Nicole

Poblano Cheesy Chicken And Rice

August 7, 2012 Nicole

After perusing the Southern Plate I came across a recipe that caught my eye. I ended up bookmarking it for future use. A few days ago I decided I was going to make it but I forgot to put it in the crockpot and I forgot to pull the chicken breast out of the freezer. Needless to say I wasn’t going to make it…

At the last minute I decided to make an adapted version with the things I had on hand. Instead of making it in the crock pot I made it on the stove top. In the end I realized my recipe wasn’t even close to the Southern Plate’s but it did turn out fantastic. She was certainly my inspiration. This is just incredible!! It’s so easy to make and the flavor is fantastic. I am using the leftover to make enchiladas with!

I highly recommend this recipe for a quick easy inexpensive week night meal. I literally made the entire meal in 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

1-13oz can of chicken drained
1 large onion, chopped
1 -8 ounce box Zatarain’s Yellow Rice Mix,
½ cup cheddar cheese grated
1- 10.5 ounce can cream of poblano soup
1-15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained

Directions:

In a large pot sauté onion until its tender, remove from pot and set aside.
In the same pot cook yellow rice according to package directions.
Once the rice is cooked about 20-25 minutes add onions back into the pot, add drained chicken, cheddar cheese, cream of poblano, and drained corn.
Mix well and heat all the way through. Once everything is heated through serve immediately.

Adapted from Original Recipe Source

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Recipes

Rice Paper Salad Wraps

August 4, 2012 Nicole

I always have my eyes open for new and inventive low calorie ways of reinventing the wheel. Meaning how can I serve the same old salad (or whatever) and make it more exciting. The last thing I want to happen in my low calorie eating is to get bored. Boredom can lead to failure!

A few days ago I was in our international grocery store in the Asian section and came across rice paper. I love Vietnamese spring rolls which are made with rice paper. I got to thinking maybe you could do other things with rice paper too? Rice paper averages about 56 calories a sheet so what the heck I thought let’s give it a try!

My first venture so far into the rice paper trial has been making salad wraps. Make up about 6 cups of salad with all of your favorite salad ingredients including the dressing. Wet your rice paper, and then roll about one cup of salad up in the rice paper making rice paper salad wraps.

The rice paper will stick together sealing the edges. This makes a very fun salad side dish that is also an easy finger food. If you want to leave the dressing off of the salad you can serve it on the side as a dipping sauce. People love to dip! 😉

Rice paper is a fun way to reinvent the same old eating routine and do it in a low calorie way!! As you can see in the picture above my first attempt at wrapping the salad resulted in it being wrapped too loosely. By the time I was finishing my 6th salad wrap they were turning out perfect! Practice makes perfect, or at least close!

Rice paper ideas:

Ham and cheese salad
Julienned Apples slices with light/sugar free caramel sauce
Mixed fruit salad in fat free whip cream

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Recipes

Italian Layer Bake

August 3, 2012 Nicole

I was really excited to try this recipe it looked so good in the picture and seemed easy enough that I new I had to give it a try. I changed the meat up based on what I had on hand. Basically you can use any lunch meat you have I actually used deli chicken verse turkey and I used pepperoni verses the hard salami.

We all really enjoyed this recipe. It’s very interesting! I think the roasted peppers made it so good. Without the peppers it would have been just OK, but the peppers gave it a very unique and pleasantly surprising pazazz! It was super easy and most things I had on hand to make it work for us. It it a great recipe for a week night meal.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

1 (8-ounce) container refrigerated crescent rolls (I used reduced fat)
8 slices (1/2 pound) deli turkey (I used deli chicken)
8 slices (1/2 pound) deli ham
12 slices (1/2 pound) deli hard salami (I used pepperoni)
8 slices (1/2 pound) Swiss cheese (I used mozzarella)
1 (12-ounce) jar roasted peppers, drained (I only used 1 whole pepper)
4 eggs, beaten (I used 6 egg whites)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll crescent roll dough without separating triangles. Separate dough into 2 squares along center cut line.
Place 1 square of dough into an 8-inch square baking dish; using your fingertips, press dough to fit bottom of dish.
Layer with half of each of turkey, ham, salami, Swiss cheese, and roasted peppers. Pour half of beaten eggs over peppers and repeat with remaining meat, cheese, and peppers.
Place remaining square of dough over peppers. Pour remaining beaten eggs over dough and cover lightly with foil.
Bake 20 minutes, remove foil, and bake an additional 20 to 22 minutes, or until golden and heated through. Let cool 15 to 20 minutes then cut and serve.

