Tag Archives: chile

Main Dish, Poultry, Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Delicious Stuffed Mexican-style Chicken Breasts

Photo: Stuffed Mexican Chicken breast and riced turnips with chile

As May starts, we’re only a few days away from Cinco de Mayo, which is a great time to celebrate Mexico and anything Mexican. The cuisine is spicy, bursting with flavor, and a favorite around the world. Just because you can’t go out to your favorite restaurant right now doesn’t mean you can’t have a great celebration at home. Even better, you can make low carb versions so you don’t have to worry about gaining back any hard-lost pounds.

I’m tossing out a shameless plug for my little cookbook that features over fifteen adapted Mexican food recipes. I tried  out and adapted every one of the dishes in the booklet to be under 10 net carbs. It includes my grandmother’s TexMex Spanish rice that I grew up with but adjusted to use cauliflower in place of the rice.  Delicious and flavorful, yet different from the Mexican restaurant version.

You can purchase a copy for only 99-cents from your favorite e-book seller by going to this one link:

https://books2read.com/u/mqzMyO

New Recipes

Now, on to the new recipes. I wanted to make a stuffed chicken breast that would celebrate the flavors of Mexico, so I came up with this delicious filling that gives enough spice to taste it, but not overwhelm the chicken. It’s easy to make and cooks in about thirty minutes, so less than an hour to prepare and have dinner on the table.

To compliment the dish, you can serve cauliflower rice or try the amazingly tasty recipe that follows the chicken dish  for riced turnips with green chiles. It’s so good, you won’t believe you’re eating turnips. They absorb the flavors of the dish and are a great substitute for rice.

Image: Stuffed Mexican Chicken breast

Stuffed Mexican Chicken Breast

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
2 teaspoons Taco Seasoning
1 tablespoons Chopped Green Chiles
1/2 tablespoon Dried Minced Onion
1/3 cup Cheddar Jack Cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle
2 tablespoons Southwest Style Salsa

In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, taco seasoning, chiles, and dried onions until blended and smooth. Add the cheddar jack cheese and mix it well.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (F.)

Cut the chicken breasts in the thickest part almost the full length and close to the opposite side to make a pocket. Stuff one-half of the cream cheese mixture into each pocket. Use tooth picks to hold the pockets closed.

Put the chicken in an oven-proof skillet or in a baking dish. Sprinkle the southwest chipotle seasoning on top and rub it in. If you’d like it spicier, add additional. Spray the top with a bit of oil or cooking spray.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the chicken is done. If you poke the thickest part with a fork and the liquid coming out is clear, the chicken is done.

Add a tablespoon of salsa over the top of each breast and serve.

Makes 2 servings.

Photo: Riced Turnips with chile

Riced Turnips with Chile

1 large Turnip, peeled and cut into cubes
1 tablespoon Butter
1 tablespoon Green Chiles, diced
1/4 cup hot Water
1/2 teaspoon Better than Chicken Bullion
1/4 cup Onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Chipotle Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Boil water, pour into a 1/4 cup measure and add the bullion, stirring to dissolve.

Put turnip cubes into a food processor and pulse until it is chopped to the size of rice. In a medium-sized skillet over medium high heat, melt the butter, then add the riced turnips and onions. Sauté for about five minutes, then add the bullion water and stir it in. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add chiles, salt and seasoning, stir and cook for another 10 minutes until the turnips are tender.

If the water cooks out, add more water. It should be about the same texture as cooked rice. Fluff up the turnips before serving.

Makes two 1/2-cup servings.

Image: Nutrition Stuffed Mexican Chicken Breast

 

Image: Nutrition Riced Turnips with Chile

Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Recipes, Vegetarian

Fantastic Low Carb Veggie Chili

Photo: Low carb veggie chili

Ready for another meatless Monday? As the weather is turning cooler in my part of the world, I’m looking at a tricky beast to manage to make a low carb vegetables-only chili. While most of the root vegetables that give this dish some substance are lower in carbs than potatoes, the amount used to replace the meat option adds in quite a few carbohydrates into the overall dish.  So this offering checks in at a little under 11 net carbs per serving. If you only have 20 or 25 net carbs to spend, this could really push your limit. But if you plan for it, you can have a nearly 0 carb breakfast (omelet with cheese) and lunch (green salad with cucumber) to free up those carbs for the chili.

