Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
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 $$$ and what model is the best?
Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for quite a while, but am just now getting around to it. Dang you tax season. Dang you!
This is an incredibly easy soup to throw together, and as and added bonus it’s pretty low cal (not to mention tasty). Boo. ya.
I searched long and hard for wild rice, but could not find any at my grocery store. What the heck is up with that? So, I settled on some Rice a Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice:
I cooked the rice up according to the package directions (subbing in chicken broth for water and omitting the butter).
Then I heated up a large pot, sprayed it down with some cooking spray, and sautéed the following:
- 1 cup prechopped onion
- 2/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup cut carrots
- 3 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms
My grocery store doesn’t have “gourmet” mushrooms, but these baby bellas always do the trick:
All the kids into the pool:
Once the veggies were softened, I added in a splash of chicken stock to decaramelize the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Once I worked them all off the bottom, I tossed in the rest of the stock, and stirred in:
- 2 shredded chicken breasts
- the cooked Rice A roni
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Awwwwww yeah.
This batch made up four delicious servings, two of which I popped in the freezer.
Cook once, eat fource…errr.. something like that.
Chicken & Wild Rice Soup Ingredients List (serves 4) — inspired by Cooking Light Magazine
- 4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
- 1 box Rice A Roni wild rice
- 1 cup prechopped onion
- 2/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 3 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms
- 2 shredded chicken breasts
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
A random questions for ya’ll this evening–anyone have a Griddler? If so, is it worth the $$$ and what model is the best?
Couscous Crusted Chicken
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” 
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
Quinoa!
I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about quinoa lately (pronounced keen-wah), but not surprisingly MANY people still have never heard of this food. Quinoa has been dubbed a super grain — though I think it’s actually a seed not a grain — because it is high in complete protein (meaning that it includes all nine essential amino acids). In addition to the protein, it’s got a whole list of other benefits–it is rich in magnesium, zinc, vitamin E, and selenium (which help to control weight and reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes) AND quinoa is rich in lignans (found to reduce the risk of heart disease as well as certain types of cancer). (source)
Pretty impressive resume, eh?
Way back in August, I attended the Healthy Living Summit in Chicago and while there I ventured off to Trader Joe’s with Haya. At the time, I was PUMPED to buy my very first box of Quinoa. Fast forward 5 months, and the box of quinoa was still sitting unopened in my cabinet just waiting to be used.
So sad!
I’d only had quinoa once before (at the HLS) so I wasn’t entirely sure how to incorporate the seed into a meal. After months of staring at the box, I finally decided to go with TJ’s recipe printed right on the backside. Why the heck not?
One important thing about quinoa is that you have to soak and rinse it before you use it:
While the Quinoa soaked, I got to chopping some bell peppers. The recipe called for one yellow and one red pepper:
And one medium onion… I threw in some green pepper for good measure.
Ready, set, go!
Once I was done chopping, I cooked up 1 cup of quinoa according to the package instructions (though I subbed fat free low sodium chicken broth for the water). Then I threw the veggies into a saute pan along with 4 minced cloves of garlic and some S&P and let them hang out for a bit.
Meanwhile, I cubed up 8 ounces of grilled chicken:
Gettin their sizzle on:
Once the quinoa cooks through it gets pretty fluffy. It kind of reminds me of fluffier couscous:
Once the quinoa was cooked, I combined it with the veggies and chicken, about 10 leaves of sliced up fresh basil, and 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese:
I topped my plate off with some black pepper and red pepper flakes for good measure:
This specific recipe was a little on the bland side, but despite that I LOVE quinoa. Since we were lacking in the flavor department, I topped myself off with some Frank’s Red Hot to add a little kick.
Now that I’ve broken the quinoa seal, I’m feeling optimistic about trying out some different quinoa recipes. Any of you guys have suggestions?
