Header

For a few years now, we’ve had our eye on chicken casserole – that quintessential stick-to-your-ribs comfort food made with rich ingredients like cream of chicken soup – longing to give it a healthy makeover.  Why we didn’t get our dietitian paws on this recipe until now is a mystery, but when Jennifer C. a mom of two from Jackson, MI sent us her grandmother’s recipe for Chicken & Almond Casserole and asked us to make it over, we were suddenly motivated into Recipe Rescue action.

Laurie mixing topping

The original recipe called for chicken, celery, mayonnaise, a can of cream of chicken soup, hard boiled eggs, slivered almonds, minced onions, cracker crumbs, and yes, you guessed it, potato chips.  “I didn’t love the combination of the mayo, soup, eggs, cracker crumbs, and chips,” Jennifer told us.  “And besides, the kids and I don’t like cooked celery.”  What Jennifer did like were the almonds and the fact that this recipe was something she found in her grandmother’s old recipe box.

Jennifer assembling ingredients

Sean grinding the flaxseeds

Jennifer’s New Year’s resolution was to feed her family a healthier diet.  “We’re busy and crazy and I was falling into the pattern of eating out or making convenience foods for the family.  I decided that I had to do better for my kids.”  To help Jennifer meet her goal of eating out less and cooking more budget-minded meals at home, we turned her old-time recipe into a dish any modern-day mom would rave about.

For our Recipe Rescue, we switched from celery to broccoli – definitely more kid friendly, used a light canola mayonnaise for some heart-healthy omega-3 fats, and chose an all-natural cream of chicken soup to cut some of the sodium and fat from the original recipe. We also created a super-yummy topping (we’re not kidding, this topping rocks) with fluffy, flaky Japanese panko breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, ground flaxseed, and finely chopped almonds. By adding the almonds to the topping vs. mixing in a handful of slivered or sliced, we kept the great nutrition (almonds are rich in cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fat) without freaking the kids out (let’s face it, some kids can’t handle “lumps”).

Ready to enjoy the Recipe Rescue!

The entire family loved mom’s dinner.  When Jennifer asked ten-year old Laurie if she liked it, she replied, “Mom, did you think I wouldn’t?!”  Even eight-year old Sean, known to be picky at times, ate it, though he preferred the broccoli and crunchy topping over the actual chicken.  Jennifer told us that she loves to cook and plans on making our Recipe Rescue again and again. Now that’s what we call success!

Chicken & Broccoli Casserole with Crunchy Almond Topping

Makes 5 to 6 Servings

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, baked and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 2 ½ cups) *
• 2 ½ to 3 cups small broccoli florets
• One 14.5-ounce can ready-to-serve all-natural cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (we like Health Valley)
• 1/3 cup light canola mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup almonds, very finely chopped (in a food processor or on a cutting board)
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Place the broccoli florets in a steamer basket and steam until crisp tender, about 3 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the soup and the mayonnaise until well combined.  Add the chicken and broccoli and stir gently to combine.  Place in a 2-quart baking dish and set aside.
3. To make the topping, mix together the almonds, breadcrumbs, flaxseed and Parmesan cheese.  Spread evenly over the chicken mixture.
4. Bake until the mixture bubbles and the topping turns golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Serve over rice, pasta, or noodles.

* To cook the chicken, place in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350°F until the meat is cooked through and no longer pink in the center, 35 minutes.

Nutrition Information per Serving:   240 calories, 12g fat (2g saturated, 1.2g omega-3), 430mg sodium, 11g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 21g protein, 25% vitamin A, 60% vitamin C

If recipes like “Mom, the House Smells Great” Roasted Chicken and Lazy-Day Beef & Vegetable Soup sound like they would hit the spot on a cold winter’s day, then be sure to tune into this week’s Cooking with the Moms radio podcast show on Hearty Winter Dinners.

The roasted chicken was featured in our cookbook, The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers, and is surprisingly easy. Your house will definitely smell great when you make this dish, and your kids will definitely ask for seconds. Our simple beef and veggie soup is chock-full of great nutrition and is brimming with rich flavors. The stew meat — which cooks for hours in the slow cooker — melts in your mouth, and as Liz likes to say, “it’s like butt-ah.”  She’s from New York, so she can get away with that!

We hope you enjoy listing to the show as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Don’t you just love it when you cook up a healthy recipe that makes everyone at your dinner table happy? Tacos are one of those tried-and-true favorites that elicit nothing but compliments from our kids. So last week, we took the ingredients from our Have-It-Your-Way Tacos – lean ground beef, black beans, cheese, and salsa – and used them in a new recipe for Black Bean & Beef Tortilla Pie. The inspiration for the recipe came from Everyday Food, so we can’t take all the credit for the idea!

So here’s the back story: Initially, when we tested the recipe, we decided to make it vegetarian by using meat-free grounds (they’re made from soy). But after making the pie not once but twice, we decided we weren’t crazy about the flavor of the grounds in this dish. Maybe it was one too many bites that put us over the edge, so we decided to use lean ground beef instead. If you’re a vegetarian, by all means, substitute the beef with the soy grounds (don’t let our little “issue” dissuade you).

