Tarragon Chicken and Tasty Cauliflower

Chicken dishes are probably one of the most searched for online. You can use chicken in so many different ways, and it just so happens to be an excellent lean protein. Well that should come with a disclaimer: chicken without the skin, trimmed of extra fat, is an excellent lean protein. That being said I hardly eat red meat anymore, and with fish being quite pricey, erin and I tend to eat quite a bit of chicken. We are also living with family during our move and chicken is a perfect (low cost) meal when it comes to feeding a group.

As I was performing my "daily recipe website check" and I came upon Tarragon Chicken on eatingwell.com. After perusing the ingredients and realizing that I had pretty much everything needed to execute, I took it on! The next question is always: what to serve along side... Normally you would want a starch of some sort to pair with dinner, however I wanted to try and keep the meal fairly low-cal and the way I eat my starches is never low-cal. I had a craving for mashed potatoes and I knew that erin wouldn't resist that suggestion. I then remembered a recipe I had seen awhile back that used cauliflower instead of potatoes. Crazy? NO! The orginal recipe I had found used half cauliflower, half potato, however I found a Creamy Cauliflower Puree that seemed to only require Cauliflower, even better! After a quick trip to the store I was ready to cook.

I must say that these were two simple recipes to execute. While I steamed my cauliflower (i doubled that recipe) I was able to trim the chicken and get that cooking. By the time the cauliflower was ready to assemble the chicken was simmering/cooking on its final step. Perfect. I did not add the oil to the cauliflower puree, and I subbed Brommel and Brown for butter. I figure that everyone can add butter/seasoning individually and control their own calorie intake. I also used Fat free sour cream for the chicken and whole grain mustard!

Both dishes were a hit! As you can see above in the pictures I cut the chicken up into smaller pieces (just a little trick I try so that getting 2nd's really just means finishing your 1st) and everyone put tarragon sauce over the puree as well. Reading about Tarragon I was a bit nervous because it mentioned a strong smell of licorice, which I do not care for, however I think the white wine really balanced all the flavors perfectly. The cauliflower was also a bit of a risk because as mentioned in previous blogs erin is a potato lover...but she thought these fed her mashed potato cravings to a tee.

Must try dishes all around. The dinner earned an 8.4 rating from Erin.

We tried to save her Dad enough leftovers...but frankly he didn't see the cauliflower pan before we started eating...so as far as he knows he got his share...shhhhh!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy valentine's Day! I hope everyone indulged that sweet tooth, fried finger or take out taste bud that you have been longing to! I plan on taking my valentine to a yummy Sushi resturant tonight, however I couldn't let the holiday pass without a little baking!

My mom bakes the same butter cookies each and every Valentines Day and when I tell you they are to die for...I am not exaggerating! They are completely wonderful. She has made them every year for as long as I can remember. When I moved to NYC I started making them for Erin, however my mom continued to mail them in care packages every year, and this year she delivered them to us in person! Erin and I had to share, but I guess that's for the best seeing how there is a pound of butter in the recipe. Again, not exaggerating.

In my fashion I wanted to attempt to make something festive, yet still healthy. I had stumbled across this recipe awhile back and thought Valentine's day was the perfect holiday to attempt it. These Red Velvet Cupcakes sounded too good to pass by. Now to be fair I have never had real red velvet cake, so I am not sure how these compare. However the red made it festive and the cupcake element made it yummy.

These were super simple to make and although they didn't have a WOW factor for me, they were still good. I have a feeling that the red food coloring is suppose to trick you into thinking they were "red velvet" because to be honest I didn't taste much of a difference from normal cupcakes. I did subsitute splenda for half the sugar, and used completely Fat Free cream cheese for the frosting. I should warn you that after a day or so they tend to harden due to the fact that there is little to no fat in the mix.

Erin decorated each of these will a valentine's candy and gave her rating of 7.4. She claimed that she would have increased the rating had I let her add the whole tube of red dye to the batter :).

That's my Valentine for you!

finding comfort in butternut squash fries

I have been in the process of moving these past few weeks, and of course along with uprooting my life comes alot of changes. I usually crave the routine of eating the same breakfast and lunch and then creating something more interesting when it comes to dinner. I would love coming into work and researching my favorite websites to find my next recipe attempt. Changes has always been difficult for me, however when it comes to food I am always looking for changes and challenges. I love to see old dishes reinvented and new dishes that make me smile. With that said some days you just crave the familiar.

