Showing posts with label spinach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spinach. Show all posts

3/1/19

Chicken with Creamy Parmesan Sauce

What does one do if you have chicken tenders, spinach, mushrooms and a lot of rice?
You improvise!
From start to finish, including the rice cooker rice time, it took about an hour. A large part of that time was the prep work, especially cleaning the chicken yuckies.
As always, prep everything ahead of time. If you don't care about the tendon running down the chicken tender, then you saved time. You can also save time by buying pre-sliced mushrooms, a little jar of minced garlic, and grated Parmesan cheese.
The only reason I made rice, it because I have a lot of rice, and the only pasta I had was lasagna noodles, though this would be nummy on fettucine!
Enjoy!

Chicken in Creamy Parmesan Sauce


 

1.5 lb. chicken tenderloins
2 Tbls. olive oil
10 oz. mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbls. butter
1 Tbls. flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup cream
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2-3 cups baby spinach, rough chop
2-3 Tbls. sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, julienne cut
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder, optional

Heat oil in large skillet or wok over high heat. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Add chicken to hot oil. Cook until brown and turn, about 3-4 minutes. Cook another 4 minutes and remove from pan. Add mushrooms to pan and cook until liquid evaporates and edges are caramelized, about 3-4 minutes. Remove mushrooms from pan.

Turn down heat to medium. Melt butter in pan. Add garlic, and sauté for a few minutes until light brown. Stir in flour, and cook for about a minute. Add chicken broth, cream and Parmesan cheese. Stir to blend for 3-4 minutes. Taste seasonings. Adjust with salt, pepper, or garlic powder, if needed.

Add spinach to sauce, allow to wilt. Add chicken, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes. Stir to blend. Heat for a few minutes to bring the chicken and mushrooms up to temperature. Serve immediately.

Serve over rice or pasta, or if you want to be healthier…a bed of spinach. Yes, more spinach.


Tips & Tricks:

·         My family is particular about their chicken. I tend to clean it up by removing excess membrane and the tendon running down the center of the tenderloins.

·         Chicken broth—I used 1 cup of water and @ 2 tsp. of Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base.

·         I like the baby portobello mushrooms because they are meatier, but use white button mushrooms if you like.

·         “Rough chop” is exactly what it says. Grab a handful or two of spinach, chop it a few times one direction, then again, the other way. Makes it less stringy.

1/7/12

Foodie Friday -- Green Monster Smoothie

I know I have a few new people poking around the site--shoot, I sent you here! But when you looked up Green Monster, you probably got the blog that had the Luna Moth caterpiller. Those caterpillars are definitely green monsters!, but they aren't the one you're looking for.

A little background on this one is called for, I think. When I first joined WW in 2011. . . for the 4th time, I decided that I wasn't going to buy "products", not the WW stuff, not Lean Cuisine, not any of that nasty Fat Free artificial cheese stuff. If I wasn't going to use those products when I reached goal weight and after, then why would I try to use them now?? IMO, this is why so many people try and fail.They use a product (or a food source-Nutrasystem) until they reach goal and then they stop and go back to their old patterns.  If want an Oreo, or a yummy homemade chocolate chip cookie dripping with all sorts of fats, sugars and bad stuff, then I will eat it and be ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE POINT HIT.

It's all about making choices, my friends. Some days we don't make very good choices, but we can go weeks and make excellent choices. And other times, we can plan to be bad, very, very bad. ;-)

I'll be upfront and tell you that I don't like milk or any milk products other than cheese (I've had to seriously cut back--a serving has way to many points for me!). And I very rarely checked off all my milk squares under the healthy guidelines to get my smiley face.

1) -- I hate skim milk. I refuse to buy skim milk. Yes, I know it has the same protein as regular milk, but I won't do it. Besides, sometimes you need a little fat in your diet to keep you feeling fuller longer.

2) -- I won't buy a smoothie mix. PERIOD. Why would I buy something that will cost me 4-6 points, when I can go old school? This recipe costs the points of the milk, since fruit and veg are zero point value. AND don't you let those WW leaders tell you that just because you blend this that you can't count it as part of your healthy checks! Just don't tell them! :-) They have to play by the corporate gameplan. The theory is that when a product (spinach) is denatured (broken down by blending), then the body doesn't have to work as hard to digest it, which means it takes less energy, thus burning less fat. Understandable, but you are still getting ALL the nutrients of the original product as it isn't broken down by the cooking process.
Hey! It's worked for me! Can't argue with success!

3) --  I had been making strawberry-banana smoothies, but my niece (a diabetic) turned me on to the Green Monster website. I don't use other weird ingredients suggested (wheat grass--I'm NOT a cow, thank you very much), but it was an eye-opener and I have tried my own renditions using pomegranate seeds.

I use a hand blender and an old Hidden Valley dressing maker container (plastic). Just make sure it can hold at least 2 cups or more.You can use a regular blender, too, if you want to add a lot of ice to make it into a shake like consistency. I do not use any artificial sweetener, but if you need a little more sweet try adding a little at a time. I find the banana gives me enough sweet to satisfy, even when I use a greener one.

Green Monster Smoothie

3/4 cup 2% milk
banana
spinach

Measure your milk. Break up banana and blend. Add handfuls of spinach, blending until smooth. Keep adding spinach until desired amount is reached. For added thickness, add ice cubes until reaching desired consistency.
Added bonus -- you can't taste the spinach. Er, check your teeth. If you left tiny chunks of spinach, then you probably will find some remnants in your teeth . . . jus' sayin'.
Makes @ 2 cups.

This is only 2 points! AND you can mark off three of those fruits and veggies under the healthy check guidelines if you end up using 2 cups of spinach. 1 cup leafy greens = 1 healthy check mark. I usually make this after I go on my 3 mile walk (drinking 3 cups of water, btw). I'm stuffed for HOURS.

If you want the shake consistency without using ice cubes, peel and freeze your banana.
Or make a strawberry-banana smoothie by using frozen, slices strawberries (check the package to make sure no sugar is added) to the banana milk mixture.

Enjoy, Peeps!!