Spicy Mexicali Chicken

There are a million and one ways to prepare chicken (or at least it seems that way to me.)  I have always loved fried chicken, but since that's no longer on my diet, I like to bake coated/ breaded chicken.  It reminds me of fried chicken but I don't feel guilty (or ill) for eating breaded chicken.

I find that with the right seasonings, I actually prefer the boneless, skinless coated chicken breast to fried chicken.

The title for this recipe includes the word spicy.  I think it's a little on the spicy side, but not much.  If you like it spicier, add some cayenne to the breading mixture.  You can increase the amount of hot sauce as well.

SPICY MEXICALI CHICKEN

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1/4 cup sour milk (if you don't have sour milk, simply add 1 teaspoon vinegar to 1/4 cup regular milk and mix quickly.  The milk will begin to curdle.)
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
2/3 cup corn meal (I prefer white corn meal, but yellow is fine)
2 teaspoons Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Taco Blend*
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Salsa, if desired. Made with Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Salsa Blend*

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease baking dish.  In shallow dish, mix sour milk and hot sauce.  In another shallow dish, mix cornmeal and taco seasoning.  Dip chicken in milk and then coat in cornmeal.  Place chicken in baking dish and brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and turn over chicken, carefully scraping the pan so the coating doesn't stick to the pan.  Then brush the other side of the chicken with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.  Return to the oven and bake 20 minutes longer.  Serve with salsa if desired.

I assure you that the end product if far more appetizing than it appears in this picture.  The coating didn't stick to the chicken as well as I would have liked, but it still tasted great. 

*Please email me at  auntiejeans@yahoo.com if you would like to order a bottle of Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Taco Blend or Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Salsa Blend.

Ground Beef and Potato Bake

I'm always looking for new ways to serve ground beef.  When I saw that this recipe includes potatoes, I figured that I'd give it a try since my family loves potatoes.  As I have mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of potatoes, but I eat them because they are rich in heart healthy potassium.

This recipe, like most of my recipes is easy to prepare.  It's not a very quick recipe because of the 60 minute baking time.  To save a little time, you could prepare the casserole dish and refrigerate overnight.  Then you could pour the soup over the top and bake it.

You can use the reduced sodium version of canned mushroom soup, but I find that it's extremely bland.  So I recommend either making your own from scratch (see my cream of mushroom soup recipe posted earlier) or you can enhance the flavor of the canned soup by adding a little black pepper, some low sodium beef broth packet, and/or some cayenne.

GROUND BEEF AND POTATO BAKE

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Italian Dressing Blend*
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 medium potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
1 can (10oz) low sodium cream of mushroom soup
5 oz skim milk

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook and drain beef.  In a casserole dish, layer beef, sliced onions, and sliced potatoes, sprinkling each layer with seasonings.  In a small bowl, mix soup and milk until smooth.  Pour over top of casserole dish. 

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes uncovered.

*Please email me at auntiejeans@yahoo.com if you would like to order some Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Italian Dressing Blend

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Winter is the best time for soup.  In Chicago, this winter has been especially mild so I haven't made as much soup as I normally do.  I often throw leftovers from dinner into a pot and add some bouillon and seasonings.  Then I have soup for lunch for the next couple of days.

I make cream soups for meals the first time around.  I guess I consider them "fancy" soups.  Cream soups don't freeze well, so I can't make a huge batch and save leftovers for later.

Cream soups are not the healthiest of things to eat, but using milk instead of cream makes delicious soup without all the fat.

I have tried the canned healthy versions of cream of mushroom soup and I think they taste awful.  This version is much better.

CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP

Ingredients:
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms or 2 4-ounce cans of no salt sliced mushrooms
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 (14.5) ounce cans low sodium chicken broth
1 cup low fat milk
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons vinegar

Preparation:
In large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender.  Add mushrooms and saute until tender. 

Combine flour and broth until smooth; stir into the mushroom mixture. 

Bring to a boil; cook and stir 2 minutes or until thickened. 

Reduce heat.  Stir in the milk, pepper, and garlic powder.  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes stirring often.  Add vinegar and heat through.

Chicken Pomodoro

I enjoy eating Chicken Pomodoro at restaurants, so I looked for a recipe that was easy enough for me to make.  I prefer not to let my lack of culinary skills impede my eating delicious food. 

This is a simple and quick recipe.  It's perfect if you've had a bad day and need to get out a little aggression because you pound the chicken breasts thin.

This recipe goes well with almost any side dishes: rice, pasta, potatoes, vegetables, salad, and fruit.  I love tomatoes, so I used more than what the recipe called for and had plenty leftover.  I just threw the extra into some soup.  No food goes to waste at my house.

CHICKEN POMODORO

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, pounded thin.
1/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes (fresh is best, but canned works too)
2 tablespoons cream or milk
 1/3 cup green onions, chopped

Preparation:
Place chicken breasts in plastic zip bag and pound thin using mallet. 

