Chicken Cutlets with Button Mushrooms

Another yummy meal from www.cleaneatingmag.com! We will definitely make this one again! And once again, sorry for the bad picture!

We decided to add peas to this and the peas were wonderful! We also didn't use button mushrooms because our store didn't have them this trip, but we did find a baby mushroom that was yummy. We also didn't use capers.And we used a lemon seasoning because we didn't have any lemon juice and I had used our fresh lemons the day before (oops!). But the flavoring was still good! Here is the recipe:

• 1½ lbs Chicken cutlets (about 6)
• ¼ t sea salt
• ¼ t pepper
• 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided
• 2 t olive oil
• 1 c fresh button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbsp Italian Parsley
• 2 t whole capers
• Lemon Slices for garnish (optional)

Season chicken with salt and pepper and drizzle with 2 T lemon juice. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and mushrooms and cook chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side or until golden brown and until mushrooms are softened. Add remaining 2 T lemon juice, parsley and capers and cook for 2 more minutes. Garnish with lemon slices before serving if desired.

French Toast

No picture! Sorry! I forgot to take a picture!

I had very yummy french toast this week. I always pack my leftovers (actually, I cut what I am eating in half and put it in a dish) for lunch the next day and I was concerned about the french toast, but this turned out pretty good even left over! I froze them in the freezer and then just took them out and put the bag with the 2 pieces in my lunchbox with a cold back and it kept them cold but thawed them by the time I got to lunch.

I got the idea from www.cleaneatingmag.com. I did change their recipe, but the directions were similar. Here is what I did:

*Whole wheat bread (desired amount... I used 8 pieces for dinner and lunch the next day)
*6-8 egg whites (I did include 2 yolks)
*1 tsp of nutmeg (I won't use this next time. I wasn't a fan)
*1 tsp of cinnamon (or more if you desire)

-Mix the eggs and the spices together and then coat each side of the pieces of bread. Cook them on a medium pan at medium heat on your stove until they are browned on both sides and cooked through in the middle. Enjoy!

Not So Fried Chicken

This was YUMMY! YAY! Finally a recipe I can talk about and proudly share! We got it from www.cleaneatingmag.com. The one thing we changed was that we used whole wheat bread crumbs instead of whole wheat panko. We can't find whole wheat panko anywhere in our grocery store! You also need to remember to marinate this in the buttermilk for 6 hours! We kept forgetting and then have to change our plans for dinner that night. But once we remembered, we were happy!

With this I made my own version of "fries". I cut up a potato into chunks, brushed it with olive oil, and then sprinkled it with garlic salt. I baked them the same amount of time I baked the chicken on the same tray as the chicken, taking them out and turning them halfway. They were yummy also!

Here is the recipe copied from www.cleaneatingmag.com:

Not so Fried Chicken (17 g of carbs)

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 7-oz bone-in chicken breasts
• 1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
• Extra-virgin olive oil cooking spray
• 2 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup whole-wheat panko

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Using a sharp knife, thoroughly remove skin and visible fat from chicken breasts.
2. Place chicken breasts in a resealable plastic container that is slightly larger than the breasts. Pour buttermilk over breasts, then turn them so they are completely coated. Let marinate in refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight, rotating them once or twice.
3. Preheat oven to 450°F. Lightly mist a medium, nonstick baking sheet with spray.
4. In a small bowl, mix mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne.
5. Add panko to a medium, shallow bowl.
6. Remove 1 chicken breast from buttermilk, allowing any excess liquid to drip off. Sprinkle both sides of breast evenly with 1/4 of seasoning mixture. Then transfer it to bowl of panko, covering it completely with crumbs. Place breaded chicken breast face down (ribs up) on prepared pan. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.
7. Lightly mist top of breasts with spray. Bake chicken for 10 minutes, then gently, being careful not to remove any breading, flip the breasts. Lightly mist them again with spray and continue to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until breading is crispy and chicken is no longer pink inside. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 days to eat cold. Tip: To make your breaded chicken a bit more golden in color, try toasting the panko in a skillet over medium heat before using it to cover the chicken. Just remember to consistently shake the skillet over the stove to ensure you don't burn the panko.

Nutrients Per Chicken Breast: Calories: 267, Total Fat: 5 g, Sat. Fat: 1 g, Carbs: 17 g, Fiber: 2 g, Protein: 37 g, Sodium: 255 mg, Cholesterol: 91 mg

Chicken Pot Pie

(Once again, sorry for the crappy picture. There will be a bunch of posts with crappy pictures! Sorry!)

Anyway... this did not wow us. I am not going to post the recipe. If you want it, please feel free to ask and I will send it to you. This was very bland. It had almost no flavor. I think we were having issues for a few reasons. Reason 1- I grew up on PA German cooking, which is pot pies, casseroles, breads, pastas, etc. I am used to that creamy, not very spicy but yummy taste. I love bland foods, so for me to say this was bland wasn't very good. Reason 2- We are still getting used to the whole wheat flour. We aren't a fan yet, as that is all we tasted!

