Tag Archives: dinner

Chicken Tostadas with Lime Slaw

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I became addicted to lime slaw on a trip to Nicaragua. They serve a lime slaw, like a salad, on top of yucca and topped with pork rinds. Sounds awful, but it’s really good. Anyway, the healthiest part of that dish was the lime slaw and I started using lime to dress cole slaw instead of mayonnaise and just use very little oil.

Tostadas traditionally have a fried shell, but I often just lightly pan fry the shell to make it healthier. I prefer corn tortillas, but if you want a faster assembly, just use premade tostada shells.

For the healthiest option, skip the sour cream and pan fry the corn tortillas instead of using tostada shells.

Chicken Tostadas with Lime Slaw

Serves 2

4 corn tortillas or tostada shells

¾ cup sliced, skinless rotisserie chicken

1 cup cole slaw mix

½ teaspoon cumin seed

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon canola oil

1 ½ tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper to taste

Refried beans

Sliced avocado

Salsa (red or green is good)

Sour cream

Tomato slices (optional)

Directions:

First, whisk together sugar, cumin, oil, lime juice and cilantro. In another bowl, add this mixture to cole slaw mix, stir to thoroughly coat slaw, and set aside.

Slice your chicken and set aside. Slice avocado and set it aside.

Place desired amount of refried beans, about 1 tablespoon per tortilla, in a bowl, cover and microwave for 20 seconds. Stir and heat more, if necessary.

If using corn tortillas, use a large non-stick skillet and head the pan over medium heat. Add cooking spray or a little canola oil. When hot, add tortillas and cook about 3 minutes per side.

Then assemble tostadas: spread beans on the shell, then chicken, salsa, slaw, sour cream and slice avocado.

I added tomato slices but it was more for the photo. With the salsa, you don’t really need more tomato.

Enjoy. Look how beautiful this is … They say you know you’re eating healthy, when you’ve got a rainbow of colors on your plate and you sure do here.

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Goat Cheese, Strawberry, Chicken, Spinach Salad with Sweet Balsamic Vinaigrette

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 I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but it’s sunny and gorgeous here. It feels like spring! And that means, I am thinking about spring and getting fit for the season. So a salad is on the agenda today.

This easy, healthy salad is on the table in about 7 minutes. It’s great for lunch or dinner.

This serves 1.

Directions

½ cup sliced rotisserie chicken

2 cups loosely packed spinach (don’t actually pack it, just scoop up 2 cups)

1 ounce crumbled goat cheese

¼ cup slivered almonds

5 strawberries, hulled and sliced

Dressing

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon ketchup

This salad is lightly dressed, if you like a good drenching, then double the dressing recipe.

Place salad ingredients in a large bowl or plate and then make the dressing.

Place salad dressing ingredients in a jar, seal and shake until well combined (you can also just whisk the dressing together if you don’t have an empty jar. But it’s a good idea to save empty jars for this sort of thing).

Pour over salad, toss, and let rest 5 minutes. Then serve.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: Healthy, Easy, Delicious

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Woo Hoo, I did it! Revamped my delicious chicken tortilla soup and transformed it into a wonderful Rotisserie Chicken Queen soup. From start to finish, it took me 25 minutes!

My old version took about an hour and a half and this new version is spectacular! It has more ingredients than most of my recipes but it’s still easy.

If you enjoy the flavors or cumin, cilantro and corn, you should love this.

And it freezes beautifully, so if you are single or travel a lot, you can easily freeze it.  There’s about six servings in a pot and I ran the ingredients through one of those calorie calculations, and it has 311 calories a bowl. It was rated B+, which is awesome, so it’s nutritious as well as delicious.

It has 12 percent of your daily recommended intake of iron, 48 percent vitamin C, and 20 percent vitamin A.

If you made my Mexican Lasagna, you probably have left over corn tortillas, so you can use them in this. For future reference, corn tortillas freeze well, too.