Black Bean & Beef Tortilla Pie

Makes 6 Servings

• Four 10-inch flour tortillas
• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% or higher)
• One 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup salsa (we like mild)
• 1/2 cup corn kernels (canned, frozen or fresh)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives, optional

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Trim the tortillas with kitchen scissors or a paring knife to fit a 9-inch springform pan (use the removable bottom of the pan as a guide). Assemble pan with the bottom upside down. Lightly coat the bottom and sides with nonstick cooking spray and set aside
2. Cook the beef in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, breaking up the large pieces, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Drain excess fat.
3. Add the beans, salsa, corn, cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder and stir to combine.
4. Place one tortilla in the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread with a third of the beef mixture, then 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat with two more layers. Top with the last tortilla, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and the olives as desired.
5. Bake until the top is lightly browned and the cheese melts, about 15 minutes. Run knife around edge of pan and remove sides. Cut into wedges using a serrated knife (we like to serve with reduced-fat sour cream and/or guacamole).

Nutrition Information per Serving 360 calories, 12g fat (6g saturated), 770mg sodium, 35g carbohydrate, 5g fiber, 32g protein, 10% vitamin A, 35% calcium, 20% iron

If you like to use beans in your recipes (which, by the way, are technically a vegetable), you may like some of these:

Black Bean Vegetarian Burgers from Super Healthy Kids.

Gnocchi with White Beans and Pesto from The Toddler Cafe

Polenta Bean Pies from What’s Cooking

If you try our fun Tortilla Pie for dinner, let us know what you and your kids think of it.

Just because a recipe may look sophisticated or fancy doesn’t mean kids — even the chicken nugget, mac & cheese-loving ones out there — won’t want to eat it.  Last week while surfing a blog called ChocolateAndZucchini, I found a recipe for Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin, posted on October 7th.  Since pork tenderloin is my absolute favorite cut of pork (it’s lean, tender, mild in flavor and easy to cook) I was drawn to this particular dish.  My initial thought when scanning the ingredients was:  “Carolyn’s gonna love it but Leah, no way!”  Well, I’m happy to report that my opinioned 9-year old with her unpredictable palate devoured every bite.  In fact, after her first helping she replied enthusiastically “More steak please!”   

Though this recipe definitely featured what some might consider “adult” flavors — white wine vinegar, garlic, rosemary — Leah still loved it.  I did make a few minor tweaks to this recipe.  Instead of the juice of two oranges (which I did not have), I used about 3/4 cup orange juice.  And since I didn’t have any crème fraîche on hand, I used light sour cream.  By the way, on the side, we enjoyed mashed potatoes and roasted acorn squash. All around, I’d consider this a successful — and nutritious — family meal. 

We would love to hear some of your “adult food” success stories.  Have your kids ever surprised you by gobbling up a food you thought they would reject?  Do they routinely request a recipe that you thought was for “adults only?  We’re always on the lookout for new ideas so post your recipes and stories now!

~Janice

Imagine a hearty, nutritious, kid-friendly dinner entree that costs just $2.50 per serving. If a recipe with all those attributes sounds too good to be true, then read this blog post! Recently, we found a website called www.MakingLifeBetter.com featuring budget-conscious recipes. There, we noticed a dish for skillet pasta & beef dinner which we decided to cook for lunch today. Since Leah (Janice’s 9-year old) was home from school, she offered to be our official taste tester. Thanks Leah!

In the spirit of full disclosure, we must admit that we couldn’t resist the urge to tweak the recipe just a tad. We added a finely diced red bell pepper, used lean ground beef (look for 90% lean or higher), a whole wheat blend pasta (whole wheat can be a bit of an overachievement so we compromise with the whole wheat blends from Barilla Plus … plus they’re really delish), and switched to part skim mozzarella.

The dish was incredibly easy to make and a definite winner as far as Leah was concerned. She actually gave us a really cool idea: For kids who pick out and eat the pasta first, you can use the savory meat sauce like a sloppy Joe and add it to a whole wheat hot dog or hamburger bun.

Skillet Pasta & Beef Dinner

Makes 5 Servings

• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced (about 1 cup)
• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% or higher)
• One 26-ounce jar pasta sauce (we like Light Ragu Tomato & Basil)
• 2 cups water
• 8 ounces dried whole wheat blend rotini (we like Barilla Plus)
• 1 cup preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 4 ounces)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, optional

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 5 minutes
2. Add the meat and cook, breaking up the large pieces, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Drain excess fat.
3. Stir in the pasta sauce and water, raise the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Stir in the pasta and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Cover and let stand until the cheese melts, 5 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese as desired.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 410 calories, 10g fat (4g saturated, 0.3g omega-3), 620mg sodium, 46g carbohydrate, 6g fiber, 34g protein, 35% vitamin A, 70% vitamin C, 25% calcium, 15% iron

On a final note, our November 12 Cooking with the Moms radio podcast will feature the topic of Healthy Eating on a Budget so stay tuned.

Liz & Janice

In today’s Cooking with the Moms radio podcast, our featured topic, Back-to-School Brain Food, highlights the importance of feeding kids a delicious array of foods rich in omega-3 fats, iron, and zinc — all important for brain health. Be sure to listen in as we share two family favorites, Teriyaki Salmon in Foil and Szechuan Beef Stir-Fry. Also tune in to hear our 9-year old guest, Simon (Liz’s son), talk about clever ways to get kids to eat their veggies and to learn about his latest food jag: quesadillas. Here’s a recipe Simon asks for when he’s having a quesadilla craving: