Chicken Tenders

Maisie has never been a chicken nuggets type of girl and now with her food allergies we obviously can’t just go to the drive through to get some but I did want to try and make some which maybe she would enjoy and with these I succeeded.  These chicken tenders were super simple to make, Maisie “safe” and delicious for all of of us. Best of all, there are no weird processed chicken parts involved.

Chicken Tenders

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup instant potato flakes 
• 1 TBS. Italian seasoning
• 1 TBS. garlic powder 
• 1 tsp. salt 
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• Peanut oil or cooking oil of your choice

Slice the chicken breasts into strips about pointer finger wide.  In a shallow bowl mix together the potato flakes, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt & pepper and set aside.  Over a medium-high flame, heat a large heavy bottomed or cast iron skillet.  When hot, add just enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan.  One-by-one press the chicken strips into the potato flake mixture to coat completely and then carefully add to hot pan.  Do not crowd the pan.  Turn the chicken when the potato flakes get golden brown and remove from pan once the chicken strips are cooked through.  Add oil as needed throughout the cooking process.  Serve with a dipping sauce of your choice…Maisie chose ketchup.

Enjoy!    

Strawberry Soup

Strawberries and Cream, those are this month’s Improv Cooking Challenge ingredients assigned by our hostess Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.  I went back and forth thinking about all the wonderful and delicious things I could make with the assigned ingredients but after enjoying delicious cold fruit soups every lunchtime during our recent 2 week transatlantic cruise I decided that I needed to make my own cold soup.  I did a bit of searching on the internet and the recipe that kept coming up as a standout winning recipe was the Strawberry Soup from the 1900 Park Fare restaurant in Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. 

I scaled back on the amounts in the recipe as I was going to be the only one eating the soup as it’s not Maisie “safe” and Eammon doesn’t care for cold or fruit soups, but had I put this in a glass and told him it was a smoothie he would have gobbled it down and loved it!  I was happy to have it all to myself as the soup was absolutely delicious and when you read the recipe, beyond simple to make.  I wish that Maisie could enjoy this soup as it would be so special to serve for a Princess lunch.  With strawberries in season, this is a perfect soup to make and enjoy.

My previous Improv Cooking Challenge entries:

April 2012  Peanut butter & Jelly:  Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars  
March 2012  Potato & Cheese:  Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole 
February 2012  Ginger & Carrots:  Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing 
January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream:  Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart 
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries:  Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter 
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese:  Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake 
October 2011 Caramel & Apples:  Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies 

Strawberry Soup (Adapted from here) 

• 1 lb.strawberries (frozen variety with no added sugar, thaw with juice)
• 6.4 oz. heavy cream
• 0.8 oz.sour cream
• 1.2 oz. vanilla yogurt
• fresh strawberries for garnish
• sour cream for garnish
• fresh mint for garnish

Using a blender mix together the strawberries, heavy cream, sour cream & yogurt until smooth.

Chill.

Shake well before serving. Add a dollop of sour cream, fresh strawberries and mint leaves as garnish.

Makes 3 servings.

Enjoy!

Hearty Sausage, Mushroom & Cheddar Mini Quiche

Generally when I make quiche I do the traditional pie plate sized quiche with a pie crust and cut it into slices or if the mood strikes me I’ll make something special like my Potato Crusted Garden Quiche but I’m always trying to neatly freeze leftover slices and as I’m just not a pie crust person I always scrape the filling out of the crust and end up throwing it away.  I wanted to make things easier so I thought that I would make individual crustless mini quiches and they would be super simple to freeze and we’d be able to pull out just as many as we needed when we wanted to enjoy some for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  These mini quiches are delicious and worked out wonderfully for freezing and re-heating.  Once the quiches were fully cooked and cooled I vacuum sealed them in bags using my FoodSaver.  I was then easily able to pull out just the number of quiches I wanted and they were quick to reheat for a fast delicious meal.

