Shannon's Kitchen Creations

I love chicken pot pie. It is a perfect fall meal and this time of year you can buy the crusts on sale everywhere. The average frozen single serving chicken pot pie from Marie Callender’s nutritional information is as follows:

Serving Size 1 pot pie

Amount Per Serving Calories 670, Total Fat 41g, Total Carbohydrate 55g, Dietary Fiber 3g, Protein19g

One little pot pie is 19 points +! Yikes!

I was able to shave off eight points + and I know what the ingredients are. I used organic chicken, milk and frozen veggies and Pillsbury’s rolled pie crusts. One mini pie is very filling, so all you need to serve it for a meal is a salad. Enjoy!

Mini Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies

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My family loves Roast Chicken especially this recipe, but it can be a messy and time consuming process. You need to clean the bird, wrap it in twine, baste it, carve it and then of course there is all that cleaning! I decided to make the process super easy, fast and there is only one pan to clean up! Yeah! A whole chicken cut up at the store is very inexpensive and you can make Chicken Pot Pie with the leftover meat and vegetables. I did leave the skin on and YES it was totally worth it! You can use boneless, skinless breasts for a lower points value. Did you know that the skin only adds 1 point + per piece of chicken. In my mind the skin all crispy and delicious is totally worth it! This is a perfect fast evening meal and it is even perfect for a Sunday dinner. Enjoy!!

One Pan Roast Rosemary Garlic Chicken and Vegetables

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I love macaroni and cheese!  I love the creamy, cheesy sauce and the warming feeling the dish gives me. It reminds me of childhood. My Mom always made the best mac and cheese. We had the boxed variety sometimes, but it was always special when my Mom made it from scratch. She also browned hot dog slices in butter and threw those in. Ahhh childhood!! Of course now I actually have to watch what I put in my mouth, but I still want to eat my favorites. I have created some amazing mac and cheese dishes. If you love buffalo wings with blue cheese, you will love my Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese and the most amazing, low point invention ever Super Cheesy Low Fat Cauliflower Macaroni and cheese. You will not be able to even tell there is cauliflower in it! (cut the pieces really small) Here is my version of my Mom’s famous Mac and cheese with hot dogs, with a fall spin. I used apple chicken sausage and added some nutmeg for a warm homey feel. Enjoy!

Tomato and Apple Chicken Sausage Macaroni and Cheese

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The recipe I chose to feature in this post is one that has been sitting in my recipe box for over a year. I get Food Network magazine and love tearing out recipes that sound and look delicious. I am a huge fan of Buffalo wings. I love the spicy kick mixed with the creaminess of the blue cheese dressing. However, in restaurants they are deep fried and very high in points!! So when I took out this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese I knew the nutritional info was going to be scary….IT WAS!!!!

Each serving had 868 calories, 48.2 grams of fat, 1465 mg of sodium, 79.6 grams of carbs, 3.9 grams of fiber and 28.9 grams of protein! 1 cup was 23 points + each!!! Ouch!!!

So I decided to modify the recipe with some healthy alternatives. I swapped out the half and half for 1 % milk, used low fat cheese and sour cream and opted for whole wheat pasta. I was able to shave a whopping 15 points off per serving, so 1 cup is only 8 points +!! This was spicy, creamy, cheesy and just down right awesome!!! Enjoy and make sure to Check out my full post over at Danica’s Daily! Make sure and enter my Food Should Taste Good Chip Giveaway Here!

Light Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

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The other day when I was at the Chester Farmer’s Market, I picked up a huge bunch of fresh basil for 2.00.

I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it, Pesto!!! Pesto is an Italian sauce made with parmesan cheese, garlic, basil, pine nuts and olive oil. It can be used over pasta, as a marinade, tossed with vegetables or as a dip. One of our favorite ways to use pesto is to make Pizza. It is ww friendly because I used reduced fat mozzarella and the weight watchers recipe for pesto. Make a big batch of pesto and then freeze portions in a muffin tin. When the pesto is frozen pop out the “muffins” and place in a freezer safe bag for later use! Enjoy

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Ingredients:

WW Pesto Recipe – makes 1 cup – you only need ½ cup for the pizza

• 2 Tbsp pine nuts
• 2 cup(s) basil, leaves, fresh
• 1/2 cup(s) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup(s) grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), peeled
• 1/2 tsp table salt

Pizza

• 1 store bought bag of pizza dough or homemade if you like
• 1 cup of reduced fat mozzarella cheese
• ½ onion sliced into strips
• 2 chicken breasts cut into small pieces
• 2 tsp olive oil
• Optional – chopped fresh tomato

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Sauté chicken pieces and onion in olive oil in a medium size frying pan, until browned and cooked well.
3. Lightly flour your pan.
4. Stretch pizza dough to cover the pan you are using, about 12 inches around. (we use a pizza stone)
5. Bake just the crust for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven.
6. Spread ½ cup of pesto over the crust.
7. Sprinkle the chicken and onion mixture over the pesto.
8. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the entire pizza.
9. Bake for 15- 20 minutes until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.
10. Cut into 8 pieces.

