Cheesy Chicken & Rice Bake

This is an easy casserole to throw together at the end of the day, especially if you use Uncle Ben's Ready Rice and keep chopped, cooked chicken in the freezer. Two pouches is about 4 cups. You will want to cook them in the microwave first. I bake and chop chicken breasts ahead of time and keep it in the freezer for dishes like this.

Cheesy Chicken & Rice Bake

2 plain baked chicken breasts, chopped (4-5 oz each)
4 cups cooked brown rice
3/4 cups frozen corn
15 oz can black beans, rinsed & drained
1 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
4 oz can chopped green chiles
1/2 cup fat free salsa
1 3/4 cups fat free cheddar cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except 3/4 cup of cheese. Mix thoroughly, making sure yogurt and cheese are distributed throughout the bowl. Transfer to a 9x13" casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Using an oil mister, spray the top layer of cheese to aid in melting. (I used a 10-pump spray in my WW oil sprayer.) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until heated through.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting into 6 slices.

New Potato & Turkey Skillet

I recently purchased a couple of new cookbooks produced by Clean Eating magazine, and I'm excited to try the recipes in them. This one looked relatively easy and gave me an opportunity to try something I hadn't before -- swiss chard. It was easily made completely SFT by substituting fat free feta for the regular feta called for in the recipe. Also, I prepared this in a dutch oven instead of a skillet, because my skillet is only ovenproof to 350 degrees and the recipe needed to cook at 425.

New Potato & Turkey Skillet
Adapted from The Best of Clean Eating 2

1 lb ground turkey breast
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 lb new potatoes, scrubbed & diced into 1" cubes
Pinch dried thyme
3/4 cup low sodium, fat free chicken broth
1 lb swiss chard, thick stems removed and leaves chopped
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (I used a sprinkle of dried rosemary)
Pinch red chile flakes (optional)
Juice 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup fat free feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 425. Heat a 12" ovenproof skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat on stove. Add ground turkey breast to skillet, season with salt & pepper, and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until no longer pink. Remove ground turkey to a bowl and set aside. Turn off stove, add potatoes and thyme to skillet, and place skillet in preheated oven. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring once about halfway through. Carefully remove from oven and place back on stove over medium-high heat. Leave oven on. Add broth and bring to a simmer. Add chard and stir just until wilted. Add tomatoes, rosemary, chile flakes, and lemon juice. Return broth to a simmer, turn off stove, and carefully place back in oven. Cook for 10 more minutes, stirring halfway through, until tomato skins burst. Divide among 4 serving bowls and top each bowl with 2 tbsp fat free feta. Serve with lemon wedges if desired.

Slow Cooker Lemon-Garlic Cornish Hen

This recipe is my first "original creation" for this blog! When I bought the cornish hen, I originally intended to grill it, but that day turned out to be stormy...not so great for grilling. So I decided to cook it in the slow cooker instead. I used my trusty 2 1/2 qt slow cooker, which is perfect for two people, and doesn't heat up the kitchen like the stove or oven.

Slow Cooker Lemon-Garlic Cornish Hen

1 cornish game hen, giblets discarded (mine was 20 oz raw weight)
3-4 medium red potatoes, quartered
1 small onion, halved
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
fresh lemon with peel, quartered

Place potatoes in bottom of 2 1/2- or 3-quart slow cooker. Take one half of onion and separate layers, spreading over potatoes. Mix spices together and rub all over inside and outside of hen, getting between the meat and skin as much as you can. Put remaining half of onion and one lemon quarter inside cavity. Place hen on top of potatoes in slow cooker. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8, or until meat is cooked through. Remove skin before serving.