Original Recipe Source

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Recipes

Mississippi Roast with Au Jus

July 28, 2012 Nicole

This has quickly become a family favorite. I can’t even begin to tell you just how great this recipe really is. First off its super easy to make because you are simple dropping everything in the crock pot and letting it do all of the work. Second this recipe is do die for! The flavor of the meat along with the sauce it produces is something special. I had a feeling it would be good, but I had no idea it would be this GOOD.

I was a rock star with my family that night. I don’t think I have ever gotten that many compliments. I ended up serving the roast on toasted white bread then I served the au jus on the side for dipping the sandwich in. My husband said it was the best French dip sandwich he had ever had in his life. I know this recipe has been passed around a few times so I don’t really know who the original poster is, but I do know who I got it from and that is “A perfectly lovely ordinary day.” If you don’t make this recipe you are truly missing out.

This story does have a heartbreaking end though…. That night after dinner my husband and I were already dreaming of the leftovers for lunch when all of the sudden a 5lb. block of mozzarella cheese hit the covered container containing our delectable dinner and shot it across the kitchen and it broke up and splattered all over the place. I don’t know what made me want to cry more the loss of the fantastic roast, the money that was wasted, the fact that my lunch for the next day the eat was scarfing down as fast as her mouth would move, or the fact that it was going to take me an hour to clean up the mess. *SIGH* I guess we will just HAVE to make it again 😉

Ingredients:

Chuck Roast (I used a 4 pound roast any size will work)
Hidden Valley ranch dressing
McCormick Au Jus mix
1 stick of butter (I used margarine)
5 pepperoncini peppers

Directions:

Add Chuck Roast to the crock pot
Sprinkle Hidden Valley ranch dressing on top of the roast
Sprinkle McCormick Au Jus mix on top of the ranch
Put a stick of butter on top of the au jus
Put about 5 pepperoncini peppers on top. (Find in the pickle section of the store)
Do NOT add water.
Cook in crock pot on low for about 8 hours. (Mine was done in 6 on low)

Take Note: You can discard the pepperoncini peppers when the roast is done if you would like. My husband ate them on his sandwich and loved them.

*The pepperoncini peppers really do send this dish over the top so don’t skip them*

Original Recipe Source

I forgot to add the peppers before I took the picture

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Recipes

Scooter’s Spaghetti

July 25, 2012 Nicole

Is it just me or is that a cute name? That’s what initially caught my eyes. Scooter made me think of the Muppets. This is a really good recipe that is easy to make and quick. It also freezes nicely which is always a bonus. I was a little intimated by the quirkiness of the recipe with the cream cheese and french fried onions. I thought it was strange yet it intrigued me.

We all really enjoyed it and enjoyed the left overs even more. What I thought was weird “the french fried onions” I ended up enjoying the best about this recipe. I found this recipe on Salad in a Jar. Paula has a great site check it out!!

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
1 pound ground beef
1 large can spaghetti sauce (26.5 ounces)
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped green peppers (I usually omit or substitute red peppers)
1/3 cup chopped onions
8 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons milk
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
French Fried Onions (small can)

Directions:

Cook spaghetti according to directions on the package. Cook to al dente, drain and set aside.
Brown ground beef. Drain excess grease. Add spaghetti sauce to skillet and heat.
Combine onions, peppers and butter in small glass bowl. Cover and microwave 4 minutes on HIGH until soft.
Add cream cheese and milk to vegetables and stir well. (If cream cheese is not soft, nuke it for 20-30 seconds to make it easy to spread.)
Using a 10 x 6 dish, assemble in the following order:
Thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish. Spaghetti Cream cheese/vegetable mixture, Spaghetti sauce, Parmesan Cheese (amount subject to your own taste)
French Fried Onions on top (added during last 5 minutes of cooking)
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Top with French Fried onion and continue baking 5 more minutes. This is the secret ingredient–don’t let them burn.)