Recipes

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

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I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for quite a while, but am just now getting around to it.  Dang you tax season.  Dang you!

This is an incredibly easy soup to throw together, and as and added bonus it’s pretty low cal (not to mention tasty).  Boo. ya.

I searched long and hard for wild rice, but could not find any at my grocery store.  What the heck is up with that?  So, I settled on some Rice a Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice:

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I cooked the rice up according to the package directions (subbing in chicken broth for water and omitting the butter).
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Then I heated up a large pot, sprayed it down with some cooking spray, and sautéed the following:

  • 1  cup  prechopped onion
  • 2/3 cup  chopped red bell pepper
  • 1  cup  cut carrots
  • 3  teaspoon  bottled minced garlic
  • 1/2  teaspoon  dried thyme
  • 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms

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My grocery store doesn’t have “gourmet” mushrooms, but these baby bellas always do the trick:

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All the kids into the pool:
 

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Once the veggies were softened, I added in a splash of chicken stock to decaramelize the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Once I worked them all off the bottom, I tossed in the rest of the stock, and stirred in:

  • 2 shredded chicken breasts
  • the cooked Rice A roni
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

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Awwwwww yeah.

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This batch made up four delicious servings, two of which I popped in the freezer.

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Cook once, eat fource…errr.. something like that.

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup Ingredients List (serves 4) — inspired by Cooking Light Magazine

  • 4  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
  • 1  box Rice A Roni wild rice
  • 1  cup  prechopped onion
  • 2/3 cup  chopped red bell pepper
  • 1  cup  chopped carrots
  • 3  teaspoon  bottled minced garlic
  • 1/2  teaspoon  dried thyme
  • 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms
  • 2  shredded chicken breasts
  • 1/8  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper

A random questions for ya’ll this evening–anyone have a Griddler?  If so, is it worth the $$$ and what model is the best? 

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Ramblings

My big black book

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I’d like to call it my little black book, but truth be told it’s quite a large black book:

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Embarrassed smile …

Before we get into that… I have a question for you guys: Type A or Type B?

Type A:  Ambitious, aggressive, business-like, controlling, highly competitive, impatient, preoccupied…. time-conscious, tightly-wound… Geeze Wikipedia, you sure make it sound like a good thing.

Type B:  generally patient, relaxed, easy-going, and at times lacking an overriding sense of urgency.

Looking at my coffee table, you might guess that I’m a straight up type B:

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What is all this CRAP??

Yes, you might think I was a type B by the amount of disarray and apparent disdain for order….

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That is until you realized what I was doing with all this nonsense.

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Feast yo eyes.

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I may have painstakingly gone through every single copy of Cooking Light, Clean Eating, and Eating Well magazine I’ve accumulated over the past two years (a mere 30-some issues)….. 

I MAY have clipped out every single recipe that sounded the teensiest bit tasty…..

And I MAY have filed them away… by category.

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Jealoussssss???? Open-mouthed smile 

What about you guys?  Type A or Type B?

Oh, and lest we not forget TGIF! Party smile

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Recipes

Faux Chicken Parmesan

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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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Recipes

Bananas Foster Bread

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So what do these have in common?  Yesterday’s guesses gave me quite a few chuckles.

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Maker’s Mark and bananas happen to be two of the BF’s FAVORITE things.  Since we didn’t get to spend VD together, I decided to whip up a batch of Marker’s Mark Banana Bread over the weekend.  I had a Cooking Light Recipe for Bananas Foster bread that I’d been DYING to try out, and Makers Mark seemed like a terrific substitute for the Cognac called for in the recipe.

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Who drinks Cognac anyway?  Emeril Lagasse, that’s who.

Lucky for this banana bread recipe, I’m not dating Emeril Lagasse.  I’m dating Mr. Maker’s Mark.

Seriously…

Edible.

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Canoodling:

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This looks quite natural, actually.

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First up:  get your hands on some mushy brown bananas.  Hopefully you planned ahead for this, because the base of ANY good banana bread recipe is some seriously overripe bananas.

These guys are actually on the under-ripe side, but they got the job done.

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Next:  preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×5 inch bread loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine the following in a nonstick skillet:

  • 1.5 cups mashed up ripe bananas
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 5 tbsp melted butter
  • 3 tbsp Maker’s Mark

Can we say yum?

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Heat over medium until it starts to bubble and thicken slightly

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Then you’ll want to remove this banana goodness from the heat and set aside to cool.

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In the meantime, combine the following in a separate bowl:

  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground allspice

Flax!

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Alltogethernah:

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Once the bananas are cooled off, add in:

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup fat free plain yogurt
  • 2 large eggs

Beat everything together until combined, then add in your dries to wets and mix until just blended:

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Yes, I licked them.

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Next is the easy part — pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.  Then let the bread cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile mix up the icing:

  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp melted butter
  • 1 tbsp Maker’s Mark

And dr-dr-drizzzzleeee  over the warm bread:

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Notice that at this point I had ALREADY cut off a small piece for sampling… That’s a key step in successful baking.  Frequent and continuous testing.

Mr. Maker’s Mark said this was the best banana bread he had ever tasted because it was “delightfully moist and not overly sweet”

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I agreed, it was delicious… and addicting.

Must be the alcohol.

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Maker’s Mark Banana Foster Bread Ingredients List (serves 12):

  • 1.5 cups mashed up ripe bananas
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
  • 6 tablespoons melted butter, divided
  • 1/4 cup Maker’s Mark, divided
  • 1/3 cup fat free plain yogurt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar

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