Tandori-Spiced Chicken

Before I get carried away with tonight's dinner, I just realized that I never told you all who won the Muy Bueno Cookbook from my contest. I have no real good excuse as to why it's taken me so long. But I did inform the person who one...and she did receive it.

Let's give a nice big round of applause to Tango from Tangos Treasures

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoy the cookbook as much as I am :)

A while back (a long while back) I use to post Salubrious Sunday recipes. They were basically health conscious recipes that I posted on Sundays. Not sure why I stopped but according to my Facebook followers, there's quite a desire for healthy recipes.

Which really isn't my forte.

I am a lover of carbs, sugars, dairy (cheese, creams and eggs) and...alcohol. As you can imagine, healthy recipes can be quite challenging for me. Not that I don't have a lot of recipes to choose from. I just have a hard time finding one that satisfies me. I need recipes that don't leave me craving for fat and carbs.

Are there any of you out there who would like to assist me in finding recipes that qualify for Salubrious Sunday dishes? If so, shoot me an email: peacefulcooking @ gmail dot com 

I think it would be rather fun to see what healthy recipes you all are cooking and do a 

weekly roundup of healthy dishes on Sundays. 

Well, here I am with a very delicious and satisfying Weight Watchers recipe that I'd like to share with you. It's very easy....and absolutely wonderful. (it doesn't take much to amaze me haha).

Tandori-Spiced Chicken
Serves 4
Printable Version

1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt (I used plain, fat-free Greek yogurt)
1 TB minced ginger, fresh
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB paprika
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 - 6 skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 - 3 cups hot, cooked basmati rice

Here's a little tip for you. Store your fresh ginger in the freezer. When you're ready to use it, not only does it defrost quickly if needed, but a micro-plainer is perfect for "mincing" ginger. The skin is easily removed with a knife and poof....within seconds you have a mound of snowflake soft ginger

(pssst.....it also works great with garlic cloves!)

In a zip-lock bag, combine the yogurt, ginger, garlic, paprika, turmeric, curry and cinnamon. Squish it around to mix. Add the chicken. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours...or overnight.

When you're ready to cook dinner:

Preheat the oven to 450' F. Line a baking dish with foil. Place a rack on the foil. Spray the rack with canola cooking spray.

Remove the chicken for the yogurt marinade (toss the marinade in the trash). Place chicken on the prepared rack and season with salt and pepper.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with 1/2 cup of rice. I also roasted some green beans that had been tossed in a little olive oil, garlic powder and paprika. The green beans went in the oven with the chicken on a separate tray.

Tonight's Salubrious Sunday was wonderful. The chicken was tender and juicy and bursting with flavor. I just love basmati rice. If you're not a curry fan, maybe try substituting Garam Masala.  I don't have the nutritional breakdown for the green beans but here it is for the Tandori-Spiced Chicken and Rice....

Each serving consists of 1 chicken thigh and 1/2 cup of rice (green bean nutritional value not included):

298 Cal
9 g total fat (2 g sat fat, 0 g trans fat)
75 mg chol
269 mg sod
33 g total carb
1 g total sugar
1 g fig
23 g prot
35 g calc
Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 8

Over Due Salubrious Sunday and Over the Top Award

You know what? I haven't posted a Salubrious Sunday meal for a while.

Why is that?

Hmm...probably a lot of reason but I don't wanna get all foodie-analytical on you so lets just fix the situation and move on.

May I present to you yet another recipe from my Pillsbury Fast & Healthy Cookbook: Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops

You know what else?

I suck at making glazes.

They never ever remotely resemble what I think of as a glaze. You know like those hams...all sweet and candied and good.

Not mine.

 I get....a sauce.

Someday I will conquer the glaze.

Salubrious Sunday was not that day.

I did slightly alter this recipe. I was in the mood for Spanish Rice (which is posted --->here<---) and Calabacitas (which is posted --->here<---) so I needed the meat to be a little more....something. The letters in red will be what I added / changed, which isn't much.

Here are the ingredients:

1/3 cup honey

2 tablespoons yellow mustard (Dijon Mustard is MUCH better)

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 Chipotle in Adobe Sauce

1/2 tsp onion salt  powder

1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper

1/4 tsp pepper

4 boneless pork loin chops, 3/4" thick

Orange slices, if desired

In a small bowl, combine your honey and mustard (and cloves if you're gonna play by the book)

Take out one of those chipotle peppers

Slice it open.....

