un-fried chicken...but still crispy and yummy!

A super late post for Fitness Friday - about eating 'fit'. Un-fried chicken??!!?? And it was yummy too!!

We made this crispy chicken recently and plan to make it part of our regular menu choices.... really yummy and low calorie too! Almost fried chicken, and pretty much guilt free!! Yum! We opt out of the 'tarter' and the coleslaw, but the recipe I found gave it as an option, so I thought I'd add it here for anyone interested.


Serves 4

Calories per serving, chicken with coleslaw: 519
Calories per serving, tartar sauce: 27 (optional - we didn't make this)
1 serving of chicken = 3 pieces of chicken

For the chicken:

2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 pound chicken tenders (about 12)
1 1/2 cups cornflakes, crushed to medium crumbs (I added 1/3 cup of bread crumbs with this)
1 tsp of Mrs. Dash original (added this myself, I have a thing for Mrs. Dash)
Nonstick cooking spray

For the tartar sauce

1/2 tablespoons low-fat sour cream
1 tablespoon nonfat buttermilk
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon drained nonpareil capers
1 tablespoon chopped sweet gherkin
1 tablespoon water

For the coleslaw

1 1/2 (10-ounce) bags cabbage slaw mix
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
2 tablespoons thin-sliced red onion
1 tablespoon low-fat sour cream
1 tablespoon nonfat buttermilk
1 tablespoon seasoned rice wine vinegar
2–3 dashes hot pepper sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
8 cherry tomatoes, quartered, for garnish


1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. For the chicken: In a medium bowl, combine the garlic, spices and buttermilk. Add the chicken and turn in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

3. For the coleslaw: In a large bowl, combine the cabbage slaw mix, bell pepper, onion and shredded herbs. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the sour cream, buttermilk, vinegar, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat.

4. For the tartar sauce: Whisk together all of the ingredients in a separate small bowl.

5. Place the cornflake crumbs on a plate (add the bread crumbs here, and the Mrs. Dash). Drain the chicken tenders. Pick up a chicken tender with one hand, and turn it in the cornflake coating, using the other hand to gently press additional coating onto the sides. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Continue on in this way to coat all of the chicken pieces, arranging them on the baking sheet in a single layer. Bake at 400 degrees until firm, about 15 minutes.

6. To serve, divide the coleslaw among 4 bowls. Arrange 3 chicken tenders, standing up with wide ends at the bottom and overlapping slightly, at one side of each mound. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken. Garnish bowls with chopped cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs.

Today's Goodness

Today's box of veggies and fruits were delivered just a few minutes ago; I didn't take a picture this time, but what we received was:

5 sweet potaotes
2 broccoli crowns
1 container (pint) yellow cherry tomatoes
1 head of romaine lettuce
6 zucchini
1 container blueberries
6 gala apples
1 mango (organic from Florida)
1 bunch of bananas

They always give me great recipes to go with the deliveries, today's recipes that were included are:

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins (Amy, that ones for you!!)
Risotto with Corn, Zucchini and Green Pepper
Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas

I'm eager to try the enchilada's... and maybe I'll cheat bigtime and make those muffins! I may substitute the sour creme for fat free and use skim milk, and try them with 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat flour... Wheat flour is much more dense, so it's seems to work better when I bake if I mix it with a bit of white flour. If anyone has a good suggestion on how to cook with wheat only, I'm all ears!! I usually portion it out.... I make my pancakes w/ buckwheat flour and they definately require special attention!!

today's goodies...

Today's delivery included:

1 gigantic red onion - local
a big family serving of green beans - local
tons of squash - local
carrots
green leaf lettuce - local
blueberries - local
gala apples
d'anjou pears
bananas

There were several recipes they included in my notice of delivery email.
I may have to give THIS one a try and substitute fat free butter..... sounds very yummy!!!

Strawberries I think I love you

**Edit to this post 06.18.09 - I decided to post this recipe and THIS RECIPE I posted recently for Strawberry Bread in FishMama's summer dessert recipe swap!!!

Head over to her blog for more yummy recipes HERE!

