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!

Black Bean Vegetable Soup

My sister-in-law got this from Allrecipes and I am in love with this soup. It is simple and healthy and has a great flavor. The recipe calls for canned beans. I like to make my own beans and freeze them for soups. They are firmer and less slimy and I can add my own spices. I have a new pressure cooker and have been cooking my beans in that and they are done in 30 minutes. So that is another option if you have a pressure cooker. We added lime, cilantro, a little plain yogurt, and tortilla strips to make it more like a tortilla soup.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 carrots, chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 cups vegetable stock (I just use my chicken base from Costco)
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (8.75 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes (I like crushed tomatoes instead)

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; cook onion, garlic, and carrots, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onion is softened. Add chili powder and cumin; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add stock, 1 can of the beans, corn, and pepper; bring to boil.

2. Meanwhile, in food processor or blender, puree together tomatoes and remaining can of beans; add to pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until carrots are tender.

This tastes
164 calories, 3 grams fat per serving. I like to double this one too.

Recipe: Slow-cooker Black Beans & Rice

This morning as I was going through my options for dinner I knew I had a bag of black beans, knew I wanted to be able to throw them into a pot and forget about them, and knew I wanted to have a tasty (and cheap) dish for dinner.  So beans and rice it was.  I got this recipe by doing a quick search on the internet.  It was simple - I cut it all up and threw it in the crock pot and my kids loved it - my toddler ate two big bowls of it!  Not to mention it was all REAL food.  The recipe calls for canned tomatoes but  I used fresh partly because of this article and partly because I had a couple ripe romas sitting on my counter in need of eating.  And we ate it on white rice just because we were out of brown. But it would have been good on brown as well.

I got a new crock pot (or slow cooker) back in December and it has rejuvenated my desire to cook this way.  It makes it possible to make some really healthy soups, stews, and main dishes with very little work.  If you've got one you know what I'm talking about and if you don't - you're really missing out.

Here's the recipe:

1	pound dried black beans (2 cups), sorted and rinsed
1	large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1	large bell pepper, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
5	garlic cloves, finely chopped
2	dried bay leaves
2	cups diced tomatoes (from 28-oz can), undrained
5	cups water
2	tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
4	teaspoons ground cumin
2	teaspoons finely chopped jalapeño chilies
1	teaspoon salt
3	cups hot cooked rice

1. Mix all ingredients except rice in 3 1/2- to 6-quart slow cooker.

2. Cover and cook on high heat setting 6 to 8 hours or until beans are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove bay leaves.

3. Serve beans over rice. We added lime and cilantro to really make it authentic. Easy, healthy, yummy!

Portobello Mexican Pizzas

I think this has to be my favorite new thing because it is so easy, and seriously has to be only about 200 calories or so depending on your salsa and cheese. I love portobello mushrooms, but topped with salsa, green onions, mozzarella and sprinkled with garlic salt--yum!

Preheat oven to 400. Remove the stem AND the gills from the Portobello mushroom. I just peeled back the stem and removed the gills with a paring knife. Place mushrooms, upside down, on a baking tray and top each one with salsa, green onions and cheese. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Rao's: Best Marinara Sauce I've Tried

I bought my first bottle of Rao's Marinara from Whole Foods when we were poor first marrieds. At ten bucks a bottle, it was definitely the "special occasion" sauce. I think I was most intrigued by the price. Marinara sauce that costs that much has to be good. It was. It is the best. I've tried lots of different sauces, and this one is my favorite and has the purest ingredients.

I like pasta, and this sauce is great for those nights that you just don't want to make your own. No fillers, no paste, just good stuff.

Here are the ingredients:
Imported Italian tomatoes, Italian olive oil, sweet onions, fresh basil, fresh garlic, crushed black pepper, salt and fresh oregano.

This one is pricey, but very tasty and with $1 for pasta, I figure I am feeding my family for $6 (we can get about two meals worth). Not too bad. Cheaper than Del Taco anyway.

