Posts Tagged ‘chicken’
Healthy Grilled Chicken Parmesan Recipe
Nutrition guru Joy Bauer has always been someone who inspires me – especially when it comes to throwing a dinner party featuring a main course that’s as delicious as it is healthy. And lucky for us Just Stoppers, Joy has graciously allowed me to feature another of her delicious recipes from her new best-seller, From Junk Food to Joy Food, here. This Grilled Chicken Parm recipe is as drool-worthy as it looks. Plus, it’s super easy to make (for yourself, for family or for guests). And bonus! We don’t have to “go off” of our diets or healthy eating plans to make and enjoy it. Joy also uses all natural ingredients in the recipe, which is always a big plus.
From Junk Food to Joy Food is loaded with these kinds of recipe makeovers — the kind that take everyday favorites (usually loaded with calories, salt, etc.) and swaps them out for brand new, healthier versions of the recipes (each of which guarantees the same amount of flavor and satisfaction — but without the food hangover). And no, this is not a paid endorsement. Although I’d happily bribe Joy for being kind enough to let me share this recipe with all of you.
For more information on From Junk Food to Joy Food, click here. And for more recipes and tips from Joy herself, you can click to her website. In the meantime, if you try the recipe below, please be sure to invite me over for dinner! (That’s not too much to ask, is it?)
JOY BAUER’S GRILLED CHICKEN PARM
Junk Food version (before): 1,000 calories
Joy Food version (after): 310 calories
Ingredients:
Four 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ cup marinara sauce, homemade or store-bought
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
4 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese
Dried oregano (optional)
Red pepper flakes (optional)
Directions:
Grill the chicken breasts or sauté them over medium heat in a skillet coated with nonstick oil spray for 5 to 7 minutes per side, or until they are no longer pink in the center.
Preheat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat the foil with nonstick oil spray.
Transfer the chicken breasts to the prepared baking sheet. Top each chicken breast with 2 tablespoons marinara sauce, ¼ cup mozzarella cheese, 1 teaspoon Parmesan cheese, and a pinch of oregano and red pepper flakes, if desired. Place the chicken under the broiler until the cheese is hot and bubbly (or microwave it for 30 to 60 seconds to melt the cheese).
(Makes 4 servings.)
Photo Credit: Joy Bauer
Recipe: Chicken Noodle Soup — Hawaiian-style
Guest Post By JoAnn Takasaki
For some reason, “comfort food” is something I associate with cold winters, cozy fires and flannel. It’s food you eat to warm you from the inside and that reminds you of all the best parts of being a kid. Living in Houston, even the idea of flannel is making me break out into a sweat! But it is October and, based on all the pictures of friends who live in more northerly climes, it’s cool somewhere. So for those of you who get to enjoy the cooler season, here’s a recipe for Chicken Long Rice, excerpted from my collection of family recipes published in Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way.
Wait…what?
I’m sure you’re confused by now. Why am I writing about a so-called “Hawaiian-style” soup, cold winters, and comfort food from Houston? Well, I actually grew up much like Gregg did. In fact, we went to the same high school in Wiesbaden, Germany. His family was military and mine was civil service. My father hails from Honolulu, HI. And though my mother (and co-author) was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, she learned how to cook from my dad’s mom, who was also born and raised in Hawai’i. So really, I did eat this as a kid in cold climes like Korea, Colorado, Germany. And even in Hawai’i. Because let’s face it: chicken noodle soup is wonderful no matter what time of year!
What started out as an ad hoc effort of collecting as many recipes as possible from my mom for my own use, resulted in me deciding to organize a few of them in some fashion. And I wasn’t sufficiently motivated by merely capturing the recipes, so I promised her that for all the work we were doing to actually measure her “put in some” or “just a skosh” or “to taste,” that I would publish the recipes. That was eight years ago. I finally made good on my promise in March when I self-published Luau Like a Local.
There is a native Hawaiian cuisine but really it has evolved to include the food of the various ethnic groups: Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, Spanish, and more. This particular dish is actually Chinese. And while I promise the easy way (you could really just use store bought chicken broth and pre-cooked chicken, shredded), this recipe is how mom makes it. It’s not particularly hard at all. And is perfect for whatever may ail you!
Chicken Long Rice
Chinese-style chicken noodle soup
This is not as soupy as a typical chicken soup. When served, the bowl should be bursting with noodles and chicken.
