Good For You Chicken Salad

This is so good. You will never make chicken salad the old way again.
Years ago, when my husband (then boyfriend) lived on his own, his mom would bring him food. She would come down and load up his fridge. He brought out this "salad" and a bag of tortilla chips one evening. He didn't know what was in it (forcing me to back create it). One bite and I was hooked. What was in it? Hmmm Bite.. , Bite, OOOh not mayo. sour cream. YUM, and onions, and cillantro? WOW.
A few years later, when my best friend was living with me and my boyfriend (now husband), we were hungry. We had one left over chicken breast, from dinner the night before, and 1 cucumber, and 2 green onions (pretty sad looking. but edible), and cellery,  and cottage cheese, and a little bit of sour cream oh and some lettuce and cabbage (pathetic looking, But edible). we just jumped in and started dicing up everything. We used all of the sour cream, not enough to really bring it all together, so we used some cottage cheese. salt and pepper. IT was DELISH.
So here it is. We have played with it over the years and you can too. But the basics are that this is a delicious way to make Chicken Salad.
This is one of those recipes, where if you can make it for 2 you can make it for 12.
This is the for 2 recipe.

1 chicken breast (2 small thin breasts) sliced thin and then diced.
1/2 cucumber peeled, seeded, and diced
2 scallions sliced thin
1 celery stick diced thin.
1 tbs finely diced cillantro (you could omit, or swap with parsley or basil)

1/2 c cottage cheese

1/2 c light sour cream (if you like the extra tang, you could use greek yogurt)
salt and pepper, and garlic powder (we use it on everything.)
Basically, dice it all up, then toss it in a bowl. Add sour cream, cottage cheese, stir to combine. DONE. Don't put the salt in NOW. put a tiny sprinkle on when you want to eat it. if you do it now, it will draw the moisture out of the cucumber and onions and make your chicken salad wet... It doesn't taste bad. just wet.
NOW what to do with this.
Serve it like a sandwich. Soft breads for soft fillings. So a potato bread, or onion rolls, would be great.

Serve it with crackers, or chips. Top it with some chopped tomato or avocado, and eat like a dip. This is Hubby's favorite way to eat it.

Serve about 1/2-3/4 of a cup on top of a green salad with light vinaigrette. The salad offers a creamy consistency and protein. Plus if you do it on a salad of mixed greens with spinach, you are getting protein X2 and calcium X2. This would be a great work lunch.

You can change this up A MILLION WAYS>
off the top of my head. instead of cillantro, use a little Curry powder.
use left over chicken. Today I had a great buy on garlic and herb chicken breast, single packs from the lunch meat section. I have done it with rotisserie chicken, grilled chicken, pulled chicken would work too, but you would want it to be pretty dry. (maybe lay it on paper towels while you dice the veg)
I bet a salsa baked chicken would be good, nice spicy flavor. I would scrape off any extra salsa. But.. You see where this is going. Don't like cucumber? Omit it, double up on the celery, or add a little carrot. Bell pepper would be good for color and crunch. Start with this recipe, but then the sky is the limit.

Chicken Sans Pie

I started off calling this chicken stroganoff, but that was deceptive. It is basically a chicken pot pie with out the pie.
It is super yummy on a cold night with french bread. It is quick and easy and would be good with a salad on a hot day. It packs up well and reheats awesome.

2 chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken ( or mushroom if you prefer) + 1 cup of milk
3 cups total of variety of frozen veggies. I usually do 1 1/2 c of broccoli, 1/2 c of corn, 1/2 c of peas and 1 c of green beans. ( nuke for about 4-5 minutes to cook them most of the way through)
1-2 cups of shredded cheese ( your choice, cheddar, cheddarella, Italian blend whatever)
1/2 bag of egg noodles

Cut chicken into medium bite sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper, garlic powder, Mrs. Dash and Itallian seasoning if you like. Saute' in a large deep skillet ( I use a non stick wok style pan). Keep them moving, until they are almost cooked through. add the cream of chicken, milk, and veggies. mix together and turn heat down to medium. Add egg noodles, try and get them all into the sauce. Cover and cook on medium to medium low for about 10 minutes. Or until the noodles are cooked (you could dirty another pot by boiling these seperate and just topping the noodles with the sauce, but why?) add about 1/2 of the cheese to the pot. stir. this helps to thicken and add a cheesey flavor. serve, in bowls, top with a little more cheese, serve with garlic bread, or french bread, or rolls. this recipe feed hubby and I with leftovers ( or seconds). It would feed a family of four easy, if you added salad.
I love this recipe, because it literally takes about 30 minutes. You could adjust this and make it feed more, by adding a chicken breast, about 1 c of chicken stock, and maybe another 1/2 to 1 c of veggies.

