Panera Knock-Off: Nik's "Something Chicken Stew"

"This looks fancy..."

That was my youngest daughter's reaction when she looked at the contents of the slightly modified bowl I presented her this past weekend. (I'll tell you why the modification in a sec.)

Now to her, "fancy" is a good adjective. With the elder girl, not so much. I was quite pleased how this recipe turned out, mostly because it was just so darn easy!

Backstory (because you know there always is one!). A few months back I went to Panera Bread and had their Spanish Chicken Stew. Oh. My. WORD! (As Pam would say.) That stuff is delicious! It's a combination of chicken, herbs, spices, vegetable, broth and there is some brown rice on the bottom. What made it unique and delightful for me was the sprinkling of sliced almonds on top. It did feel fancy!

Fast forward to this past weekend, when I wasn't feeling that great and didn't feel like standing over a stove to cook. I hadn't tried out my new Ninja Kitchen cooking system (it's like a crockpot plus four other things I've not figured out yet), and I had some almonds left over from another recipe I'd captured earlier in the week, so I decided to experiment. 

Now if you've been following the blog for a while you know I am not a big fan of looking at other people's recipes before creating my own. I mean...where's the fun in that? Rather I like throwing stuff together and seeing how it comes out. Risky? Yes. But good!

I call this "Something Chicken Stew" because I'm not sure it's particularly Spanish, per se. It's something. And that something would be good. And easy. And good!

Nik's "Something Chicken Stew" (Panera Knock-Off)

Ingredients:

• 2 large pre-marinated chicken breasts (I get them in my local meat or frozen section. These are breasts that have already been marinated for you - big time saver! I got Garlic & Herb.)
• 6 c. of any assortment of veggies you like, chopped. I used:
• Tomatoes
• Asparagus
• Red Peppers
• Zucchini
• Onions
• 1 tsp. additional chopped garlic
• 1 tsp. Mediterranean seasoning (I used Lawry's Mediterranean seasoning salt)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 4 c. water
• 1-2 tbsp. tomato paste (depending on how thick you want your broth)
• 2 c. cooked quinoa or 1 box of couscous (I used the latter in Parmesan flavor. If you've never cooked quinoa before, here's my super-easy tutorial!)
• Sliced almonds, to finish

Directions:

Put everything exept tomato paste in the crockpot and set it on low for about 4 hours. Then go do something fun (yes, this is a legit part of the recipe).

By the time you come back your chicken should be cooked through. With a pair of tongs, move it to a cutting board and dice it into pieces of your desired size. Put the chicken back into the crockpot. 

Taste the broth and adjust the seasonings as you see fit (I added a dash of oregano at this point but otherwise the seasoning was spot on). Stir the tomato paste into the hot liquid until incorporated. Let that go about another 30-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your quinoa or couscous. Now at this point I'll say a word on this. It's up to you what grain you use in this recipe, if at all. Here are a few options, if couscous is not your thing.

• You can use quinoa (here's my super easy tutorial on how to make it...again)
• You can use brown rice, if that's your thing
• You can use cauliflower rice if you want to avoid starches altogether

My point here is you have choices. Play with your food!

To serve: place a small amount of couscous/quinoa/rice/whatever in a bowl. Ladle some stew on top of it (for your portion, you get to choose how much broth, as I know some folks worry about taking in liquids and solids together). Top with sliced almonds and enjoy!

After these pictures were taken I got the inspiration to add sliced olives, which just made this all the more delicious. Now I modified this for my younger daughter because she eats a pescetarian diet (she eats seafood but no other type of animal protein), so I made another little pot of this stew with just the veggies and broth. Still wonderful and yummy!

Here are the outtake pictures of this dish. 

Don't ask me why, when given a choice, I always go with the direct overhead shot. I just always seem to like it better. But this is a good one too!

I just didn't feel like this captured the full essence of this dish. Not a bad picture though. Please note I have two places I can take pictures with sufficient light: on top of my microwave oven (which is where the photo directly above this one was taken) and on a bench on my front porch (and yes, my neighbors do think I'm crazy, thanks for asking). 

Let's have dinner together for Cinco de Mayo!

I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Let's see if we can manage it.

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. It's also my late grandfather's birthday. So I'm feeling festive! I already posted a delicious protein drink you can enjoy in the spirit of the day, but I thought it might be fun to have dinner together too! How? Easy.

Step One: If you haven't already check out my Taco Casserole recipe. It's the most popular recipe on Bariatric Foodie. Here's the recipe.  

Step Two: Make Taco Casserole! This recipe uses ingredients you can find in any grocery store. The best part? It's easy to modify it and make it your own!

Step Three: Post about making Taco Casserole! Here's three ways:

• On Facebook: Drop a pic on the Bariatric Foodie Facebook Wall
• On Twitter: Tweet your picture and tag @BariatricFoodie
• On Instagram: Tag your picture @bariatric_foodie_nation

As I see photos tomorrow night, I'll share them! I'm also going to pin them to this Pinterest board. Remember, if you make changes to the recipe, let us know what you did so we can get new ideas too!