You’ll notice, I give directions as if I am there with you in the kitchen because I know where the pauses are in my recipe and it helps you move faster. You don’t have to de-bone the chicken before you start the soup. If you do, you will add a little extra time to the 25 minutes I said it takes. I try to be as efficient as possible with whatever I make. “Efficient” is a commonly used word in my home and is usually greeted with a mental eye-roll from my husband. I don’t blame him. I strive to be more efficient with everything I do.

This is one efficient, yummy venture. I hope you enjoy it.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 teaspoon canola oil

1 large yellow onion

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon cumin seed

1 large red bell pepper

*1 garlic clove or dash of dehydrated garlic (see my note)

32-ounces reduced sodium chicken broth (one of those boxes of broth)

1 can of corn, drained

½ a bunch of cilantro

4 corn tortillas

1 tablespoon cornmeal (if you don’t have any, just add 2 more tortillas)

1 ½ cups chunky salsa (your favorite brand)

Meat from 1 rotisserie chicken

Avocado to garnish (optional)

*If you want to save time and you’re not cooking with dehydrated garlic, you need to buy some. It’s awesome! I tried it when I visited the New Orleans School of Cooking and I was skeptical, but instantly won over. Now I only use fresh garlic if I am making a dressing or something that must have it. Dehydrated garlic saves me time, effort and I don’t have stinky hands. You can order it online, but I recently bought some from Big Lots, of all places.  It was inexpensive, too. I’d call your local store before heading over.

Directions:

First, chop onion and red bell pepper and set aside (use a food processor, if you have it).

Split a head of cilantro in half and cut the stems off one half. Then bunch up the leaves and slice those and set aside.

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. When hot, add onion, cumin, chili powder and cumin seed. Stir occasionally while it cooks for about 7 minutes. While that cooks, do the next steps but be sure to stir the onion so it doesn’t burn.

Pile tortillas on top of each other, slice them and then cut into small squares and set aside.

Tear the meat off your chicken. Discard the skin or save it for another use. Coarsely chop the chicken and set aside (if you have time; if not, you will get to that in a second).

When onion is tender, add all the ingredients from the bell pepper through the salsa. You do not want to add the chicken yet because it’s already cooked. Bring soup to a soft boil and cook 10 minutes.

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is is what it looks like before it boils

Finish chopping your chicken, if you haven’t already

When soup has cooked 10 minutes, drop chicken in and turn off the heat. The soup is piping hot and will quickly heat the meat. See how creamy the soup looks now? Transformed in 10 minutes.

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Optional: Serve with a slice of avocado, crumbled up tortilla chips, cheese or plain. The calories calculated were plain. Stir the soup and serve.

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

High in niacin

High in selenium

High in vitamin B6

High in vitamin C

Bad points

High in sodium

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Creamy, Chicken and Dumpling Soup (SUPER EASY)

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I wish I could take credit for this brilliant, delicious Creamy, Chicken and Dumpling Soup, but I can’t. My husband’s cousin’s wife made a version of this a few years ago. I don’t remember the original recipe. but she used flour tortillas to make the dumplings, which I thought was brilliant. That soup served as the inspiration for this one/

I normally hate Chicken and Dumpling Soup, but this is creamy and absolutely delicious. Plus, it’s SUPER EASY.  It’s perfect for a cold winter day. Your family will love it.

Creamy, Chicken and Dumpling Soup

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 medium onion

2 stalks celery

2 bay leaves

1 (15 ounce) can chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 soup can filled with water

1 1/ 3 cups mixed frozen peas and carrot

2 cups chopped rotisserie chicken

3 (6-inch) flour tortillas

Chop onion and celery. Set aside.

Place tortillas on top of each other and use a knife or pizza cutter to cut into ½ inch rectangles or squares. Set aside.

Heat oil in a medium-large pot over medium heat. When hot, add onions, celery, bay leaves and cook 5-7 minutes, until tender. Add chicken stock, soup and then fill the soup can with water and add to pot. Toss in frozen peas and carrots and bring to a boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce to strong simmer and add chicken and tortillas. The tortillas serve as dumplings. Cook 5  minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and then serve. Serve with a roll because you will want to sop up all the deliciousness that is this soup.