Stats on 1/4 of the TJ’s Quinoa recipe: 288 calories, 38g carbs, 6g fat, 21g protein, 5g fiber
Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup
This time of year, my absolute favorite thing to make for my work-week lunches is soup. I’m sure you all can relate to the need to feed your belly warm comforting foods once winter weather rolls in. Unfortunately, the last few soups I’ve tried haven’t been very exciting. I made a chicken taco soup and came to the realization that corn just needs to stay on the cob and keep the heck out of my soup bowl. I also made chicken pot pie soup. I love chicken pot pie… but the best part of the pot pie is the flaky crust and by turning the pot pie into a pot pieless soup I had effectively cooked up a big batch of blah.
So, I’ve been searching high and low for a new soup to try and finally came across a promising recipe for White Bean Soup with Kale and Chorizo in the November 2010 issue of Cooking Light. It sounded pretty darn delicious to me, and even though I’d never tried Kale I figured I’d give it a shot.
I’ve never had chorizo either (though I’m sure I’d love it), and I happened to have some leftover Honeysuckle Hot Italian Turkey sausage I wanted to use up… So the starting point for my soup was two of these links:
I used a knife to remove the casings on the sausage, then tossed them into a soup pot that I’d heated up over a medium high flame and sprayed down with some cooking spray.
I let the sausage do it’s thang for a bit, stirring occasionally. No need to worry about the hard brown bits on the bottom of the pan – these will turn into little nuggets of flavor in just a bit:
Once the sausage was no longer pink, I added four large cloves of minced garlic along with my beloved onion:
I seasoned this mixture up with some S&P.
I would have been more than happy (elated, actually) to have eaten this simple combo for dinner…
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t grab a spoon and savor a few bites of the sausage onion goodness straight out of the pot. Heaven!
Once the onions were nice and soft, I added about 1 cup of fat-free low sodium chicken broth to the pan and used a wooden spoon to sort of “massage” the brown bits off the bottom of the pan.
Work it….. Wooorkkkkk ittttttt. 
Then I tossed in the rest of the stock in a box (approx 3 more cups), 2 cans drained and rinsed cannellini beans, and another 1/2 tsp black pepper:
I let the soup jive on the stove for a bit, while I got to tackling the kale monster in my sink:
I’ve never had kale before. For those of you who haven’t had it—it’s kind of like broccoli and spinach had a baby… A really large overgrown baby who was a little rough around the edges. You follow? 
Luckily, my years of dedicated Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals watching had trained me how to handle this kale monster.
- Fill the sink up with water, drop in the kale, give it a good swish and let all the gritty bits drain to the bottom.
- Dry the kale.
- THEN, hold the kale stem in one hand and slide the leaves of the kale through the fingers of your other hand (to rip the kale leaves off the tough stems).
- Give it a rough chop.
Once the kale was ready, I dropped about 6 cups into the soup:
I gave it a good stir and let the hot soup wilt down the kale:
One nice thing about kale is it doesn’t get super mooshy and limp in soup like spinach does (not that I don’t love spinach in soup – the kale just adds some welcomed texture to the pot).
Once the kale was worked in, I popped a lid on the pot and let it simmer away for 15 minutes or so while I cleaned up the kitchen.
And dinner was served my friends!
I topped my soup off with 1 teaspoon of shredded parmesan cheese:
This pot of soup made 5 good-size servings, which was plenty for me because I wanted to have some ciabatta for dunking!
If you wanted your bowl to overfloweth with soup – well, then I’d say the pot serves 4.
Regardless of how many people the pot is serving, this pot SERVES it up. DELICIOUS, EASY, AND HEALTHY! That’s the trifecta in my book!
Now the only test remaining is how well this soup freezes… stayed tuned on that!
Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup Ingredients List:
- 2 links Honeysuckle Turkey Sausage, casings removed
- 1 medium size onion, chopped
- 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 cups (1 box) Swansons fat free reduced sodium chicken broth
- 2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 6 cups Kale, chopped
- Black pepper!
Stats on 1/5 of the pot o’ soup: 236 Calories, 38g carbs, 4g fat, 20g protein, 10g fiber