I think that's what makes people head back to comfort foods, because it give you the comfort of the familiar. Especially in a major life change. One of erin's favorite foods is chicken fingers. Its just one of those foods that can be done a million different ways and can cater to anyone's taste buds. When I came across the Hungry Girl Chicken Fingers recipe I knew it was a must try! I must admit I was a bit nervous because although I am a huge fan of Fiber One (the coating for these fingers) erin was not...however she LOVED these. Often when I attempted to make a well known junk food healthy, you could definietly tell the difference (even if it was still yummy) however with this recipie, erin thought, truly stood up well to your typical greasy, fried, chicken fingers!

Of course what goes best with chicken fingers but FRENCH FRIES. I always do the traditional cut up a regular potato (french fry style), spray with Pam, season to taste and bake in the oven...not to bad. I was then introduced to butternut squash fries!! These remind me alot of sweet potato fries, but you are eating squash...and it taste like fries...how could you go wrong?? The only change to this recipe is that erin seasons these with a bit of red pepper flakes as well, because I love the combo of hot and sweet. I normally do a mix of both for these meals because erin's not a huge fan of sweet fries.

I am slowly getting back into my routine of searching and cooking. But after a long day of finding my way around a new city/office/gym, it's nice to return to the dishes that deliever no matter where you are!

Chocolate Cravings

Who doesn't pause after eating dinner sometimes and think...now I would love something sweet to eat! This is always a tough predicament because we work so hard to plan something healthy for dinner and then we STILL want something more. I have a few tricks that I have learned along the way, but today I wanted to tackle that pesky chocolate craving.

At some of my Weight Watchers meetings some people would share that to curb their chocolate cravings they had a Hershey's kiss, or a Weight Watchers cake (which I used for awhile as well, but they are expensive and don't hold very many per box!). However sometimes when I want desert...I want something a bit larger than my pinkie finger.

One of my big discoveries was No Pudge brownies. These treats are amazing. They come in a few different flavors, but I tend to stick to the traditional ones. All you need is a serving size of fat free vanilla yogurt (or plain with the addition of vanilla extract) and the mix. They taste exactly like brownies and are fat free! Erin and I like to add fat free vanilla yogurt to ours to make sundaes. I also have come across the trick of adding a can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) to a mix of regular brownies. I haven't tried this myself but I hear that the results are very similar as well. The No Pudge brownies are a little harder to find, as some grocery stores don't carry them. They are only two points a brownie, so imagine my surprise when I found a WW recipe that looked very similar but only yielded 1 point per brownie!

These Chewy Cupcake Brownies were really good! Erin described them as dense and delicious. I loved that the serving size was a regular cupcake, and not a mini one, and that I already had all the ingredients in my cupboard. These couldn't have been easier and they stayed moist and chewy for the next few days. I do not think that these cupcakes needed any frosting, however some powdered sugar might have been nice.

I must say I didn't miss the extra point that the No Pudge brownies gave, and instead will just add a bit more ice cream to my next sundae.

Mastering the art of cooking a Spaghetti Squash

A few months ago I saw a recipe on Eating Well claiming that spaghetti squash was the perfect alternative to pasta. WHAT? I had never heard this before. I had been introduced to a lot of different squashes via my aforementioned chef friend below and she taught me tons of yummy ways to incorporate and substitute squash to make dishes healthy and fantastic. But Spaghetti squash for pasta??? (a disclaimer to mention she does in fact do this as well, however she can't teach me every squash recipe in one season!)

My first attempt at making this dish proved mixed. The ingredients in the rest of the recipe made it very tasty, however the consistency of the squash was anything but pasta-like. I followed the directions on the bottom of the recipe to a tee, and still came out with a mush of squash. Now one would assume that the use of the adjective "mush" when referring to a squash is a good thing. Not so much with the spaghetti squash.

After having an unused pork tenderloin in the freeze for a week, I decided to attempt this dish again. I spent my lunch hour googling "how to cook a spaghetti squash that is not mushy" to hopefully improve the errors of my ways...here are the changes I made. One, I made sure to pierce the outside of the squash about five times on each side. I also had read numerous times that it is better to under cook the squash than over cook. AH HA, I have come to believe that was my mistake last time! The recipe reads to cook the squash for at least an hour, mine was done in approx. 40 mins. Perfectly Pasta-like. The key, I read, was to check the outside of the squash to see if it was soft to the touch, if so then turn it over and attempt shredding to test the consistency.


The flavors in this meal is Asian inspired and definitely creates a unique and tasty substitute for a normal high calorie noodle stir-fry. Although you may not have a few of the ingredients in your cupboard, believe me when I say that you will definitely use them again and again to make some delicious Spaghetti Squash & Pork Stir-fry!