This easy version of Chicken and Dumpling Soup is pure comfort food

This easy version of Chicken and Dumpling Soup is pure comfort food

Vegetable, Barley, Chicken Soup

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It’s bleak outside, which puts me in the mood for soup. And I’ve shared a couple of decadent dishes lately, so I thought I’d post a delicious, healthy soup today:  Vegetable, Barley, Chicken Soup.

I love this soup because it’s packed with vegetables and feels nourishing.

There are a couple ways you can shave a little prep time off. Buy a bag of cole slaw mix instead of chopping your cabbage; buy pre-cut mushrooms; precut carrots; and use dehydrated garlic instead of fresh.

This soup has a lot of ingredients, but don’t let that deter you from trying it. It’s a simple soup that on the table in 30 minutes and it’s healthy so you can feel good about feeding it to your family.  It’s packed with vegetables and we know we all need more vegetables. The barley adds bulk and fiber and helps thicken the soup.  It’s important to use quick cooking variety of barley because it only cook 15 minutes before you serve it.

The Italian seasoning and rosemary season this beautifully.

The chicken goes in at the very end, so again to save yourself prep time, chop the chicken while the soup is boiling. The same apples to the zucchini. While the first four ingredients cook down, then you can chop the zucchini.  Ok,let’s get started.

Vegetable, Barley, Chicken Soup

1 large yellow onion

2 carrots

1 ½ cups chopped white cabbage

2 stalks celery

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

¼ teaspoon dried rosemary

1 pint sliced baby portobella mushrooms

1 zucchini

2 bay leaves

1 garlic clove, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

7 cups chicken stock

2/3 cup quick cooking barley

2 ½ cups chopped, skinless rotisserie chicken

Directions:

Chop saute onion, cabbage, carrots and celery and set aside. Cut zucchini into fourths horizontally, and then slice those pieces. Slice mushrooms and set aside.

In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add onion, cabbage, carrots and celery and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add Italian seasoning and rosemary, mushrooms, zucchini, salt and pepper and cook another 3 minutes. Add bay leaves, garlic, stock and barley and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and cook 12-15 minutes. While the soup cooks, chop your chicken.

Drop in chopped chicken and heat through. Serve.

Quick Posole

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If you have 15 minutes, then you can have dinner on the table. That’s right, from start to finish, this soup will only take you 15 minutes.  Here’s another piece of good news: this flavorful soup boasts only 220 calories a bowl.

Posole is a stew popular in Columbia and Mexico that is slow cooked and contains hominy. While Posole is traditionally slow cooked, I don’t have time for that so I came up with this snappy version. It’s actually inspired by a slow cooker pork posole one of my girlfriend’s makes.

It’s flavored with broth, green enchilada sauce, cilantro, cumin, salsa and then a squeeze of lime. The shredded chicken is so tender in this dish.

It’s not my best soup, but it’s very good, especially when you consider how quick it comes together.  So pop a beer and dinner will be done before you can even finish your brew (well, I guess that depends on what type of day you’ve had).

I assume everyone has a food processor, but if you don’t, then add a couple extra minutes to the cooking time (and then go buy yourself one). I have a cheap one that I paid $10 for at Walgreens or Walmart in 2000. I am not kidding. So there’s no need to save up for a good one; this has served me well. I always use it to chop onions. You only need to chop an onion and cilantro for this dish, so there’ s not a lot of chopping anyway.

Quick Posole

Makes 4 servings

1 teaspoon canola oil

1 yellow onion

1 bunch cilantro

½ teaspoon cumin seed

¾ teaspoon ground cumin

1 (15-ounce) can reduced sodium chicken broth

1 (10-ounce) can green enchilada sauce

2 cups water

1 can yellow hominy

2/3 cup salsa (red or green will work; I prefer red)

2 cups skinless, shredded rotisserie chicken

1 lime for serving

Chop onion and cilantro set aside. When chopping cilantro, I just keep it as a bunch, chop the stems off where the leaves end and then chop that part, including stems. Some people take the time to pick off leaves, but not me. That takes forever. Stems are fine in the soup.

