Faux Chicken Parmesan
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!
Healthified Chicken Parmesan Sub
What’s better than a dinner that only takes 15 minutes to get into your belly? A dinner that only takes 15 minutes AND is healthy AND tastes delicious!
Lately, I’ve been craving bread. Buns, muffins, bagels, pizzas, you know the deal. So tonight, I thought I’d make a healthified chicken parmesan sub.
I topped a Joseph’s Low-Carb Pita with a 1/4 cup of Classico Fire Roasted Tomato Garlic Pasta sauce (leftover from yesterday’s pizza), and 3 ounces of grilled chicken (leftovers from the weekend). I added some red pepper flakes, dried oregano, black pepper, and garlic powder.
Then I thinly sliced a light mini babybel cheese round into four thin discs and tossed that on top along with some banana pepper rings:
In another pan, I added 2 cups broccoli and a ¼ cup of garbanzo beans (leftovers from the couscous garbanzo bean salad).
Everything into a 415 degree oven for 15 minutes.
Beautiful.
So friggin’ tasty:
I love roasted veggies
Melty and amazing
So is it still considered a chicken parmesan sub if I didn’t use any parmesan? Chicken Babybelesan sub perhaps 😉
Stats on the sub: 228 calories, 13g carbs, 7g fat, 33g protein, 5g fiber
Stats on the broccoli/beans: 110 calories, 22g carbs, 2g fat, 8g protein, 9g fiber
Altogether: 338 calories, 35g carbs, 9g fat, 41g protein, 14g fiber
Leftovers makeover
I find most of my meal planning revolves around whatever leftovers I happen to have in the fridge. On a typical day I am cooking for one person, which leaves me with the option to eat the same things for several days on end or reincorporate the leftovers into new dishes.
For lunch today I wanted to use up some leftover chicken I had grilled up earlier in the week, and I had some leftover tomato sauce from the 10 cheese pizza I made Friday. So I decided to make a chicken parmesan inspired wrap, healthified of course. (AKA leftover chicken, leftover sauce , NO cheese, on a Joseph’s middle east bakery low carb pita–seasoned up with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and dried parsley)
Aren’t Jarrod’s dishes lovely? 😉
After lunch we finished up the light tent. Now we just need to get some lights!
For my afternoon snack I had apples and some chocolate PB2.
Chocolate PB2 = fabulous! I need to work this into some shake recipes…
Tonight we visited our friends Tim and Jaci at their newly purchased, exquisitely decorated townhouse. Tim prepared a feast complimented with onions galore.
Roasted potatoes with onions and green peppers, seasoned grilled asparagus, and jerk marinated chicken:
P.S. can’t wait to get my hair cut tomorrow!
Happy Sunday!