UPDATED: Since I nearly had a brain explosion over some tech difficulties related to this post and you all hung in there anyway (like the champs that you are!) I am now offering a PRIZE for anyone who participates. If you make the casserole and share a pic (using one of the methods above), you'll be entered to win a prize pack of Premier Protein stuff PLUS a copy of The Bariatric Foodie Breakfast Book.

All you have to do is share your picture using one of the three methods above. You don't need to register or do anything else. I'll note who submitted something and enter you. I'll announce who won on May 6. Easy, right?

That's my small way of saying I'm sorry for melting down. I'm human. It happens!

Recipe Remake: Cinco de Mayo Protein Shake (featuring Premier Protein)

It's May! We made it! I'm reasonably sure that for most of us, there is no snow in the immediate forecast. I think that's cause to celebrate.

Tomorrow, as you know, is Cinco de Mayo. (Tell the truth: do you know what's celebrated on this day? I'll 'fess up and say I was not terribly aware, so I looked it up. Fascinating!) And the good folks at Premier Protein sent me a festive recipe to share with you! It's been a while since I've done a "recipe remake"post, but essentially that's where I take an existing recipe and show you how I would change it to make it work better for weight loss surgery post-ops. So, let's get to it.

Let's start with the recipe as Premier sent it to me:

Now I want to start by saying this recipe, in and of itself, isn't bad. It's got several servings of fruit along with protein. For someone who has not had weight-loss surgery, this recipe would be a great alternative to the oversized alcoholic beverages typically served on Cinco de Mayo.

For us? This shake might be challenging because of the levels of sugar. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with eating fresh fruit! But depending on your surgery type, combining multiple sources of sugar (even natural sugar) may be problematic. Only you know how your body works. 

(Want to learn more about the different kinds of sugar and how they affect your body post-op? Check out my series, "BF Basics: Sugar Shock")

But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy a delicious Cinco de Mayo shake. That just means we have to to play with our food!

Interestingly, as soon as I saw this recipe, I thought of my Tropical Sunrise Smoothie. It's essentially the same concept (with a few different ingredients). Here's the original recipe but I thought there was even room to play with my version. So below is the updated recipe!

Tropical Sunrise Smoothie (featuring Premier Protein)

(This will either make one big shake or two small ones - remember...sharing is caring!)

Ingredients:

• 1 Premier Protein 11 oz. Vanilla Shake
• 1/2 c. fresh cut mango, cubed (note: if you use frozen, you can omit the ice listed below)
• 2-3 frozen peach segments (or if you happen to have a no-sugar added peach fruit cup hanging around, that works too. Just make sure to drain it first!)
• 1 c. unflavored Greek yogurt
• 1 packet True Orange flavoring (look in the sugar aisle of the grocery store)
• A squirt of lemon juice
• Optional: 1 tbsp. either sugar-free banana instant pudding mix OR sugar-free banana flavored syrup
• Ice (especially if your fruit is not frozen)

Directions:

If using ice: Combine everything but ice in a blender 1-2 minutes. Add ice, blend an additional minute.

If not using ice: Combine everything in the blender for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. 

Pour and enjoy!

And remember...

For even more reative protein shake recipes, tips and tricks, check out The Bariatric Foodie Guide to Perfect Protein Shakes. Available in hard-copy and Kindle on Amazon and for iPad and Nook on Smashwords!

Apple-Cinnamon Protein Muffins

You know what's hard? Living in a house with non-ops who have no qualms about eating stuff that would kill me.

Now granted, I love to bake so occasionally I'll bake them a cake or make some biscuits for breakfast but it's rare (a fact that is much complained about in my house...but when I say moderation, I mean moderation!).

But the game has changed, Foodies. Those kids that were so little when I started this blog are now teenagers. One has her own source of income. I believe in letting them make some decisions for themselves so while I can pout all I want to about junk they buy, so long as it's not all day, every day, I pretty much let it go (those with teenagers can attest that choosing one's battles at this point is essential!)

Why do I tell you this? Because I ramble a lot. Because their latest junk acquisition (in this instance huge blueberry muffins...with the large-granule sugar on top!) prompted me to take action. I can't eat that kind of stuff. Either I'll dump or I will have a bad blood sugar drop. It's taken nearly 7 years, but even my food addicted brain doesn't want either to happen so I try to avoid stuff like that.

Instead, I whipped out my copy of "The Bariatric Foodie Breakfast Book" and made these instead. Now this is a slight departure from the recipe in the book (I played with my food!), but the book has a bunch of protein muffin recipes. Way better choices than the sugar-topped muffins (or at least I'll keep telling myself that...).

Nik's Apple Cinnamon Protein Muffins

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 c. oat flour (I'll explain that in a minute)
• 1/2 c. soy flour (almond flour works too if you don't want to do soy but it will affect the protein count)
• 1/2 c. vanilla protein powder of your choosing (I used this)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients

• 1 very large apple (I used a Honeycrisp but any large, sweet baking apple will do), grated
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Sweetener of your choice equivalent to 1.25 c. sugar (I use Splenda which measures 1:1 with sugar, be sure to check your favorite sweetener! Btw, the Bariatric Foodie Breakfast Book also includes a complete conversion chart for all the major kinds of sugar substitutes.)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 c. milk 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

If you have oat flour on hand, great. If not, it's easy to make. Put a cup of quick oats in a blender and whiz until flour happens! Put that in a bowl and add the rest of the dry ingredients and then whisk them together. 