Tonight I made a dessert that everyone LOVED and it was almost guilt free! Each serving was originally at 300 calories, and with my substitutions I calculated appx 180 calories for each serving... and we lost NO flavor! IT WAS YUMMY!! You can make it three ways, as waffle bowl icecream scoops, as a "pie" with oreo crust, OR how I made it - mini pies (no crust). Our oldest called it "heaven pie".

After having made this tonight, in the future I plan to chop the "mix in" strawberries up a little more because they do freeze and a big chunk of frozen berry is hard to work through after eating that soft creamy filling. Saving a few slices to lay on top of each mini pie makes for a pretty finish - but I didn't even think to do that part! I did cut the recipe in half for us, because let's face it with this yummy stuff I'd be tempted to over indulge!

INGREDIENTS

1 (8 ounce) package PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened {substituted this for reduced fat}
1 cup cold milk {I used skim}
1 (3.4 ounce) package JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding {I used French Vanilla - next time will be Sugar Free Vanilla to cut more of the yuck out}
1 1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping {I used FAT FREE}
20 NILLA Wafers, coarsely broken {I used reduced fat}
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup strawberry ice cream topping

DIRECTIONS
Beat cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Gradually beat in milk. Add dry pudding mix; beat 2 min. Stir in COOL WHIP, wafers and berries. Swirl in ice cream topping.
Serve it your way!

PIE: Spread filling into 6-oz. OREO Pie Crust. Freeze 6 hours or until firm. Garnish with additional berries, if desired. Makes 8 servings.

MINI PIES: Spoon filling into 12 cupcake liners. Freeze 4 hours. Remove paper linings. Garnish desserts with additional berries, if desired. Makes 12 servings.

WAFFLE BOWLS: Freeze filling 6 hours or until firm. Let stand 15 min. before scooping into waffle bowls. Makes 8 servings.

mmmmm yum

The Strawberry bread was YUMMY.... I posted the recipe HERE. I just wanted to add that instead of just 'mashing' my berries, I put them in the mini-chopper for a quick chop, only very lightly chopped.

Cooking time for my oven at 350 degrees was 45 minutes.

The yummy bread was a hit with the entire family, we're going to finish it off today! One friend suggested that softspread cream cheese would be a good idea.... hmmmmm.... I'll have to try that - I have some fat free... so that makes me feel less guilty. HA.

I like the way this bread baked, so the hubby and I came up with the plan to use our jumbo muffin trays next time and make the 'bread' into muffins. MAYBE when we do that, I'll spread a tiny bit of that fat free creamcheese on top and call it a special dessert for the boys!!

Veggies and Fruits

We received another local grown veggie/fruit delivery today. We received:

2 very large zucchini - local
1 container grape tomatoes - local
2 jumbo sweet onions - local
1 head romaine lettuce - local
8 gala apples
strawberries - local

8 d'anjou pears
5 bananas

I'm excited to try a recipe for Strawberry Bread that is in the Simply In Season (World Community Cookbook) that I received from a dear friend as a sweet surprise! Recently I read on her blog that SHE tried it and it was SO yummy, so I'm super excited to make it!! I have everything except the whole wheat flour, so I'm going to run out and get more of that this afternoon, since the strawberries we received need to be used within 1-2 days, as there is no fungicides sprayed on them to keep from molding.

Strawberry Bread from: Simply In Season (World Community Cookbook)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 & 1/4 cups strawberries (mashed)
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Mix together in a large bowl, stirring until just combined. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, appx. 1 hour. My friend said hers took around 45 min... so I guess it needs to be checked around 40 minutes in.... I'll re-post once I bake ours!

Here's another recipe I was offered up in my delivery today for Balsamic Strawberries with Whipped Marscapone Cheese ..... may have to try that soon too!!

yummy fruits and veggies

We received another delivery today! I mentioned last night that we would be receiving another delivery and big E perked up and said "man, I hope there's mangoes again". I told him that we'd always get fruits, but it depended on the local farms that the company pulls from and/or what was in season.

Last night we cooked up the last of our previous delivery, all that was left was onions and potatoes, and we had some seriously yummy potato soup.

