jennickels (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jennickels) wrote2011-08-14 10:37 am
jennickels) wrote2011-08-14 10:37 am
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recipe: chicken alfredo with red bell peppers
So last night I had to come up with something for dinner for me and hubby. Well, mostly for me. I made boxed mac & cheese for the kids but I'm watching what I eat and even made with light margarine and skim milk it's too fattening for me. So I rummaged through our limited supplies (fridge/freezer is looking kind of empty again) and came up with this:
It was so freaking good and the portions were huge.
the recipe:
10oz whole grain pasta (about 2/3 of a 13.25oz box)
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 can chicken (didn't have any chicken breasts left from dinner the other night so had to use canned), drained
1 can mushroom stems & pieces, drained
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 red bell pepper, sliced
3 tbsp light margarine (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light)
1 cup nonfat half & half
1 cup nonfat milk (or just use all milk, I happened to have half & half left from another recipe)
2/3 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese blend
2 tbsp flour
garlic powder to taste
pepper
Pasta:
Bring large pot of water to boil.
Add frozen peas and dry pasta.
Cook until pasta is tender and peas are soft.
Drain, set aside.
Filling:
In a large frying pan melt 1 tbsp margarine.
Add mushrooms, onion and garlic.
Saute until onion is tender.
Add canned chicken and cook until warm.
Add bell pepper and heat on medium until the peppers are soft.
Toss with pasta.
Sauce:
In a small sauce pan melt 2 tbsp margarine.
Stir in flour to make paste.
Slowly stir in milk and half & half until smooth.
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Add cheese, pepper and garlic powder.
Let cook on medium until sauce is slightly thickened and cheese melts.
Pour over pasta mix, toss and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
According to the package directions on the pasta 10oz of dry pasta is 5 servings. So I did this recipe up at sparkpeople.com as 5 servings. It came out to 445 calories and 10g of fat per serving. But the servings are HUGE. That's a lot of pasta. That big bowl in the picture is supposed to be just 5 servings. I had 2 bowls and my husband had 2 heaping bowlfuls and there's still another bowl and a half left. I was stuffed. This could easily feed our entire family of 7 (if my husband would watch his portions). By making it for 8 it reduced the calories to around 300 and like 6g of fat per serving (I forget exactly how much it was). Most of the fat comes from the cheese. Everything else is basically fat free in it.
I can't wait to have more for lunch.
Next time I make it I'll have real grilled chicken in it (the canned was okay but it falls apart and gets stringy... much better for chicken salad sandwiches, lol, but I use it in a pinch in all sorts of stuff) and fresh mushrooms. I would have used broccoli instead of peas but all we have left is peas, corn and stir fry veggies. Maybe some zucchini and yellow squash either in addition or instead of the red peppers. Both would be good. My husband said this one is going in the family cookbook and expects it again, lol. He thinks everything I make is the best thing he ever had.
Every time I make spaghetti he raves. And it's just jarred sauce that I doctor up and toss with pasta. I add canned, chopped tomatoes, canned mushrooms, chopped green peppers and onions and zucchini if I have it. And either canned chicken or hamburger. Stir in oregano, basicl and lots of garlic powder. They all love it and act like it's something from a 5 star restaurant or something. I don't like red sauce so I don't even eat it, lol. I love it when they're easy to please.
It was so freaking good and the portions were huge.
the recipe:
10oz whole grain pasta (about 2/3 of a 13.25oz box)
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 can chicken (didn't have any chicken breasts left from dinner the other night so had to use canned), drained
1 can mushroom stems & pieces, drained
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 red bell pepper, sliced
3 tbsp light margarine (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light)
1 cup nonfat half & half
1 cup nonfat milk (or just use all milk, I happened to have half & half left from another recipe)
2/3 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese blend
2 tbsp flour
garlic powder to taste
pepper
Pasta:
Bring large pot of water to boil.
Add frozen peas and dry pasta.
Cook until pasta is tender and peas are soft.
Drain, set aside.
Filling:
In a large frying pan melt 1 tbsp margarine.
Add mushrooms, onion and garlic.
Saute until onion is tender.
Add canned chicken and cook until warm.
Add bell pepper and heat on medium until the peppers are soft.
Toss with pasta.
Sauce:
In a small sauce pan melt 2 tbsp margarine.
