Liz's Cuban Chicken Chili

~~by Jen



A big bowl of deliciousness



Here’s a fun fact! I am one of those weird people (yes, thank you for noticing) who has more than one person I consider my “BFF.” In fact, I have four, and two of them even have the same name!

One of my two friends named Liz is a non-op, but we were friends long before I considered WLS. She’s known by my other BFF’s as “The Cuban”, the very same one who inspired my “Havana Heaven” recipe.

Liz has been very supportive of me throughout this journey and she always makes sure to have healthier food options for me at her house when I come over. The best part is she’s considerate of what I need without being the food police, if that makes sense. Plus she thinks she is my Mom, even though I am 5 years older, so she takes it upon herself to text me notes like "Did you have enough protein today?" Ever helpful!

She and I work together for a utility company, and we were both working Christmas Eve day before I spent the holiday with her family. Liz very considerately texted me and told me not to bring lunch to work, she had made something for us and was bringing it in.

After the first bite of this, I KNEW I had to get the recipe. She laughed when I asked her for it, and pretty soon I understood why! This is one of those completely easy, super delicious meals you will make over and over again for yourself and your family. It's loaded with protein and fiber, and the perfect warm up on a cold winter's day.

Here’s how it’s done:

Liz’s Cuban Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 jar mild salsa

Shredded Mexican blend cheese and Greek yogurt, optional for garnish

Directions:

Add all ingredients to your 4 or 5 quart crockpot. Cook on low for 7 or 8 hours. I shredded the chicken in mine once it was done, but you could leave it in chunks if you prefer.

Top with shredded cheese, and some Greek Yogurt if you like the “sour cream” effect. Dig in!

If chicken isn’t your friend, this would be delicious with ground turkey or beef, or with steak tips or stew beef like I use in my “Practically Famous Chili.” If you want to go meatless, just increase the beans (maybe double them) and add some TVP like Nik does in her Turkey & TVP Chili.

The possibilities are endless!

This is really scrumptious as nachos topping too!

Recipe Remix: Chicken Quesadilla Pizza

~~by Jen

So we're expecting another big snowstorm in NJ starting tonight. I work for a utility company in my "day job," so I am considered an "essential" employee. That means I get to go to work, snow or no snow. We're told to always bring a change of clothes and extra food when big snow storms are predicted, that way if we have to stay at the office at least we're prepared.

I deliberately didn't melt this cheese, since this is my lunch for work today. 

Of course I didn't have time for grocery-palooza, so I had to get some extra things together from what I had on hand. Luckily the RV (resident vegetarian) loves loves LOVES my Cowboy Caviar, so I had a big bowl of that on hand. I also had some Arnold Multigrain Flatbread thins (perfect pizza crust!) and some leftover chicken. You know what I did, right? I played with my food! The result? This scrumptious Chicken Quesadilla pizza!

I made a full sized one on a Boboli Whole Wheat crust for the meat-eating boys in my house, and brought my mini version to work as an extra meal. The boys ate theirs for lunch today, and it gets 2 enthusiastic non-op thumbs up!

Super quick and easy, the perfect remake for leftovers, and the whole family will love it! Here's how it's done:
Jen's Chicken Quesadilla Pizza

This recipe is for 1 individual pizza, increase it if you're making a family size.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp salsa (I used thick 'n chunky mild, use what you like)
1 Arnold Multigrain Flatbread
1/4 cup taco blend shredded cheese
4 tbsp Jen's Cowboy Caviar
2 oz leftover roasted chicken (or you could use the Fit 'N Active grilled bites, or whatever you like--beef or sausage would be good, too)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put the flatbread or pizza crust on a cookie sheet and place it in the oven for a couple minutes to get crispy. Remove the crust from the oven and spread salsa over it for your pizza sauce.



Crisped crust with the salsa "sauce"

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and sprinkle it over the crust, then spread the Cowboy Caviar over the chicken and sauce.

Ready for the cheese



Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top of the pizza. If you're going to eat it right away, return it to the oven for 5 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and bubbly. I skipped this step for my lunch one today, since re-heated cheese is not always my friend. (Sorry for no ooey, gooey cheesy goodness food porn!)

I just finished my lunch break at work, and I heated my pizza in the toaster oven here in our breakroom for 5 minutes. You could also microwave it to melt the cheese. Delicious and filling, I will definitely have this one again.

If you're early out and can't handle bread-type items yet, you can pulse the topping ingredients in a food processor until smooth, then heat it up with the cheese. It's delicious with OR without a crust! Enjoy!