While this is a meatless option, it doesn’t lose any of the spicy and delicious chili flavor of the meat version. The vegetables are delicious with the butternut giving a hint of sweetness in the dish, and they are firm enough to satisfy.  If you want a short-cut on the seasonings, Mrs. Dash Chipotle Seasoning is very good and includes almost all of the spices listed. The Jalapeno seasoning is also good.

One other thing, this chili would work well as a filling for a meatless omelet and you would only need about 1/2 cup for it. Or make a burrito with a low carb tortilla and 1/2 cup of filling.

Low Carb Veggie Chile

1 3-1/2 oz. can Jalapeno chiles, chopped
1 15 oz. can Tomatoes with chile
1 cup Butternut Squash, cubed
1 cup Kohlrabi, cubed
1 cup Turnips, cubed
1 can Baby Corn, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup Onions, chopped
3 stalks Celery, chopped
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon Chili powder, or to taste
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 tablespoon dried Parsley or Cilantro
1 tablespoon dried Oregano
2 tablespoon chopped Basil
1 teaspoon Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Chop your butternut squash, kohlrabi, and turnips to about the same-size cubes. The bigger they are, the longer they will take to cook. If you can’t find kohlrabi, you can substitute in zucchini or cauliflower.

In a large pot, add oil and heat, then add garlic and onions and cook until they are fragrant. Add the chopped celery, stir, and cook about two minutes. Then add all the other ingredients except the pumpkin puree. Add enough water to just cover the vegetables.

Stir everything in the pot and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low cook, just above a simmer. Cover and cook for an hour. Check on the vegetables to see if they are fork-tender, If not, add more water if needed, then cook another 20 minutes. Test again. Check your seasonings. If you need more spice, add it now. If the vegetables are fork-tender, then add the pumpkin puree, stir in, cover, and cook another 10 to twenty minutes. The pumpkin will help thicken the chile.

Serve in bowls with a little cheddar jack cheese and sour cream if you wish.

Makes eight 1-cup servings. If you want a little fewer carbs, a 3/4-cup serving will bring the carb count down to 8.5 nc per serving.

Photo: Nutrition Information

Give this a try and let me know how you like it and/or any other ways to serve it.

Beef, Crock Pot Recipes, Main Dish, Product Review

Super Ground Beef Chile

This time of year just calls out “make chile” to me because nothing warms you up quite like a nice, spicy bowl of chile. Adding beans to it adds more carbs than I sometimes can allow in my daily menu, so I make an all meat chile. This version uses lean ground beef, which makes it quicker to make and bacon to add a little more flavor. The result is delicious. I’ve left the beans as optional if you want to use them.

6 slices Bacon
3 pounds lean Ground Beef
1 package Chili Seasoning
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) Diced Tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup diced Onions
2 teaspoons Garlic, minced
4 oz. can chopped Green Chiles
1 Bell Pepper, chopped
1 cup Medium Hot Salsa
1/2 cup Red Beans (optional)
1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Fry bacon strips in a large, deep skillet until almost crisp. Remove to paper towel to drain. Drain off fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan. Add garlic and onion and cook until the onion is almost tender. Add to the crock pot.

In the same skillet, brown the ground beef, but don’t cook all the way through. Drain fat. Add to the crock pot. Break the bacon into pieces and add to the crock pot. Add the diced tomatoes, salsa, chopped chiles, chile seasoning and cayenne pepper. Stir together to mix it well.

Cook on high for one hour, then reduce to low heat for 2 hours. Check seasonings and adjust if necessary, then cook for another 30 minutes with the lid off to thicken.

Serve with crumbled Queso Fresco and sour cream.

Makes 10 servings

Nutrition Info: (No beans) per serving
Calories: 240 Fat: 16.0 g Net Carbs: 5 g Protein: 14.4 g

Nutrition Info: (With beans) per serving
Calories: 251.4 Fat: 16.0 g Net Carbs: 6.3 g Protein: 15.1 g