Chicken Pot Pie (a la Nik)

Any way you slice it, this dish doesn't photograph well. So what are you gonna do?

EAT IT!!!

What is it? Oh, yeah well there is that. This...my friends, is chicken pot pie a la Nik. It takes every bit as yummy (dare I say yummier?) than that Banquet stuff but it's nutritionally beneficial.

FOR THE CARB POLICE: there is a minimal amount of potato in this. Just a little. But I'm sorry. I got better things to do with my time than pick potatoes out of a can of mixed veggies. Besides, potatoes are not the devil. Brocolli/Cheese sauce, bacon, full-fat sour cream and the like are! (Kidding)

Chicken Pot Pie a la Nik

Ingredients:

For Pie:

Two 6 oz. chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 small onion diced
2 cans mixed vegetables, drained and rinsed
1 jar Heinz fat-free chicken gravy
Salt and pepper to taste

For Crust:
1 cup Carbquik
2 tablespoons Blue Bonnet Light
3/4 c. skim milk
1/2 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
Directions:
1. Spray a pan with cooking spray and cook chicken until done through, seasoning lightly.
2. Transfer chicken to a casserole dish and then sautee mixed veggies in chicken leavings.
3. Combine chicken and veggies and mix in chicken gravy thoroughly.
4. In a bowl combine all crust ingredients except cheese. Mix well. Add cheese and mix again.
5. Spread Carbquik mixture over chicken mixture in an even layer.
6. Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes and serve hot!
I say eat this when you are sick because it is the epitome of comfort food--without the guilt! The Carbquik has so few carbs, the gravy is fat free, the chicken is lean and you've rinsed a good deal of the sodium off the canned veggies. Quick, hella tasty, and healthy--THAT my friends is comfort food. Food you feel comfortable eating.

Not your mama's french fry...

Ok...so here's the thing about carbs. You can't avoid them. Why? Because your body uses every nutrient you take in for some purpose. In our former lives maybe we didn't move so much so our body used it to store as fat for a "rainy day." Nowadays, maybe we move a little more and our bodies use it for quick energy.

Newbies, pay attention to the following phrase: with starches, the ONLY way to achieve low-carb is to have lots of fiber. This bears repeating: with starches the ONLY way to achieve low-carb status is to increase the fiber. Food companies are not your friend with the nutrition labels. They use words such as "100% whole grain" and "low-carb" very liberally. Check the label. If it has 30g of carbs but only 2g of fiber...it ain't low carb even if it says it is 100% "whole grain." Yes, whole grains are better for you. They burn slower than white carbs, but they are still carbs and should be budgeted accordingly.

All that being said, we need carbs but we ESPECIALLY need fiber. I don't get enough most days but I'm working on it, slowly but surely. The above is a yummy way I seek to achieve fiber.

Raise your hand if you've been to a restaurant and had the fried zucchini? (raises hand) It was gooooood wasn't it? It was nice and yummy and salty and crunchy and all the things that are wonderful about fried foods. Well...this recipe is not that. Because fried in a restaurant always means more fat than you want to take for the amount of calories.

So, here's what I make. I like it because I can get my kids involved in the making (kids love dredging for some reason...) and at the end of it you have several yummy snacks that you can bag up for your lunch box.

Nik's interpretation of "fried" zucchini
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 small zucchini, sliced into strips that are about a quarter of an inch thick and 1.5-2 inches long
1/2 c. Fiber One twig cereal pulverized
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. soy flour
salt, pepper, season all
2 egg whites

Directions:

1. Combine soy flour, salt, pepper, and season all and put on a plate

2. Combine crushed cereal and parmesan and set on another plate

3. Beat egg whites slightly and then set in a bowl

4. Dry zucchini strips with a paper towel then dredge in flour, egg, cereal. Repeat egg and cereal if you do not get good coverage

5. Lay out on a sprayed cookie sheet then bake at 375 for about 15 minutes

With these I like to have some sort of dipping sauce. My current favorite is bacon ranch. This can be done one of two ways:

Quickie method: combine 2 tbsp of lowfat ranch dressing with 1 tbsp imitation bacon bits
More involved method: mix a container of unflavored Greek yogurt with dry ranch mix to make up a batch of dressing. Mix 2 tbsp of that with 1 tbsp imitation bacon bits (this method has more protein than the quickie version)

So there you have it...this snack does NOT boast great protein numbers but it is one way to get your fiber and a serving of your vegetables for the day, which is important!

Newbies!

Y'all damn near broke my camera! Seriously! I tried three times to do the newbie video and my camera when apeshit. So I have to take a short hiatus from the cooking show. I plan to put up a short PSA-style vid this week but the longer ones...well they probably should be shorter anyway but even so anything longer than 5 minutes is going to take a while.

Bear with me through these technical difficulties.

What I was going to show you were some neat things you could do to get protein in when you are early out. One very easy way to get in good protein when you can only eat soft stuff is by eating greek yogurt. Now I cannot tell you how many folks I've seen on the boards who excitedly bought Greek yogurt (unflavored like good lil' boys and girls), tasted it and...HATED IT!

Some advice...never eat plain Greek yogurt without anything else...unless, that is, you like eating sour cream by itself because that's what it'll taste like.

So for your consideration I'd like to present..."Nik's Top 5 Super-Easy, Super-Fast" things to do with Greek yogurt (in no particular order):

1. Mix it with a bit of Splenda and sugar free syrup and throw some fresh blueberries on top
2. Mix with PB2 and Splenda for yummy peanut butter yogurt!
3. Mix a container with onion soup mix to use as a veggie dip
4. Mix with some ketchup and mustard to make French dressing
5. Throw it on top of my breakfast tostada, Mexican omelette, taco salad, etc. and use it as sour cream!!!

So the videos, God-willing, will be back next week. Stick with me please!