Nik's Curried Cabbage & Chicken "Stuff"

~by Nikki

God bless me for thinking I could eat all of that. About five bites in my pouch showed me who was boss!

As always, our recipes come with a story. The difference being this time I am going to ATTEMPT brevity.

So, long story short: I made a pot of cabbage in homemade chicken broth. And for days it sat, virtually untouched. Not wanting to waste, I implored my children, “eat the cabbage!” to which they replied, “it isn’t spicy enough!”

Fast forward to Sunday. A long succession of errands made a lengthy Sunday dinner prep impossible. So I looked to the cabbage and thought about what I could do to make it better. It was truly a “little of this, a bit of that” moment in the kitchen. But after all was said and done, and the divas had devoured nearly the entire pot, I said to myself “self? This recipe is a winner!”

(See, only ¼ of the page taken up and the story is done!)

Nik’s Curried Cabbage and Chicken "Stuff"
(here’s how to make it from scratch)

Ingredients:

1 head of green cabbage, chopped
4 c. chicken broth (either homemade or store-bought low-sodium variety)
Salt and pepper
1 lb. chicken breast meat, cubed and cooked (I used Fit & Active Grilled Chicken Bites)
3 medium red potatoes, diced
1 small onion, cut into slivers
1 c. frozen peas
(Not included in the above but I wish it had been) 1 cup julienned carrots
3 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (For heat. If you don’t like heat, omit. If you like a LOT of heat, bump up to ½ tsp)

Non-op conversion: brown rice for underneath

Directions:

Cook cabbage and diced potatoes in chicken broth until tender.

Add in chicken meat, onion, peas, carrots and all spices and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook about 15 minutes or until veggies are tender and liquid has reduced a bit.

Meanwhile cook rice according to package directions or in a rice cooker (gotta get me one of these).

Serve hot either alone (will be the consistency of a thick stew) or over rice. Notice in the picture that you can't really notice the cabbage? It's because it sort of melts into the curry and onion making this thick, rich "gravy" that makes the whole darn thing a bowl of heaven...

That being the case, I think this needs a better name than I've given it. Something exotic and intriguing. Any ideas?

Nik's Three Year Surgiversary

~by Nikki


Today is my three year surgiversary.


Notice there aren’t any exclamation points behind that sentence. Don’t get me wrong. I am grateful every day for the changes my RNY has brought. I am such a different person now than I was three years ago and I continue to change and learn new things about myself each and every day.

This is a progression pic, before on the far left up until now on the far right

But here’s the secret you learn in the 3rd year. This is life.

Yep…that might sound simplistic but it’s the truth. This is life. This is the way it is. We, as WLS patients, continue to be just a little bit different than other people, yes, but not that much. We eat what we eat. We behave how we behave. We come in all shapes, sizes and personality types. No one person’s process is the same as anyone else’s.

At the OH Conference in Cincinnati 2010 (Thanks to Beth aka Melting Mama for taking the pic)

When I started this blog, it was because I felt like the way RNYers have to eat is so radically different and so I had to “help” people figure out their eating choices. Oh, how conceited is that!

Working the Audrey Hepburn look for Easter

In the last year especially, you all have taught me so much more about a healthy relationship with food than I ever could have learned any other way. I remember the first time I met Jen (also known as “the most awesome day ever”). She’d invited me and the girls up to her house in Jersey for the weekend. This was back when she wasn’t completely sure she was all in this “Pouch Party™ thing.”

Nik and Jen Summer 2009

She took us to a classic NJ diner (meaning the menu is about five thousand pages long) and she orders…regular food. Like…not frankenfood. Not “please remove all carbs from my plate before it comes to me.” But REAL food. And when they brought it to her, she ate what she wanted and sent the rest to be wrapped. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Jen and I are very, very different people.


In a lot of ways my love for cooking is actually a defense mechanism against overeating. Jen enjoys food for what it is and when she’s full, she’s full. When she’s not hungry, she’s not hungry. Many of you are like that too. You like what you like and you strive to make it a little bit better. But you don’t think you should have to give up everything you like. And that’s so true!


So my 3rd year was more about becoming “human” again. Yes, I still do my protein shakes every day (with shakes that yummy, it doesn’t take much convincing). And I still log my food (although I don’t freak about the occasional wayward carb). But this year I discovered that life is about so much more than food. Oddly enough…I discovered that while making food…for you and for all the people who attended Pouch Parties™ this year.

