Creamy broccoli, cheese and chicken soup

I AM OUT OF BACON. This never happens. I don’t know how it happened. If I had bacon, I would have started by cutting up 3 strips and cooking them in the bottom of the soup pan for about 10 minutes, then adding the rest of the ingredients.

You will need:

• 3 strips of bacon IF YOU HAVE ANY
• Half of a large (sweet) onion
• 3.75 lbs of broccoli, chopped
• 3/4 lb yellow potato
• 4 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
• 1 cup of 2% or whole milk, or an additional cup of broth
• 1 3/4 cups low fat shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 – 1 1/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp onion powder
• Salt and pepper

Potatoes, onions, broth, missing bacon

Start by cutting up the bacon and cooking it in the soup pot for about 10 minutes. Roughly chop the potatoes and onion and add to the pot. Add the broth and turn the stove to medium high. Chop the broccoli into small enough pieces so they all fit and add to the pot, plus a couple pinches of salt on top. The broth should cover the potatoes, but not the broccoli – it will get steamed by the broth. Cover and continue cooking on medium high for 10 minutes, turn down to low and cook for another 10-15 minutes until the broccoli is soft.

Meanwhile, cook the chicken (I just boil it) and chop finely. You can do bite sized pieces but I like small pieces. Set aside.

Finely chopped chicken

Remove soup pot from heat. Blend using an immersion blender or a food processor. If you’re using an immersion blender, you kind of have to work from the top and push down. It blends eventually. Add the cup of milk and blend. Add nutmeg, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add the chicken and cook uncovered on low for 10 more minutes. At this point, it would probably be ready to eat, but David was not home yet so I let it cook on very low, uncovered, for another 30 minutes.

Makes 5 good sized servings, at only about 425 calories each.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

I will start by saying this cannot be compared to actual pizza. However, if you crave pizza like I do, this is a really good weekday substitute and you are eating tons of veggies!

You will need:

• 2 heads of cauliflower
• 2 eggs
• 1-2 tsp salt
• Lots of shredded mozzarella cheese (TJ’s light mozzarella has the lowest calories)
• Pizza sauce 
• Toppings – I did one turkey pepperoni and red onions, and one veggie with red peppers, red onions, and black olives

Processed cauliflower with cheese and eggs

Cut the cauliflower into big chunks (one head at a time) and blend in the food processor. It will come out looking sort of like dry grits. Microwave for 7 or 8 minutes, until softened. At this point, a lot of the things I read say to put the mush into a dishtowel and wring the water out. That sounded annoying, so I did not do it. 

Beat the 2 eggs and pour into the cauliflower pulp, along with 2 cups of mozzarella and salt, mix well. Spray a sheet of parchment paper with oil, and place on a baking sheet. Working in chunks, either with your hands or a rubber spatula, spread the cauliflower out to about a 10-inch circle that is about 1/4 inch thick. Don’t make it any thicker or it will be too mushy.

Precooked

Cooked - edges are browned

 When I do this the next time, I will cook it on higher heat to begin with. What I did was cook the crusts for 10 minutes on 350, flipped them (this was not easy) and cooked them for a total of about 20 more minutes on 400. If I was going to do it again, I would cook them on 400 for 20 minutes, and try putting them on a cookie rack (still on the parchment paper) for the second 10 minutes to see if it cooked the other side a little more. I stopped baking them when the edges got dark – I probably could have left them in even longer to see if they toughened up more, but I was hungry.

Spread sauce on the cooked crust; I like a lot of sauce but too much will make it mushy. Add cheese and toppings. As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as too much cheese. If using veggies, cut them up pretty small, otherwise it will be too heavy.

Bake until cheese is melted – about 10 minutes on 350. Eat one million pieces!

Chicken and Potato Chowder

All good soups start with bacon! You’ll need:

• 3 strips (I used center cut) bacon
• 1/2 medium sized white onion
• 1 1/2 - 2 TBS butter
• 1/4 cup plus 1 TBS flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup whole or 2% milk
• 3-4 cups chopped yukon gold potatoes
• 1 lb chicken (I use boneless skinless thighs), chopped
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Bay leaf
• Nutmeg

Cut the bacon into small (slightly bigger than bacon bit size) pieces with kitchen scissors into a soup pot. Cook on medium for a few minutes until it starts sizzling. Meanwhile, dice the onion and add to the bacon. Cook for a few more minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the butter (unless you’re using full fat bacon, in which case you probably won’t need the butter) and stir until melted. Add the flour and whisk until combined. It kind of looks like a congealed mess at this point but that’s ok. Continue to cook while whisking for a couple more minutes, but don’t let it burn.

