Mexican Chicken Casserole

I found a bunch of recipes similar to this online while looking for something to do with leftover white rice. I can't just follow a recipe as written, so I did make some tweaks to it. It was awesome with tortilla chips (crispy and warm out of the oven) and homemade corn bread (I'll post that recipe sometime too). My two picky girls LOVED it and it's an easy way to hide beans in a recipe (if you have to, like me)!

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

2 Cups Cooked White Rice

1 Can Tomatoes Sauce

2 Cups Shredded Cooked Chicken

1 Can Fat Free Refried Beans

1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning

1 Cup Shredded Cheddar or Colby Jack Cheese

Optional Ingredients:

Diced Tomatoes

Sour Cream

Spread rice over bottom of 9x13 pan (you do not need to prepare with cooking spray).

In separate bowl, combine Tomatoes Sauce, Shredded Cooked Chicken, and Taco Seasoning (I thought 1 Tbsp was a bit spicy for my taste and I might lessen it to 1/2 Tbsp next time). Spread Chicken Mixture over rice.

Carefully spread refried beans over Chicken Mixture (I make half of the casserole with no beans for my beanophobe hubby). :)

Sprinkle cheese over top and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Can be served with diced tomatoes and sour cream. Serves 6. Each serving is 6 Weight Watchers points.

Zucchini Zucchini Zucchini!

My mom's mini vegetable garden is bursting with tons of fresh zucchini, and she was kind enough to spare one for me to experiment with. This isn't just any zucchini - despite the misleading picture below, it is actually about the size of my forearm!

I browsed around the web for some ideas on what to do with this giant squash and settled on Sauteeing it italian style.

I sliced it at an angle and tossed it in the frying pan with some Olive Oil Pam.

Let me tell you, it smelled sooooo good even before the seasonings!

After it was tender and lightly browned I tossed it a teaspoon of Classico Basil Pesto. Delicious!

Classico Signature Recipes - Pasta Sauce Traditional Basil Pesto-Sauce & Spread - 8.1 oz

Herbed Mahi Mahi

I used to be afraid to cook fish in my house. I must admit, there is nothing worse than walking into a home and smelling yesterday's dinner - especially fish! Well, those of you who fear fish need not anymore. I cook fish at least once a week (I usually saute it in a frying pan or cook it on the grill) and I have to say, as long as you don't cook it every day and you keep your house well ventilated, you should be fine. Candles or air fresheners help, but the three primary things you need to do to eliminate offensive cooking odors are:

1. Use your exhaust fan over the stove while cooking.

2. Clean the filter on your exhaust fan frequently (newer ones are easy to remove and wash in the sink)

3. Wash your pans and cooking utensils immediately.

Fish is very simple to pan fry and it's delicious with a little herb rub and olive oil cooking spray. I love Costco frozen Mahi Mahi. I always make sure to safely thaw it in my refrigerator the night before I cook it.

Once completely thawed, pat  the fish dry and sprinkle with an herbed seafood rub (Mine is a Kirkland brand seafood rub from Costco that has lemon, garlic and herbs - yum!)

Spray your pan with Olive Oil Pam (or if you're more adventurous, you can use 2 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp butter instead) and heat over Medium High heat. Sear Mahi Mahi about 5-6 minutes per side, until fish feels firm, looks opaque and flakes easily with a fork. It should not be pink or translucent inside.

Here is the finished product:

Montreal Steak

Memorial Day was a great excuse to get out the grill and throw some steaks on. I have to admit (cooking novice that I am!) I had never before tried Montreal Steak Seasoning. Was it going to be spicy? Sweet? Inedible? Well I am happy to admit I was wrong on all  three counts. Montreal Steak Seasoning is fabulous!

Here is the recipe for the marinade I made with it:

1 Tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning

2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

I used Top Sirloin and marinated it for one hour. Including an acid in your marinade (like vinegar, soy sauce, etc.) helps make that cut of steak more tender and juicy.

I didn't know what to expect, but this was a delicious seasoning - the juice burst in every bite. Yum! (If you're not a beef-eater I completely understand if you don't feel my excitement! And sorry for the...err...juicy picture right here.)

If you're not much of a grilling conoisseur and want to increase your confidence, check out Better  Homes and Gardens The New Grilling Cookbook. It is my go-to guide for grilling times. These steaks were about an inch thick and grilled for slightly less than 12 minutes total. I like to grill on high heat to seal in the juices and get nice dark grill marks, but I try to stop short of charring.

So, can I just say that I consider grill marks to be a type of art form? Okay, I don't really take it that seriously, but if it tastes that awesome it should also look awesome and grill marks take it to the next level. To make my grill marks I place steaks on the grill on the diagonal and instead of turning them once, I cook them for 1/4 of the total grilling time, rotate 90 degrees (raw side still facing up) and cook another 1/4 grilling time, then I flip them, keeping on the diagonal, grill 1/4 of the total time, and rotate again 90 degrees allowing the steak to finish cooking the last 1/4 of my time. This gives me a nice diamond pattern on the steak.

I'm interested in hearing about your favorite steak marinades. If you have a suggestion, post it below in the comments section. Thanks, and happy grilling!

Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon

I recently recieved a coupon in the mail for a free package of Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon from Kraft First Taste. This morning was the perfect opportunity to try it out, since I've never had turkey bacon before! All in all, an interesting product if you're looking for a bacon alternative! Each slice is 35 calories but has 3 grams of fat.

I'll give the line-up on preparation methods first and the results at the end.

