Lemony Asparagus and Pasta Salad with Chicken

My little brother Derrick bought me the Preventions Cookbook years ago for Christmas. It is full of healthy recipes and it has earned it's spot on my bookshelf because of it's variety. I find it amusing that when Derrick first gave it to me, some of the recipes seemed daunting, or "scary" to prepare. Now I feel excited to try new things and much more confident than I did in the past, I guess it's all the practicing and experimenting that I have done over the past few years. One of my favorite recipes that I have adapted from this book is extremely easy to prepare. The original recipe is Lemony Asparagus and Pasta Salad, but since we always have to eat meat in our home, I make Lemony Asparagus and Pasta Salad with Chicken. This is one of Terry's favorite meals, and yes, he eats the asparagus!!

Lemony Asparagus and Pasta Salad with Chicken

Adapted from the Preventions Cookbook

8 oz penne pasta

1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut diagonally into 2-inch pieces

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized chunks

4 Tablespoons reduced-calorie mayonnaise

4 Tablespoons defatted chicken broth

2 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 oz shredded reduced fat sharp Cheddar cheese

¼ cup diagonally sliced scallions

Bring a large covered pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add pasta, cook according to directions.

About three minutes before the pasta is done, add the asparagus and cook until crisp tender.

Meanwhile, sprinke the chicken with salt and pepper and saute until cooked through.

Drain pasta and asparagus in a colander.

In a salad bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, broth, lemon juice, mustard, garlic and pepper.

Add the pasta and asparagus to mixture and toss to coat well, sprinkle with the Cheddar and the scallions.

Ingredients for Lemony Asparagus Pasta Salad with Chicken.

Chop Asparagus into 2 inch long pieces.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add pasta.

About 3 minutes before the pasta is done, add the asparagus.

Meanwhile sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and saute until cooked through.

Drain the pasta and asparagus.

Whisk together the mayo, chicken broth, lemon juice, mustard, garlic and pepper.

Add the pasta and asparagus to the chicken.

Pour the lemon sauce over the pasta mixture.

Sprinkle with the scallions.

Stir to coat pasta mixture with the sauce, serve and top with cheese.

Lemony Asparagus and Pasta Salad with Chicken is so flavorful. The combination of the lemon and the Dijon mustard is amazing. I used mostaccioli noodles because they have been hanging out in my pantry forever. They are not even whole wheat, which tells you how long they have been in there. I almost never make regular, white pasta, but I would hate to waste food. This dish works with any type of pasta and I have also added in other vegetables like zucchini to bulk it up in the past. The cheddar cheese is very important to the flavor, I forgot to buy it one evening and we noticed a definate difference. Lemony Asparagus and Pasta Salad with Chicken reheats well for lunches and it is a crowd pleaser in our home.

-Heather

Creamy Chili-Corn Soup with Chicken and Black Beans

It is important to me to have several dinners that can be thrown together quickly, but are still tasty and satisfying. Like most other households in America, fitting dinner into everyone's schedule is sometimes a daunting task. As I have written many times before on this blog, about once a month I bake up several pounds of Mexican spiced boneless skinless chicken breasts and freeze into meal sized servings. Creamy Chili-Corn Soup with Chicken and Black Beans by Pam Anderson uses my precooked chicken and comes together in about fifteen minutes. A huge thanks to TerriA a trusted member of the Cooking Light BB for suggesting this soup!

Creamy Chili-Corn Soup with Chicken and Black Beans
from The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight & Eating Great
by Pam Anderson

2 teaspoons vegetable or olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) creamed corn
1 can (14.5 ounces) petite diced tomatoes
1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth
1 can (15.5 ounces) black beans, drained
1 can (4 ounces) diced green chiles
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
Salt and ground black pepper

In a Dutch oven or soup kettle, heat oil and garlic over medium-high heat until garlic starts to sizzle. Add chili powder and cumin and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add corn, tomatoes, broth, beans, chiles and chicken. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer, partially covered, to blend flavors, about 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

377 calories per 2-cup serving

Ingredients, mostly pantry items, for Creamy Chili-Corn Soup with Chicken and Black Beans.