In another bowl combine your grated apple with the rest of the wet ingredients and stir to combine. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. It will seem as if there's not enough wet stuff there but just keep mixing. It will all coat, I promise!

After it's all coated, it should be pretty thick. Add the milk and then stir. That loosens it up a little bit (it'll be about the consistency of cooked oatmeal). 

Fill lined cupcake tins (fill them 3/4 of the way). This recipe yielded 16 regular sized muffins for me. You can also do mini-muffins. If you do, report back on how many you get! (Note: yes, they freeze beautifully, just wrap them tightly). 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a fork comes out clean (or in my case the fork came out with a crumb and not liquid). Allow to cool. You can top them with just about anything. I like either whipped Greek yogurt cream cheese on top or a smear of peanut butter. Nom, nom, nom!

As is the custom, here are the outtake photos of the muffins.

True Fact: I actually am pretty obsessed with the swirliness of things like peanut butter in photos!

This one was good...but I wasn't sure if I was going to present the muffins with the PB so...yeah.

I reduced the size of this one so you can't see, but the photo is not in focus. Plus the glass bowl was way too close to the muffin! #FoodBloggerNeuroses

Now a funny thing happened with these muffins. I set them to cool with four set aside with a note that they were to be photo'd for the blog (in food blogging households effective communication is essential!). The next morning, four of my 16 muffins were gone. The next morning another four. The next morning another four. How 'bout that?

Anyhoo...for more protein muffin recipes than you can shake a spatula at, check out The Bariatric Foodie Breakfast Book, available in hardcopy and Kindle on Amazon

Crustless Pizza Casserole

You know what's really empowering, Foodies?

Making something the way you like it, just because that's how you  like it. Not the way the kids like it or your spouse likes it, but just the way you want it.

I had an epiphany recently. I've spent a lot of my post-op career catering to everyone's preferences in my crusade to get my kids and family to eat healthier. In the process I did several things:

1. I stopped even thinking about what I like the best and why.
2. I put my children under the delusion that they live in a 24-hour diner, complete with a short-order cook.
3. I got a case of "food burn-out."

What's food burn-out? You all have experienced it, I'm sure. It's when you just get tired of thinking about, prepping, and cooking food. So you don't. Instead you eat things that are convenient (and sometimes not healthy). Or worse, you fall back on take-out a lot.

As for me, I fell back on my default foods (stuff I could eat anytime like cottage cheese and Greek yogurt) and let the kids go crazy with take-out. Bad mom!

What I've learned from this is that even when it comes to cooking my needs are important too. So I vow to make more meals the way I like them!

Which is what brings us to this pizza casserole. There are several reasons why my daughters probably won't touch it. For Diva, the Elder, it contains three vegetables that are on her "no fly" list (I've tried to get her to embrace more veggies...she's 16 so at this point trickery doesn't work anymore!). For Diva, the Younger,  (13) she  now eats a pescetarian diet and so the ground meat is no-go. But me? I love it! So here goes.

Nik's Pizza Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 c. whatever veggies you like, diced (I used onions, yellow bell peppers, and zucchini)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp. already minced garlic)
• 1 lb. Italian-style ground meat (I used turkey)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1.5 c. your favorite pizza or spaghetti sauce
• 1.5 c. shredded pizza blend or Italian-blend cheese (or mozzarella if you like to keep it simple)
• Toppings: I used one serving of turkey pepperoni (17 slices) and 1/4 c. sliced olives, but add anything you like on top of pizza!

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Set a skillet over medium-high heat and let it get hot (2-3 minutes) before adding nonstick cooking spray (or 1 tbsp. of oil if you like that better). Add veggies and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add garlic and saute an additional minute or so.

Add the ground meat, breaking it up with a spatula and mixing in the vegetables. Cook until meat is done through. Drain meat of any excess fluid with a colander.

Turn stove heat to medium-low and add sauce, stirring to fully combine. Simmer about 5-7 minutes or until sauce turns a deeper shade of red. Your mixture should be saucy but not soupy. Ultimately the veggies will continue releasing water as they cook so you don't want your sauce to have too much liquid. If there seems to be a lot, drain some of it off before doing the next step.

Transfer mixture to a casserole dish (this is an 8 x 8) and spread to make sure it's an even layer. Now comes the fun part. Toppings! I love pepperoni and black olives on pizza so that's what I topped mine with, along with the shredded cheese.

I baked mine for about 20 minutes, long enough for the cheese to melt, brown just a bit and for the pepperonis to become slightly crispy. Technically it's ready when the cheese is melted so let it go as long as you want until it's the way you like it!

No need to let this casserole cool. The ooey-gooey factor is part of the joy of it!

This will be my lunches for the week. Meanwhile the kids are eating...something...(shrugs).