Debbie's Grillin and Chillin Pouch Party™ last summer

Basically, then, I have you to thank for the level of adjustedness I have right now. Everyday you guys continue to challenge me—here on the blog, on Facebook, ObesityHelp, support group and everywhere else.


Jen and I have said several times that we are calling this the “Year of the Pouch Party™ Animal.” It’s the truth! I fully expect that my 4th year post-op will be a crazy busy, eventful, educational, humbling and gratifying experience. And with you guys at my side, how can it not be?


Thanks for a great year!

Nik's Protein "Blizzard"

~by Nikki



Oh Dairy Queen…DQ…whatever you want to call it!!! I used to love you (and your blizzards)! But now I can’t anymore!!!

Piety? No. Not me! I am a firm sugar dumper and anything from their Blizzard menu takes me from here to Dumpsville in about 3 minutes.

Recently, I decided to take the advice that we’ve given to you all so very many times. I started playing with my food!

What I present today is more a methodology, although I’m going to give you the recipe to the above. The bottom line is this: I made a protein Blizzard!!!

Now, your mileage may vary, but here are the rules I established for myself for this endeavor (for accountability’s sake):

#1 – The base for this drink had to be a good, upstanding protein shake

#2 – The “chunky” additives could NOT be empty calories. They needed to give me protein or fiber. Or some combination of both. Fat? Well…I guess I could add some good fat in the future, but for the purposes of my initial experiment, I wanted to focus on protein and/or fiber.

#3 – The result would be considered a meal replacement, not a snack (although with as much protein as I managed to pack into this baby I doubt I could have did it as a snack anyway)

With those rules firmly in hand, here’s my very first “Protein Blizzard” presented two different ways.

Nik’s “Clickity Split” Blizzard

Ingredients

4 oz. milk
1 scoop Click mocha
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
2-3 packets Splenda (to taste)
1 Oh Yeah! wafer (I used peanut butter cup...of course!). Use whatever bar you have on hand...but only as much as is equal to 100-ish calories.
6 pieces of ice

Option #1: The "impatient mommy" method

So you start off using the Triple X method. Your mixture will be thicker than normal. Kinda like this:

 

You put your milk, protein powders and Splenda in your blender cup and blend for two minutes (yes, two whole minutes!). Then you add the ice and blend again. I will tell you this is not an easy feat. You are not giving your blender much liquid to work with.

Post-ice concoction. Mmmmmm...



Once that business is done, you add the cut up protein bar and cereal and whiz until it is just incorporated (literally two seconds or so...). Or you can just stir it into the finished shake.

My Oh-Yeah! wafer on its path to epic glory!!!



Spoon it into a glass and eat it with a spoon. Now, this already has enough going on, so I didn’t put any whippage on top but hey…I’m not the boss of you!


Option 2: Super-Chunk method

The divas pointed out that the above version was missing the "super chunk" of a real DQ blizzard. Their suggestion? "Make it out of protein ice cream, mommy," say-eth La Grande Diva. Genius! I did try that (although sadly I did not snap any pictures) and it worked well. Here's the recipe I used.

Ingredients:

1 c. prepared and hardened protein ice cream (check out our girl Michelle for a million and two recipes)
1/2 c. milk
1 chopped up Oh Yeah! wafer
Additional sweetener, as you see fit

Directions:

Place ice cream in your blender (make sure it isn't too hard. If it's been in the freezer a while, let it soften on the counter for about 10 minutes before attempting this) with your milk and whiz it just slightly (maybe 10 seconds. maybe.)

Either add your chunks and whiz again for 2-3 seconds or spoon them in. I'd advise, with the ice cream, whizzing them.

This is a good method if you already have protein ice cream in your freezer. If you want this NOW? I would go with method #1. But the choice is yours.
Some other suggestions for Blizzard fixings:

• Chopped nuts
• Half of YOUR favorite protein bar chopped up (I used Oh Yeah! wafers cuz...it's what I had. I imagine a Chocolite bar would do nicely as well)
• You could make Peanut Butter chips by dropping tiny dollops of high protein/lower calorie peanut butter onto wax paper and freezing them.
• I imagine eventually I’ll work my beloved Fiber One into an iteration of this drink

Now I know what you’re thinking. “But, Nik, why can’t we use other sugar-free stuff, like sugar-free chocolate chips?” Well…like I said. I’m not the boss of you. But I know for me, that stuff gives me a lot of calories and carbs without giving me any significant nutritional benefit. But again…the choice is yours. I’m just one of those freakazoids that is supremely concerned with the composition of my protein drinks.

But if you come up with something really yummy…hit us up. I’m what you might call the “adventurous type.”