This is how much nutmeg to use.

Add the chicken broth and whisk until smooth; add the milk and whisk to combine. Add diced potatoes, chicken, salt and pepper, nutmeg and a bay leaf. I forgot to measure how much nutmeg I put in, so I took a photo before I stirred it. Go easy on the salt until you taste it later, especially if you used full sodium stock.

Simmer for 1 – 1 1/2 hours on low, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Don’t sit reading your kindle and drinking wine and forget about it! Once the chicken is cooked, taste it to see if you need more salt and pepper. Add the frozen corn and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes before you serve.

This did not make as much soup as I was hoping (I like leftovers), next time I would probably double it. It made 2 big servings which we ate for dinner, plus one smaller leftover serving.

Since there are no veggies in this, I made a mixed green salad with shaved asiago, grape tomatoes, and lemon honey dressing. I forgot to measure exactly how much of everything I used in the dressing, but it was good. Approximately, it was the juice of one lemon, a heaping teaspoon of honey (thank you Bridget and Aaron) and probably 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil. Shake well!

Based on rough calculations dividing it into 3 servings, this is about 530 calories per bowl. You could skip the bacon (which would be crazy), use a lower-fat milk (I did whole), and/or use boneless skinless chicken breast, all of which would lower the calorie count a bit. Still, at 530 calories it is very filling, and still far less than a chowder you would get at a restaurant. Serve with red wine!

Light Creamy Chicken, Broccoli, and Corn Soup

All of a sudden it got freezing, so I wanted soup. I hate the cold, but I do love soup. This is a creamy broth but without the heavy cream, making it a much healthier, lower calorie and fat alternative.

You will need:

• 3 TBS butter
• 3 TBS flour
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp tarragon
• 4 cups (low sodium) chicken broth
• 3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
• 1 1/2 c gold potatoes, chopped
• 1-2 heads of broccoli, chopped
• 1 1/2 c frozen sweet corn
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
• Salt to taste

Melt the butter in a soup pot; I used a 5 quart. Start the chicken to boil in a separate saucepan. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and whisk until all lumps are broken up. Continue to simmer, whisking constantly, for about 3 minutes. Usually I recommend being lazy and not actually whisking the whole time, but it’s important that you do, otherwise it will burn and stick.

Butter and flour while simmering -
looks very thin.

Slowly add 2 cups of the chicken broth, plus the milk, and whisk. Add the shallots, bay leaf, and potatoes; turn to medium low and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes – until the potatoes are cooked and the broth has thickened. Remove from stove, take out the bay leaf, and use an immersion blender (possibly the best kitchen tool ever) or a food processor to blend.

When the chicken is cooked through, remove from saucepan, save the broth to add to your dog’s food, and coarsely chop or pull apart the meat. Add to the blended broth.

Put the soup back on the stove on medium low, add the last 2 cups of broth, salt to taste, and mix thoroughly. Add the broccoli and corn – the measurements above are about what I used; they are not exact and I basically just cram as much in as I can for the amount of broth that I have.

Add 2 tsp of nutmeg, 1 tsp of tarragon, stir and taste. You might need a little more salt also.

Cook uncovered for another 15-20 minutes on medium low stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is soft but not falling apart. The raw broccoli thins the broth a bit, sautéing it first would probably fix this, I just didn’t feel like taking the extra step. Serve and enjoy!

This makes about 4 servings; each serving is just over 400 calories. Not bad for a cream soup and filling enough for dinner!

Easy at-work lunch: chicken avocado wrap

I have hated wraps since I was in college, when they first got popular. I don’t know why, maybe the smell of the on-campus delis that served them — I could not stand that smell. I also hate that they are marketed as healthy, because usually the tortillas have one million calories and aren’t any better for you than regular bread. The tortillas I use are 80 calories each, and they hold plenty of stuff:

I used:

• Perdue pre-cooked chicken bites, southwestern flavor — about 1/3 of the package
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced and roasted
• 1/4 avocado, sliced
• 2 TBS hummus
• 1/4 cucumber, sliced vertically into thin strips
• About 1/8 block of Trader Joe’s low fat feta cheese

I roasted the red peppers and sliced the cucumbers the night before, and heated the red peppers up with the chicken in the toaster oven before putting it together. A microwave would work, or you could just have the whole thing cold. I spread the hummus on the tortilla first, then piled everything else on top. I was also going to add arugula but ran out of room; as it was I ate it more like a giant taco than a wrap. It came out to about 415 calories total; if you left the hummus out or just used less, it would be less than 400. Or you could leave out the avocado, but that would be crazy. All of my coworkers were jealous!

