Mesquite Chicken with Mango Salsa

If you haven't tried the delicious combination of lime and chili with Mango, you need to try this recipe. I spent a couple of summers in Mexico and always loved to get the mango with lime and chili from the fruit carts on the street. It may sound odd to add chili to fruit but it is soooo good. And the lime just makes it.

I love this fresh mango salsa with mesquite grilled chicken. You can make this into an amazing salad if you top a bed of lettuce greens with this chicken and mango salsa, and a little avocado and lime. But tonight we went with the whole chicken breasts and cilantro rice.

Chicken:
I use McCormick's Mesquite Marinade and follow the directions on the package. It is just 1/4 C oil, 1/4 C water. I put 4 chicken breasts in a big ziploc with the marinade for a couple of hours in the refrigerator. Then send my husband out to grill it. Easy.



Mango Salsa:

3 Large Mangos
1/2 red bell pepper diced
1/4 cup diced onion
2 limes
3 T chopped cilantro

Slice mango down both sides of the pit.


Score each of the halves both ways like this:

Then pop open like this and slice off squares into your bowl.

Add other vegetables and juice of 2 limes. Add lime and chili to taste. This is what the lime and chili seasoning looks like. This one is from Mexico. They usually carry a lime and chili seasoning in the Mexican food aisle in Wal-Mart or at any Mexican grocery store.

Chicken Broccoli Casserole *without the cream of chicken soup.

Some people hate Disney, others hate Walmart(can't blame them), but I hate cream of whatever soups.  I absolutely will not ever use them.  Loaded with MSG, oil, sodium and who knows what else - if a recipe calls for them - I don't even consider it.  I know, I'm a snob.

So today, with a surplus of broccoli in my fridge I thought a broccoli casserole would be just the way to go only to discover that EVERY recipe under the sun requires the use of some can of creamed soup.   Still wanting the casserole, I knew it was time to figure out how to make my own cream of chicken soup.  So with this recipe for cream of chicken soup in hand, I made a good old fashioned broccoli casserole without too much guilt or MSG! 

I love the cream of chicken recipe from Apartment Therapy's kitchn site.  It seriously took like a minute and a half.  And here is my completely made up and RIDICULOUSLY yummy recipe for

Broccoli Chicken Rice Casserole:

1 C Brown Rice
1 Chicken Breast - salt and peppered
1 large head of Broccoli - chopped up to smallish pieces - abt 4 cups
2 - 3 cloves of garlic - minced
1 yellow bell pepper - diced
Salt & Pepper and other spices to taste(I dashed in some dried basil and oregano)
A double recipe of cream of chicken soup
3(ish) cups of sharp cheddar - grated
1/2 C Wheat Germ



Start cooking one cup of brown rice in 3 cups of water first - this will take about 45-50 minutes so start early.   Next add some butter and olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat.   Add your chicken breast and cover with a little bit of tin foil and cook until no longer pink - about 6-8 minutes per side.  Remove your chicken and leave the drippings - and add a little more oil to the pan.  Add your garlic - cooking for about 30 seconds and then add the broccoli, peppers, salt and pepper and spices and a little bit of water - stir and cover for about 5 minutes until slightly softened and quite flavorful.   While it's cooking dice your chicken breast up and  put it in a large bowl.  Once your veggie mixture and rice are done - throw them in as well as the 2 cups of the cheese and the soup and stir it all together.  Lightly spray a 9 x 13 casserole and put the mixture in.   Top with the remaining cheese and the wheat germ and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until the cheese is melted and a little golden.  And then prepare yourself for a ridiculously good and pretty darn healthy comfort food for dinner!

White Chicken Chili

This recipe is from my friend Melodee. I love this soup, and the whole family does too, which is always a good thing. You can easily make this vegan by omitting the chicken and using a vegetable base.

Here it is:

4 skinless chicken breasts (I just toss in the frozen ones)
1 large onion diced
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
4 cups chicken broth (I usually add more as needed)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper sauce
3 cups great northern beans OR two cans
1 can or 1 3/4 cups white corn
3 T lime juice
4 T chopped fresh cilantro

Mix onion, garlic, broth, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper sauce in pot. Add chicken. Cook on medium for 30 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken and dice then add it back into soup. Stir in beans, corn, lime juice and cilantro. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes or until corn and beans are hot.

Tomatillo Soup

Do not be intimidated by the use of the mysterious tomatillo! They are easily found in your grocery store, and you just have to remove the outer husk, then they look and work just like a little green tomato. This is an excellent soup. I don't think I would have tried to make this had I not tasted it first. Even then, I thought it looked too hard. But it was sooo easy. It was served at a church function, and my friend Kiki encouraged me to make it at home. Thanks Kiki! This is one of our favorite recipes. it has very few calories (though I didn't measure out exactly how many cups it makes) and is based on lots of greens.

