Chicken & Rice

This meal has it all, and rolls in under 400 calories! It's a healthy and nutritious version of an old Dugas classic. Another bonus -- this meal exhibits ultimate parallelism in preparation, that is, each part can be made nearly simultaneously.



Ingredients
4 oz chicken breast tender
2/3 cup prepared brown rice
2/3 to 1 cup Normandy vegetable mix (any decent veggie or mix is great)

Ingredients (sauce)
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. Wondra (or flour)
Chef Paul's poultry magic seasoning
2-3 scallions, diced
butter buds sprinkles
s&p


Method

• Start preparing the chicken breast (I use the GTXpress, 12 minutes total)
• Start preparing the brown rice
• Start preparing the vegetables
• Prepare the roux
• Combine milk, butter sprinkles, Wondra in a non-stick skillet, mix well, crank heat up to medium
• Stirring often, the roux should thicken after a few minutes, at that point, add the scallions and 1-2 tsp Chef Paul's seasoning
• Once the roux has thickened to your desired consistency, start plating
• Plating
• Make a bed of brown rice
• Slice chicken (optional) and lay on rice
• Pour roux over chicken,
  
• Optional
• Sprinkle a bit more Chef Paul's seasoning on the roux
• Garnish with a couple spring onions (optional)
• Accompany with vegetables, sprinkling on butter and other desired seasonings (I used Spike seasoning, another decent one would be Old Bay)

That's it. For a home-cooked meal, it doesn't take too long, and I've made a double batch so I can enjoy some leftovers later.

Nutrition Info
Brown Rice 150 calories, 1.5g fat, 3g protein
Chicken 100 calories, 1g fat, 24g protein
Sauce 100 calories, 1g fat, 6g protein
Vegetables 35 calories, 0.5g fat, 2g protein

Nutrition Totals
385 calories, 4g fat, 35g protein

Turkey Meatballs in Crema de Eneldo

The plan was to make Swedish meatballs, but our kitchen lacked the necessities for those, so we did some at-home Iron Chef, with the secret ingredient: TURKEY-SON (that's my Japanese chairman impersonation).



Ingredients (turkey meatballs)

2 slices whole wheat bread
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs (eggbeaters)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp dry dill
1 large clove pressed garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 - 1.25 lbs. ultra lean ground turkey

Method (turkey meatballs)

• Preheat oven to 475 deg. F
  
• In a mixing bowl, add turkey, cheese, dill, garlic, salt
• Tearing bread into small pieces, add to bowl
• Add remaining liquid, mix with hands
• Line jelly roll pan with foil, spray with non-stick spray
• Roll meat mixture into balls 1-2" in diameter, spread out on tray
• Bake 8 minutes, remove from oven, flip each meatball
• Bake 5-8 more minutes, depending on size.

Ingredients (crema de eneldo)

3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp wondra or flour
1 cup beef stock
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp dry dill weed
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp cayenne

Method (crema de eneldo)

• Melt butter in pan over medium heat
• Off the heat, slowly wisk in flour, until paste-like consistency is achieved
• Return to heat, add beef stock, stir until consistency is smooth
• Turn the heat to low, stir in sour cream, 1 tbsp at a time
• Once a desired consistency is reached, stir in dill, salt, lemon juice and cayenne

Finally, add a handful of meatballs to bowl and pour sauce on them. If desired, you could serve this over rice, noodles or pasta.

Note: these meatballs are versatile, and should be included in other recipes that need some added healthy protein.