Prep time: 30 minutes (10 minutes before, 20 minutes during)
Cook time: 1½ hours
Servings: 8 as a side dish (or 2 for dinner, maybe with some leftover for lunch)
Ingredients
½ small chicken
4‒6 cups water or chicken broth
½-inch slice of ginger, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1 bundle long rice (also know as bean thread or vermicelli), soaked in warm water to soften
4‒5 shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
½ 8-ounce can bamboo shoots, julienned
½ small round onion, sliced thin
⅛ cup soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
2 stalks green onion, sliced 2‒3 inches long diagonally for garnish
Directions
1. Place chicken in large pot with enough water or chicken broth to cover.
2. Add ginger, bay leaves, and five spice.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the meat falls away from the bones.
4. While chicken is cooking, put long rice in a large bowl with hot water to soften.
5. Prepare the shiitake, bamboo shoots, onion, and green onion for garnish.
6. Remove chicken from broth and pull meat from bones, returning meat to broth. Discard bones.
7. Add long rice noodles, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and onion.
8. Simmer until about half of the broth is absorbed. Season with soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste.
9. Garnish with green onions.
Excerpted from “Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way” by JoAnn and Susanna Takasaki. Used with permission.
About Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way:
Within 24 hours, Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way went to #1 on Amazon in Hawaii cookbooks. The reviews have all been 5-stars with praise for the gorgeous photography (by Toman Imagery), humor, and the well thought-out planning guide and shopping lists. “I found the recipes to be very clear, with options for doing things the traditional way or the more practical way for those of us with small kitchens and no access to exotic food markets. The photos are gorgeous and the shopping list at the end was incredibly helpful!” wrote one Amazon reviewer.
About Guest Blogger JoAnn Takasaki:
JoAnn Takasaki (pictured here, right, with her mom) started writing about food with two columns in the new Midtown Paper back in 2003. She decided to make the jump to full time writing in 2004 in hopes of “being paid to eat and get massages around the world.” While she didn’t exactly realize that dream, she did end up writing the Houston destination guide in AirTran’s “Go!” magazine for three years and her restaurant and bar reviews were syndicated out to many hotel and travel sites including AOL and Yahoo! Travel. She gained enough notoriety to catch the eye of then Executive Producer Geoff Roth of FOX26 Houston News and was the first Houston Food Blogger to be featured on the evening news in the popular segment. In 2011, she decided to focus her efforts on growing her Houston-based copywriting and content development agency, GlobalWrites, but she still has a bit of a foodie following on Facebook and Twitter. You can keep up with the latest developments for “Luau Like a Local” on the Facebook page or by searching #LuauLikeALocal.
Shortsighted shortcuts
The other day while trolling my facebook newsfeed (when I admittedly should have been doing a million other things), I noticed a couple of my facebook friends had “liked” a site proclaiming “Fast And Effective Diet – Lose 10 Pounds in 7 Days.” Although I knew I’d be doing so for amusement (as opposed to doing so to gain any valuable insights), I clicked on the link. And boy, was I appalled at what I came across.
This supposed “10 pounds in 7 days” solution seemed to offer anything but (anything but a solution that is). The prescribed breakfast consisted of a glass of cold water with lemon juice, followed by two apples or two oranges (or one grapefruit). How they came up with this count is not explained. Breakfast could also include one handful of nuts. Next came lunch, which consists of cooked chicken or veal (no measurements or cooking instructions given) — along with one “pot” of “sour milk yogurt.” (Huh?) An afternoon snack is a fresh seasonal salad with olive oil and “very little” salt, followed by a prescribed dinner of “two hard boiled eggs plus cucumber salad or green salad with olive oil and a little salt”…followed by a warning that after 6:00 p.m., nothing was to be consumed other than a liter of green tea.
Come again?!
I am truly baffled that in this day and age, with all the knowledge we are getting about what constitutes a healthy diet (as opposed to a crash diet or one that’s not nutritionally sound) that people would actually think this is something healthy to incorporate into their lives. Then again, it’s on a site that calls itself “Healthy Food Team” (then it must be true! not!) and promises the reader he or she will lose 10 pounds in 7 days.
In the words of actor Geena Davis’s character in the remake of The Fly, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
As someone who has taken off over 250 pounds of excess weight and kept it off for over a decade, I can assure you that there are no shortcuts, no quick fixes and no magic wands when it comes to healthy and lasting weight loss. And any “diet” that prescribes any salt, much less a liter of green tea before bed and no measurements of the prescribed “chicken of veal” should potentially be avoided.
As explained in the bonus section of my brand new book, Weightless: My Life As A Fat Man And How I Escaped, the tenants of losing weight are easy. And they do not necessarily include “one pot of sour milk yogurt” (whatever that is). Instead, why not eat less, move (exercise) more, drink plenty of water and get enough sleep? Yeah. It really can be that simple. And you can even enjoy an occasional cookie while doing so. It’s all about making healthy choices for the long term. And while you might not “lose 10 pounds in 7 days,” you just might do something else instead: keep the excess weight off once and for all.
