David's always been a big fan of his mom's "poppy seed chicken casserole." In fact, she made several big pans of it for our rehearsal dinner supper (almost 9 years ago!). It was a big hit, and made several new "fans" of the recipe.
I like it, too, and made it regularly for us to enjoy -- until our "health/diet transformation." The biggest problems I have with the original recipe are the canned cream soups it uses, and the Ritz cracker topping.
Well, last night I tried a healthier, simpler version of the recipe which I think was a success. It could use a little more seasoning (salt, garlic powder, oregano, basil, etc.) -- but the basic flavors are good and true to the basic idea of the original recipe. Here's what I did:
I cooked a pot of brown rice (about 1 1/2 cups) in water. (I would have used and will use chicken or turkey broth if available. I did allow my rice to soak overnight before cooking.)
To the cooked rice, I added a good bit of cooked (leftover!) chicken meat, one 8 oz package of cream cheese, 1 1/2 Tbsp of butter, some salt and garlic powder, and about a teaspoon or so of poppy seeds. Also, since my rice had already cooled, I added a little water to keep the rice from burning on bottom while I heated it all up again.
I just mixed it all up and left it in the saucepan for us to serve from, but it would look nice spread into and served from a casserole dish, too. (But you might miss the look of the topping more if you spread this into a casserole.) We like the taste of the topping, but that was easy to omit and we still enjoyed the rice mixture. (My brother would object to the missing topping, I'm sure!) Instead of a saucepan or casserole, you could also use a Dutch oven or skillet, of course.
I really liked keeping the ingredients more simple (less processed) and that it was a one-dish meal (since my chicken was already cooked). Another downside to the original recipe is that I would use several dishes to make it -- yuck! Washing dishes is not my favorite pasttime. I don't mind it that much, but I also try to intentionally cut down on the number of dishes I'll have to wash, especially since right now we don't have a dishwasher. (Which most of the time, I don't mind a bit.)
David and I each brought this for our lunch today, along with a baked sweet potato and green salad. It was very good, and something I believe we'll do again!
Well, "Baby Day" is 3 weeks away. I am expecting to be responsible for my own food during my hospital stay; I doubt they will provide me much worth eating. (Isn't that ironic?) I'll try to blog about my experience with the menu options they give me while I'm there! (Of course, there will also be plenty of baby news to share, but I'll do my best! It'd be great if they'll let me keep my little menu sheets.)
Monday, April 21, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
New Recipes to Try
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moroccan-Lentil-Salad/Detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Brown-Rice-Lentil-Salad/Detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Brown-Rice-Lentil-Salad/Detail.aspx
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Berkey Sport Bottle for Water
Wow, look at what I just found! I had no idea something like this existed: http://www.jamesfilter.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=20
Pricey, but convenient; definitely something to keep in mind. Could be worth it.
From my calculations, it looks like it works out to be a little cheaper than buying filtered water at 25 cents a gallon (like we do now). And buying 25 cent/gallon water is much cheaper than buying bottled water (usually about 25 cents/BOTTLE, at the cheapest), not to mention better for the environment. This would also be very nice to have with us for travel. Hmm, very interesting ....
Pricey, but convenient; definitely something to keep in mind. Could be worth it.
From my calculations, it looks like it works out to be a little cheaper than buying filtered water at 25 cents a gallon (like we do now). And buying 25 cent/gallon water is much cheaper than buying bottled water (usually about 25 cents/BOTTLE, at the cheapest), not to mention better for the environment. This would also be very nice to have with us for travel. Hmm, very interesting ....
Monday, January 07, 2008
Hospital Food
"...why is sugar fed to people that are trying to get well? And margarine and creamer/milker were on the menu each day. No butter or cream here! Important to get your daily dose of trans fats and hydrogenated oils, after all. Much better choice than saturated fat, which our bodies need to get the vitamins and minerals into our cells. Oh yeah. Food cooked to death so I guess there are no vitamins left to transport. No worries then - no transportation needed. By offering up trans fats, cell messaging will be blocked instead. That will help people heal...."
Read the full article online at Vreni Gurd's blog: http://blog.wellnesstips.ca/blog/index.php/?p=158
Also see this link of an Oregon hospital making big changes in the food it serves: http://www.foodalliance.org/newsroom/articles/2006/This%20is%20hospital%20food%20(The%20Oregonian)%2003-07-2006.pdf
Read the full article online at Vreni Gurd's blog: http://blog.wellnesstips.ca/blog/index.php/?p=158
Also see this link of an Oregon hospital making big changes in the food it serves: http://www.foodalliance.org/newsroom/articles/2006/This%20is%20hospital%20food%20(The%20Oregonian)%2003-07-2006.pdf
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Motherhood Video
If you've never seen this, it's great! Enjoy!
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/23/a-brilliant-hilarious-tribute-to-motherhood.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/23/a-brilliant-hilarious-tribute-to-motherhood.aspx
High Fructose Corn Syrup
"...if we really want to maintain or regain our health, we really MUST avoid high fructose corn syrup like the plague."
Read the article online at http://blog.wellnesstips.ca/blog/index.php/?p=118
Read the article online at http://blog.wellnesstips.ca/blog/index.php/?p=118
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Kids and Colds: Problems with Kids' Cold Meds
"...children's medicine (and adult's) is usually full of other lovely stuff like high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, colourings, and flavourings and other chemicals, forcing the body to waste energy detoxifying rather than trying to deal with the invading virus. So, what is a parent with a sick child to do?"
See full article on Vreni Gurd's blog at:
http://blog.wellnesstips.ca/blog/index.php/?p=146
See full article on Vreni Gurd's blog at:
http://blog.wellnesstips.ca/blog/index.php/?p=146
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