Chicken Parmaseana

Yes I realise that I spelled it wrong. In our world (Hubby and Me) it is about the cheese and flavors, not the cooking process. The regular spelling implies that the dish is from the Parma region of Italy. My way implies that it is going to have alot of cheese on it.
Okay some of my recipes are all about the ingredients. This one is all about the process... The ingredients are mostly store bought and pre-made.
Recipe-
One chicken patty per person. (as previously stated for this I really like the Morning Star Farms Chick Patties) A breaded chicken breast or a couple of chicken tenders would work as well.
One can (12 oz) per 2 servings of Del Monte Diced Tomatoes with Basil and Oregano. (or favorite spaghetti sauce, canned or homemade)
1/2 package (per 2 servings) of favorite pasta. I like Angel Hair.
Sliced Mozzarella (1 slice per chick patty, 2 per for chick breast or tenders)
1/4 c Parmesan cheese per serving. (this will be divided between the chicken and the pasta)
Directions-
Cook chicken according to package. Cook pasta. Remove chicken and turn broiler on. Spoon tomatoes (or sauce) onto chicken, about 2 tbs per chick patty. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over, and lay a slice of mozzarella on top. Place under broiler for 1-2 minutes, just long enough to melt the cheese.
Toss remainder of can of tomatoes with hot pasta. Serve 1/2-1 c of pasta and tomatoes cover with Parmesan cheese. Serve melty, cheesey, gooey chicken along side.
Despite the cheese, this is a really light meal. The tomatoes are really fresh, and the chick patties version can be done so quickly that it doesn't heat up the house, those can be microwaved. So this is really good in the summer, too. The tossed tomatoes and pasta is really yummy as a cold lunch the next day.
Variation.
Instead of making pasta, toast a sourdough sandwich roll. Place a bit of tomatoes or sauce on bread and add cheese, broil to melt cheese. Cut chicken in half, place chicken on the sandwich roll. Close and Eat. Serve with a salad, veggies (Veggie Convicts see may post Eat Your Veggies) or french fries.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Yes, even with the gestational diabetes I can have this starch heavy treat. The trick, make everything yourself.
I made a veggie heavy red sauce and my own meatballs.
Here is the recipe.
(WARNING this is not a one pot recipe... But good food is worth a little extra cleanup)
Meatballs
1 1/2 lbs ground turkey (you can change 1/2 lb of that for hot or itallian turkey sausage)
1/2 medium onion diced, fine
3-4 cloves of garlic minced (or 2 tsps of minced garlic from a jar)
1-2 Tbs breadcrumbs
1 egg, scrambled
Herbs (dry)
1 Tbs of Fines Herbs (or 1 tsp each of rosemarry, thyme, savory, and oregano)
1 Tbs of basil
1-2 tsps of pepper
(I don't cook with salt, but if you like salt 1/2 -1 tsp of salt also)
2 Tbs of flour and 1Tbs of breadcrumbs for dredging.
Mix all ingredients, (by hand is really best) the mixture should feel a little moist. I used a deep bowled 1 Tbs measuring spoon, but you could do it with a small ice cream scoop or a large spoon.
The meatballs should be about 1 inch across. Form them with your hands and drop them onto the plate with the flour. Shake them around a bit, just to get them covered, then try to shake off the excess flour. Cook over medium high heat in 1tbs of olive oil for 5 minutes before turning. Cook for another five minutes, cover with blended sauce and cook on low heat for 20-30 minutes.
Sauces (yes technically there are two)
1 lg can of whole peeled tomatoes, drained reserve the liquid
3 cans of diced tomatoes, drained reserve the liquid
1 zucchini, diced
1 carrot diced (i omitted this )
8-10 mushrooms diced
1/2 med onion diced
3-4 garlic cloves minced (or 1-2 tsps of minced from a jar)
Herbs (same ammounts as above for each sauce.)
2 bay leaves
Sauce 1 (for the meatballs)
2 cans of tomatoes, drained, and reserve the liquid.
1-2 tsps of minced garlic
Olive oil
In a medium pot heat the oil and garlic, for 1-2 minutes over medium heat. Add tomatoes. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes.
In a medium pan combine all the reserved liquid, one bay leaf and the herbs. Reduce, (cook over medium high to high heat for 20-30 minutes until the liquid is reduced.) this concentrates the flavor.
Pour tomatoes and reduced liquid (remove bay leaf), into a blender. Cover, remove small cap or vent the lid and cover with a tea towel. Blend until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour 2/3 of this sauce over the meatballs when ready and cook acording to meatball recipe.
Sauce 2
In a large pan. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions. Sautee' for about 2 minutes, add zucchini and carrots, 2 minutes more. Add mushrooms and cook for about 5 more minutes. Crush whole tomatoes, (by hand, over the pan) and add to veggies. Add diced tomatoes, bay leaf and herbs. Add reserved meatball sauce. Cook over medioum low heat for 20-30 minutes. It will thicken and reduce slightly, stir often. Serve over whole wheat pasta or spaghetti squash.
For my diet I had 1 c of pasta ( I prefer angel hair, 2 starches), 1 c of tomato sauce (2 veggies), 4 meatballs (4 protein), one piece of whole wheat toast with butter, garlic and riccota cheese, (1 starch and 1/2 milk) and some parmasean cheese on top (1/2 milk).
Super Yummy. Next day, have open face meatball sandwiches with tomato sauce and cheese.
You can eat yummy and eat healthy too..
Love Sara

