Chicken & Cream Cheese Enchiladas

So, I read this book called The Belly Fat Cure and because I'm at a bit of a post-baby weightloss standstill (aka, belly fat) I decided to try it out.  So far, it works! And, the book is very interesting and somewhat enlightening.

Anyway, you can have corn tortillas and enchiladas on the diet, so here they are!  My friend brought me a similar batch of enchiladas when I had the baby and we loved them so I based this batch on her recipe. They were very good!

When I make Enchiladas I usually chop up the tortillas and layer like a casserole instead of rolling the enchiladas, it's probably a personal problem but I can never keep the tortillas from breaking! (If you're wondering, YES I've heated them, dipped them in sauce/stock...doesn't work for me.) So on that tangent, do what you want.

Chicken & Cream Cheese Enchiladas
2 large chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs)
Seasoned salt, garlic, cumin (or your choice of seasoning) for chicken
1 packet McCormick Enchilada sauce mix (found by the taco seasoning and gravy mix)
1 small can tomato sauce
1 1/2 c. water
8-9 corn tortillas
4 oz cream cheese, softened and heated until easily spreadable
4 oz can chopped green chiles
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 c. cojita cheese, crumbled OR crumbled feta
1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese, grated and divided
1/2 c. green onions, chopped
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped

Start by cooking the chicken.  I seasoned mine well and grilled it.  You can certainly bake or boil it and then season it.  Shred the chicken and set aside.  In a small saucepan mix together the sauce seasoning packet, tomato sauce, and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat and set aside. 

Preheat oven to 375. Now either layer or roll the enchiladas in a 9x13 pan, tortillas on the bottom, then spread the cream cheese, chicken, onions, green chiles, and 3/4 c. cheddar cheese.   Top with another layer of tortillas and cover with sauce. Sprinkle the top with feta or cojita cheese and bake 15 minutes.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheddar cheese on the top and bake another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle the green onions and cilantro over the top.  Serve with sour cream.

Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza

So I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network the other day and he visited Capones Pub & Grill in Idaho and ate this amaing looking Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza.  So of course I watched closely how they made it and took a stab at my own version Friday night.  It was SOOO good, usually we have a slice or two of pizza leftover after pizza night but all that was left was a lonely chunk of artichoke heart.

This isn't necessarily a low-fat pizza but it's worth having!  The original pizza came with kalamata olives which I love, but Rob isn't an olive fan so I skipped out on the olives.

As usual I don't like to measure out a bunch of ingredients so I bought a pizza dough ball at Trader Joe's and it worked great.  Making your own pizza crust would be superb I'm sure.  To season my chicken I used garlic pepper, granulated garlic, and a sprinkle of sea salt.  Salt, pepper and garlic would be just fine. I used 10 garlic cloves for this pizza and next time I think I'll do more...but we're crazy about garlic.




Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza

• 1 pizza dough (preferably not a can of dough for this one)
• pizza sauce (I make my own with tomato paste, tomato sauce, garlic and italian seasoning.)
• 1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 2-3 Tb julienned sundried tomatoes
• 10 garlic cloves (or more), roasted
• 1 large chicken breast, seasoned, grilled and chopped
• 1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese
• 2 Tb butter
• 3/4 tsp granulated garlic
• 1Tb grated parmesan cheese

To make the roasted garlic: Peel all the cloves of garlic and put in a piece of foil.  Drizzle with oil or spray with Pam and close the foil around the garlic.  Bake at 375 30-45 minutes, it will be light brown and smell amazing when it's done.  Set aside and chop the garlic when it's cool.

For the Pizza: Preheat the oven to 425 (or suggested oven temperature on the dough).  Roll the pizza crust out on a stone or pan pulling the excess dough out and folding over to create an edge crust.  Bake the empty crust for 5-8 minutes until it's firmed up but not completely cooked.  Pull out the crust and top with sauce, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, and mozzarella cheese. Put back in the oven for 5-8 more minutes or until the cheese is melted and crust is browning.  In the meantime melt the butter and stir in the parmesan cheese and granulated garlic.  When the pizza comes out brush the crust with garlic butter.  Pour the remaining butter mixture over the cooked, chopped chicken and toss to combine.  Put the chicken over the top of the pizza, slice and eat!