Hearty Sausage, Mushroom & Cheddar Mini Quiche (From here)

• 1-16 oz pkg. Jimmy Dean Regular Flavor Pork Sausage Roll
• 1 cup fresh chopped mushrooms
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 10 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook sausage, mushrooms and bell pepper in large skillet over medium-high heat 8-10 minutes or until sausage is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently; drain.  Beat eggs, milk and black pepper in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Stir in sausage mixture, cheese, and green onion. Line 2 cupcake pans with 16 foil baking cups sprayed with cooking spray or if not using baking cups spray muffin pan with cooking spray. Spoon mixture evenly into baking cups. Bake 18-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  If freezing, allow quiches to cool completely then seal in Ziplock bags removing as much of the air as possible or use a FoodSaver with the zipper bags.  To reheat, thaw and then heat in the microwave (f used, remove the foil liner before microwaving.)

Enjoy!

Totally Outrageous Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

For this month’s Crazy Cooking Challenge the participating bloggers were challenged by our hostess Tina, of Moms Crazy Cooking to find the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich and I’m telling you, I found it.  This is no ordinary grilled cheese sandwich, this is an over the top totally outrageous Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  Let me explain the challenge a bit and then I’ll get to the sandwich.  The way that the Crazy Cooking Challenge works is that each month there is a dish that our hostess Tina challenges the participating bloggers to make.  We all go out searching non-celebrity blogs looking for what we think is the ultimate recipe for that dish and once we find it, we make it and then all on the same day we do our post featuring the recipe and the blog where it was found.  As I said, this month the challenge was to find the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich and I was excited because though I’m not a real sandwich lover, I have always adored grilled cheese sandwiches.  Honestly, school cafeteria grilled cheese and tomato soup was my absolute favorite when I was growing up.  Can’t say that you’d get me to eat it today but oh, the sweet delicious memories.

When I started searching blogs for grilled cheese inspiration my first thought was to do a more grown up version of my childhood favorite, maybe mini grilled cheese sandwich croutons floating on creamy roasted tomato soup but then decided that I needed to leave my childhood behind so I ventured out into a whole new world of grilled cheese sandwiches.  I found so many fabu grilled cheese sandwiches the choices were overwhelming.  I drooled over a gorgeous pepper jack cheese, bacon, avocado & apple grilled sandwich as well as a caprese sandwich with pesto, tomato & fresh mozzarella, but I make an open faced version of that so I thought I’d move on.  I was tempted to make a pizza grilled cheese on rosemary focaccia as well as a very unique and delicious sounding goat cheese, strawberry & watercress sandwich.  Then I happened upon Kevin’s Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich and I knew I had found my sandwich because I am a jalapeno popper lover and I knew that by using his sandwich as inspiration I could create popper grilled cheese nirvana…and I did. 

 I started with a mini jalapeno cheddar loaf which I had sliced thin.  I then spread the bread liberally with soft, room-temperature salted butter.

I laid half the slices of bread, buttered side down, in a cool cast iron skillet.

I added a generous layer of shredded Fiesta Blend Cheese.

Topped the cheese with crispy bacon bits.

Back after our final summer harvest of 8 million jalapenos, I stuffed some of them with cream cheese and froze them to be used later.  I pulled a few of them from the freezer and baked them from frozen at 500F for 20 minutes, until they were cooked through and delicious.  Thankfully I made more than I needed as I couldn’t resist eating a few and man were they delicious and really got me even more excited about the sandwiches I was making.  So after I popped a few of the hot poppers in my mouth I added the cooled down ones to the sandwiches.

 After the poppers another layer of cheese was essential.

I then topped all the deliciousness off with the remaining slices of buttered bread.  I then started cooking the sandwiches over a medium low flame.

As the sandwiches were stuffed so full I decided to press them a bit and one of my pot lids worked perfectly.

Using a medium low flame so that all the cheese would perfectly melt, I cooked the first side until golden delicious and then carefully flipped to cook the other side.

This sandwich is not for the faint of heart and don’t even ask how you can turn down the heat on it because it ain’t gonna happen.  This is hot, cheesy, creamy, bacony, buttery, crispy over-the-top deliciousness.  And see all those crispy little bits of cheese in the pan and attached to the sandwiches?  Yep I ate every last piece.

