Cafe Rio Chicken

This is an easy crockpot meal that can also be prepared ahead of time and frozen. Combine all ingredients in a large ziploc bag to freeze. Then, when you're ready to cook, just dump everything in the crockpot. You could also double the recipe and put half to freeze and half to cook now so you would have two meals and one prep! I did not thaw my chicken breasts before making this and cooked it in my crockpot on high for 6 hours. The chicken was cooked and it tasted great! You can thaw before and cook the same-either low for 8 hours or high for 6. I just like the fact I can dump everything in a crockpot in the morning without having to defrost overnight. I made a recipe and a half because I had a 3 lb bag of chicken breasts, and so that we would have plenty to eat on all week. Last night we had them on corn tortillas as tacos. I'm planning on putting them on sandwich thins for lunch this week, and having them in nachos for another dinner this week. So as you can see, this chicken is very versatile. If you're counting carbs, you can put it over lettuce for a salad. This is an easy, healthy, tasty meal for your family!

Ingredients

2 lbs chicken breasts
1/2 small bottle of zesty Italian dressing
1 packet of Ranch dressing mix (mixed with 1/2c water)
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low 5-6 hours or high 8 hours. Shred chicken and enjoy!

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

We had this for dinner this week, and my husband loves it. It's definitely a man's kind of meal, but a skinny mama can enjoy it too. The recipe says it serves 4, but they are large man-sized servings. We only ate this, but it would be great with a side salad and some type of green vegetable. It calls for ground turkey, but I used lean ground beef. And of course I used the Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I also used less cheese than what it called for, and you could probably do without it and the casserole would still taste great. I'm including the recipe here along with two homemade mixes: Ranch dressing mix, and onion soup mix. These are great staples to have in your pantry whenever a recipe calls for one of these. Plus, they're much healthier for you than the store-bought mixes. All these recipes are from groceryshrink.com.

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

Ingredients
4 Russet potatoes
1 lb. ground turkey (or lean ground beef)
2 tsp olive oil
2 Tbsp onion soup mix
8 turkey bacon slices
1/4 c green onion, chopped (I didn't use because hubby doesn't like them)
1/2 c sour cream or Greek yogurt
1 tsp Ranch dressing mix
1 cup cheddar cheese, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scrub potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I cut mine into pretty large chunks, and boiled them before adding to the casserole. Otherwise, it would take way longer to bake). Toss potatoes with olive oil and onion soup mix. Spread into bottom of a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Brown ground turkey with a little garlic powder to taste. Drain and spread over potato mixture. Combine sour cream or Greek yogurt and ranch dressing mix. Dollop over ground turkey. Cook and crumble bacon (or open your packet of bacon bits). Sprinkle bacon crumbles, sliced green onions, and shredded cheese over all. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

1/4 c dried parsley
4 tsp onion powder
4 tsp garlic powder
4 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Mix all and store in a zipper seal baggie. Yields 8 Tbsp.

Homemade Onion Soup Mix

2/3 c dried, minced onion
3 tsp parsley flakes
2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp celery seed (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Use 3 Tbsp of this mix in place of a packet of onion soup mix

Chocolate Greek Yogurt Dessert

I want to do a quick post on one of my favorite healthy desserts. I've been eating it a lot this week. It's so creamy and chocolate-y and relatively guilt-free!

Ingredients:

1 cup of nonfat Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp cocoa

2 packets stevia

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (optional, but I never make it without them!)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and indulge!

Freezer-Friendly Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole

This recipe is set up to make four of these casseroles at one time. We had one for dinner that night, and then I froze the other three for future meals. It was so simple to put together, and I thought it tasted great. I didn't really do much different from the written recipe. I did use brown rice and used the 99% fat free cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup. You could also probably use a reduced-fat cheese, but I used regular sharp cheddar. Here's the recipe courtesy of moneysavingmom.com.

Ingredients:

10 cups cooked rice
4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
4 cups chopped broccoli, lightly steamed
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans cream of chicken soup
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

To freeze: Divide into four ziptop freezer bags and zip tightly.

To serve: Thaw overnight (or for 8 hours) in the refrigerator. Dump into a greased casserole dish (each bag will fill an 8x8 inch pan; two bags will fill a 9x13 inch pan). Sprinkle with additional shredded cheese if desired. (I didn't do this last step)

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly. One freezer bag serves 4-5 people

*I calculated the calories to be about 435 per serving for a 4-serving casserole :)

Banana Protein Muffins

For my first blog post, I chose a low-calorie and healthy muffin. These would be great for breakfast, but I like to eat muffins for a snack. So at about 60 calories a piece, and 7 grams of protein each, a couple of these babies would make a great pre-workout snack! The following is the original recipe. The only substitution I made was to use Domino's sugar/stevia blend and only used half of what the recipe calls for: 1/8 cup. Also, to get 3/4 c of egg whites, I had to use 5 egg whites! Next time I make them, I'll try it with 3 egg whites, increase the sugar/stevia blend, and maybe add some chocolate chips! Chocolate makes everything better :) Even the way I made them though, they were still good!

Ingredients

3/4 c ripe banana
3/4 c egg whites
1/2 c plain low fat Greek yogurt
3/4 c oats
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
1/4 c baking stevia
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use silicon muffin pan, or use foil liners and spray them with cooking spray.
2. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until mixture is smooth.
3. Divide mixture evenly between 12 muffin cups
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The recipe specifically states to spray foil liners or use a silicon pan because the muffins will stick otherwise. My batter was very runny, but the muffins still turned out. Also, I had to bake mine for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Nutritional Info
(doesn't account for any substitutions made)

Calories: 58
Carbs: 9g
Protein: 7g
Fiber: 2g