First is my usual favorite, oven preparation. The instructions state to preheat oven to 375 degrees, then bake 8-10 minutes.

The next preparation is frying pan, over medium high heat for 8-10 minutes.

And last is microwave, for 2 minutes.

And the results are...

Oven:

Took far longer than the suggested time on the package to get it to resemble real bacon. I took it out after 18 minutes. The white stuff in the picture above is grease, and should be blotted with paper towels before eating (unless you like it that way)! I wish I had another package because I would try upping the temperature to 400 degrees and baking for 15 minutes, which would be comparable to cooking time for regular bacon.

Frying Pan:

I was surprised when it cooked a bit faster than the time on the package. I have a high BTU burner, so I might cook it on Medium or medium low next time. While this might look like a crispy critter (it does to me!), it actually most closely resembled the texture, taste and aroma of real crisp cooked bacon. Go figure!

Microwave:

This preparation yielded the nicest looking bacon by far, but it was a bit dry and chewy. I probably wouldn't recommend feeding it to young children because it might be hard to swallow if they're not chewing very thoroughly.

And the winner (for me) is . . . frying pan!

Chicken Parmigiana

Having a sick child at home changes the course of a day, but not always in a bad way. Today I found myself sitting at home feeding my little one popsicles in the rocking chair - not my original plan, but it slowed my day down in a way that I appreciated these wonderful moments. It was a relaxing day and I got to cook a great dinner for my family.

This is one of my family's favorite recipes. It is a lightened up version of Chicken Parmigiana from Weight Watchers.

Chicken Parmigiana

Ingredients:

Olive Oil Cooking Spray

8 Chicken Breast Tenderloins

2 Large Egg Whites, Lightly Beaten

1/2 c. Dried Bread Crumbs (plain)

1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Olive Oil

1 1/2 c. Spaghetti Sauce

1/2 c. Shredded Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

1 Tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese

8 oz. Uncooked Spaghetti

Preparation:

Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees. Coat Glass Casserole Baking Pan with Cooking Spray.

Place egg whites in a shallow bowl. Combine bread crumbs with italian seasoning and salt in another shallow bowl. Dip one piece of chicken in egg whites and turn to coat, then dip the piece of chicken in bread crumb mixture, turning thoroughly to coat. Repeat with remaining chicken tenderloins, placing coated chicken on a plate. You could also substitute Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs to lessen the number of steps and ingredients, but that might increase the calories of the dish.

I usually end up with fingers coated in many layers of egg and crumbs that look ready to throw into the frying pan with the chicken! I can't stand that feeling, so I now have a designated wet hand (right) and dry hand (left). It works really well to have one hand dipping the chicken and the other hand coating it. Do you have a tip for keeping your fingers from getting coated too? I'd love to hear from you!

Spray large skillet with cooking spray and add oil; heat over medium high heat. When hot, add chicken and cook until lightly browned, about four minutes per side.

Pour 1/2 c. sauce into prepared baking dish. Place chicken in dish and pour remaining sauce evenly over chicken.

Sprinkle with cheese and bake until hot and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, Prepare 8 ounces Spaghetti according to package.

Side Note: I read a long time ago that when you are cooking spaghetti for a group, you should cook 2 oz per person (which, incidentally, is usually the serving suggestion). I never believed it, until I actually started weighing out my spaghetti and realized it yields the perfect amount. My spaghetti lasts so much longer now that I don't cook a full package everytime and we've lost quite a bit of weight too!

Here is the finished casserole. This dish serves four. One serving is two chicken tenderloins and 1 cup spaghetti. The Weight Watchers pts value is 5 for the chicken, 4 four for the pasta, or you can eat it on a small wheat bun like I did for 6 points. Yum!

Enjoy!

Chicken in Garlic Bacon Cream Sauce

Tonight's attempt at making dinner was laughable, but at least we ate! Sometimes things get a little unpredictable with two little ones. This dish always seems to be eaten cold (by me at least!) by the time I get everyone else situated and served.

Anyway, this is an adaptation of a Kraft Food and Family recipe that has the same ingredients, but slightly different preparation (I LOVE garlic, so it needed some garlic. Okay, maybe a LOT of garlic). This can be made as a one skillet recipe (in various steps), but I found it was really hard to keep the chicken warm while you make the sauce, so here is my version:

Chicken in Garlic Bacon Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

Pam Cooking Spray

8 Chicken Breast Tenderloins

4 Slices Bacon (use regular cut, not thick)

3/4 c. Chicken Broth

1/2 c. Cream Cheese

2 cloves Minced Garlic or 2 tsp Garlic Powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

Whole Wheat Pasta

(side note: my hubby loves the cream sauce so I double that part of the recipe when I cook it)

Preparation: Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Place 8 slices of bacon on shallow baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until crispy. (side note: I love this method of preparing bacon - no splatter, no turning, and evenly cooked every time).

While bacon cooks, combine broth, cream cheese and garlic in sauce pan. Heat on medium low, stirring occasionally until well combined and smooth. Cook pasta according to instructions. By the way, I am not a big fan of whole wheat pasta  but it tastes great in this recipe!

When bacon is crispy, remove from oven, drain and crumble. Add bacon to cream sauce.

Spray Pam in large skillet. Heat on medium high; add chicken tenderloins. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cook about 4 minutes each side until browned and no longer pink inside.

Drain pasta. Plate pasta and chicken, drizzle sauce over top. Enjoy!

This recipe makes 4 servings. One serving is 2 chicken tenders, 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Penne, with 1/4 cup sauce. Weight Watchers points value is 8.5.