Stir in flour to make paste.
Slowly stir in milk and half & half until smooth.
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Add cheese, pepper and garlic powder.
Let cook on medium until sauce is slightly thickened and cheese melts.
Pour over pasta mix, toss and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
According to the package directions on the pasta 10oz of dry pasta is 5 servings. So I did this recipe up at sparkpeople.com as 5 servings. It came out to 445 calories and 10g of fat per serving. But the servings are HUGE. That's a lot of pasta. That big bowl in the picture is supposed to be just 5 servings. I had 2 bowls and my husband had 2 heaping bowlfuls and there's still another bowl and a half left. I was stuffed. This could easily feed our entire family of 7 (if my husband would watch his portions). By making it for 8 it reduced the calories to around 300 and like 6g of fat per serving (I forget exactly how much it was). Most of the fat comes from the cheese. Everything else is basically fat free in it.
I can't wait to have more for lunch.
Next time I make it I'll have real grilled chicken in it (the canned was okay but it falls apart and gets stringy... much better for chicken salad sandwiches, lol, but I use it in a pinch in all sorts of stuff) and fresh mushrooms. I would have used broccoli instead of peas but all we have left is peas, corn and stir fry veggies. Maybe some zucchini and yellow squash either in addition or instead of the red peppers. Both would be good. My husband said this one is going in the family cookbook and expects it again, lol. He thinks everything I make is the best thing he ever had.
Every time I make spaghetti he raves. And it's just jarred sauce that I doctor up and toss with pasta. I add canned, chopped tomatoes, canned mushrooms, chopped green peppers and onions and zucchini if I have it. And either canned chicken or hamburger. Stir in oregano, basicl and lots of garlic powder. They all love it and act like it's something from a 5 star restaurant or something. I don't like red sauce so I don't even eat it, lol. I love it when they're easy to please.
no subject
I had so many people tell me, "well she's up in heaven now watching over you, she's your guardian angel." And I had to just grin and nod because it wasn't the time to get into a religious debate. I still found some comfort in the thought of her looking down even if I didn't believe it was true. It was the imagery I found comforting. It just bugged me that everyone just assumed I believed in a literal heaven. Made things harder.
I love the idea of the Quantum Mirror. That fits into my beliefs easily. I can totally get behind multiple universes before they idea of a god and heaven.
I think I'll sleep with that idea tonight. You totally made my day. This time of the year is always so hard. Either I'm subconsciously keeping extra busy so I don't think about it or I'm dwelling and feeling like crap.
Then November and her birthday rolls around. She never got to see 52. She was way too young to die. Two years ago her birthday fell on Thanksgiving and I was in the middle of cooking dinner and it just hit me that she was gone. I was trying so hard to make dinner like she always did and everything was going wrong and I felt like I failed her for some stupid reason.
I was right in the middle of mixing something and just burst into tears and ran from the room. My husband was flabbergasted. I cried myself to sleep for an hour then got up and finished cooking (what my husband and dad didn't get to). That was the hardest Thanksgiving/birthday I had. I'm crying now just thinking about it.
Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday and hers, too, I think. I loved to help her cook it... as long as she didn't make me get up at o'dark thirty to put the turkey in, lol.
Quantum Mirror... that's how I want to imagine it from now on. In some parallel universe she's visiting us and spoiling the kids rotten and can't wait for Thanksgiving so she can give up the task of cooking to me and just enjoy her life. That's such a wonderful thought.
*can't see through the tears*
no subject
I fervently believe that the truths of the universe fall somewhere between religious dogma and existential nihilism, and that the mind-bending, time-warping, space-distorting tenets of multiverse theory are neither supported nor refuted by the notion of a "heaven". So it's all good. I *must* exist beyond this clothing of flesh, and extend across alternate realities.
Call it a soul, or persistence of iteration, but if matter can't be created or destroyed, neither can your mom.
no subject
I always liked my mom's idea of heaven. She was a spiritual person but not religious (claiming none but considering herself a Christian).
She believed that heaven was whatever that one person believed it to be. So if that person imagined it to be clouds and pearly gates and god on a throne with angels playing harps with all their family around then that's what it would be.
If the person believed it was reliving the same perfect moment in life over and over that's what they got. I always like that idea.
I, personally, don't feel a need to imagine any heaven. I'm okay with dying and there being nothing after that.