6 points + per slice.

What is your favorite type of pizza???

So I have been reading this amazing new book called Wildly Affordable Organic by Linda Watson and she gives you wonderful ideas of how to shop on a budget and still feed your family organic.

She has shopping lists, menu planning and recipes in her book in such a simple format. Since, I am trying to integrate as much organic, local food into my diet; I am integrating her suggestions in baby steps into my daily routine. I have planted an organic vegetable garden, so I know all my produce is fresh and pesticides free and we are visiting a local farmers market this weekend to buy more “local” ingredients. So far I have made her No Knead “Wisk” bread, (it is so simple and really easy) her Hot milk cake (we used this for strawberry shortcake over the weekend) and tonight I am trying her Noodles in Spicy Peanut Sauce with Seasonal Vegetables. I like this recipe, because she tells you how to use different vegetables depending on the season. I used the things in my fridge. I had some cauliflower, cucumbers, carrots and a yellow pepper. I also topped it with my basil from my new herb garden on my deck! I love Thai Food, so this was really yummy. The sauce gives it a smooth, peanut buttery kick, while the fresh veggies add those important nutrients and a great crunch factor.  I changed a few ingredients along the way, but stayed pretty true to her recipe. Enjoy!

Spicy Peanut Noodles

“Thai” Spicy Peanut Noodles with Seasonal Vegetables

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Quesadillas are an easy and delicious, quick meal. I like to fill my tortillas with a variety of fillings. Some of the savory ones I make are made with the same ingredients as my favorite foods; Rubens with sauerkraut and corned beef, grilled veggies and cheese,and pepperoni, mozzarella and pizza sauce. You can also make them sweet with nutella or peanut butter with bananas and strawberries or apples and cinnamon. One of my favorite pizzas is the Margherita. It has fresh buffalo mozzarella, basil and tomato. The colors green, white and red are symbolic of the Italian flag.

Here is my spin on the traditional quesadilla; Instead of using fresh mozzerella, I used chevre (soft goat cheese). I also always have a big bag of precooked chicken strips from Tyson and I threw some of those in as well. The cheese melted beautifully and the tortilla was crisp. It was a perfect lunch! Enjoy!!

Chicken "Margherita" Quesadilla

Chicken “Margherita” Quesadilla

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Do you like Goat Cheese?? I love it! Feta is one of my favorites, but I also love soft creamy goat cheese spread on crusty bread or in pasta. I have recently discovered how healthy goat milk is for us. It is a closer make up to human milk than cow’s milk so our body can digest it easier. It is also lower in fats and is great for people who are lactose intolerant. I have found some amazing goat’s milk products that can be found at whole foods : Redwood Hill Farm Goat’s milk yogurt (with wonderful flavors like cranberry orange and apricot and mango) and La Loos Goats milk ice cream (with divine flavors like Deep Chocolate and Rumplemint) * I will be doing giveaways for both of these companies soon!**

Image from YumSugar

Anyways I picked up some chevre (soft goat’s cheese) at the grocery store yesterday and decided to make one of my favorite pasta dishes. It is delicious!!! Enjoy!!

Tomato, Chicken and Goat Cheese Pasta

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One of the fun perks of being a Food Buzz featured publisher is that they send you free food to try out! I received these Azteca salad shells as a part of the Foodbuzz tastemakers program.

Here are the nutritional stats!!

They are 6 points +each, which is pretty high, but they are really DELCIOUS! They totally taste deep fried, but you only bake them for 8 minutes. There are tons of easy recipes you can make with them, but we decided on a chicken fajita salad. It was high in points, but it was very filling and my entire family was stuffed after their salad. A taco salad at most Mexican restaurants with the shell will be about 25 points + so this is not to bad for 12 points.

Chicken Fajita Salad

One Chicken breast sliced -3 points + (I used Trader Joe’s Pollo Asado)

Lettuce – 0

Tomato – 0

1/4 cup reduced fat Mexican Cheese – 2 points +

Azteca Taco Shell – 6 points +

Salsa – 0 points +

1 tablespoon Reduced Fat sour cream – 1 point +

We love pizza! Although we do order from one of the local pizza joints once in a while, we generally make it at home. Why pay 30.00 for a two topping pizza and a salad, when we can do it for a lot less at home? One of my favorites is Buffalo Chicken pizza, but when you get it out at a restaurant  the chicken is always fried and it is totally greasy. This version is much lighter, but just as delicious. Use a light version of blue cheese dressing (we used Bolt House Farms), light shredded cheese and shredded chicken to create this yummy pizza. I do not like canned pizza dough, but you can definitely use it if you can’t find the fresh bag of dough. This is easy to make and the whole family will enjoy it!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

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