Totally Outrageous Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich

• thinly sliced jalapeno cheddar bread
• salted butter, room temperature
• Fiesta Blend Cheese 
• bacon bits 
• cream cheese filled jalapenos, roasted and cooled

Generously butter one side of each slice of bread and place half of the slices buttered side down in a cool cast iron skillet or heavy bottomed pan.  Add a generous amount of shredded cheese to each slice of bread.  Top the cheese with desired amount of bacon bits.  Add the roasted jalapenos and more cheese.  Add the remaining buttered slices of bread, buttered side up.  Turn on the heat to medium low and using a press or a pot lid, press the sandwiches a little.  Cook sandwiches until the bottom is golden brown and then carefully flip the sandwich and cook until the cheese is completely melted and the remaining side of bread is golden.  Allow to sit for a minute or two before slicing.

Enjoy!

My previous Crazy Cooking Challenge entries:

Blueberry Muffins Challenge:  Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Spaghetti with Red Sauce Challenge:  Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter 
Chocolate Cake Challenge:  Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake 
Chicken Noodle Soup Challenge: Thai Chicken Noodle Soup 
Fudge Challenge: Biscoff Fudge 
Mashed Potato Challenge: Aloo Tikki 
Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge: Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps 
Mac & Cheese Challenge: Velvety Mac & Cheese

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

We are now at month seven of the Improv Cooking Challenge which is hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.  As always I looked forward to participating and finding or coming up with a great recipe which included the two theme ingredients.  This month the participating bloggers were asked to make any recipe of their choosing using the two given ingredients of peanut butter & jelly.  Some months I see the two ingredients and know immediately what I’m going to make but this month peanut butter and jelly just didn’t call to me and I didn’t have any recipes in my “need to make” file that fit the bill so I went on a little online search and found a recipe which I thought would work well.  On Averie Cooks, a new-to-me blog I found a recipe for Caramel Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars which sounded really good.  The recipe Averie posted was already gluten free and vegan so Maisie “safe” with her allergies to wheat, egg whites & dairy and with just a bit of tweaking I could easily avoid using processed sugar with the substitution of coconut palm sugar so I set off to make the bars.  I did make just a couple of other changes from Averie’s recipe as I used coconut oil in place of her Earth Balance Buttery Spread and when substituting the coconut palm sugar for her white and brown sugar I cut way back on the total amount of sugar used.  I also chose not to include the caramel as I was going after the peanut butter and jelly flavor and didn’t think that the addition of caramel was necessary for me.   

The bars were chewy delicious and really had the taste of peanut butter and jelly and were a big hit with not only Maisie but Eammon, myself and also friends who tried them.  I kept the bars sealed in a container on the counter for about a week and they got softer and less chewy as the the week went on.  Maisie liked them on the softer side but honestly, I preferred them a bit chewier but wouldn’t pass on them when soft as they were delicious both ways.  The one change I will make to this recipe when I make it again, and I will, is to cut the sugar as the bars were very sweet and while delicious, we just didn’t think that they needed to be so, so sweet. 

Melted coconut oil, peanut butter, palm sugar, cinnamon & vanilla extract mixed together.

Stir in the oats.

Press 3/4 of the mixture into the bottom of a Slice Solutions pan.

Spread the jam on top of the pressed down oat mixture.

Top the jam with the remaining oatmeal mixture.

If using a Slice Solutions pan insert the divider.

When I first pulled the pan from the oven I had my doubts as the bars looked like one hot greasy mess.

After five minutes I removed the divider grid and things looked a little better and once fully cooled, the bars were awesome! 