The Arrabiata sauce is also great. Too hot for the kids, but I love it. I've seen it on sale on occasion at Whole Foods (used to be Wild Oats around here.)

Coconut Curry in a Hurry

I just tried another simmer sauce by Seeds of Change. Wow. It is so good. It is the Korma coconut curry sauce. I sauteed some chicken, cut up some veggies and mushrooms and poured the sauce over. I cooked brown rice in the rice cooker to go with it. Very easy, very good.

And right now it is on sale at the Good Earth for $2.65/bottle. Go get some if I haven't cleared them all out!

We ate at a Thai restaurant last week, and this was almost as good. Ingredients aren't quite as good as the Jalfrezi sauce. But it is really tasty. It isn't very spicy, so add some red pepper flakes if you want to make it a little hotter.

Here is what is in it:

Water, heavy cream* (milk*), coconut*, onions*, evaporated cane sugar*, tapioca starch*, sunflower oil*, sea salt, lemon juice*, garlic*, cilantro*, ginger*, turmeric*, coriander*, cumin*, cayenne pepper*, paprika*, cardamon*, cinnamon*

140 calories per serving. With 1/2 cup cooked brown rice, 1/2 chicken breast, and veggies, mine was about 370 calories.

Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos

My camera is broken, and this is the last picture we were able to get out of the one my Sister in law graciously let us use before she needed it back. So this is dark, but you get the idea.

These were good and my kids liked them so I am sure we'll make them again soon.

I love fish tacos with cabbage. The cabbage makes everything crunchier. When we lived by the beach, our neighbor loved to go deep sea fishing, and hated seafood. So we were always feasting on Mahi Mahi and barracuda.

On our own little deep sea fishing excursion in Ensenada, we tried these yummy fish tacos at a taco shop. I love this with the lime and chili seasoning. I've really only found it at mexican food stores though or in mexico. It is really yummy on mangos too. Sounds weird, but it was my favorite thing to eat on the street in Mexico.

Here are the ingredients:

10 corn tortillas

5 mahi mahi steaks (these were about the size of my palm)

Lime and Chile seasoning (or lemon pepper would work fine too if you can't find the other)shredded cabbage--I try to shred this very fine

2 avocadoes mashed--salt to taste

lime wedges--1 for each taco

Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo:

3 tomatos diced

finely diced onions to taste

chopped cilantro
lime juice from 1-2 limes

Mix together and squeeze lime juice on top. You can add salt or garlic salt.

Optional:thin roasted salsa with plain yogurt (kinda has a sour cream flavor)

I used frozen fish filets, so I put them under a warm tap for a few minutes to thaw. Cut off the plastic, then rubbed lime and chili seasoning on both sides. I put these to cook on the indoor grill since it is freezing outside. They only take a few minutes to cook. I then cube the fish and set all the ingredients in bowls so each person can add what they like. I had six bowls: fish, avocado, pico de gallo, lime wedges, cabbage, roasted salsa mixed with plain yogurt.

Warm corn tortillas in a nonstick pan on the stove. Spread the tortilla with avocado, add the cabbage, fish, and pico de gallo, etc. I used the Ezekial Sprouted Corn tortillas that you find in the refrigerated section of the health food store. I like their texture, but regular ones work great too.
These are tasty! I think it has been too long since we've had this. You can use chicken in place of the fish, and for vegetarian, black beans work great.

Broccoli Garlic Pasta

Yeah, I know my titles are original!

This is another really easy one. It is one of my favorites, and came from my mom's friend that is Italian. I get my whole wheat spaghetti at Costco. This has tons of garlic in it, and I think that is why I like it so much.

1.5 lbs broccoli florets
1 pkg Whole Wheat Spaghetti
1 head of garlic
2T olive oil
Salt to taste

Steam the broccoli in 3 cups water until bright green. Remove the broccoli from the cooking water and set aside. Keep the bright green cooking water in the pot and add water as needed to cook spaghetti. Cook spaghetti until tender (mine is 11 minutes)
While spaghetti is cooking, dice garlic and add to 2T olive oil. Saute. Add garlic to broccoli and toss. Then as the spaghetti is done, toss broccoli mixture with spaghetti.

