Mama Foodie's "Chicken & Rice" Remixed

When I was little and it snowed outside, my mom would always make us "Chicken & Rice." Even in the years before she died every so often she'd call me up and say, "Nikki, I made some chicken & rice. Come over and have some."

Here's my food memory of the dish.

Looking back, it usually followed my mom cooking a whole chicken. After we had it for dinner she'd let it sit in the fridge for a few days so we could make chicken sandwiches and chicken salad. Then she'd retrieve the carcass and make chicken & rice. Somehow in my memories this always coincided with snow or freezing temperatures.

Chicken & Rice was an interesting concoction. It put to use whatever spare veggies my mom had and she always boiled the chicken until it was beyond tender, almost like little threads of delicious meat. And there was always pepper. Lots and lots of black pepper, just as all my mother's dishes had because she loved pepper so much.

Anyway, we recently got some winter weather in Baltimore and, being the holidays, I miss my mom something awful. So in her honor I set out to make a healthier version of this dish, both because I am passionate about healthy comfort food and because it makes me feel just a little bit closer to her.

The version I made was indeed comforting and I think it'd be a good meal for those on soft foods or just starting out with meat. So from Mama Foodie to me to you. Enjoy.

Mama Foodie's (Remixed) Chicken & Rice
(# of servings varies. For my 5 year-old pouch this makes about 6 servings)
Ingredients:

• 4 cups of an assortment of chopped veggies of your choosing (In mine is a large onion, chopped, half a HUGE zuchhini, diced and about half of an eggplant diced. For newer pouches you might want to stick to squash as it gets very soft.)
• Either the remnants of one chicken carcass (meaning there's still good meat on there but nobody feels like picking it off) or 2 large chicken breasts (HINT: try my post-op meat marinating technique to make sure your meat gets super tender!)
• 1/2 of: salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder + 1 bay leaf
• 3 c. water
• 1 can lowfat cream of mushroom soup
• A batch of cauliflower rice (newbies, do not eat unless you are cleared for cruciferous veggies)

Directions:

Spray a large pot down with nonstick cooking spray and sautee veggies until tender. 

Add chicken carcass or chicken, along with water and spices and turn the burner to low (if you have an electric oven, like a 2 or 3 setting) and allow it to cook one hour. 

If using chicken carcass, remove the bones (the meat should have fallen off on its own) and discard. If using chicken breasts, pull meat apart with two forks. Taste and adjust seasonings as you see fit but remove the bay leaf.

Add soup and stir then simmer over low heat for an additional 15-20 minutes.

Serve over cauliflower rice.

You can also just throw the sauteed veggies, chicken, water, spices and soup in your crockpot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Works basically the same, I just didn't feel like hauling out my crockpot!

This is warm and comforting and tastes just like mom used to make but just a little bit healthier.

Nikki's Quickie Salisbury Steak & "Rice"

Ok so can I just say Salisbury steak is REALLY hard to photograph??? It all looks like gravy and mush!

This is the story of how these simple turkey burgers became heroes.

You see...it was late evening on a weekday. My evening ran late. The kids were hungry (and whiny) and frankly I was already feeling like a bad mom so I really didn't want to add fast food guilt to the mix. So I came home and whipped up a dinner so good it even surprised me.

It didn't occur to me until after I'd made it that this might be a good recipe for my Foodies who don't like big batch recipes. I hear that from you guys all the time and I've been working on it...honestly I have! It's hard because with two kids and a small food budget I sort of have to cook in big batches (and freeze things) in order to make ends meet. But this one was easy, yummy and a reasonable size. Winning!

Now I need you to follow me on this one. It goes a few places you wouldn't expect but the result is yummy!

Nikki's Quickie Salisbury Steak and "Rice"
(Makes 2 servings...or more depending on your pouch space)

Ingredients

• Non-stick cooking spray
• 1 large onion, sliced into rings 
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 turkey burgers (as you can see, I used Jennie-O)
• 1.5 - 2 c. beef broth (yes beef...and how much you use depends on how much gravy you want to end up with)
• 1/4 c. Atkins Baking Mix (or if you don't have any, whole wheat flour works too)
• 1/4 c. cold water
• 1 c. frozen cauliflower florets + 2 c. water for boiling (or, if you have it lying around, a cup of cauliflower rice)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Spray down a pan and heat it over medium heat until hot. Add onions and sautee until they are slightly browned. Add garlic and sautee about 2 minutes more.

Add the burgers to the pan and then cover the meat/onions with beef broth. Cover and allow the burgers to cook in the broth over medium-low heat.

Meanwhile, set a small pot of water over medium heat to boil your cauliflower florets. Once the water is boiling, add florets and allow to thoroughly cook. 

When the burgers are done, remove them from the gravy. In a cup, mix together baking mix/water (and please...make sure the water is COLD! If not the gravy will clump).

 Allow the broth in the pan to come to a boil (increase heat if necessary) then add the baking mix/water mixture with one hand while whisking with the other. Continue to whisk until the mixture is incorporated. You'll know it is incorporated when two things happen. #1 - the mixture will lighten in color and #2 - it will immediately thicken.

(I should give a warning here. The Atkins Mix has an interesting "smell" to it. It's not stinky. Just...different. It doesn't show up in the taste but until it is something I notice. But the food still tastes good. If you are sensitive to smells, I'd go with the whole wheat flour alternative.)

Once the sauce has thickened, add the burgers back in, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. You'll notice the gravy has a grit look to it...this is not because of clumping of the flour but bits of the burger that come off into the sauce which, to me, makes it even better because it is MOIST! But to prove there ARE actually burgers in all that gravy, lookit:

Meet Orange Plate...our newest cast member. I got the budget to hire orange plate after the unfortunate death of jade casserole dish. May the dish rest in peace.

So anyhoo...the kids INHALED this dinner! And I felt good about what I gave them. As an added bonus, I made a turkey burger (which I can tolerate) taste like beef (which isn't so easy for me to tolerate). So to me it's a win/win!