Not-So-Crack Chicken

 I was going to write a blog earlier in the week about this Taco Pasta that I made and then I realized that the vast majority of my posts have involved ground turkey and some kind of noodle and I figured you all would think I don’t actually eat anything else, so I decided to hold off a few days. Tonight I made something called “Crack Chicken,” that alleges to be sodelicious that it’s like a drug. Now, normally I’d hesitate before running out to the store and buying a bunch of stuff I don’t already have especially when it’s used in such small quantities, but I figured if the chicken is this good then I’m going to be making it every other day, right? Eh, wrong.

Now, this one could be entirely my fault, because I forgot the cornstarch, but I highly doubt a little thing like that could turn what I made into something as addictive as described in the recipes I saw. Don’t get me wrong, it was tasty! But, the pictures showed this gooey, kind of crunchy-looking, dark brown chicken that makes me want to lick the screen and mine turned out sort of beige and tasting generally crock-potty. The recipe was originally adapted from a non-crock pot recipe, so I’m considering making it that way next time and seeing if it turns out crispier and more appetizing, because the sauce was really good, kind of sweet and spicy at the same time. We had it over mashed potatoes because, as previously mentioned, Goober doesn’t like rice. It probably changed the style of the dish a little because it’s supposed to be vaguely Asian, but, you know, mashed potatoes go with everything.

(beige)

So as I made it we had:

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces

**2 tablespoon cornstarch** (forgot that)

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

1 garlic clove crushed

1/4 teaspoon ginger

3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup apple juice

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce

It made four servings and each serving was 388 Calories, 11g Fat (2g Saturated, 1g Polyunsaturated, 5g Monounsaturated), 140mg Cholesterol, 919mg Sodium, 25mg Potassium, 20g Carbohydrates (0g Fiber, 18.8g Sugar), 51.2g Protein

Turkey Stroganoff

Oh my goodness friends, it has been far too long since I’ve posted and so many things have happened! Let’s see, since my last post Goober proposed and I said yes (of course) and then we went to New Jersey for Easter and found a wedding venue and ate lots of delicious, less-than-healthy food like cheesesteaks and soft pretzels and french fries and miraculously I only gained a pound. Now we’re back to real life with work, working out, and blogging!

So, can I talk for a minute about how much I love egg noodles? I don’t know if it’s a nostalgic thing because I loved this Hamburger Gravy my mom would make when I was a kid (basically homemade Hamburger Helper without all the processed junk) or if it has to do with the texture and flavor of the noodles themselves, but whenever I see a recipe that lends itself to egg noodles I gravitate toward it. I found this recipe for a Turkey Stroganoff that looked good, but I wanted to skinny it up a little bit. When I’m making a recipe with a flavorful sauce like this I like to use the 99% lean ground turkey, because it’s not as big of a deal if it dries out a bit because the sauce just makes it all better.

For the sauce I used the Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom soup over the low fat one because it’s an overall healthier choice, with lower sodium and comparable fat and calories. I used a low fat sour cream because there are very few fat free ingredients or foods I like. I think once you get to fat free most things cross over from being food to being overly processed junk. If you look closely at the labels between a fat free and low fat option of the same item you’ll find they’re not usually that different in calories (sometimes the fat free one is higher) but the low fat one has about half as many chemicals you can’t pronounce. I used the same whole-wheat egg noodles I used for the Turkey Noodle Bake, which I still love. I didn’t have any garlic salt, but I had some garlic pepper so I just used ½ teaspoon of that instead of ¼ teaspoon each of garlic salt and pepper.

(Deliciousness)

The end result was a creamy sauce and slightly chewy (in a good way) turkey with mushrooms over always-delicious egg noodles. It was a little bit monochromatic for me, I like my food to have some color to it, but that’s just a downfall of anything with a cream-based sauce. I’d definitely serve it with a salad next time to have something colorful. Goober likes to get pretend mad at me for “sneaking” vegetables into our dinners, even though he was with me when I went shopping and put mushrooms and mushroom soup into the cart. He clearly wasn’t bothered enough to stop eating though…

(Goober joins the clean plate club)

Overall it made four servings and clocked in at a very reasonable 315 Calories, 6.8g Fat, 2.6g Saturated Fat, 73.1mg Cholesterol, 531.2mg Sodium, 343.8mg Potassium, 30.2g Carbohydrates (3.6g Fiber, 5.8g Sugar), 33.6g Protein.