Today our delivery included:

1 bag of romaine lettuce - local
3 very large squash - local
1 jumbo yellow onion - local
2 large roma tomatoes - local
10 braeburn apples
8 red bartlett pears
6 oranges - FL
1 pack of 6 bananas

Along with each delivery comes 2 recipes that go with the veggies/fruits delivered. I love this company we joined with! Here's a yummy sounding recipe for squash:

Garlic-Cilantro Squash:

1 tbsp of minced fresh cilantro

1/2 tsp lemon juice and olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

1-1/2 tsp of water

1/8 tsp of salt

4 small yellow squash cut in half

Combine cilantro, lemon juice, oil, water, salt & garlic in a bowl. Brush cut surfaces of squash with 1/2 of cilantro mixture. Place on grille over med-hot coals. Place squash halves, cut side down, on rack and cook 3 minutes. Turn squash, brush with remaining mixture, cook until tender. Serves 4.

recipe swap: breakfast casserole

This week at LifeasMom is all about breakfast! I'll be the first to admit that I rarely eat breakfast, but when I do, breakfast pizza is one of my favs!

BassAckwards Mom's Breakfast Pizza:

**1/2 lb sausage (we use turkey sausage) OR 1/2 lb cooked crispy bacon (we use turkey bacon)

1 package crescent rolls
1 cup shredded cheddar (we use 2% for this recipe)
4 eggs (I prefer egglands best or egg substitute)
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper to taste
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup milk
**you can use one or both ... I like to do half and half, making 1 side of the "pizza" sausage, and the other bacon just to give choices to the family.

Cook sausage in skillet until browned, ground fine for pizza style meat, then drain. Roll out crescent rolls into a 9x12 baking dish (I spray lightly w/ olive oil). Top with meat(s) and then top with the shredded cheddar. In a separate bowl mix eggs, milk and salt/pepper, and pour over top of the pizza evenly. Top with Parmesan and bake according to crescent rolls instructions (appx 20 min at 375 degrees). Slice and serve warm! YUM!

You can add your own toppings to suit your taste!

recipeswap: banana pudding

LifeasMom hosts a weekly recipe swap, and I love it!! I only participate when I can contribute something… I’m no Rachel Ray! My contribution is Creamy Banana Pudding. Simple enough, right?? I make mine as low fat as possible… and it still turns out yummy! It seems to be what everyone expects from me on special occasions!!

BassAckwards Mom’s Banana Pudding:

1 – 14oz can eagle brand milk (I buy fat free)
1 ½ cup cold water
1 (4 serving) package of Instant Vanilla Pudding
1 pint Whipping Cream (I buy Fat Free, or Lite – whichever is available)
3 or more banana’s
Vanilla Wafers

Instructions:
In a mixing bowl (large), combine eagle brand milk, cold water – whisk to blend, and add pudding mix, then beat until well blended (50 strokes). Chill for 5 min (I usually stick it in the freezer). After chilled, fold in whip cream. Spoon 1 cup mixture into 2 ½ qt. glass serving dish, top with wafers and sliced banana and then repeat by adding mixture, wafers and bananas, ending with pudding. Chill for 3-4 hours. I like to top the dessert off with about 5 crushed wafers, dusting the top like sand.

comfort food swap

Life As Mom is having a comfort food recipe swap! I posted this one back in November, and thought I'd post it again. It's become a family treat! We do our best to modify it to make it 'less fatty'.... fat free cream, fat free evap. milk, low sodium chicken stock.

Click HERE for the recipe link!!

Enjoy!!

comfort food tonight...

mmmmm.....homemade potato soup and cornbread!!

I used a recipe that was found online and modified it to more like my mom makes it... I'm guessing that potato soup is likely the easiest of soups to make, but I love to complicate things. So I took 3 recipes (including moms) and made one my own...I don't want it tooo thick, or tooo runny - I like it just right. So I made a bit of a roux, and used some half and half...