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Pork Fried Rice

I found the basis of this recipe on allrecipes.com which I'm sure I've mentioned before.  I changed it a little bit but it was a great start!  You could easily adapt this recipe to add more vegetables, use brown rice or instant rice instead, substitute chicken or shrimp get creative!

Here's a little tip about sesame oil, it will go rancid quickly so store it in the fridge for long-term use.  This recipe also calls for fresh ginger.  I buy a piece of fresh ginger, peel it and then freeze it so that when I need it I can just cut or grate some off of it.

I like to cook the rice early and let it set a little while because it separates better and fries up well.  Or something like that.

Pork Fried Rice

2 c. cooked white rice
3/4 lb pork loin, diced
2/3 c. chopped carrot
2/3 c. frozen peas
1/2 onion, chopped
1 Tb fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tb vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
3 Tb soy sauce (plus more for serving)
1-2 tsp sesame oil

In a saucepan cook rice as directed.  Once rice is cooked set aside until you're ready for it.  In a large skillet heat oil over medium or medium-high heat and cook the carrots for 2-3 minutes, add onion and pork and cook another 3 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add in peas, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and cook a minute.  Make a hole in the middle of the skillet and pour in the eggs stirring as they cook and combine with the vegetables.   Once the egg is cooked, stir in rice and sprinkle with soy sauce.  Combine well.  Serve with extra soy sauce.

Spaghetti Squash Bake

If you've never tried a spaghetti squash, this recipe would be a great opportunity to try it.  We really like it.  It is not an exact substitution for real pasta, but if you're having a calorie counting fest it works great! I have gotten very serious about my calorie counting lately.  Go here for a step by step on how to cook spaghetti squash!

I lightened up my recipe for baked spaghetti and made this.  All four of us eaters really enjoyed this and then I had enough leftover to eat for lunch the rest of the week!  This recipe would be super simple to make vegetarian.




Spaghetti Squash Bake1 large or 2 small spaghetti squash (you need about 7 c. shredded squash, give or take a cup)
2 Tb margerine, melted ( I used Smart Balance Light, no trans fat and low cal)
1 egg beaten
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp sea salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp granulated garlic

4 oz light cream cheese, softened (I used neufchatel cheese)
2 c. 2% milk cottage cheese
1/2 c. sour cream
dash of salt, 1/4 tsp pepper
1 c. mozzarella

3 c. marinara sauce (I made my own, a jar would be just fine)
1 lb turkey Italian sausage (I used spicy)

To cook the spaghetti squash there's a couple options.  1. Stab a few holes in it and cook it whole in the microwave 8-10 minutes, or until the skin is soft. Then cut it in half, scoop out seeds and use a fork to collect the "spaghetti." OR 2. Cut it in half (be careful), scoop out the seeds and bake upside down in the oven at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until you can use a fork to get the "spaghetti" to rake up.

Preheat oven to 350.  Let cooked spaghetti squash sit in a colander for a few minutes to get any excess water to drain out.  Mix the squash with the melted spread, parmesan cheese, beaten egg, salt, pepper and granulated garlic. Spread the squash mixture in the bottom of a 9x13' pan.  In a separate bowl mix together the cream cheese cottage cheese, sour cream, salt & pepper.  Spread the cheese mixture over the squash.  Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the top of that.  Then, mix together the marinara sauce and sausage and spread over the top of everything.  Bake the casserole for 30-35 minutes or until it's bubbly and hot.  Remove from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes before cutting.  Serve with garlic bread (You're eating all veggies!  Splurge on the garlic bread.)

* I added up all the calories in the entire thing and 1/9th of this recipe has only 250 calories!

Greek Salsa, Again

I made this for a meeting we had to go to Sunday.  It got rave reviews!  I remembered to take a picture this time and I thought it would be a great Superbowl idea....AND it's very healthy (It's healthy itself, the tortilla or pita chips you dip it with aren't super healthy though.)

Try the Greek Salsa!

*Disclaimer: This is best the day you make it so don't make it too far ahead of when it will be served.