Tag Archives: Atkins friendly recipes

Main Dish, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Poultry, Recipes

Rene’s Chicken Chile Rellano Casserole

First Published on my LiveJournal blog on July 13, 2012

Maybe a bit oddly, this 4th of July I went for some comfort food from my formative years. Not your ordinary comfort food, but the kind of food that I relate to home and family. In this case, it is a Mexican dish, with my own twist, that brings back many fond memories from my childhood. I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, and Mexican food was as common as steak and potatoes in my family. (Both of my mother’s parents had been Texas ranchers.) At least once a month, and often more than that, the whole family would go out to dinner at one of the local Mexican restaurants. My grandfather’s favorite dish, and the one he ordered all the time, was chile rellanos. I didn’t develop a taste for them until I was in my teen years, but the memories of my grandfather are always associated with this dish. And that, to me, is comfort food.

This recipe is my one I have developed over the years and can be made with Anaheim chiles, fresh or canned. Keep in mind the bulk of the hot spice is in the seeds and discard them if you want the flavor without the burn. If you use fresh, you will need to roast or blister the peppers and peel them. I add chicken or turkey to the stuffing then bake them in a casserole rather than frying them. They can be made without the meat, if you prefer a meatless dish.

Rene’s Chicken Chile Rellano Casserole

1 – 16 oz can Fire-Roasted Whole Green Chiles (approx. 8)
1 cup Fire-roasted Diced Tomatoes, Mexican style or add onions and peppers, if desired
8 ounces Chicken Breast, diced or shredded
8 sliced sticks of Sharp Cheddar Cheese, about ½” x ½ inch and long enough to fill the chile
4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Shredded Mexican Four Cheese blend or Cheddar and Jack Cheese
4 Eggs
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Sweet Peppers, sliced (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Split the chiles open and stuff each with chicken and 1 tablespoon of cheese.

Whisk together the eggs, cream cheese, and cream with 1/4 cup water in a bowl, add salt and pepper, a bit of garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon of red chile powder (if desired). Pour the mixture over the chiles and cheese. Top with sliced sweet peppers and remaining cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven until set, about 40 minutes. Remove casserole and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.


While the casserole continues to set, heat diced tomatoes in a saucepan. Add chopped onions and peppers, if desired. To serve, carefully cut along the chiles to try to remove them as a whole chile rather than just cutting the dish into squares.

Each serving is one chile topped with diced tomatoes.
About 270 calories and 5 net carbs per serving.

 

Main Dish, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Poultry, Recipes

Muy Delicioso – Enchiladas con Pollo y Calabaza

That’s Enchiladas with Chicken and Butternut Squash, for those who don’t speak any Spanish. But it is appropriate as we are approaching Cinco de Mayo and all the Mexican celebrations coming up. I love Mexican food, grew up eating it, so it’s a part of my Tex-Mex culture. My Spanish, on the other hand, is limited in spite of growing up on the border. But when it comes to food, I am pretty fluent.

This is a non-traditional dish made even more so by being made low carb. I got the original base recipe from AllRecipes.com, which was posted by Elizabeth there, but I made a few changes and it doesn’t look much like the original any more. It is delicious and flavorful with the added flavors of butternut squash, spinach and chipotle salsa. It is not good for either phase I or II of Atkins, but it is worth the slight indulgence.

Enchiladas with Chicken and Butternut Squash

8 low carb Flour Tortillas, 7″ (La Tortilla and Mama Lupe’s are 3 net carbs per tortilla)
1/2 unpeeled Butternut Squash, seeded (1 cup)
2 Chicken half breasts, boneless
1/4 cup Water
1 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic, minced
1/4 Onion, chopped
1 cup fresh Spinach, packed
1 cup red Enchilada Sauce
1/2 cup Chipotle Salsa
3/4 cup Mexican 4 Cheese mix
2 tablespoons chopped Cilantro leaves, for garnish (optional)
1/4 cup Sour Cream, for topping (optional)

A few ingredients: Butternut squash, spinach, olives, onions and garlic.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Put butternut squash half in a baking dish, pour in water and spray top with butter cooking spray. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes to roast. Take out and let cool enough to handle, then peel and dice the flesh. It will make about one cup. Place into a mixing bowl and set aside.