Put flour and pepper in plastic bag with chicken and shake until coated.

Saute chicken in oil until browned.  Add broth and lemon juice and cook 2 minutes.  Remove chicken and place on serving dish.  Add tomatoes and cream to broth & juice.  Heat through.  Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with green onions.

Ranch Meatloaf

I'm always looking for different versions of classic recipes.  This is one I made up myself by combining elements of other meatloaf recipes that I liked.  I love Ranch dressing, and I believe that it makes almost everything (savory) taste better.  This recipe uses Ranch seasoning, and you can serve Ranch dressing instead of ketchup with this version.

I'm including recipes for both the meatloaf and dressing.  I think you'll be surprised at how tasty the low fat version of Ranch dressing is.  It's certainly not the same as regular Ranch dressing, but you can have a fat free dressing that is much better for you than 9 grams (yikes) of fat per serving.

RANCH MEATLOAF
Ingredients:
1 pound ground meat
1/4 cup chopped onions
1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1-1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Ranch Blend*
1/2 cup bread crumbs, oats, or Matzo Meal.  (I prefer Matzo Meal)
1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup salt free ketchup
1/4 cup water (if necessary)

Preparation:

In large bowl, combine ingredients and mix well. 

Place in baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

RANCH DRESSING
Ingredients:
1 cup low fat mayonnaise / low fat yogurt (I prefer to use fat free yogurt)
1/4 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Ranch Blend*
1 tablespoon vinegar

Preparation:
In a small bowl, combine mayo/ yogurt, milk, and seasoning.  Then add vinegar and mix well.  Store in a covered container in refrigerator.

*Please email me at: auntiejeans@yahoo.com if you would like to order some Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Ranch Seasoning.

Pepper-Lime Chicken

Yes, it's another chicken recipe.  As you know, I love chicken so there are bound to be lots of chicken recipes to come.

This recipe is super easy to make; all you need to do is prepare a lime dressing, pour it over some chicken, and pop it in the oven.  What could be easier?  I suppose ordering a pizza for delivery, but that is much too unhealthy for me to eat.  I'll stick with chicken, thanks.

You can serve the chicken with rice or pasta with some of the cooked dressing.  Add a green salad and/or some fruit for a complete meal.

PEPPER-LIME CHICKEN

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon crushed basil
1 teaspoon Auntie Jean's Lemon Pepper Low Sodium Blend*
1/8 teaspoon salt**

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix lime juice, garlic, basil, lemon pepper, and salt in small bowl.  Add oil and mix well.  Pour 2 tablespoons into baking dish.  Place chicken in dish and coat both sides with dressing.  Pour rest of dressing over chicken. 

Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

*Email me at: auntiejeans@yahoo.com if you would like to purchase some Low Sodium Lemon Pepper Blend

**1/8 teaspoon of salt will add approximately 75mg of sodium per serving.  You may use sea salt which is more flavorful than regular salt.  You may also use salt substitute or add no salt at all.

Low Sodium Spaghetti and Meatballs

One of the easiest meals to make is spaghetti and meatballs.  Trying to adhere to a low sodium diet causes this meal to be slightly more difficult, but still totally worth the effort (in my opinion).

After I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, I was told to reduce my sodium intake to less than 2,000 mg per day.  That seems like a lot until you start reading labels and websites with nutrition information.  You could easily consume 1,800 mg in one meal if you're not careful. 

Jarred spaghetti sauce often has high sodium content (over 400 mg per 1/2 cup).  Pasta normally has little or no sodium, so no problem there.  Then you have to be careful how you prepare the meatballs.  The recipe that I use calls for Italian bread crumbs; again over 400 mg sodium per 1/2 cup.  I substitute Matzo Meal with Italian seasonings for the Italian bread crumbs.

The spaghetti sauce can be prepared ahead of time... the night before or earlier.  Sauce freezes well, so you can prepare a batch and pour it into a Ziploc bag and freeze it.  Thaw it the night before, and you can simply heat it like you would the jarred sauce.

Here are the recipes:

SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Ingredients:
1 can (6 oz) low sodium tomato paste
1 can (14 oz) low sodium diced tomatoes, drained
2 cans (8 oz) low sodium tomato sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 packet of low sodium beef bouillon/ broth
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon thyme

Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in large pot and bring to boil.


ITALIAN MEATBALLS

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef (or meat of your choice)
1 egg
1/2 cup Matzo Meal (or corn meal)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon thyme

Preparation:
Combine Matzo Meal and spices in small bowl.  In large bowl, combine meat, egg, and Matzo Meal mixture.  Roll meat into balls and set aside. 

Gently place meatballs into boiling spaghetti sauce and reduce to low. 

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil 1 pound of spaghetti.  Pour meatballs and sauce over spaghetti and top with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.