Diabetic Irish Breakfast

Our first morning in Ireland, we went down to breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The waiter thought we were with a tour group and asked us if we wanted the Traditional Irish Breakfast or eggs and bacon. We hadn't seen any menus, so we kind of assumed "How quaint they only have two breakfast offerings." So we all got the Traditional Irish Breakfast. We were expecting, potatoes (it is Ireland afterall), maybe oatmeal or other poridge, and Irish soda bread. No, No, and No. We got a tray with dry white toast (cold, not refridgerated but not hot). We all got coffee, we had to ask for tea or anything else to drink. The main plate was three kinds of sausage, Black (which I swear is related to blood sausage or scrapple), white (a little more like scrapple than anything) and either one huge or two smaller pork links, 1 fried egg, grilled tomato halves, and three or four sauteed mushroom caps. Needless to say James, the Texan Meatatarian, was happy. Mom and I were a little like "When in Rome.." Both of us knowing coming to the understanding that this vacation was going to be hard on our respective diets.
So, recently I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. For breakfast I can have 2 proteins and once starch. I have been having one piece of whole wheat toast, one piece of vegetarian sausage, and one fried egg. Mushrooms are on my list of foods that I can eat as much of as I want and I like them, so they end up on or in almost everything.
So the Diabetic Irish Breakfast is
One piece of toast.
One fried egg to your liking. One piece of sausage ( I like the patty kind, it layers better)
Sauteed mushrooms, 2-4 depending on size and liking (I slice them up for faster cooking)
Place the toast (buttered if you like) on the plate, place sausage patty, one fried egg, and mushrooms. I recently found that the mushrooms layer better between the egg and the sausage, but if I were serving this I would put them on top. Then I cut it up into bite size squares and eat. Between the whole wheat and the egg and sausage this is really quite filling.
The rest of my breakfast comes as a snack about two hours later, I usually have 1 c of plain yogurt and 1c of strawberries or raspberries mixed in, and another piece of toast.
This is a really healthy and satisfying way to eat, because you eat about every two hours, and your tummy is never not full. That keeps you from snacking on bad stuff or gorging when you are starving. Plus you body and brain always have fuel, so your body never feels like it is being starved, which is what happens when you skip meals. (then the body starts to save all it can)
good luck.

Avocado Bruschetta

YUMMY. This was such a Yummy experiment. This is a delicious snack with lots of heart healthy elements.
Here is the recipe.