2 QT chicken stock
6-8 tomatillos with husks removed and rinsed
2 bunches of cilantro
1 jalepeno REMOVE SEEDS FIRST unless you like it HOT
1 whole med-large yellow onion
½ head garlic
Juice of lime
2 4oz cans diced green chiles
3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1 can corn
2 15 oz cans black beans
1 green bell pepper diced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Warm up stock on stove in med-large pot, add fresh or frozen chicken breasts to stock. Rinse all veggies. Put tomatillos (roughly sliced and raw), cilantro, and jalepeno (WITHOUT SEEDS) in blender. Blend well.


Add 1 can of diced green chiles. Add garlic and onion to blender mix. Blend well for a few minutes. Add lime juice and make sure it is well blended. Add to chicken and stock in pot. Bring to boil. Add diced green pepper, other can of diced chiles, corn, beans, and chicken. Add seasonings (cumin, salt, and pepper). Let simmer stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. Remove Chicken breasts, shred with a fork, and add back into soup mixture.


Optional: serve with corn tortillas cut into strips, sour cream and diced avocado. Add more limejuice if you desire.

Chicken Vegetable Curry

I loved this recipe. I crave curry, and have never figured out all the spices and ingredients to make it. A few weeks ago we went to dinner at my friend Ashley's house and she made a curry with just a simmer sauce. I was at Wild Oats and saw this one, and thought I'd give it a try. It was really tasty. It wasn't tooy spicy or hot either, so my kids could eat it. Surprisingly, they liked it pretty well. Although Elise or Jared don't eat the bell peppers, they can pick them out. The sauce has a hint of coconut, which I love.

Here are the ingredients:

2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks and sauteed.

1.5 jars of Seeds of Change Simmer Sauce that I buy from Wild Oats (Good Earth will order it in if you request it--I just went to Wild Oats and stocked up).

You can use all kinds of different vegetables: carrots, summer squash, celery, etc. I used what we had on hand: broccoli, sweet peppers (these are just the mini peppers that taste like bell peppers from Costco--they are not hot), onion (only about 1/3 of the onion), sugar snap peas. I ended up doubling the broccoli and peas from what is pictured, because they shrink so much.

I cooked the chicken first, added sauce, then added all the veggies totally raw.

I normally like my broccoli just bright green, still slightly crisp--but I added some water to the sauce to help the veggies steam and needed to let it thicken up. So if you add any water to the sauce, don't add more than a couple tablespoons. It is thin enough without it. This sauce is excellent, and the ingredients are really good.

It was a very fast meal, probably only took 20 minutes. You can also omit the chicken and serve it over brown rice.

The recipe as listed makes four large servings. This was enough for my family of six, but my kids eat smaller portions. The picture above is of the recipe doubled. I like to have leftovers.

Each servings contains:
205 Calories
6 g fat
15 g protein
3.5 g fiber

Walnut Chicken Salad

This is another version of a salad I loved from Real Foods Market in Orem. It was so delicious, I tried it out at home. My pictures are too dark this time. Sorry!

My version contains:



2 cups grapes cut in half
4 stalks celery sliced
2 large cups cooked diced chicken (about eight chicken tenders)
3/4 cup of yogurt ranch dressing
1/4 cup walnuts broken into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped green onions

Yogurt Ranch Dressing:
1 1/4 cups yogurt
1/3 cup milk
1 Hidden Valley Ranch dressing packet

You will have about a cup of dressing left over.

Makes 6 1 cup servings. Each serving has 166 calories, 19 g protein, 1.5 grams fiber and 4 grams fat.

I roughly doubled the grapes and chicken from what is pictured. I found that when I put it all together, I wanted more chicken and grapes. I also added walnuts. I love the ranch dressing made with yogurt.



This Straus yogurt is my favorite! It is so creamy, the texture is delicious. I was buying other brands like Dannon, etc and we pretty much never finished the cartons. They were nonfat, which I am sure contributed to me not liking the flavor. But this stuff tastes really great. My kids love it over mixed berries with agave nectar or honey. When I use it in recipes, I feel like I am getting something yummy, not a nonfat diet food.

Also, this is great for pita pockets or sandwiches. I like it plain too. These are the pitas I've been buying from Wal-Mart. They are sold in the Deli section in front of the sandwich meats. They are pretty good, cheap, and the ingredients are not too long: