Alice Springs Chicken

Are you surprised to see a new post?  This is what preschool can do for a mom.  It's a free two hours a few days a week.  FREE MOM TIME!!! In order to ensure I stay productive during this newly found free time, I have set a goal to post a recipe every week.

Part of my incentive for this is since I have stopped posting, we had a child diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  In an effort to feed her better, we measure, calculate, and ultimately search for as many healthy low carb recipes as we can find so when we are enjoying brownies and ice cream or a birthday cake, we can balance her better.  The good news is this is an all around better thing for the whole family. The bad news is, I didn't plan properly the fact this meant I needed to take photos for the recipe post this week.  But alas, you are in luck, because the recipes I am posting have come from other magnificent recipe sources.

So today's feature you are going to absolutely LOVE.  It  is an Alice Springs Chicken copycat recipe.  If you have never had this delightful dish from the Outback Steakhouse, you have no idea why a copycat recipe would be so exciting.  We have made this for company, my parents, my in-laws, and it's one that we are asked to make again and again.   It is gluten free as written, so that's another plus.  I'm linking you back to her recipe.  It is amazing and she is not kidding when she says the sauce is perfect!

We pretty much follow the recipe as is with some minor adjustments.  We have a large family, so we double the sauce, make a 9x13 pan with about 8 chicken breast halves cut in half.  Why you may ask?  Well, most half breasts weigh in around 6-7 ounces. 3 ounces of chicken is plenty for the little ones, and if an adult wants six ounces of chicken, he or she takes two.  It's easier than having a half eaten breast on the plate.  Second, we have picky kids, so one pan is made without mushrooms.  I have found when doing this there is a lot less moisture in the pan.  To help counteract this issue we do not reserve any of the sauce.  Half goes over each 9x13 dish.  We also add the cheese the last ten minutes of cooking.

As far as freezer meals are concerned, the only thing we do is cut the chicken and freeze it.  The mushrooms have such a high water content I'm not sure how they would hold up after freezing.  Regardless, ones the chicken has been trimmed and cut, throwing the meal together is really just a matter of minutes.  We've been known to have this meal on the table in 45 minutes including the time it takes to preheat the oven. Enjoy!

Just in case there are ever any problems with the link, here is the recipe from The Dinner Mom.  Check her out!

Alice Springs Chicken

• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Seasoning Salt
• 1 cup Honey Mustard Sauce (recipe below)
• 4 slices bacon, cooked
• 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese,Colby jack or cheese substitute, shredded

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Layer mushrooms in the bottom of a baking dish.
3. Add chicken and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
4. Top with bacon and about ¾ of the honey mustard sauce. Reserve about ¼ of the sauce to serve on the side (the reserved sauce should never touch raw chicken.)
5. Sprinkle cheese over the top.
6. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

 

Honey Mustard Sauce

• ¾ cup mayonnaise or vegan substitute
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

Use beaters to mix mayonnaise, honey and Dijon mustard until well-combined.

Chicken Cordon Bleu...in a Crockpot

Okay, so I wasn't so creative with the side dishes.  In my defense we arrived home from one of the girl's softball game at almost 6:00 p.m. and I was mainly concerned with getting dinner on the table.  However, since I haven't posted this recipe before we get the canned veggie side dishes and the egg noodles that cook up in seven minutes.

My kids ALL liked this, and with five sets of varying taste buds that is a huge accomplishment.  This started as a freezer meal that was thawed completely by allowing it two days in the fridge.  We knew in advance we had some crazy scheduling this week, but I understand that doesn't always make a great freezer meal for some families.  With the cheese in the chicken I'm not sure how a microwave defrost would affect the overall taste and texture and don't recommend it.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts fileted
4 large slices of swiss cheese
4 large, thin slices of ham
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk

Filet the chicken breasts in half to yield 6 long thin pieces.  I am not a top notch chef so mine do not end up in equal sizes.  This isn't a problem in my family as the kids usually want a smaller portion anyway, but it is something to note if you need to increase the number of chicken breasts you are using.  Layer 1/2 of a ham slice and 1/2 of a slice of swiss cheese on each piece of chicken lengthwise.  Roll each piece of chicken with the ham and cheese on the inside and secure with a toothpick.

To freeze, place the rolled chicken in a freezer bag.  I double bagged mine because of the toothpicks.  I don't know if this was necessary, but I was concerned of puncturing through the freezer bag.  It wasn't so much freezer burn as I knew it was only in the freezer for the month as much as the concern of the raw chicken juices leaking while the chicken thawed...


Freezer bag label: Thaw completely, place in crockpot and cover with 1 can cream of chicken soup mixed with 1/2 cup milk.  Cook on low in crockpot 4 -5 hours.

If you choose not to freeze this, place the chicken in a crockpot and cover with the cream of chicken soup mixed with milk.  Cook on low in the crockpot  4 - 5 hours.  If you have a small crockpot you can teepee the chicken so they are all in a single layer.