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and broil or grill the chicken until it is just done, but still juicy. Let cool and cut into cubes or shreds. Add to the butternut squash.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and olives, then stir-cook until the spinach wilts. Fold the spinach mixture into the diced butternut squash.

Put enchilada sauce into a small pan, add 1/4 cup chipotle salsa and stir- cook with a wooden spoon until it thickens enough to coat the spoon.

Heat a tortilla over an a gas flame to soften it. If you don’t have a gas stove, use a griddle on the burner to heat the tortilla. Place the tortilla on a plate, spread about 1 tablespoon of enchilada sauce over it. Spoon in 1/8th of the filling (about 1/4 cup), about 1 tablespoon of cheese and roll the tortilla. Secure with a toothpick if you need to and place seam side down in a baking dish. Repeat with each of the tortillas.

Pour the remainder of the enchilada sauce over the top and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over it.

Bake in the preheated oven until hot, about 10 minutes. Garnish each enchilada with chopped cilantro leaves and a dollop of sour cream to serve.

Makes 8 enchiladas

Nutrition per enchilada
Calories: 155.7 Fat: 8 g Net Carbs: 8.25 g Protein: 10.7g

Posted on 5/2/2013

Beef, Main Dish, Pork, Recipes

Hungarian-Style Kohlrabi Rolls

So, follow my logic here. Greek dolmades use grape leaves to make a leaf-wrapped meat roll similar to a cabbage roll. Out in my garden were about a dozen beautiful kohlrabi plants with nice big leaves. I found a recipe that sounded good and adaptable to low carb for Hungarian cabbage rolls. Kohlrabi is part of the cabbage family and the leaves are edible. So, grape leaf to cabbage leaf to kohlrabi leaf. It should work.

Well, I tried it and it does work! It doesn’t taste like cabbage or grape leaves, for that matter, but the taste is pleasing and the filling and sauce are awesome. If you like cabbage rolls, give this a try. This is based on a recipe by Diana Ratay at About.com. All changes to make it low carb are mine.

16 large Kohlrabi leaves or 16 large leaves of Cabbage
boiling water
1/3 pound Ground Pork
3/4 pound lean Ground Beef
1/4 cup chopped Onion
1/2 cup riced Cauliflower
1/4 cup riced Daikon Radish
1 Egg, beaten
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 teaspoons Paprika

Sauce
1/2 cup Pasta Sauce or Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Sour Cream

Preparation:

Drop leaves into boiling salted water; cover and cook for 3 minutes or until pliable. Drain well.

Blanched kohlrabi leaves draining in a colander. Look at the beatiful dark green color.

For filling, combine ground beef, pork, riced cauliflower-daikon mixture, onion, egg, and salt, pepper, paprika, and water. Mix well and divide into 8 portions. Use half of each portion for each leaf.

Place a half portion of the ground beef mixture into the center of each leaf. Roll leaf around filling; fasten with toothpick. Place in a baking dish. You may have to make long, thin rolls of the meat to fit it into the leaves.

For sauce, combine tomato sauce, and 1/2 cup of water and pour over kohlrabi rolls.

Rolled leaves are covered with sauce and are ready to be covered and cooked.

Bake tightly covered in a preheated 350° oven 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the kohlrabi rolls and discard toothpicks.

Mix 1/2 cup of pan sauce with 1/2 cup sour cream and add a tablespoon full over each serving. These reheat well so leftovers are great.

Makes about 16 rolls.

Nutrition Info: 2 per serving
Calories: 271 Fat: 8g Net Carbs: 4.1 g Protein: 17.9 g

3 per serving
Calories: 380 Fat: 26.1 g Net Carbs: 4.5 g Protein: 25 g

Posted on  6/16/2013

Main Dish, Pork, Recipes

Kohl– what? Kohlrabi and Ham Casserole

I have a friend to thank for pointing me to kohlrabi. I had barely heard of it, certainly hadn’t tasted it and hadn’t a clue that I would love it. After I posted my recipe for the turnip and butternut squash mash, she mentioned that kohlrabi would work well in place of the turnips. That sent me on a quest for it and luckily, I found the root vegetable on my first try at the supermarket. It’s a nice green bulb about the color of the vegetable it tastes a bit like, broccoli stalks. But it also has a texture and taste that is a bit like potato. Delightful! You can also get purple kohlrabi, tastes the same, I hear, but I haven’t seen it yet.