My previous Improv Cooking Challenge entries:

March 2012  Potato & Cheese:  Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole 
February 2012  Ginger & Carrots:  Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing 
January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream:  Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart 
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries:  Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter 
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese:  Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake 
October 2011 Caramel & Apples:  Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies 

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars (Adapted from here)     

• 1/4 c coconut oil
• 3/4 c peanut butter , melted
• 1 c coconut palm sugar, packed (next time I will cut this down to 1/2 cup)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 TBS. vanilla extract 
• 2 c Old Fashioned oats
• 1/2 c jam (I used raspberry preserves)

Preheat oven to 350F. 

In a large microwave-safe bowl add the coconut oil & peanut butter and microwave for about 45-60 seconds.  Stir to combine.  You will have a very runny liquid.  Add the palm sugar, cinnamon & vanilla extract and using a hand mixer, blend until combined and crumbly.  Stir in the oats.  It will seem crumbly and messy and may not appear to combine well but that’s ok.

Place 3/4 of the mixture into a foil-lined (I forgot the foil) and spayed 9x13 inch pan or as I used, a Slice Solutions Pan.  Press the mixture firmly, packing it down to create the base layer.  Spread the jelly over the top of the base layer.  Take remaining oatmeal/peanut butter mixture and crumble lightly over the top.

Bake at 350F for 22-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  The jelly that’s peeking through and on the edges will be bubbling and look like a hot mess and the bars may still look underdone, but that’s ok because they will continue to set up as they cool.  If using a divider insert, remove after five minutes but if using a regular pan, allow to cool completely before slicing.  Store at room temperature in a sealed container.

Enjoy!

Fruit, Nut & Poppy Seed Chicken Salad

I was very excited this month when I received my Secret Recipe Club assignment as I was assigned Amy’s A Little Nosh, a blog which I have followed for a long time and one where, when I have my act together, I participate in her weekly Tastetastic Thursday blog hop.  Since I’ve been a long time reader of Amy’s blog it didn’t take me ages and ages to find a recipe that I wanted to make as I already had a few of hers saved in my “need to make” file.  For some reason most of the recipes included using chicken like her Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs, Sweet and Sour Chicken and the one I chose to make, Amy’s Chicken Salad.  Part of the reason I chose Amy’s Chicken Salad was, I was asked by Maisie’s gym to make lunch for the judges at a gymnastics meet the gym was hosting and they happened to request chicken salad on croissants so what better time to try out a new recipe.

One thing that I really liked about Amy’s recipe was that she made it sound adaptable to whatever added ingredients you’d choose to include.  I have to say that this chicken salad was the hands down best chicken salad I’ve ever eaten and it only got better the second day once all the flavors really came together.   I really loved the sweet little bites of apple and cranberry and the little added cinnamon crunch of the cashews was always a nice surprise.  The combination of yogurts, sour cream & mayonnaise gave a creamy richness and because I used some honey yogurt, just a touch of sweetness.  This is now my go-to chicken salad recipe and I know that this summer it will be served time and time again in wraps, sandwiches and atop salads.

Fruit, Nut & Poppy Seed Chicken Salad (Adapted from here) 

• 2 lbs. boneless, skinless white meat “Rotisserie” Chicken, cut or pulled into small bite-size chunks
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries 
• 1 large Fuji apple, peeled, seeded & cut into 1/8-inch dice
• 1 cup coarsely chopped cinnamon cashews
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds 
• 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt
• 6 oz. honey Greek yogurt
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 8 oz. Hellmann’s real mayonnaise 

In a large bowl mix the yogurts, sour cream and mayonnaise together.  Add the chicken, dried cranberries, apple, cinnamon cashews and poppy seeds and mix together.  Enjoy immediately or for even better flavor, cover and refrigerate overnight. 

Enjoy!

My previous Secret Recipe Club Recipe Posts:

Broiled Sushi 
Health(ier) Peanut Brittle 
Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites 
Texas Chicken with Lime Butter 
Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens 
Thin Mint Irish Coffee 
Levain Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies 
Welsh Cakes 
Nutella Crêpes 
Cilantro Lime Chicken 
Holy Guacamole 
and
Home Style Chicken Curry

Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I seem to have an addiction, but it’s not what you might think.  It’s not to muffins, blueberries or even to my much adored lemon, it’s an addiction to my monthly recipe challenges, The Secret Recipe Club, The Improv Cooking Challenge and today’s Crazy Cooking Challenge.  Here’s why I say that I have an addiction… The way that the Crazy Cooking Challenge works is that each month there is a dish that our hostess Tina, of Moms Crazy Cooking challenges the participating bloggers to make.  We all go out searching non-celebrity blogs looking for what we think is the ultimate recipe for that dish and once we find it, we make it and then on the same day we do our post featuring the recipe and the blog where it was found.  Well this month we were challenged to find the ultimate blueberry muffin recipe.  Sounds easy enough as the internet is littered with food bloggers who have posted gorgeous blueberry muffin recipes to their blog so finding one is up to what really just suits your fancy.  My problem though is that I’m anaphylaxis allergic to blueberries so as a general rule, I don’t cook with them.  But…BUT… I have participated in the Crazy Cooking Challenge since the beginning and I just couldn’t miss a month, so I was going to make it work.

My friend Lisa (yes Lisa is a popular name) is doing Weight Watchers (and doing great at it I might add) and she recently had surgery so while she was recovering I brought her dinner one night.  For her meal I decided to make Slimmed Down Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole and I also wanted to bring her some WW friendly sweet treats.  I decided that her sweet treats would be my blueberry muffin challenge.  Up front I knew that I wasn’t going to use fresh or frozen blueberries but rather blueberry yogurt as I felt it would be safer for me.  I then set out searching the internet looking for my, well really Lisa’s, not me Lisa but friend Lisa’s, ultimate blueberry muffin recipe.  I knew that the recipe I would choose needed to include yogurt and because of Lisa’s diet I wanted to avoid recipes which included a lot of oil, butter or eggs.  In my search I decided to look for recipes which included yogurt (my blueberry addition) and applesauce in place of the fat and as far as the sugar, well that I knew I could easily substitute.  When I happened upon Ruth’s She-Fit.com and her Skinny Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, well I knew that I had found my recipe.  I’ve heard that lemon and blueberry go fabulously together and with Ruth’s recipe all I had to do was swap out her lemon yogurt for my blueberry yogurt, easy-peasy!!  I held pretty true to Ruth’s recipe just switching out the yogurt flavor and I didn’t bother with the additional sprinkling of Splenda on top of the muffins.

As the muffins cooked the house smelled absolutely delicious and I do wish that I was able to sample one of the muffins but Maisie (because of her food allergies) and I (because of my blueberry allergy) had to just watch as Eammon was our taste tester. 

The results, both Eammon and Lisa had thumbs up for this recipe and said that even though it’s skinny and healthy you’d never know it as these muffins were moist, tender, delicious and full of flavor.  Sounds like a winner to me!

Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins   (Adapted from here)

• 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour 
• 1 tsp. baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 c. Splenda
• 5.3 oz container fat-free Greek fruit-on-the-bottom blueberry yogurt
• 2 TBS. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 Cup unsweetened applesauce 
• 2 large egg whites
• grated lemon peel of 1 fresh lemon
• 1 TBS. poppy seeds 

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and Splenda together.  Add the yogurt, lemon juice and applesauce, lemon peel and poppy seeds.  Stir to combine.  This will make a very thick batter.  In a separate bowl whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.  Add the egg whites to the flour mix and fold in.  Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.  Using a large cookie scoop place approximately 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin mold.  Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted in the muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!

My previous Crazy Cooking Challenge entries:

Spaghetti with Red Sauce Challenge:  Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter 
Chocolate Cake Challenge:  Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake
Chicken Noodle Soup Challenge: Thai Chicken Noodle Soup 
Fudge Challenge: Biscoff Fudge 
Mashed Potato Challenge: Aloo Tikki 
Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge: Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps 
Mac & Cheese Challenge: Velvety Mac & Cheese

Baked Meatballs

Maisie adores meatballs and last week she asked for some and as they’re so simple to make I whipped up a batch.  Because of Maisie’s allergies I don’t use eggs or bread crumbs when making the meatballs.  To substitute for the egg I use chia seeds and for the bread I use potato flakes.  To add some extra calories I also incorporate ground walnuts into the mixture and they add a really nice texture to the finished meatball.  These meatballs have great flavor and texture and I love that Maisie adores them and will easily eat six to eight of them at one go.  Maisie enjoys eating the meatballs dipped either in ketchup or bbq sauce but they’re also delicious over pasta with a sauce or as part of a meatball sub sandwich. 