Easy Taco Salad

This is a vegetarian taco salad that is very fast. I like to do it buffet style so each of my kids can add what they like. It is super easy. I usually have some cooked rice on hand since we use the rice cooker a lot.

Basically, it is:
One can of kidney beans
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 can sliced black olives
grated cheese
cilantro
tomatoes
lettuce
avocados
shredded romaine lettuce

the dressing is just ranch with a bunch of cilantro, lime, and garlic blended in.

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.

Whole Wheat Veggie Chicken Sausage Pizza

I saw this pizza on the cover of Clean Eating and had to try it. It is delicious! They had no crust recipe, and instead basically just said to buy the frozen crust from Trader Joes. Well, I have no Trader Joes within about 400 miles. So we found a recipe online and followed that.

It turned out sooo good. I loved the toppings. Pizza is my favorite food by a long shot, but it makes me feel sick and puffy after I eat it. I wake up all swollen and it just isn't worth it most of the time. This one doesn't do that.

I think the key is that it has a healthier crust, and isn't so salty. The crust makes it very filling. One or two slices will fill you up, where many other kinds, I can really eat about four slices. I ground up my own flour in my Blendtec, but you can just use whole wheat flour if you don't have a grinder or wheat.



Here is what is in the crust:

1 T honey or sugar (any simple sugar that will feed the yeast will do)
1.5 C warm water (110 degrees F)
1 T active dry yeast
1 T Olive oil
3.5 C Whole Wheat flour

Toppings we used:

Fresh mushrooms
1 small can sliced black olives
1 Amy's Apple Gouda Chicken Sausage (refrigerated deli foods from Costco)
Sliced red onion
Bell Peppers
1.3 cups Mozzarella Cheese/pizza
3/4 C Marinara Sauce

In a large bowl, dissolve honey or sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy.

Stir the olive oil and salt into yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining flour, and knead until all flour has been absorbed and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in oiled bowl, then turn to coat surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.



When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for a thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. place on a well oiled pizza pan or seasoned baking stone with a bit of cornmeal. Top pizza with your favorite toppings.


Bake for 16-20 minutes depending on thickness. When the crust is crisp and golden at the edges and cheese is melted on top, remove from the oven.

My pizzas were 12" in diameter, and sliced into 8 pieces were about 170 calories per slice.

Greek Salad (Pasta Optional)

I love this salad! It is one of my favorites. Very light, fresh and lots of flavor. I use this Athenos dressing, but there are lots of other great homemade greek dressing recipes that are wonderful with lemon juice, olive oil, and herbs.

The ingredients are:







2 chicken breasts grilled with lemon pepper and sliced
4 cups spinach
2 English cucumbers (no peeling necessary)
3 tomatoes
a few slices of onions
roughly 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, 28 to be exact! (also from Costco)
roughly 1 cup artichoke hearts, or 12 (the marinated ones from Costco)
1/3 cup Athenos Greek Dressing with Feta cheese (Wal-mart)
Pasta optional--not included in servings, calorie and nutrition info.


If you need a good pasta salad, you can add pasta to it. I put the pasta in for my kids, but I like it better without. I do not recommend the brand that is pictured--Hodgson Mill--I think it tastes terrible. But there are other great whole wheat pastas out there. Wal Mart has one that is better than this stuff and it is really cheap. Its called Heartland.

First, we grilled the chicken on our little indoor grill then sliced it. We chopped the onions, tomatoes and cucumbers in a bowl, put everything else in a bowl and mixed it up. It was very quick and easy. I cooked the pasta separately and added it to the kids servings.

Without the pasta, this makes six large servings.

Each serving contains:
208 calories
12 g fat
11.5 g protein
4.2 g fiber

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: