Soups and Stews – Fervent Foodie

Cheeseless Quesadilla?

October 6, 2010 6 Comments

What do you call a cheeseless quesadilla?

Is it just a dilla? What about a cheeseless quesadilla with beans? A habadilla?

Something to ponder…

Quesadillas are one of my favorite fast-fix dinners. I put a lot of random things in my quesadillas, and I’m convinced that you can sandwich pretty much anything in between a tortilla, throw it on the george foreman grille, and have near instant glory in your mouth.

Take this dinner for example. I started off with 1 Tumaro’s low carb tortilla topped, 1/4 cup fat-free refried beans and 2 ounces grilled chicken:

Plus 1/2 a cup of frozen calabacita mixed veggies that I defrosted in the microwave:

5 minutes of quality time with the george:

Naked quesadilla:

Veggies for toppin’

Add 2 tbsp of fat-free sour cream and you have yourself magnificence on a plate!

Stats on the habadilla: 264 calories, 38g carbs, 3g fat, 33g protein, 12g fiber

Mmmmmm beans…… Love them.

What I ate

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

September 13, 2010 9 Comments

Holy comfort food!!!!

Ever since we stopped at Bob Evans last week for breakfast, I’ve been craving a pot pie with a vengeance. We’ve got a BIG deadline at work this week, so I’ve been working my little hiney off and have had zero time to cook. Tonight however I made time because I knew my body NEEDED a lil pot pie. I’ve never made a pot pie before, so I did a little googlin’ and found this recipe for Impossibly Easy Chicken Pot Pie. Sounded like a good place for me to start learning the art of potpiedom!

This recipe was incredibly simple to throw together, which made it all the more comforting and delicious. First up, I gathered the mixins.

And quickly threw a chicken breast seasoned with salt and pepper on the George.

Meanwhile, I threw the following items into a bowl:

1 bag frozen stew vegetables (pearl onions, potatoes, carrots, celery)
2 cups chopped broccoli … because I love broccoli and broccoli loves me!
1 can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black pepper

Once the chicken breast was cooked through, I roughly chopped it into cubes, and added to the mix.

Yes… this is what I called a “cube” 😉

I gave everything a good mix and poured into a pie dish that I had sprayed with some cooking spray.

Next up, I mixed the following in a little bowl:

1 cup bisquick
1 large egg
1/2 cup almond breeze

If you are smarty pants, you may have noticed Bisquick is NOT the baking mix pictured in my ingredients pic… I had full intentions of using my Bob’s Red Mill Low-carb baking mix… but last minute I got a little nervous thinking the pot pie might be a pot-flop, and I wasn’t about to waste my last bit of low-carb baking mix on that. So I decided to use Bisquick instead and save the Bob’s Red Mill for pot pie round #2. (I foresee many pot pies in my future)

Once the batter was all mixed up, I dumped it on top of veggies.

Now, I can assure you that even though this looks like I just poured some paper-mache goopy gop concoction on my delicious veggies it did not taste like any sort of glue… Well at least not any glue I’ve ever tasted. I popped this pie into a 400 degree oven with apprehension, and let it hang out for 40 minutes until the top was nice and browned.

Voila! Pot Pie!

The pot pie was everything I had hoped for! Creamy, comforting, and oh-so delicious!

Not to mention this made four servings so now I have food for the rest of the week. Hooray!

Just a few more days to go folks, then life can return to its “normal” state.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie Ingredients List (makes 4 servings)

1 bag frozen stew vegetables
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black pepper
1 large grilled chicken breast (mine was approx 7 ounces)
1 cup Bisquick
1 large egg
1/2 cup Unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla Almond Milk

Myfitnesspal stats on 1 serving of Easy Chicken Pot Pie: 315 calories, 41g carbs, 7g fat, 19g protein, 4g fiber

Recipes

White Chicken Chili & Spaghetti Squash

September 8, 2010 10 Comments

I love spaghetti squash. I mean, what could be better than an all-natural version of one of my FAVORITE foods in the world? Lately I’ve been in a spaghetti squash rut. I’ve been searching high and low for something different than my standard Spaghetti Squash with Spicy meat sauce.

Luckily, I stumbled across this post by Green Dog Wine for some white chicken chili she tossed on top of spaghetti squash. Sounded like an awesome combo to me!

Since Monday was a holiday, my usual Sunday-Cooktacular was pushed back a day. Here’s a shot of some of my inventory:

That doesn’t even include the 2 turkey sausages and 1 chicken breast I grilled up along with the 4 servings of White Chicken chili this recipe makes! I’m a cooking machine!

Alright, on to the main event: White Chicken Chilli!

First up, I heated up a skillet that I sprayed down with cooking spray. Once the skillet was hot, I tossed in a cup of a chopped white onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic.

A few minutes later the onions were looking nice and caramelized, so I plopped three chicken breasts seasoned with S&P into the skillet right on top of the onions and garlic.

Once the chicken was cooked through, I added the following to the pan:

1 can Navy beans, drained and rinsed
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 packet McCormick’s White Chicken Chili seasoning
1 cup all-natural free range chicken broth

I gave everything a good stir, then popped the lid on and reduced the heat to a simmer.

Meanwhile, I halved two baby spaghetti squash and tossed them onto a cookie sheet. Into a 415 degree oven for 25 minutes (since these guys were so tiny, I shortened the cooking time).

While the squash was cooking, I pulled the chicken breasts out of the chili mix and gave them a rough shred using two forks (just like I do when I make my buffalo chicken dip). I tossed the shredded chicken back into the chili just in time for the spaghetti squash to be done.

I used a fork to scrape out all the squash noodles… Squadles, perhaps? 😉

Then, I divided the squash evenly between two containers to take to work for late-night dinners at the office:

When it was time to eat, I topped one of the containers of squash off with one quarter of the white chicken chili mixture:

This is going into my spaghetti squash roatation for sure! The chili was delicious even without the squash, but I like the extra texture and flavor that the squash adds.

White Chicken Chili Ingredient List (serves four)

1 cup white onion, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
S&P
1 can Navy beans, drained and rinsed
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 packet McCormick’s White Chicken Chili seasoning
1 cup all-natural free range chicken broth
Spaghetti squash (optional)

Myfitnesspal stats on one serving chili: 293 calories, 39 carbs, 5g fat, 33g protein, 10g fiber