Lemon orzo salad with chicken, feta, and snap peas on arugula

I planned on using whole wheat orzo but couldn’t find it; I’m not sure if it exists but I will keep looking! I did this dish at room temperature; you could do it cold but cold chicken freaks me out a little.


You’ll need:

• 2-3 lemons
• 1 lb orzo
• 5 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 1.5 lbs)
• 1.5 pints of cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 lb of snap peas, cut in half
• 1 block low-fat feta (Trader Joe’s is my fav)
• 1 cup loosely packed basil
• 10 oz arugula 
• Kosher salt and olive oil

Cook the orzo according to package directions, drizzle with olive oil and the juice from half of a lemon and stir. Also, if you don’t have one of these citrus squeezers, get one because it’s awesome. Boil the chicken thighs and cut up roughly with a chef’s knife, add to the orzo, drizzle with lemon, stir, and set aside to cool.

Crumble the feta and set aside. Roughly chop the basil (or if you’re lazy like me, put it in the mini chopper and pulse it a couple of times), quarter the tomatoes and cut the snap peas in half.

Once the orzo and chicken has cooled, add the veggies, basil, feta and the juice from the second lemon, gradually stirring. Serve on a bed of arugula.

This makes a huge amount; it’s great leftover. If you divide it into about 8 servings and serve over a couple cups of arugula it works out to about 440 calories per serving. It would be less if you used chicken breasts instead of thighs, but I think white meat chicken is gross.

This has nothing to do with food, but I was fixing some tile in the shower of my little townhouse that I rent out and needed shims to level the hardy board before I retiled the window sill in the shower. I had nothing with me that would work, found this awesome thing in a cabinet in the laundry room and used it for a shim:

Beef enchiladas with easy homemade sauce

I made roasted broccoli for the side; it
isn’t exactly a Mexican side but it’s easy
and I needed a veggie.

These are really simple beef and cheese enchiladas; you could add beans, onions, peppers, chilis, etc — I was just going for simple.

I made my own sauce for the first time; you can use the sauce in the can but it’s super easy to make and there is not a bunch of preservatives and fillers this way. This is also thicker than the canned sauce, which I like.

For the sauce:

• 15 oz can of tomato sauce
• 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes 
• 2 TBS chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp chipotle chili pepper (if you don’t already have this, you can leave it out, but it adds a really good smokey flavor)

Whisk all ingredients and cook on very low heat for about 15 minutes, whisking every so often so it doesn’t stick. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the enchiladas:

• 6 soft taco tortillas
• 1 lb 96% lean ground beef, browned
• 1 cup low fat shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese
• 2 cups low fat mexican blend shredded cheese
• Fat free Greek yogurt for topping

This is what the beef looked like
after I ground it in the mini chopper

About how much filling to use

I browned the beef and then pulsed it in my mini chopper in two batches to get it much finer than I can ever get it by breaking it up in the pan. Blend the meat in a mixing bowl with the mozzarella, cottage cheese, and one cup of the sauce.

Spray a 9x13 pan with olive oil. Divide the meat mixture into 6 equal parts, lay on half of the tortilla, carefully roll, and place seam-side down in the pan.

Leave a little bit of space between them when you place them in the pan. Cover with as much of the sauce as you want; I use a lot but save some for topping later. Top with the 2 cups of Mexican cheese, cover and bake on 350 for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes if you want to brown the cheese on top. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before eating.

I use La Banderita soft taco low carb tortillas, which only have 81 calories each. A lot of the brands have a ton of calories (even the whole wheat) so I always buy these. I also bought tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes that had the least number of ingredients (no added sugar) as possible. I was able to get each enchilada down to 390 calories total, probably a little less because I don’t use all of the sauce. Amazingly, I only ate one plus the broccoli, so my dinner was still under 500 calories.