Please remember crockpot cooking times typically assume your crockpot is 1/2 - 2/3 full.  The chicken may dry out if you have a seven quart crockpot and are only cooking 8 pieces of chicken.

Lettuce Wraps

First, let me just say I have never been to PF Chang's.  With that said, I know this is a copycat recipe, and for any PF Chang fans out there, I apologize in advance if this does not resemble the real thing.  HOWEVER, even if this doesn't resemble theirs, my family finds this worth making.  This is not a leftover meal.  I froze a little the last time we made them, and I'll be defrosting it within the next week to let you know how it holds up as a freezer meal.  You won't be freezing the lettuce of course.

The page I picked up the recipe from is Wasabimon.com.

Did I do anything different?  Yes, but only because I was using what I had, not because of any culinary insight.  I used regular sesame seed oil, and the dijon mustard I had was not the "good stuff" but a store brand.  Also, I did not have fresh lemons, so I did use lemon juice from my fridge.  The verdict...they were still AMAZING.  We had no leftovers either time I have made them.  The only reason I was able to put some to the freezer test is because I put it in the freezer before we started eating.  Even if I can only freeze the cut chicken ahead of time this recipe is staying as a regular in our house.  If for any reason the link doesn't work let me know and I'll send you over the recipe I have printed from the website.

By the way...this has moved so high up our favorites list it is what I requested for my Mother's Day dinner...the bad news - I think I'm prepping it today. Such is life.

Chicken and Potatoes...on the lighter side.

The weather is warming, and it's time to face the reality a swimsuit may have to worn this summer.  In an effort to do so, I tried to find some new recipes that were a little less on the calorie count.  I found this amazing website, Skinnytaste, that I am now in love with.  We tried her recipe for Baked Chicken with Dijon and Lime tonight.  It was absolutely amazing.  Because I have a family of seven, I did increase the chicken from 8 pieces to 12.  The younger kids only ate one piece each, so it was plenty and the hubby even has two pieces for lunch tomorrow.  I was worried about the salt generously part, so I used about a half tablespoon of sea salt.  I also forgot to press the garlic clove into the sauce before I tossed the chicken, so I pressed garlic and spread it around on top of the chicken thighs in the pan.  It worked great.

As a side I roasted potatoes.  My kids love the onion soup mix roasted potatoes, but again, there's a ton of sodium in the package, and it calls for three tablespoons of oil.  This was our homemade lighter version:




Oven Roasted Potatoes
4 pounds red potatoes, washed and cut into 1 - 2" pieces
4 teaspoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons dry minced onion
2 teaspoons garlic
1 teaspoon salt



Preheat oven to 400
Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.


Mix together dry ingredients.
Toss the potato pieces in the olive oil.
Add dry ingredients and toss until coated.
Spread evenly in greased pan.
Bake 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender when poked with a fork.  To brown the potatoes, after the 40 minutes I turned to broiler on high, leaving the pan on the center rack, and left them in the oven about five more minutes. DELICIOUS!!!



Okay, this is where I made my fatal mistake.  I have garlic, fresh garlic, I don't know why I opted for the granulated, but I did.  I will make it next time with the fresh garlic and let you know how things go.


Using a recipe calculator online I came up with the following nutritional information.  Please remember this is and online tool, not a science lab...



Serves 10 (I think we got closer to twelve even servings from the pan, but I didn't measure exactly so I'm erring high on the calorie count)

Calories	151.9
Total Fat	2.1 g
Saturated Fat	0.3 g
Sodium	243.8 mg
Carbohydrates	29.9 g
Fiber	3.2 g
Protein	3.6 g

To top the meal off we served steamed broccoli. It was wonderful, and I'm excited to see if we can make the chicken as a freezer meal!  Wish us luck.

Stir Fry, home cooking made easy

Okay, so this is not a recipe post, but to show that even we have our nights of cheating.  They sell a bag of stir fry veggies at Sam's Club.  Everything in one bag, it comes with two sauce packets, and my kids like bits and pieces of what's included...Craig and I like the whole thing.  We knew yesterday was a cook dinner as fast as you can night, which in our house means stir fry night.  Now, I do like to add a little protein in the mix, so we customize ours.



We take the bag of veggies, divide it into two gallon size ziploc freezer bags.  Add one of the sauce packets to the bag.  Then, when we are cooking chicken for the rest of the freezer meals, Craig cuts a couple chicken breasts for stir fry, throws them in their own quart size freezer bag and we put it inside the gallon size ziploc with the veggies and sauce.



Yesterday the bag was thawed and two cups of rice later...dinner was on the table.  Now, in case you have never cooked stir fry before, you want to cook the chicken first, we use a little sesame seed oil, or a small amount of olive oil and a little soy sauce.  After the chicken is done, remove from the pan and cook the veggies.  They will cook for three - five minutes.  Return the chicken to the pan and add the sauce. 

The moral of the story....A home cooked meal doesn't always have to be fancy.  Freezer meal cooking doesn't mean it always has to be cooked by you.  And the most important thing is you have a plan.  All your family really cares about is that you are at the dinner table together.