatoes with onions and green peppers, seasoned grilled asparagus, and jerk marinated chicken:      

dinner spread

 

Tim, The Chef, by the goods

 

Plate o' goodness

 

P.S. can’t wait to get my hair cut tomorrow!       

The man candy and his dessert 🙂

 

Beauty!

 

       

Happy Sunday!

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