In a medium bowl combine 3-4 diced garlic cloves, 1 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp each of pepper and onion powder and about 1 tsp of lemon zest, cover with about 1 Tbs of olive oil. Set aside.
Score the skin of two medium tomatoes ( or 6-8 Plum or Roma tomatoes). (Scoring is: start at the stem end and just barely cut the skin all the way around, turn the tomato and repeat. The bottom of your tomato should have an "X" cut in the skin.) Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for (10 - 45 seconds) or just until the edges of the cuts start to curl, remove and place in ICE water. Then you should be able to peel the skin off the tomatoes. Dice the tomatoes after they are peeled. Move the diced tomatoes to a strainer, to drain off any excess moisture.
Cut 1 avocado in half. (Start at the stem end and cut down until you hit the pit, then follow your blade all the way around the Avo. It should come apart with a gentle twist.) Cut the halves in half again, so you are now working with avocado quarters. Dice the avocado, and add to the bowl with the garlic. Add the drained tomatoes and mix gently.
Start your broiler, (a toaster oven will also work) and slice either a baguette, or 2 sandwich rolls into about 1/2 inch slices. Coat with a little bit of olive oil, and toast uner the broiler. ("Don't walk away" says The Queen Of Burned Bread) After they are toasted sprinkle about 1 tsp of shredded cheese (we used Parmesean. But mozzerella, swiss, or any preferred chese would work) and return to the broiler to melt the cheese. When the Cheesy Toast is done melting, remove. Now Top with the Avocado Bruschetta. VIOLA!! (Doesn't that just sound YUMMY.)
This has no salt added to it. Avacado and olive oil are natural fats that your body can use and likes. Garlic in it's raw state is excellent for reducing blood pressure and is good for your liver. Tomatoes are full of good stuff including Vitamins C, D and Lycopine (good for eyes and prostate health). This was enough for about four servings. Eat happy!!!

Breakfast Bagels

This is a healthy meal version of the traditional bagel and cream cheese.
It is a bagel, (best with the whole wheat or whole grain bagels. These are better for you.) with low fat chive, or garlic herb cream cheese. Then it is topped with avocado slices and bacon pieces.
Toast your bagel. Spread a relatively thin layer of cream cheese on the bagel. Top with the avocado slices (tomato slices would work too) and 1 slice of bacon per bagel half, cut into bite sized pieces. I will get a picture soon, I ate breakfast too fast this morning to photograph it.
If you use the pre-cooked bacon, available in the meat section near sausages or the frozen section, this meal takes about 2 minutes longer than it takes to toast the bagel.
This is a relatively healthy option to the traditional bagel and cream cheese, because with the bacon and avocado it is very filling. Complete this meal with a fruit smoothie and you have a great breakfast, that will keep you going.
The fruit variation to this is to use cinnamon raisin or blueberry bagels, low fat cream cheese and fruit slices, strawberries, bananas, or other berries work well.

Tonight's Meal

Tonight we had Chicken Soft Tacos. This was a Sara creation that is SUPER easy and quick. It also happened to be low in fat, sodium and very high in taste.
One chicken breast yields about two tacos.

For every two chicken breasts, use about 1 tsp of Cumin, ground Onion and pepper. Also about 2 tsp of granulated garlic and your choice of Mrs. Dash seasoning (we used the hot and spicy). You will also need the juice of 1 lime and 1/2 of a lemon. Cut the (defrosted) chicken breasts into long strips. If the chicken breast was really thick cut these into thinner strips (lay them flat and cut them in half lengthwise). Then cut the strips into small bite-size pieces and transfer to a bowl.
Add the seasoning and juices. Using a hot skillet, (don't crowd the pan two breasts to a pan) with about 1tbs of olive oil in the bottom, saute' the chicken for about 3-5 minutes. (the tiny pieces cook super fast) Transfer chicken to a bowl, and repeat for the desired servings.
Now, unless you have to grate cheese or you desire a salad on your tacos that was the most work that you will do for this meal.
If you want now is the time to dice some, onions (green, red or sweet white), some tomatoes, some avacado (tomatoes and avacado should be about 1/2 for four tacos, for onions 1/4 ) and shred some lettuce.
Heat your prefered tortillas. (we used the Mission Soft Taco sized flour tortillas, corn would be fine though) you can do this in a microwave for 15-20 seconds, in the oven for 5-10 minutes on low heat, or on the gas cooktop over open flame.
Assembly...
we used sour cream and a small can of roasted diced green chiles (mild or hot if you are so inclined)
heat tortilla, using the back of a spoon smear sour cream down the middle of the tortilla, add a small spoonfull of diced chiles, PILE on the chicken, add desired veggies, and cheese. Repeat, eat and enjoy. There is no salt added to this recipe, try it this way first. The lemon and lime with the other seasonings are very flavorful.
I wanted to share this because it was fast, easy and delicious. If you made alot of this chicken you could use it for chicken salad, chicken quesadillas, or chicken burritos, all of which make excellent lunches to take to work.
Happy eating, now i have to go put dinner away. Good night.