 Everything goes in one bowl and is mixed together,

 I portion out the meat using a large cookie scoop then roll the scoops into balls before placing them on a foil lined baking sheet.  Twenty minutes in the oven and Maisie’s meatballs are ready to serve.

Baked Meatballs

• 1 lb. ground chuck
• 2 TBS chia seeds
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup minced yellow onion
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 3 oz. tomato paste
• 1/2 cup potato flakes
• 1 cup ground walnuts
• 1 TBS Italian seasoning 
• 2 tsp. Kosher salt
• 1 tsp. ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400F. 

Line a sheet pan with foil and coat with cooking spray.  In a medium bowl add the hot water and chia seeds and mix well.  Allow the chia seeds to hydrate for five minutes.  Add all the other ingredients and using your hands mix well.  Using a large cookie scoop portion out the meat.  Roll the portioned out meat into balls and place the meatballs on a the prepared pan.  Bake for 20 minutes, until cooked through.  Serve with sauce or as Maisie likes them, with a side of ketchup or bbq sauce.

Enjoy!

Slimmed Down Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole

My friend Lisa recently had surgery and while she recovered I wanted to make dinner for her and her family.  Lisa has been on Weight Watchers and she really liked the sound of my Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole so I set out to make a healthier version for her and her family. 

I cut way back on the oil that I used in the recipe and it made for a thicker coating on the potatoes which I really liked.

I used less potatoes, creating only a single layer in the pan.

Because I used less oil I had less leftover oil/hot sauce left in the bowl to use for marinating the chicken.

Though there was enough to coat the chicken, I think that next time I will just add a few dashes of extra hot sauce to the chicken.

The potatoes roasted up beautifully with the reduced oil and I loved the thicker coating of the hot sauce mixture.

Raw marinated chicken placed on top of the roasted potatoes,

In place of the regular bacon I used turkey bacon and for the cheese I used Weight Watchers Reduced-fat shredded Mexican-style cheese.

Ready for the oven.

The casserole baked up the nicely though not quite as gooey melty as when I use other cheese.  The reviews, well Lisa and her family loved the casserole and finished off the entire pan and if asked to make a slimmed down version again I wouldn’t hesitate to make this exactly as written below.  Also, after making this slimmed down version and seeing how it worked out, I think that in the future I will only use the reduced amount of olive oil and if needed I’ll add a bit of extra hot sauce to help marinate the chicken. As far as the bacon and cheese, just because of my personal taste preferences I’ll most likely continue using real bacon and regular cheese.  So in the future our family will enjoy a less slimmed down version but I guess cutting any bit of fat out of a recipe is good for the diet. 

Slimmed Down Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole

• 24 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 30 oz. potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes  (I leave the skin on)
• 2 TBS. olive oil 
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 TBS. freshly ground pepper
• 1 TBS. paprika 
• 2 TBS. garlic powder 
• 6 TBS. hot sauce 

Topping:

• 8 oz. Weight Watchers Reduced-fat shredded Mexican-style cheese
• 6 oz. turkey bacon, diced and pan fried until crispy
• 1 c diced green onion

Preheat oven to 500F.  In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder & hot sauce.  Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat.  Carefully scoop the potatoes into a cooking spray coated 9 x 13 inch baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mix as possible.  Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and crispy & browned on the outside.  While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the leftover olive oil/hot sauce mix and stir to coat.  Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400F.  Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken.  In a bowl mix together the cheese, cooked turkey bacon & green onion and top the raw chicken with the cheese mix.  Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.  Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing.

Enjoy!