In a medium pot, heat oil and add onion and cumin and cook 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add cilantro, broth, enchilada sauce, water, hominy, salsa and cook 5 minutes. While that cooks, shred your chicken and then add it to the pot and cook 5 more minutes.

Note: the easiest way to shred is pull of the skin, pull the chicken off the bone and shred it by hand. I always save the skin and bones for stock. You can freeze that if you won’t have time to make it this week. I find two birds boiled together makes a better stock anyway.

Serve with a lime wedge. If you want add more vegetables, you can serve this with chopped avocado and tomatoes.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 220; 24 g protein; 19 carbs; 1,175 ml sodium

Chicken, Bacon, Sundried Tomato Pizza

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I have a hankering for pizza lately. I think it’s this cold weather, it’s comfort food. This is an excellent pizza that you can make for lunch or dinner or even as an appetizer for a party. It’s great with red wine or beer. This comes together quickly and is easy, so it’s great for a weeknight dinner.

Chicken, Bacon Pizza with Sundried Tomatoes

1 ready made pizza dough (Stonefire is my favorite brand)

Pizza sauce, desired amount

1 cup chopped, skinless rotisserie chicken

1/3 cup real bacon pieces (store bought it what I used)

1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes

1 1/3 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese (or desired amount)

Fresh basil to garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Spread pizza sauce over dough. Top with chicken, bacon and sundried tomatoes.

Top with cheese and bake for 15 to 18 minutes.

Remove and garnish with slices of fresh basil.

My nephew doesn’t like any pizza other than cheese and he ate four slices of this, so that was a huge compliment. My dad loved it, too, but he loves bacon.

This pizza is easy, great for a quick dinner or parties. Serve with or without fresh basil.  Delicious!

Mexican Lasagna

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Mexican Lasagna

1 package soft yellow corn tortillas (you will not use them all)

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 very large yellow onion

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 ½ teaspoons cumin seed

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 can seasoned black beans, drained

4 cups chopped skinless rotisserie chicken (1 whole chicken or 2 if just use breast meat)

2 ¾ cups chunky salsa or picante sauce (that’s more than a regular size jar, so buy a big jar or two regular ones)

Dash of garlic salt

½ cup cilantro (optional)

3 1/2- 4 cups of shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack cheese blend (or Mexican- cheese blend)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Note: This calls for 4 cups of rotisserie chicken, which is the whole chicken. If you don’t like dark meat and want only white, you will need to buy two chickens and just use the breast off both.

This makes a large batch (13” x 9” pan), but the recipe can easily be halved. This is an economical dish when entertaining and absolutely delicious. This lasagna explodes with flavor.

Helpful hint: If you’re watching your weight, you can use less cheese in this dish by skipping the middle layer of cheese.  This has such powerful flavors, you really won’t miss it too much (and if you don’t try it that way, you won’t even know what you’re missing).

Directions:

Put onion through a food processor and chop bell peppers and set aside.

If you plan to use cilantro, gather the leaves in a bunch and cut off stems at the base of where the leaves start. Chop the leaves and set aside.

Chop your chicken and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. When oil is hot, add onion, cumin powder and cumin seed and cook 6 minutes.  Then add chopped bell peppers and cook 2 minutes. Stir in beans, chicken, salsa, dash of garlic salt and cook 2 minutes.  If you plan to add cilantro, stir it in now. Turn off heat and let mixture rest.

Spray a 13” x 9″ pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom with corn tortillas, overlapping in spots so that the bottom is covered. I tear tortillas into desired sizes to make them fit. You will not use the entire package, you just want enough to make layers.

Take half your chicken mixture and spread it evenly over the first layer of tortillas.  Top that mixture with about 40 percent of your cheese. You want a little extra cheese on top. Then repeat and make another layer or tortillas over the mixture. Make sure it’s all covered, even if you overlap tortillas. Then top that with the rest of the chicken mixture. Cover chicken with remaining cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese bubbles. Slice and serve. I hope you enjoy this; I absolutely love it.