Heat oil and garlic until oil starts to sizzle in a soup pot or dutch oven.

Add chili powder and cumin, saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add in all canned ingredients.

Shred and add chicken to the soup.

Bring the soup to a boil, then down to a simmer, partially covered for five minutes.

Add cilantro to the soup and serve.

Pam Anderson's Creamy Chili-Corn Soup with Chicken and Black Beans is from her cookbook, The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Feeling Great. This soup is extremely flavorful and has a very generous serving size. It was quite spicy, but I could handle it, which means that most people would be able to as well. Pantry ingredients are heavily relied upon, which is nice when cooking last minute and in a hurry. I served Cooking Light's Corn Bread Bites on the side to make a complete meal. Both Terry and I really enjoyed this, and as with most soups, it was even better the next day for lunch. Creamy Chili-Corn Soup with Chicken and Black Beans is a great solution to a busy week night.

-Heather

Pete's Whole Wheat Bread

Sandwich bread isn't gone through as quickly at our house as it is in most homes. When we do eat sandwiches we often make pressed sandwiches on my Cuisinart Griddler (thanks for making me realize I had to have one Mom!!) After reading about all of the unpleasant additives in processed store bought bread, I decided to try to make my own. Because we eat it so infrequently, it seems like something that could be frozen and would not be a daunting task to replace. A search on the Cooking Light BB brought up a recipe posted by RecipeGirl. Pete's Whole Wheat Bread seemed to be a crowd favorite, so on a rainy afternoon, I gave it a try.

PETE’S WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
Source: “PeteFL” Cooking.com Forum

2 cups whole wheat flour, sifted
4 to 5 cups bread flour, sifted
2 Tbs granulated sugar
1½ tsp salt
1 Tbs yeast (a rounded Tablespoon)
2 ounces honey
1 2/3 cups water
2/3 cup milk
½ stick unsalted butter

1. In a large mixer bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, salt and yeast.

2. In a medium bowl, combine honey, milk, water and butter, and heat to 105 degrees in the microwave.

3. Stir liquids to melt the butter and add, all at once, to the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl.

4. With the dough hook installed on your stand mixer, mix dough. Add more flour by the Tablespoon, as needed, until the dough comes together and clears the bowl. Mix for 5 minutes with the dough hook and remove to counter surface.

5. Knead by hand until no longer sticky, adding flour as necessary.

6. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Remove from bowl and divide dough in half. Make each half into a 10 x 12 rectangle and roll each up like a cigar. Pinch the seams. Roll on the counter top to make a uniform log and place in an oiled breadpan seam-side up. Shake the roll to oil the bottom, turn the pan over, catch the dough and reinsert it into the pan, seam-side-down.

7. Return to warm place and let rise an additional 30 minutes or until at least 1 inch above the pan top. Bake in a preheated 400°F. oven for 25 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on rack.

Yield: 2 loaves

Cooking Tips
*To create a nice, warm place for your loaves to rise, turn on oven for 60 seconds and then turn it off. Turn the oven light on too. The temperature should be just about right for your loaves to rise nicely.
*If you do not plan to consume both loaves right away, they freeze beautifully. Wrap loaf with foil as soon as it comes out of the oven- just foil, nothing else- the wrapping-while-hot trick retains the moisture so when thawed it’s very fresh tasting.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients, including the butter in a microwave safe bowl.

Heat the wet ingredients to 105 degrees in the microwave.

Stir the liquids to melt the butter.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once into your mixing bowl.

Mix dough with your dough hook for five minutes.

The dough should form into a ball around the dough hook.

Prepare a lightly floured surface to kneed the dough.

Remove the dough from the dough hook.

Turn dough out onto the lightly floured surface.

Kneed by hand until no longer sticky.

Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Place into the oven and turn the oven on for for one minute, then turn it off and allow the the dough to rise in the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the oven, place back onto the lightly floured surface and divide into two.

Roll each piece of dough out into a 12 by 10 inch rectangle.

Begin to roll from the 10 inch side.

Roll into a cigar shape.

Pinch the ends of the dough together to seal.

Place the dough seam side up into a greased bread pan. Shake the dough to coat with oil.

Flip the dough over so it is seam side down.