BassAckwards Mom's Potato Soup (makes 6-8 servings)

4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 stalk of celery chopped (optional)

1 container chicken stock

1.5 tablespoons of flour

6oz evaporated milk

2 tablespoons butter/margarine (your choice, fat or fat free)

6oz half and half

salt

pepper

1 tablespoon dried parsley

cook: boil potatoes and onions in chicken stock, if the chicken stock doesn't cover the potatoes in the pot, then add water to cover. Once the potatoes and onions are tender, in a small sauce pan, add butter and allow to melt, mix in evaporated milk and flour, whisk until thickens and then add to the potatoes. After adding roux, add in half and half, season to taste and add parsley. Let stand for 10 min to thicken. We found that after 10 min, it got thicker then we preferred and we just added a little (about 1/2 cup) regular milk (1%) to thin it out just a bit.

It was YUMMY!!! I love potato soup, you can add cheese, or bacon to add a little more flavor! We rarely eat these types of yummys, but when we do it is a treat!!!

***keeping it healthy(ier) ..... I didn't point out our families' fat intake in the recipe above because it's obvious to those who know us, husband had heart surgery and we're determined not to repeat history - we're conservatives when it comes to fat... but there could be more then one person (someone emailed me) who may wonder if this recipe (or any recipe I post) tastes good with less fat ... We use Fat Free half/half, fat free evap. milk, fat free butter - and it was scrumptious. While the flour and white potatoes are not the best for those watching their weight, this is still a yummy low-fat soup to indulge on with a few cut corners. We use turkey bacon if we use it... and 2% or fat free cheese to top it off.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

It's another recipe swap over at LifeasMom's blog!! This week's swap is Thanksgiving Veggies :). This is my favorite sweet, fat, overloaded calorie Thanksgiving special veggie. It's a family favorite at our house.

3-4 Medium Sweet Potatoes

1 cup white sugar

1 cup lt. brown sugar

2 Tablespoons of flour

1 cup cold water

1 stick margarine (we do use fat free on this one - but what does that really prove with the sugars????)

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Boil potatoes in peeling until tender. Peel, slice and place in a casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients in one medium sauce pan, bring to a slow boil. Pour over potatoes and bake about 30 minutes at 350degrees, sauce will thicken some. I always like to add about 10 jumbo marshmellows at the end and toss the oven on low broil to brown the tops of them a bit, then serve.

These are super yummy re-heated the next day... because everyone knows Thanksgiving means leftovers in most cases!!

Day 13 - I'm thankful for the ability to connect with other moms through the blogworld and mom forums. It's nice to have a look into the windows of other peoples lives from time to time. It keeps me grounded in many ways, and also is a nice way to get great ideas on crafts, yummy recipes, and get support in general!

comfort food

Another recipe swap is going on over at LifeasMom's blog. This one is a personal favorite of mine during the holiday season. Comfort food!! There's so many different things that are considered comfort food, I thought I'd share a sidedish. We try our best at home to improvise with these kinds of recipes to make them healthier.

The recipe I'm sharing is Cracker Barrel Style Hashbrown Casserole, I've added the substitutions that we've tried and it turns out just as tasty to me and lower in calories and fat.

Below are both ways to make it! Fat and lower fat.

Ingredients:

2 lbs frozen hashbrowns

1/2 cup melted butter (we use fat free butter)

1 can cream of chicken soup (we use the reduced fat version)

1 pt. sour creme (we use light or fat free)

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (we use 1 cup fat free, 1 cup 2%)

1 tsp. pepper

2 cups crushed corn flakes

1/4 cup melted butter (for the cornflakes, again, fat free)

Defrost hashbrowns. Combine next seven ingredients and mix w/ hashbrowns. Put all in a 13x9 casserole dish. Saute cornflakes in butter and sprinkle on top. Cover and bake 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. I uncover during the last 5 minutes to let it get a little crunchy on top.

yummy pumpkins

I'm participating in recipe swaps through Life As Mom because I'm interested in variety. I like to see recipes and then try my best to manipulate them into a healthier version for my family!!

My entry in the recipe swap is one I found in a cookbook my mom sent me. She always gets me a community cookbook each year from her church or from the local fire department. This one is yummmmmmy!

