Tomato & Basil Rotini with Chicken

Tomato & Basil Rotini with Chicken

For a detailed reason of why my dishes are appearing on styrofoam plates, click here.

• 1 lb. Mueller’s Whole Wheat Rotini pasta, cooked 
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces  
• 1 package chicken broth powder 
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 lb frozen green beans 
• 1 16oz. package Philadelphia Cookin Crème “Tomato & Basil” 

 

1. Begin by essentially steaming your chicken in a skillet with the broth. This keeps the fat content down considerably, and the broth helps insure you don’t wind up with bland chicken. 
2. Once the chicken is mostly all cooked (all the pieces have turned that white/tan color), add the bag of green beans on top. Cover for 5-10 minutes, while you boil the water for the pasta.
3. Cook the pasta in salted water.  I’ve found that the only way to palate whole wheat pasta is to cook it beyond al dente.
4. Once the pasta is cooked, drain thoroughly, and then return to the pan you cooked it in.  
5. Add dollops of the Cooking Crème throughout the pasta, so that it melts with the heat of the pasta.  Once you’ve added ¾ of the package, add the now cooked chicken and green beans to the pasta pan.
6. Add the rest of the Cookin Crème and toss gently to cover everything.
7. Plate it and finish it off with a nice health shaving of parmesan or mozzarella.
   
   Dinner’s ready!  

Easy replacements would be delicious. I’ve used spinach, broccoli and a host of other vegetables. I’ve also used more than 1 at a time.  There’s more than enough Cookin Crème to cover everything.  We’ve been moving away from using a lot of meat, but I think this would also work with ground turkey, too – or really ANY meat, including maybe some pork or hamburger.  It would also work with NO meat. It’s a very versatile recipe!  Enjoy!  

Tomato Basil Turkey Burgers

One of the best parts of summer is having tomatoes at the ready for whenever I feel like having something with tomato. Simple enough, no?  So when I picked up some turkey burgers to cook on the grill this Labor Day weekend, my first thought was “hmm… what do I put on them?” because well… turkey can be kind of bland.

My tomato crop in the garden has been rather lacking, but I managed to find a couple, and pulled a few basil leaves off the basil plant.  I was then ready for dinner!

I had bought the 93% lean turkey, and knew I’d have to watch them carefully because there’s not a lot of fat in there to burn off.  As soon as I put them on the grill, I sprinkled them with a McCormick’s roasted garlic and red pepper seasoning, sort of as an insurance policy.  Then I sliced my tomatoes, washed the basil and sprayed the buns with some non-stick spray.  After I flipped the burgers, I put the buns on the top level of the grill. 

After a few minutes – long enough to toast the buns a bit, I placed the basil leaves on the burger patties, and then placed the tomato slices on top of them – to keep them on there.  I closed the grill, ran in the house for the cheese.  I then topped the burgers with a slice of provolone cheese. 

On the bun, I just used some Kraft Olive Oil light mayo and this thing was TO DIE for.  Like, it was so good, I’m making them again tonight good.  Neglible amount of fat, huge on taste, and at about a buck a piece, not TOO bad on the wallet. Especially when you consider what a restaurant charges for something like this!

Yay me!

Italian Grilled Chicken & Mrs Dash

One of the toughest part of getting older is, for my husband and I at least, to cut down on the things that we've always enjoyed.   Salt, of course, is one of those things that makes EVERYTHING taste better, but does NOT do nice things for things like blood pressure – and of course, we’re both heavily cursed with family histories. So that means that we have to be especially mindful of our salt intake on a daily basis as well as educating our children about the dangers of excess so that they grow up healthier than we have.

Mrs. Dash has helped us do that.   Creating flavorful low-sodium meals for our family, without having them reaching for the salt shaker the minute the food hits their mouths, is made much easier with the variety of products that Mrs. Dash has available.  My favorite – or I should say, ONE of my favorites, is the italian medley, which I use in any manner of ways, including this one.

Grilled Italian Chicken

• 1 lb (or more) boneless chicken breast
• Mrs. Dash Italian Medley

Heat your grill up at least 5-7 minutes to be sure the grate is nice and hot.  While it’s heating, sprinkle the Mrs. Dash Italian Medley seasoning blend over the chicken breasts, both front and backside.  Once the grill is hot, place the chicken on the grill.  Leave it there for at least 5 minutes – do not mess with it.  Leave it alone!  After about 5 minutes, the chicken will have seared well on the grates and should be readily released when you grab it with your tongs.  Flip it and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 165 degrees F.

Enjoy! 

I serve this with a salad and everyone just LOVES it.  You could also serve it with some nice (no salt added) pasta sauce and pasta.  Let it cool and throw it in a salad.  There’s no limit!

I know I can be assured that the Mrs. Dash seasoning blend I choose for whatever I’m cooking will be safe for us to use, and it’s one less thing I have to worry about.  Win Win!

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I wrote this blog post while participating in the Mrs. Dash and TwitterMoms blogging program for a chance to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.  Thank you!

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Flavorful, Family Meal IdeasMore Mrs. Dash Recipes

Fridge Scampi

Yet another witty title, eh?

There are no shortage of low-fat shrimp scampi recipes. But if you’re like me and you just, out of the blue, decide that you want to make shrimp scampi, chances are you’ll not have everything that’s called for in the given recipe.  That was the situation when I came up with tonight’s dinner.

Most low fat scampi recipes call for butter, wine, chicken broth, shrimp, parsley, garlic, perhaps some olive oil.   

I had a handful of frozen shrimp (small, size 55-60 cocktail shrimp left over from New Year’s LOL)

I had garlic.

I had grape tomatoes.

I had wilted parsley.

I had no wine.

I had no chicken broth and didn’t feel like mixing any up from the package.

I came up with my own version.

First, I lightly browned 2 cloves of garlic in a pan with about a teaspoon of unsalted butter while I put some water on to boil for angel hair.

Once the garlic was nice & happy, I tossed the tomatoes in – probably 10-15 of them.  They danced around the pan while I finished taking the tails off the defrosted shrimp.   (WHY do they leave them on?!)

Once the tomatoes began to soften, I added the shrimp and and tossed them together with the rest of the pan, trying to make sure everything was coated in the garlic/butter/tomatoey goodness.  Since my shrimp were already precooked, once they were heated, they were done.  I shut the pan off and waited for the angel hair to finish.

Once the pasta was done, I strained it and then drizzled roughly a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into the same pan I’d boiled the pasta in.  When the pasta was drained thoroughly, I added it back to the pan and tossed to coat with the EVOO.  I then dumped the shrimp/tomato/garlic/butter madness into the same pan as the pasta and again, lightly tossed them together, coating everything with pan juices.  It was beautiful.

 

Enjoy!