Photo Source: Weight Loss Advisor
The day the music died
The other day I was driving my dog, Latte, home from the dog park and suddenly realized I was singing along with Ke$ha’s “Only Want to Dance With You.” As I approached a stoplight, I quickly stopped mouthing words and resumed my “Just a normal guy driving” pose — out of fear that nearby drivers would not only see my grooves, but might make fun of them. Then it struck me… When the heck did I stop feeling comfortable dancing and singing along to favorite music while in my car?
I remember back when I was just out of college, driving around my “little” Nissan and weighing over 450 pounds. Even though terribly aware of my weight and terrified that other people were judging me because of it, when I was in my car, I felt comfortable enough to crank up the tunes and move and dance as if I were in a music video. True story!
I even remember one time when I pulled up to a stoplight and was dancing and singing along with an old school Jody Watley song. There was a car full of young women at the light in front of me and I could see them turning around to see me flaunting my moves and grooves. Even though they were laughing, I didn’t feel like they were doing so in a mean way. So I just kept dancing and entertaining the crowd — until the light turned green and they drove on.
But I now realize that sometime between back in the day and the present, I became too self-aware and that I am currently seemingly afraid to dance or sing in my car (overtly anyway) — this even after taking off over 250 pounds of excess weight. Seems to me I should be much less self conscious now. And yet I’m more chicken than ever to let my freak flag fly when driving.
Don’t get me wrong. If it’s nighttime or if there aren’t a lot of cars around, I’m probably putting on a show when solo (or with Latte) in my car. But it makes me sad that my “ham gene” has somehow gone dark — or, at the very least, lessened over the years. And you know what? I’m going to work on getting braver, caring a little less and once again begin to sing and dance to the music as if no one is watching.
After all, life is for living, right? And being silly?
No matter what your size. No matter what your situation. Finding joy in the smallest moments can fuel our happiness factor, which then helps us in other areas of our lives — especially the challenging ones like successfully dieting or making another positive change.
So join me in making a fool of yourself, won’t you? I promise that if I see you performing a music video in your car, I’ll either dance along or burst into a round of applause. Because in my book, anyone feeling free enough to dance and sing in their car is living life to its fullest. And that’s a beautiful thing that I aspire to get back to. No matter which song is playing.
By popular demand
One of the most popular recipes I’ve shared on this blog is my recipe for Beer’d Chicken. It can become a real go-to staple for any healthy eating of weight loss program. I get asked for the recipe all the time and am always happy to share it — thus my sharing it again here, today.
I love making this chicken ahead of time (and lots of it all at once as it lasts nearly a week and can be easily reheated). And bonus – it’s just as delicious when eaten hot as a main course or cold when cut into chunks for use in a lunch or dinner salad. You can also make this for friends, as they’ll be astounded how delicious this healthy meat entrée is.
I use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts because I find the thighs offer a richer and moister flavor. Yes, there are a few more calories from fat in the thighs, but these aren’t the kind of calories that get us into any trouble. I also leave the skin on for some bonus flavor (both while cooking and while eating). If you’re on a very strict plan, you can remove the skin, but do so after cooking so you still get the benefits of the flavor.
Ingredients:
6 – 12 Large Chicken Thighs with Skin
1 Bottle of Beer
Preparation:
Put Chicken Thighs into a large pot (bone down, skin side up). Next, pour a bottle of beer over the chicken thighs. Yes, it’s that easy. Next, place a lid on the pot (preferable one that allows a minimal amount of airflow) then place on the pot on the stovetop – at the lowest heat. Cook on the lowest possible heat for about 4 hours (until chicken is cooked through). While chicken is cooking, prepare a large broiling pan. I like using nonstick aluminum foil or parchment paper in addition to the pan to make clean-up easy. Next, remove chicken from liquid and place on a broiling tray, skin-side-up (AKA bone-side-down). Place tray under the broiler for approximately 8 minutes (on ‘High’). After 8 muntes, remove the chicken from the broiler. Allow chicken to sit for a few minutes. Then… Ta-da! It’s ready to serve (or store in fridge for future use)!
Serves:
6 – 12 (depending on the number and size of the thighs)
For me, a common evening meal will include 1 piece of Beer’d Chicken (wrapped in nonstick aluminum foil or parchment paper, sprinkled with a splash of Balsamic Vinegar and warmed up in the oven on very low heat for approximately 20 minutes if coming from the fridge) along with steamed green beans (sprinkled with Granulated Garlic and Pepper) and a 1/2-cup of sliced Grape Tomatoes.
Another option is to serve the chicken with my ‘Fresh Veggie Side Salad’ recipe for a winning (and complete) meal. Your taste buds will thank me for it! If you’d like the recipe for the side salad, Click Here.
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