Fall Muffins (makes around 30 regular, 18-24 jumbo)

· 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 cups whole wheat flour
· 2/3 cup rolled oat
· 1/2 cup oat bran
· 4 teaspoons baking powder
· 2 teaspoons baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 4 teaspoons cinnamon
· 2 teaspoons ground ginger
· 1 teaspoon nutmeg
· 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
· 3 ripe bananas, mashed
· 1 cup applesauce (the cinnamon applesauce makes it even better!)
· 15 ounces canned pumpkin
· 4 eggs, lightly beaten
· 1 cup granulated sugar
· 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
· 1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted - optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease or line muffin tins with paper liners.
Combine flours, bran, oats, baking powder, spices, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
Using whisk or spoon, stir until well mixed.
Combine remaining ingredients (except nuts) in a large mixing bowl; beat until smooth.
Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Beat just until combined.
Spoon into prepared pans or tins
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
Remove muffins from pan and cool on wire rack as soon as they come out of the oven.

how about them apples?

Life as Mom is doing a recipe swap - and so I'm posting 2 of my fav. apple recipes for the swap! I normally delete alot of emails for recipe swaps because not many people end up participating, but I love apples and something about fall makes them even more yummy!!

The first is "apple brownies" - I got this recipe from a google search about 2 years ago and tried it and loved it! I worked with whole wheat flour to make it a little healthy....when using whole wheat flour you use 3/4 cup + 2tbsp in place of 1 full cup of white flour. Also, keep in mind that whole wheat flour doesn't rise the same as white flour because of it's density. You can mix 1/2 white w/ 1/2 wheat to get a better rise in the flour.


RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 to 3 cups apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup walnuts (optional)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar and eggs. Stir in apples and nuts. 3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Fold into apple mixture. 4. Pour batter into a greased 13- x 9- x 2-inch pan. Bake for 50 minutes.

This next recipe for Apple "morning" muffins includes mixing whole wheat and white flour - this is because it's just a nicer looking muffin if it rises like white flour allows.


RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup grated apples
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 12-muffin tin or line it with paper liners. Set aside. 2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend the eggs, sugar and oil until well combined. Stir in the grated apples and carrots. In a separate bowl, sift the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Blend the dry ingredients with the apple mixture until just combined. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

recipe sharing

I frequent a few blogs of friends and/or family and it's always exciting when I read a new recipe posted on one of their blogs; so I wanted to take their cue and share recipes from time to time. (Amy - I'm going to try to make your latest recipe this weekend!)

This one is for the veggie lovers:
Ratatouille (just like the movie!)
This recipe originates from the southern Provencal region of France, and contains a healthy spread of mixed vegetables – eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and green peppers – that are sautéed and then roasted with herbs. The sautéing and consequent browning brings out the sweetness in the vegetables, and so may appeal to the taste buds of your children. If you’re thinking, “Not for my kids!” go with the extra incentive of showing them the Pixar movie before serving.
Throw it together with some grilled chicken. It is just as good served cold the next day.

Ingredients (Serves 5)

4 oz Zucchini
4 oz Eggplant
4 oz Onions
1 Green Pepper
1 Clove Garlic
8 oz Tomatoes (canned may be used if necessary)
1 ½ oz Olive oil (more if needed)
¼ cup Parsley, chopped
1 Bay leaf
Good Pinch Thyme
To taste Salt
To taste Pepper

Prepare the vegetables: Cut the zucchini into ½-inch slices. Peel the eggplant and cut into large dice (3/4 inch square). Slice the onions. Remove the cores and the seeds of the peppers and cut into 1-inch dice. Chop the garlic. Peel and seed the tomatoes and cut into large dice. Leave canned tomatoes whole; they will break up during cooking.
Sauté the zucchini in a little of the olive oil until it is about half cooked. Remove from pan. Sauté the eggplant in olive oil until half cooked. Remove from pan. Sauté the onions and peppers until half cooked. Add the garlic and sauté another minute.
Combine all vegetables and seasonings in a heavy saucepan. Cover and cook in a slow oven (325 degrees) for about 25-30 minutes until vegetables are tender but still firm. If the vegetables are too juicy, cook uncovered on a range top for a few minutes to reduce. Be careful not to scorch the vegetables on the bottom. Adjust seasonings. Serve hot or cold.