Place loaves back into the warm oven for their final rise, 30 minutes, or until the loaves rise one inch above the edge of the loaf pans.

Once the loaves have risen, place them into a preheated 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Remove bread from the oven.

Place onto a wire rack to cool.

Baking bread is something that I would like to master, but realize realistically that this will take years. My first attempt at sandwich bread seemed to take all afternoon, but Pete's Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread was worth the wait. It seemed to take forever to rise for the second time, but finally it reached past the edge of the pan. Unfortunately, it deflated a bit when I took it out of the warm oven to heat it to 400 degrees. I blame this on the rainy day and the cold temperature of my house. Although the loaves were not as tall as I would have liked, the texture of the bread was light and airy. Terry and Jon ate an entire loaf with butter when they returned home from the UCLA basketball game. It's a good thing that Pete's Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread recipe makes two loaves! We have been enjoying the second loaf, making turkey and ham sandwiches. I will make this recipe again as soon as we run out of this last loaf.

-Heather

Seeded Crisp Crackers

We are big snackers at the Williams house and we love any kind of crackers. It seems like with the recent recession and grocery price hikes that crackers cost much more than they did before. Of course I still buy them, but I wanted to try to make some from scratch. The health benefits have also been a factor in my experimentation, because I can pick and choose the ingredients that go into them. I came across a thread on the Cooking Light message board that recommended Alton Brown's Seeded Crisps. I gave them a try last Friday night (yes, I am a wild woman, baking crackers instead of painting the town.) Terry ate each and every last one by Saturday afternoon.

Seedy Crisp Crackers

Alton Brown

Ingredients

• 5 ounces whole-wheat flour
• 4 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling
• 1/3 cup poppy seeds
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 1/2 ounces water

Directions

In a medium bowl whisk together both flours, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, salt, and baking powder. Add the oil and stir until combined. Add the water and stir to combine and create a dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 4 to 5 times. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

For a thin snacking cracker: On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 piece of dough to 1/16-inch and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. If there is room on the sheet pan, repeat with a second piece of dough. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 4 minutes then flip and bake for an additional 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. When cool, break into desired size pieces. Repeat procedure with remaining dough.

For a thicker dipping cracker: On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough as above but to 1/8-inch thick. Bake for 6 minutes on the first side, then flip and bake another 4 to 6 minutes.

For super even thickness and easy rolling: Roll out using a lightly floured pasta roller. Flatten the dough until it will pass through the first setting and go to the highest number that your pasta roller will allow without tearing the dough. Bake according to the thin cracker instructions.

Note: Baking times will vary depending on exact thickness of dough and oven temperature, so watch them closely. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Combine the dry ingredients, including the seeds.

Stir in the olive oil and mix.

Add in the water and stir to combine.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, kneed 4 or 5 times with lightly floured hands.

Divide the dough into 8 equal sections.

Cover with a towel and let rest 15 minutes.

Remove the towel and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Working with one section at a time, roll the dough as thin as possible, use extra flour if it is too sticky.

Transfer as many pieces of rolled out dough as you can fit onto a parchment lined baking pan.

Bake on the middle row of the oven for 4 minutes.

Remove the Seeded Crisps from the oven.

Flip each crisp over and return to the oven for 2-3 minutes.

Remove crisps from the oven.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Alton Brown's Seeded Crisps were SOOO good. They tasted better than any store bought crackers that we have had. I wanted my crackers to be very crispy, so I baked them a few minutes longer than called for in the recipe, monitoring them closely to see that they did not burn. Because I did not have any poppy seeds, I used 2/3 of a cup of sesame seeds, the flavor was strong, but not overwhelming. I read many reviews of this recipe on Food Network's web page and some thought that these crackers were too salty. I thought they had just the right amount of salt. These crackers can be broken into irregular smaller pieces, which I think is nice because you can tell that they are homemade, they are a bit rustic looking. Seeded Crisps can also be cut into perfect shapes before transferring to the parchment paper for a more uniform look. We topped these with cream cheese, and I plan on making some vegetable cream cheese in the future to compliment these crackers. These will surely be repeated often, and will have to be, in order to keep up with the rapid pace that they were eaten.

-Heather