black pepper – Page 2 – Fervent Foodie

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

February 20, 2011 9 Comments

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:

I cooked the rice up according to the package directions (subbing in chicken broth for water and omitting the butter).

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

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

All the kids into the pool:

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

Awwwwww yeah.

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

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?

Recipes

Faux Chicken Parmesan

February 17, 2011 12 Comments

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.

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:

Shut the front door!!!!

First up, grab a spaghetti squash and halve it…

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??

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:

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.

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:

Faux-chicken-parmesan MASTERPIECE.

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.

Mmmm hmmmmmmmmmmm….

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

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…….

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

Recipes

Couscous Crusted Chicken

January 26, 2011 5 Comments

Talk about a happy accident!

Once I got home from the grocery store, I was on a mission: to make the couscous stuffed chicken featured in this month’s Cooking Light. I had even pre-snipped the recipe out and hung it up at the stove:

Hard core.

I was pretty excited to try this recipe for a few reasons. First, I have a giant tub of Rice Select Tri-Color couscous in my cabinet that has been begging to be used. Second, I love any excuse to use my meat mallet.

Let’s be honest… I like any excuse to type “meat mallet” Smile with tongue out

Even though the ingredients list is fairly long the dish came together pretty easy. First, I pounded the chicken breast out to about 1/4 inch thickness and sliced in half. For the couscous mixture, I brought 1/4 cup of fat free low sodium chicken broth to a boil then added 1/4 cup of the couscous. Then you cover the couscous, remove it from the heat, and let it hang out for about 4 minutes.

Then add in the flava:

1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1 tbsp Athenos Feta Cheese
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup thinly sliced spinach
1 clove minced garlic

The Cooking Light recipe called for olives (BLEGH!) and olive oil, which I omitted and instead subbed in sundried tomatoes and spinach. Divide the couscous mixture between your chicken breast halves:

And them roll them up jelly roll style…. Easy right?

Ummm not so much. I had a couscous blow out and half of the filling fell out! So, I went with my guts and seared the chicken on all sides, then plopped into a baking dish and kind of mashed the extra couscous mix on top of the chicken.

Then I popped it into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

And VOILA!

Couscous crusted chicken!

The couscous got a little crispy in the oven, and it reminded me a lot of breaded chicken!

Of course I had a salad on the side.

Overall, the couscous crusted chicken idea is AMAZING. Now I just need to come up with some sort of sauce to go along side… Hmmmmm……

Stats on 1/2 of the Couscous Crusted Chicken Recipe: 203 calories, 16g carbs, 4g fat, 26g protein, 1g fiber

Couscous Crusted Chicken Ingredients List (Serves 2)

8 ounces chicken breast
1/4 cup couscous – I use Rice Select Tri Color Couscous
1/4 fat free low sodium chicken broth
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1 tbsp Athenos Feta Cheese
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup thinly sliced spinach
Black pepper to taste
1 clove minced garlic

Recipes

White Chicken Chili

January 5, 2011 3 Comments

Last night was my first night back from Charlotte, AKA my first night home alone. I knew I needed something healthy after the Charlotte Restaurant Binge but I was really craving comfort food. Soooooo, I decided to go with a healthified version of the white chicken chili the BF made a few months back.

I started off by heating 1 tsp of olive oil in a large pot. Once hot, I added 1 large chopped up onion (the larger the better.. I’m talking softball size).

I tossed four cloves of minced garlic on top (to keep the garlic from burning), and once the onions were soft and translucent I added:

2 4 ounce cans chopped green chilies
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
32 ounces reduced sodium free-range chicken broth
2 cubed up grilled chicken breast
1 diced jalapeno
3 cans great northern beans, rinsed and drained

Chopped up chickies!

I let everything simmer for 15 minutes or so:

Thennnnn I stirred in 3/4 of a cup reduced fat Mexican blend cheese. (I probably could have got away with 1/2 a cup of cheese—ohhhhh well)

How easy is this by the way????

Once the cheese was melted, I divided the soup up into 6 even portions:

I popped a couple of the portions into the freezer and some into the fridge for lunch this week. And of course one was for dinner tonight! I poured that lucky portion into a bowl and topped with some sliced jalapeno:

Dinner is served!

D-E-L-EEEEEEEEEESH 😀

Stats on 1 Serving White Chicken Chili: 277 Calories, 37g carbs, 5g fat, 29g protein, 11g fiber

Recipes

Turkey Time

December 8, 2010 6 Comments

I swear every time I make meatballs I forget to write down what I threw into them. Ohhhh, the elusive turkey meatball recipe… changes every time. Yet, always tastes delicious.

I bring you spaghetti squash with turkey meatballs and garlic mushroom marinara:

Easier than it looks, I promise!

(Check out this post for some tips on cooking up your spaghetti squash)

While my spaghetti squash was doing its thang in the oven, I got to work on the meatballs. Here’s what went into them:

Your guess is as good as mine. Winking smile

Alriiiiiiiiight, here’s approximately what went into the meatballs:

10 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey breast
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 egg
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp dried oregano

This mix gave me 10 2-bite meatballs:

I sprinkled each meatball with a little olive oil (about 1 tbsp for all 10 meatballs). I cooked these in a 400 degree for 15 minutes, flipped them over and cooked for another 10.

Meanwhile, I sautéed 2 cloves minced garlic and a couple handfuls of sliced baby bella mushrooms in a sauce pan:

Then added 1.5 cups of Prego sauce to the pan along with some garlic powder, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and dried oregano. I popped a lid on the pan and let it simmer away on low heat until the meatballs and spaghetti squash were done cooking:

I promise you–this dish will totally satisfy your pasta cravings. Look how tasty:

As an added bonus, I was able to get 3 servings out of this batch. Hello tomorrow’s lunch and the day after tomorrow’s dinner!

Stats on 2 cups Spaghetti Squash with 3 Turkey Meatballs and 1/2 cup sauce: 320 calories, 37g carbs, 10g fat, 27g protein, 7g fiber. Molto bene!

Since the ground turkey comes in a 20 ounce package, I decided to use the remaining 10 ounces to make up some of my beloved Turkey Meat Muffins Open-mouthed smile

Only thing I did different this time was to omit the oil. I didn’t notice much of a difference, so I think I’ll stick with the oil-free version in the future.

I LOVE these guys for several reasons.

They are pre-portioned and super cute.
They satisfy my belly in a healthful way.
Leftover meatloaf sandwiches rock my socks off.
Saying “meat muffin” brings an unavoidable smile to my face 😀

Nom.

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