It wasn't BAD, but it definitely isn't something we will make again. I think I've realized that I can't recreate the recipes that I LOVE that aren't clean with clean and healthy products because they won't be the same and I need to get over that and find NEW recipes that we love.

My Menu

Here is my menu for this week:

Beef Chickpea Chili (see review in previous post)
French Toast
Not So Fried Chicken
Chicken Pot Pie
Homemade pizza
Chicken Cutlets with button mushrooms

I can't wait to see if chicken pot pie will be as good as the chicken pot pie I am used to eating! And I think Jeff is most looking forward to the homemade pizza. I have also been craving french toast since seeing this recipe for french toast on Clean Eating magazine's website!

Beef Chickpea Chili

Please excuse the crappy picture! I took it with my phone, which doesn't have the best camera (get on that, BlackBerry!). I promise better pictures of the future meals!

I got this recipe from www.cleaneatingmag.com.

This was OK. There are definitely some changes I will make. I give it one thumb up, and the husband gives it NO thumbs up (except he did like the meat in it... he isn't a fan of beans so the chick peas weren't awesome to him). Part of the problem with the meal was that the chick peas weren't cooked enough, though I followed the directions on the bag (I bought them hard, so I needed to cook them before I prepared the chili. We are trying not to eat canned beans because of the high amounts of sodium in them). I am hoping they will be better left over after they absorb some moisture. Next time I make it (I want to make it one more time to give it another chance) I am going to only do one cup of chopped tomatoes, and I am going to half the chick peas. I am also going to include some greens in this (peas, zucchini, those fuzzy green bean things that look like snap peas... I have a long way to go with the names of ingredients!) . It tasted more like a vegetable beef soup than a chili, so I want to play on that instead of turning it into chili, which I already make.

So here is the recipe, though please take what I said above into consideration! It will help!

Beef Chickpea Chili

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb top-round buffalo steak or lean beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 cups yellow onion, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 2 cups carrots, cut into matchsticks
• 1 tbsp cumin, ground
• 2 tsp dried coriander
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp saffron (optional)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 1 cup frozen corn (no need to thaw)
• 2 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 6-oz jar tomato paste
• 2 lemons (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large nonstick pot, cook steak for 2 minutes over medium-high heat. Add garlic, onion, celery, carrots and all spices. Cook for 5 minutes. Then add chickpeas, cooking for 2 more minutes.
2. Turn up heat to high and pour in 4 cups water, corn, tomatoes and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and stir in tomato paste. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until liquid reduces and chili thickens. Squeeze juice of both lemons into chili, if desired, and stir. Remove bay leaf before serving. Chili can be stored in refrigerator for 5 days or frozen for 2 to 3 months.

Clean Eating

The husband and I have started to eat clean (or as clean as we can without going completely overboard... for example, we don't make our own cheese or cut our own meat, or anything along those lines). But basically we go by this quote that I heard recently "If it was grown on a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, avoid it". Clean eating cuts out all of the processed foods and preservatives. It doesn't cut down on flavor or things you can cook. it just changes the way you make your food and the way you eat. We now eat a lot of whole grain products, we eat a lot of fresh veggies, and we are cooking almost every night at home. I am trying to make sure we have lots of protein in our foods. I am also watching carbs on top of it all.

So the hunt as been on for meals and snacks that are clean and low carb. It has been fun and difficult all at once! Everything is new to us. I likened it to when we switched grocery stores last year. We switched from the grocery store we had been going to since we moved to this house 3 1/2 years ago (then it was 2 1/2 years) to another grocery store. When we came to this new grocery store we felt lost. We had no idea where to find certain items and it was hard to get used to. We were so tempted to go back to our other store, but then it started to get easier. We learned where we could find things in the store, and we now feel like we are used to the store. When it comes to eating, we were so used to eating the food we had all of our lives. We aren't going to be used to this change over night. For Jeff, he was brought up on meat and potatoes. What was made was what you ate. I was brought up on Pennsylvania Dutch foods. Lots of pot pies, casseroles, carbs, carbs, carbs. It isn't something that is going to change overnight. But as we make recipes we see what we like and don't like and we will begin to find a base of foods we like and will make regularly.

It has been an interesting week and a half of food so far. It has been expensive as we build the things we need in the house to make regular meals. It has been excited to try new meals, disappointing when we find meals we don't like that we really hoped we would like (like the chicken and dumplings that we made last week... yuck) but we've found some that we do like.

So here we go on this journey to change our lifestyle. I am going to try to take a picture of each meal and give a review on the meal. If we like it, I will include the recipe so that you can enjoy it as well. I am also going to post our weekly dinner menu. If you see something you would like to try and I haven't included the recipe, please feel free to send a message and ask! Not everyone's tastes are the same.

I was also told that if we were successful 90% of the time, then that is considered successful. We aren't always going to be able to eat clean (like when we go to family's house. We have no desire to dictate what they cook! Or when I am craving chocolate because I just can't give that up!).

So on top of life and exercise (which has been lacking the last few days!), I will be hopefully blogging about food.