Do you like it hot? or not? Me? I'm chicken...so I removed all those little seeds and then chopped up the pepper

btw...it took days for that stain to go away. I tried bleach, lemon...409. Its all good now...but for a while there....not so pretty

Ok...add the pepper to the honey mustard mixture and set it aside.

Heat your skillet over medium-high. Sprinkle your chops with onion salt and pepper....and lemon pepper (if you're not playing by the rules).

Add the meat to the pan and cook 3 minutes. Turn. Reduce heat to medium-low; pour the honey mustard sauce over the chops.

Cover and cook about 10 minutes or until no longer pink inside (and meat thermometer inserted into the center reads 160').

Sooo....does that look like a glaze to you? I dunno, it looks like good ole sauce to me. And now that I think of it, of course it would. All that steam from covering the skillet is going to keep everything moist...even a wanna be glaze doesn't have a chance.

This wasn't my favorite meat. It needed something. Or lots of somethings. I dunno. There just wasn't enough flavor. I can't imagine how bland it would've been without the chipotle pepper. If I try it again, maybe I'd add a jalapeno, some onions....garlic. Something to make up for the disfunctional glaze sauce.

For the chops, the calories were only 270 (calories from fat 80)l total fat 9 g (sat fat 3 g, trans fat 0g); chol 70 mg, sodium 330 mg. Carb 24 g

And now...for the highlight of my day....check this out!! I got an award :) from my fellow lush, Heather over at GirliChef.

Thank you sooo much Heather!!!

Don't you just love awards? (Well except for those "loser awards" you'd get at camp. You know the ones.... Messiest Cabin, Latest Troop, etc.)

Anyways...I'm suppose to answer some questions, using one word? riiiiiight.

1. Where is your cell phone? on my cookbook
2. Your hair? a mess
3. Your mother? wonderful
4. Your father? precious
5. Your favorite food? chocolate, no wait...bread. shoot...potatoes. noooo chocolate. crap
6. Your dream last night? weird
7. Your favorite drink? margarita on the rocks
8. Your dream/goal? content
9. What room are you in? den
10. Your hobby? seriously?
11. Your fear? cockroaches
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? the 90's
13. Where were you last night? shhh
14. Something that you aren't? grown-up
15. Muffins? top?

16. Wish list items? kitchen-aid!!!!
17. Where did you grow up? SoCal 
18. Last thing you did? ate, no wait...drank wine
19. What are you wearing? jammies and sir sports-alot's t-shirt
20. Your TV? on
21. Your pets? too many
22. Friends? close
23. Your life? busy
24. Your mood? nostalgic
25. Missing someone? sometimes
26. Vehicle? small (nicknamed: Chuy)
27. Something you're not wearing? umm...never mind 
28. Your favorite store? any store with a kitchen gadget section

Ok, that was relatively painless (for me that is). And now I'd like to pass this award on to a few of my bloggin buds....Shane over at Culinary Alchemist, Michelle at Big Black Dogs, Cathy from The Dutch Bakers Daughter, Erica at My Columbian Recipes and Debby over at A Feast For The Eyes

Just grab the badge, and load it up onto your blog and have fun!

So...I got home today and what do I find? My daughter has decided to make the box of Duncan Hines 100% Whole Grain Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins that I picked up at the store over the weekend (I had gotten a coupon through one of those banner ads on BakeSpace.com). Oh yum!

And what do I do with it?

Why, I decide I need to celebrate my award!

And of course improve on a boxed product. So I mixed 50/50 Hazelnut Spread (I was too cheap to buy the Nutella brand) and mascarpone. (killer combo on it's own....seriously). And I looked at this lovely dark chocolatey muffin and decided I wasn't going to "ice" the muffin. It's a muffin, not a wanna be cupcake.

So I sliced it and spread it....and ooooh eeeeem geeeeeee!!!

Now thats Over the Top!!

Chicken Marsala Salubrious Sunday Style

I think I've made Chicken Marsala once in my life. Not because I don't like it. Not because it's not easy....I just forgot about it.

Blondes

When I came across this recipe in one of my Cooking Light cookbooks...it looked really good. But one of my daughters said "I don't like Chicken Marsala."

Huh??? I don't get it. Whats not to like?

Well....I kinda ignored her

And made it anyways....and didn't tell her what she was having for dinner.....

(cue evil laugh)....muuaaaaah hahaha hahhaaaaha

Us moms knew how to be sneaky waaaaaaay before these teens ever saw the light of day 

4 tablespoons butter, divided
Cooking Spray
8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots (didn't have em, so I went with green onions)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I used 2 and butterflied them into 4)
Salt and Pepper to taste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry Marsala wine
1/2 cup green peas (kid seriously HATES peas, so I threw in a tablespoon or 2 of capers. I know they aren't anything alike, but I'm really glad I did it)
2 tablespoons half and half (was forced to use milk)
4 cups hot cooked fettuccine

Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Skim off the foam from the surface and discard....

Then pour the melted butter through a fine sieve over a small bowl, discarding the milk solids. Guess what?

You now have clarified butter

(That was a first for me. Was it as good for you?)

Ok ok, I'll get on with it.....set the clarified butter aside. (don't you just love the sound of that? clarified butter....makes me feel like a grown up cook or something)

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat with cooking spray and saute the mushrooms, shallots and garlic for about 3 minutes or until moisture evaporates. Remove from pan and set aside.

Maybe you should put them next to the clarified butter

Oh..I have to tell you something about my mushrooms. I keep them in a shallow bowl in the fridge, covered with a paper towel. I had read somewhere that it helps to keep them from getting all slimy. Well, when I went to get my mushrooms, a few of them were starting to dry out...they had that wrinkled look. And I thought to myself....bummer.....they're all dehydrated.

Dehydrated.

Ya...like those ones they sell in the store.

The ones you're instructed to soak in water to "pump" back up.

Major light bulb moment!!! Let me tell you!

So I stuck those babies in a bowl of water and lo and behold!! They were saved!!!

Now...if you are using full sized chicken breasts (instead of butterflying them like I did) then you will need to pound 'em down to 1/4 thin. Before doing that, stick them between some plastic wrap so you don't have chicken stuff and juice flying all over the chicken. Makes a yucky mess.

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour.

(giggles.....I get to say it again)
Add the clarified butter to the pan and place over medium- high heat. Add the chicken and cook for about 3 minutes on each side until lightly browned.

Remove chicken from the pan. Pour the mushroom mixture in along with the broth and Marsala. Scrape the goodies off the bottom of the pan.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes until liquid is reduced to a cup. Stir in your peas (or capers), cook for a minute. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter, season with a bit of salt and pepper, stir in your half and half...and continue stirring until the butter is melted.

Return the chicken to the pan and cook until thoroughly heated and chicken is done...

Serve it over pasta and oh man....I dare you not to enjoy it.

Which reminds me.

The anti-Chicken Marsala child? Well, she liked it. (amaaaaaazing) So much so that she had it for lunch the following day.

Now...this recipe yields 4 servings. If cooked according to the book, it has 585 calories (24% from fat). I'm hoping that since I didn't use half and half and I served each of us 1/2 the meat...does that help? This doesn't really seem "light" but then again I haven't checked the stats on the honest to goodness real Chicken Marsala. As for the rest...Fat 15.3g (sat. 8.4g, mono 4.1g, poly 1g); Protein 51.4g; Carb 55g

And....just so I can say it some more....here's a tip from Cooking Light:

"Clarified butter (butter without the milk solids) is ideal for searing meats because it can be heated to a high temperature without burning. Although you can purchase (you ready?) clarified butter, we detail how to make it in the first step of the recipe for Chicken Marsala.  (aaaand one....more....time....) Clarified butter can be prepared, chilled, and reheated when ready for use, or it can be frozen up to two months."

Beef with Burgundy Mushrooms for Salubrious Sunday

Are you shocked? Surprised? Dumb-founded?

Yep...believe it or not, I cooked BEEF! I know, huh? Who would've thunk it. It's a rarity but it does happen on occasion.

I was just, I dunno.......chickened out? hahaha..ya, that was dumb. can't help it. It's late, I'm tired.

2 cups uncooked medium egg noodles (I didn't have egg noodles but I figured those fusilli pastas would work just fine)

1 lb boneless beef sirloin steak (1/2 inch thick), cut into 4 pieces

1 lb fresh whole mushrooms cut into quarters (or if you have those gigonzoe things that I had, maybe 6th or 8ths would be better)

1 10 1/2 oz can of condensed french onion soup (I didn't even know this stuff existed!!)

1/4 cup dry red wine

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 tablespoons tomato paste with basil, garlic and oregano (I couldn't find any flavored tomato paste so I seasoned it myself)

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Pepper to taste

Cook and drain the noodles according to package directions...just omit the salt.

While thats going on, heat a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat with a spray of cooking spray. Add beef and cook for 3 - 4 minutes per side or until desired doneness.

Remove from heat and place on a serving platter, covering to keep warm. Well...yep....you see it right...I used my no-splatter plate guard thingy for the microwave to keep the steaks warm. Worked like a charm!

Now... unfortunately, you will now have to wipe all that flavor off the pan. I really debated on NOT doing this but decided it would just burn with the next step....and you know what? This dish had so much flavor that it wasn't missed.

Ok...heat the skillet again over medium-high heat. Add all those mushrooms....

Damn...thats a lot of shrooms!!!

Ok....so they're in the pan. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. hmmm....I keep hearing Julia in my head..."DON'T CROWD THE PAN!!" errrr.....sorry, they made me do it

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together the soup, wine, cornstarch, tomato paste and oregano

I have a question. I decided to get that tomato paste in a tube. It's really cool!! But this one says that it's double concentrated. Doest that mean when a recipe calls for 3 tablespoons you only have to use 1 1/2 tablespoons??? The tube didn't say. The manufactures website didn't say. So, I played it safe and only used half the amount....

Anyways...mix all that stuff together.

Now...have you been stirring those mushrooms?

After 10 minutes add the soup mixture to the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently until bubbly and thickened.

Sorry about the foggy pictures. It's really hard to get a picture of something hot, without the steam. I mean...I tried blowing it, but it didn't work.

Ok...now remove from heat, stir in parley and season to taste with pepper

Spoon mushroom mixture over beef and serve with noodles. Very tasty, and full of flavor.

Tada!! A fast and healthy beef for Salubrious Sunday. Btw...I got this recipe from Pillsbury Fast and Healthy Cookbook.

And the stats for 4 servings are:

Calories: 350

Calories from fat: 70

Total fat: 8g

Saturated fat: 2g

Trans fat: 0g

Cholesterol: 95mg

Sodium:720mg (holy crap...didn't see that)

Total Carb: 32g

Salubrious Sunday's Parmesan Chicken and Rice

Check it out....I'm posting Salubrious Sunday actually ON a Sunday!


I know...this is a first, huh!


Well, I have a slight change in my agenda. You see, with the fall weather in the near future (hopefully, although with this weeks forecast of over 100', it's looking doubtful) and the need for those warm, wonderful comfort foods, I needed to switch things around a little. Comfort foods will have to be my weekend meals (you just can't start making lasagna or chicken & dumplings at 7pm, right?) and I'll have to make a salubrious meal during the week.


Thus giving me the opportunity to post Salubrious Sunday...on Sunday.


This dish is perfect for during the week. It's simple, it's quick and it's tasty. Another Cooking Light Chicken recipe that I've made several times. A great go-to recipe that doesn't require any "unusual" ingredients.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (I used basil)
8 oz sliced mushrooms
3/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces (I used 2 chicken breasts and didn't weigh them)
1/2 cup dry white wine (I've used just chicken broth when I was out)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked instant rice
1 cup chicken broth, fat-free, less-sodium
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped


Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the onion, thyme, and mushroom until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Towards the end, add the garlic.

Toss in your chunks of chicken and saute until chicken is lightly browned...should take a few minutes...

Pour the wine in. Season with salt and pepper and cook until the liquid has almost evaporated...about 3 minutes.


Stir in the rice and broth....

Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the cheese and chopped parsley......

And serve! (yields 4 servings) Maybe with a nice side of green beans or asparagus...or broccoli. mmmm

Parmesan Chicken and Rice Stats:

Calories: 395

Calories from fat: 18%

Fat: 8g

Sat Fat: 2.8g

Mono Fat: 3.7g

Poly Fat: 0.8g

Protein: 29.9g

Carb: 44.4g

Fiber: 2g

Chol: 57mg

Sodium: 656mg

I almost forgot...My Happy Chef maker:

Basically its the same recipe as a Melon Berry Twist only I used peaches and bananas with a shot or so of coconut rum. Good stuff!!

Dajana has got some really good Salubrious meals going on in Italy...Check out her beautiful

Turkey and Vegetable Skewers and Rosemary Garlic Potatoes

Stuffed Chicken Breast for Salubrious Sunday

pssst! I have a little surprise at the end, so stayed tuned......

Salubrious Sunday yet again. This time I let one of my daughters choose dinner.

And she did well.

I handed her another Cooking Light recipe book I have, that I'm much happier with. I've made several of the meals from this one over the years and have liked them very much.

If you know me....my ownership of this particular cookbook will come as no surprise

It's simply titled:

Cooking Light Chicken

This recipe was a particular challenging one for me because.....well....when it comes to pounding chicken enough to be able to roll...I really suck. Bad

When I try to pound the chicken to 1/4 inch.....the damn things start falling apart waaaay before they reach my goal.

And then when I'm trying to roll, and tuck and roll and secure with toothpicks...well, its a mess.

Stuff is oozing.

Nothing is properly tucking....and my wanna-be rolls end up looking like.....I dunno... pathetic. Toothpicks are sticking out every which way.

Chicken starts ripping more and I'm shoving the "stuff" back inside and grabbing more toothpicks.

To be honest....they start looking like a particularly disgusting sea creature that I don't even want to mention in a food blog.

Anyways....I did get some great tips from Matt over in BakeSpace, but that was after the fact. (by the way, he has a good blog called The Outlaw Gourmand) I'll try his tips next time. If I'm successful at it, I'll even let you know.

We all know that you eat with your eyes first. Thank God it doesn't end there or my family would've gone to bed last night without dinner.

Mmm...maybe not really cuz we have a gazillion fast food joints within a mile or 2 of the house.

Enough of my chatter. I don't know what's gotten into me. Must be the wine. again

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Artichokes, Lemon, and Goat Cheese

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/4 inch

2 1/2 tablespoons Italian seasoned bread crumbs

2 teaspoons lemon zest

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 6oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

3 oz herbed goat cheese, softened

Preheat your oven to 375'

Mix together your goat cheese, bread crumbs, lemon zest, salt and pepper and artichoke hearts. Divide mixture evenly among your mutilated....eeerrr....pounded chicken breasts

Roll 'em up as best you can and secure them with as many toothpicks as needed. So...do I roll length wise or width wise? Hell, I dunno...just do it.

(please note the resemblance to unmentionable sea creature)

Tip: if you break a toothpick in the crea....chicken, try and find the other half and discard.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. If you are like me and do not own a nonstick skillet...just put a few dashes of olive oil in your favorite skillet and heat.

Brown chicken on all sides, about 3 minutes per side.

Now I was looking at this and thinking...."It needs more".

And look at all that flavor on the bottom of that pan!!! (hmm...you can't really see it, but trust me. It's there)

Seriously.....can't let that go to waste.

Must make sauce!!!!

So I put all my little cooked sea creatures (wow, is that what they mean by chicken of the sea?? HAHAHAHA) into another pan and tossed them in the oven.

Meanwhile, I scrounged through my fridge and brought out some mushrooms, chicken stock and grabbed those naked.... I mean zested lemons. I then sauteed the mushrooms in the used pan and de-glazed it with some chicken stock (about a cup) and lemon juice (about 1 - 2 lemons).

Oooooh...ya, this is sooo smelling familiar!

Chicken Piccata!!!

Where are my capers baby!!!!

Lots and lots of flavor. Not pretty, but good.

Here are the stats as listed in Cooking Light:

Calories: 234

Calories from Fat: 30%

Fat: 7.8g

Sat. Fat: 3.5g

Mono Fat: 1.4g

Poly Fat: .5g

Protein: 33g

Carb: 7.2g

Fiber: 1.5g

Chol: 78mg

Now...I do have some changes that I would make for the next time. I would use plain goat cheese and season it myself. Garlic and maybe a little Italian seasoning. I would also use canned artichokes and forget the marinated artichoke all together. You'll probably save some calories and fat right there. I would definitely make the sauce again. It really added that needed umph. Maybe even add a few slices of onions with the mushrooms when sauteing.

All in all it was a worth it. Hopefully someday I'll master that pound and roll bit. One of the tips I got was to butterfly the chicken first. That thought flashed through my head in the beginning but unfortunately it flashed right back out, never to be heard again. (must be where blonde moments are born)

Hmmm....I bet this would be good with pounded pork tenderloin.

So I have this really cool Italian friend, Dajana, over in BakeSpace. She mentioned that she'd like to participate in my Salubrious Sunday.....and well, lookie at what I found over on her blog, Bakers Corner...Somewhere in My Kitchen!!!

Salubrious Linguini with Grilled Saffron Zucchini! Holy cow....does that look good!

And the 2nd part of her Salubrious meal Rosemary and Lemon Chicken

Ya...I'm thinking I just might have to make this in the very near future!