So, I went hunting for recipes using kohlrabi and found one for a dish that is from a German cookbook. Can I make anything the way it is written? Of course not, I added to it and changed it slightly, adding turnips, onions and other ingredients to create this tasty casserole dish. So I offer this recipe for those who might enjoy the combination. If you don’t like turnips, just double up on the kohlrabi.

2 Kohlrabi, peeled and cubed
2 Turnips, peeled and cubed
8 oz Ham, cubed
1 Onion diced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 Leek, sliced thinly
1 cup torn Baby Spinach leaves (optional)
1 tablespoon Butter or Olive Oil
2 Egg yolks
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 tablespoon Carbquick or other low carb flour or thickener
1/4 teaspoon Mace
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Put cubed kohlrabi and turnips into a pan, add enough water to cover and boil for about 20 minutes until fork tender. Meanwhile, sauté onion, garlic and leek in 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil. Drain.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, mix egg yolks, cream, Carbquick and seasonings together. Blend the flour in well until it is smooth.

Spray an 8×8 inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Return kohlrabi and turnips to pan and mix in the onion mixture. Spread 1/2 of this mixture on the bottom of the casserole. Spread the diced ham on top and spread the spinach leaves over the ham. Top with the remaining kohlrabi mixture. Pour the cream mixture over the top, distributing evenly over the casserole.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cream is set.

Serves 4 hearty appetites or 6 regular servings.

Nutrition 4 servings: Calories 355 Net Carbs 11.3 g Protein 11 g
6 servings: Calories 236.7 Net Carbs 7.5 g Protein 7.3 g

Main Dish, Pork, Recipes, Vegetarian

Legal Ham and Mac Casserole

This is a low carb variation on an all-American comfort dish, macaroni and cheese with ham. Any time I have left over ham, it just calls for a pasta and cheese. But to do this on a low carb diet requires some variation and a low carb pasta.

How do you keep pasta legal on a low carb diet? Well, there are a couple of ways to approach this. You can use vegetables for the pasta, such as cutting zuchinni into thin flat slices like a lasagna noodle or making it like spaghetti in long slices cut into 1/4″ to 13 inch strings. Or you can use chopped cauliflower. Or, if you’re like me, a combination of the two. Or you can use spaghetti squash.

Initially, I used Dreamfield rotini in my pasta since it was supposed to be a low carb pasta, which has since been proven not to be.  Oddly, it didn’t impact my weight loss when I used it, but it could be problematic for other people and for anyone who is needing low carbs to control diabetes.  When I did, and probably will again, use the pasta, I combined it with some added cauliflower and broccoli which makes this dish even more flavorful as well as colorful and filling.   Net carbs (without the pasta) are about 6 grams per serving and about 233 calories.

For a vegetarian version, simply omit the ham and add another cup of broccoli or Brussels sprouts, if you like.

Ham and “Mac” without the Mac 

1 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Jack Cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 cup Water
2 tablespoons Butter
2 tablespoons low carb Flour
1 tablespoon minced Garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese, whole milk
1 cup Cauliflower, chopped
1 cup Broccoli, chopped
2 cups cooked Spaghetti Squash
2 cups Ham, diced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to coat a large casserole dish or baking dish (about 9 ½ x 11 inches).

Microwave the cauliflower and broccoli for about 3 minutes to give them a head start on cooking or you can drop them into boiling water for about 5 minutes, then drain.

In a medium-sized pot, make the roux by melting the butter and adding the low carb flour and stir to make a paste. Add whipping cream and water, then the garlic, ground pepper and cayenne pepper and stir well until the mixture begins to thicken. With the low carb flour, it may not thicken much but it will thicken more when the cheese is added. Reserve about ¼ cup of cheddar cheese, then add in all the cheeses, including the ricotta, stirring in as you add each one. Turn off sauce when all the cheeses are mixed in and melted.

In a large mixing bowl, add the vegetables and the ham. Pour half of the cheese mixture into the bowl and mix well with a large spoon, being sure to get all of the pasta and vegetables coated with sauce. Add the remainder and mix it in well. Top the dish with the reserved cheddar cheese.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the cheddar topping is melted and a light brown. Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Info:
Calories: 4.2.4 Fat: 31.7 g Net Carbs: 7.8 g Protein: 21.1

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 9/4/2012 6:03 PM