I have to laugh at my blog post title today. My blog friend Tieghan from Half Baked Harvest (well, she probably doesn’t know who I am, but I still consider us friends!) usually has the longest blog title recipe posts, but I think this beats here longest! 
Before we get to dinner though, let’s start with breakfast, shall we?! Today was a lower carb day, meaning all of my carbs came from fruits and veggies.
I loved the guacamole on top of the hard boiled eggs – so good! In my meal prep a baked off a dozen hard boiled eggs. You can check out this blog post to see how to do that.
Because my work has been so busy, I’ve been working through lunch a lot, and decided that needed to stop. I work for four people (two attorneys, two paralegals), so I sent an email out yesterday that I would be taking lunch from 12:30 – 1:30 every day. And after I sent that email, texted my sister to see if she could walk.
When I was doing my meal plan for the week, I saw a recipe for a Mexican meatball soup, and thought, did I do that before? Yep! Nearly six years ago to the day, I made this ancho chile albondigas soup.
I deemed this one a keeper, but like most food bloggers, I have to laugh that it took me nearly six years to the day to make it again. The only thing I did was add more veggies: carrots, celery and more zucchini. For instagram purposes, I stole the picture from that 2011 post, but here is the soup below – not as photogenic, but delicious! The broth has a complex heat.
Gave myself too much insulin, moved around too much at work, blood sugar 52. So I had 1/4 cup granola, with a banana, and then later to get my points up for the day, a package of these nuts.
And I still had money on a gift card, so got a cold brew for the train ride home – 1 smart point for the fat free milk.
I have Kevin of Closet Cooking to thank for last nights recipe. I adapted his recipe a bit for one serving (although Jacob loved the roasted red pepper sauce over his steak!), but this was a simple, delicious dinner and was ready in about 15 minutes. This is for one serving, and comes in at 8 smart points.
- 6 ounces chicken breast
- 1 ounce herbed goat cheese, divided
- 1/2 cup jarred red pepper
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon grape seed oil
- salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup baby spinach
- 2 tablespoons fat free half and half
- pinch of crushed red pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, divided
- 1 cup fresh green beans
Microwave the green beans on vegetable setting. Meanwhile, lay the two pieces of chicken on a cutting board, season with salt and pepper and use 1/2 the goat cheese in the chicken, top with the baby spinach, and roll up, and season with more salt and pepper. Heat a skillet with grape seed oil, and cook seam side down first (I should have just kept it on the seam side down, because when I tried to flip the chicken, it unrolled a bit). While the chicken is cooking, add the red pepper, chicken broth, corn starch, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed red pepper and half and half to a blender and puree.
When the chicken is nearly done (about 6-8 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken), remove to a plate. Add the remaining clove of garlic to your skillet and cook for a couple minutes. Add in the microwaved green beans and salt and pepper – I just added a spray of coconut oil spray, but you could add a touch more grape seed oil. Cook a couple minutes, and set aside.
Now pour the roasted red pepper sauce back in the pan, add the chicken back in, and put a lid on the pan and cook over medium heat for a couple minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken.
Plate the green beans on the plate, top with the chicken, drizzle the roasted red pepper sauce (which will be too much, but it will be great leftover!) and sprinkle with dried parsley and the remaining 1/2 ounce of goat cheese.
I don’t normally buy thin sliced chicken, but this package was perfect for two servings for me. I used just under 6 ounces of chicken for dinner last night, and I’ll use the rest for chicken lettuce wraps with veggies. Not bad for $1.82!
No need to pound out either which is a time saver. Because these were so thin, I just cooked them in my cast iron skillet. My store had spinach bunches for .69 cents a bunch – look at how big the leaves are!
Sear on the seam side, and because the chicken is so thin, keep it on this side so it holds together.
So simple and delicious! The above dinner comes in at 8 smart points, or 394 calories, 16 carbs, 13 fat, 46 protein, 5 saturated fat and 8 grams of sugar.
So I am tracking both calories and points while I carb cycle this week. I ate more carbs and calories than I wanted to, but blame that on the low blood sugar by having the banana and granola.
Stats for the Day:
I had 32 points for the day and 1510 calories, 120 carbs, 69 fat, 107 protein, 22 saturated fat, and 55 grams of sugar. Without the banana and granola, I would have been at about 80 grams of carbs for the day, and around 1300 calories.
Another dreary day in Chicago, but hopefully the rain will stay away so Jenn and I can walk today. I had close to 14k steps yesterday.
Happy Tuesday – make it a great day!
Your breakfast looks really good. I’ve been trying to come up with something quick and easy and new to try!
Thanks Lisa! I tried eating at home or on the train before work, but I think my body is used to eating breakfast at 9 a.m. 😛
After your blog, Tieghan’s is probably a close second as far as one I read on a regular basis. Yes, her titles are long and I can always tell her photos anywhere. While your soup sounds great, I’m swinging by the store later to pick up some goat cheese so I can whip this dinner up tonight. Sadly, I just threw out some blueberry goat cheese that had been buried. That is a disgustingly good price on your chicken cutlets. Always jealous of your prices and from a small grocery store too.
I too can recognize Tieghan’s photos pretty much anywhere. Such the life she has cooking and living in a barn! #dreamworld – I have to look and see when her cookbook is coming out, or if it already did.
I hate when I waste food – I’ve been doing a pretty good job lately of keeping track though – it’s tough though when the kadults cram their to go containers (and never eat by the way) in the fridge. Let me know what you think of this dish!
That chicken looks delicious, and I have some goat cheese I need to use up. Thanks for recipe!
Yeah! Another lover of goat cheese 😀 My daughter and her fiance give it the stink eye, which is fine – more for me 😀
Stuffed chicken is one of my favorite ways to jazz up chicken. I’m surprised yours unrolled – seems to me if you sear the seam side first it should stick together. I guess it doesn’t matter though as it all unrolls when you chew it 😀
I’m curious – why are you point and calorie counting? That sounds like a lot of work to me.
I may not have let it sear long enough on the seam side – it was pretty thin and I didn’t want to overcook it.
I am counting calories just for curiousity sake – I do have a two hour commute during the day, so I have plenty of time 😀 And I use myfitnesspal – so it doesn’t take long at all to input my food there too.
Um yeah… that chicken looks up my alley.
We had the best soup last night Biz and it was soooo quick and easy… I think you’d like it… You could always add cheese or serve with breadsticks, but it had so much flavor on it’s own. We served it with a Caesar salad.
http://meljoulwan.com/2010/10/17/10-minute-pizza-soup/
Wait, what Carrie?! Pizza soup?! How have I not tried that! Thanks for the link – it sounds delish.