Slow cookin Monday

So this Monday was a holiday, which means I had a day off from work! I decided to relax and sleep in, but for me cooking is also part of a relaxing day. I know a few posts ago I boasted about how warm the weather has been in NYC. Well...the weather gods quickly changed their temperatures and I was quickly back to craving hot and hearty foods.

I got a late start to the day and decided that before I hit the gym I should have something to eat. I had been wanting to try this recipe that I saw on youtube awhile back and thought it perfect for a cold, late morning day. It was one of those things that I jotted down and never really threw out, even after cleaning out my recipe binder numerous times. I try to only print out recipes that I am making that day, because often I end up with a huge pile of unmade ideas...that end up being far to overwhelming to pick from. Needless to say this recipe also struck me because I seemed to have most of the ingredients lying around on any given morning (I think is important note because if you are hungry and don't want to run to the store in the morning its nice to have all you need!). Also if are someone who orders brown rice with their Chinese food, which I just happen to do, well then that's the main ingredient!

Here is a how to video (starring the cook) about how to make Brown Rice Breakfast. It tasted a little like warm rice pudding in a way. It was very good, and totally kept me fueled up for the gym!

When I returned back to the gym the house was warm, but the stomachs inside were hungry. Having the day off Erin and I decided to take in some movies and snack on popcorn (one of my most popular snacks). I wanted to throw together something that would be ready to eat later, but also hearty and filling. What else but chili fits that bill? This Hearty Turkey Chili is another Weight Watchers fave. I also made this over Christmas for my family. Its not the traditional chili as I substituted white beans and turkey meat, however it packs a punch like Teddy Bruschi! (the patriots just made it to the Superbowl what can I say?). A few notes about this one. I add extra chicken broth and tomato sauce especially when I am cooking it longer than directed. Its also quite spicy so if you aren't a fan of heat I would suggest cutting back on the red pepper flakes.

What better than to serve chili with than cornbread? I resorted to the Hungry-girl site to get a great recipe for Cheesy-Good Cornbread Muffins. These are not only low calorie but low fat too! They definitely aren't as sweet or corny as your typical cornbread, but they are a easy substitution.

Erin is always a fan of the chili (must be the New Englander in her). On her rating scale it got a whopping 7.5, not too shabby. I wasn't a huge fan of the muffins, however after researching and discovering that boxed corn muffins have twice the cals and fat...they seemed to grow on me. Although cutting corners with the chili could allow for the extra in regular cornbread!

It sure may be cold outside but this chili will certainly warm you up!

Mexican Day, OLE!

As you can already guess from previous posts I really enjoy many different flavors and types of cuisines. I think one of the hardest things to do is find dishes, from your favorite cuisines, that you can make healthy yet still keep the authentic taste. One of my personal favorite cuisines is Mexican. Living in NYC there are alot of amazingly delicious, authentic Mexican restaurants around. There also just happens to be a cheap, deliciously good delivery place that is right near my apartment! I must admit that most of the time when I am in the mood for Mexican I utilize a "cheat" night as I find the indulgence well worth it. With that said I do find myself trying to pick "healthier choices" when it comes to my selection. For a long time I really didn't think that good Mexican food was something that could be altered into a healthy option.

However over the summer erin and I were introduced to some amazing, healthy choices for Mexican showing me it WAS in fact possible . One of the dishes was chile rellejnos, made healthy with an amazing stuffing of corn and tons of veggies instead of the normal oodles and oodles of cheese. Very healthy and extremely tasty! Along side that was served homemade guacamole with the slight indulgence of chips (one of my downfalls although our chef friend also introduced me to Guiltless Gourmet Chips!). Now I must add that these dishes tasted anything but "healthy".

So this weekend, when faced with what to cook, we were actually getting together with our friend/chef that created that incredible meal above. Naturally we decided to go Mexican again. This time we attempted Shrimp Fajitas . Both of our significant others are also big chicken lovers, and being a lean protein we opted to double the marinate recipe and add chicken as well. We made sure to cook the chicken first, as it takes longer than the shrimp, but kept everything in one big pan.

In addition to the fajitas we also had her amazing homemade guacamole again(this is a regular request made from her kitchen when we visit) and she also did a homemade salsa. Crazy good!

Weekends are also a good time to indulge in a drink or...more. An obvious pair to Mexican food would be a Margarita. Being a consumer of these in the past, and then having to give them up due to their high point values, I was pleasantly surprised to find this healthy margarita recipe! What a find. Erin is normally the bar tender when it comes to these drinks. And as we keep to the kitchen she keeps the shaker going (although to be honest I would not recommend shaking these margaritas because the soda will go flat!).

I will always indulge in a good authentic Mexican meal, however this alternative just gives me yet another way to say OLE!