Category Archives: Main Dish – Chicken

Light Baked Ziti

by Sarah

I’m still on my healthy kick, so I ordered another cookbook.  The recipes in this book are different than my usual casserole collection, so that is nice.

There are lots of vegan recipes.  I’m not a vegan (obviously), but I can appreciate how hard it must be to find a cookbook with vegan recipes.

I do feel like they padded the book a bit.  There were several recipes for pasta bakes with just one ingredient changed.  They could have just put one recipe in for a pasta bake and then put optional ingredients at the bottom.  That is such a picky complaint though.

The ingredients for the light baked ziti are

  • 1 (16 oz) package of ziti pasta
  • 1/4 cup of sun-dried tomatoes
  • 16 oz of sliced mushrooms
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp of minced garlic
  • 1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • 3/4 cup of part-skim mozzarella cheese
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of diced, cooked chicken
  • 1/4 cup of chopped, fresh basil

Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with non stick cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350°. Cook the ziti according to the directions, drain and place in the casserole dish.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the mushrooms and garlic.   Cook until the mushrooms are slightly tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, sugar and salt.  Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir in 1/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese, the chicken, and basil.  Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella cheese on top.  Bake the pasta for 20 minutes.

I thought this was a great light alternative to my heavier ziti recipe (with ricotta and 2 cups of mozzarella cheese).  I served it with creamed spinach and sprinkled a little grated Parmesan cheese.

The dish serves 8.

Calories:  356, Fat: 9.7g, Protein: 19g, Fiber: 4.1 g, Carbohydrates: 51 g, Sugar: 2.2 g

Phyllo Chicken Pie

by Sarah

We grocery shop at Publix and love it.  One of the reasons we like Publix so much is that they have recipe cards sprinkled throughout the store to give shoppers ideas.  Every so often an employee will be making some delicious recipe and giving out samples.  Last weekend, we went to the store with a very specific weekly menu in mind.  Then we tried one of the samples of phyllo chicken pie and immediately changed our meal plan for that day!

Phyllo chicken pie is super tasty and super easy.  While being tasty is great, the easy part is really what sold us on this dish.

For chicken phyllo pie, you’ll need…

  • 4 cups of chopped chicken (we bought a rotisserie chicken and used all the meat from that)
  • 8 sheets of phyllo dough
  • One package of creamed spinach (we used Bird’s Eye)
  • 1 tablespoon of dried onion flakes
  • 2 Tablespoons of chopped garlic
  • Zest/juice from 1/2 lemon
  • 4 Tablespoons of butter, melted
  • 4 oz of crumbled garlic and herb feta cheese

I’ve always been a little intimidated to work with phyllo dough….  I thought it would be temperamental and sticky.  Turns out, it was one of the easiest things I’ve worked with in a long time.

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Coat a 9 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Place one phyllo sheet in the dish, allowing in to overhang by about 4 – 6 inches.  Brush with butter.  Repeat the layers until you have used 8 sheet of phyllo.

Microwave the spinach according to the directions on the package.  Combine the spinach, chicken, onions, zest and juice of the lemon, garlic, and feta cheese.  Spread the mixture over the phyllo.

Fold each side of the phyllo over the filling, brushing each with butter.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the phyllo is golden.

 

Our phyllo on the left side got a little scorched.  I didn’t take the recipe seriously when it said to brush with butter and I paid the price.   Next time, I’ll be a little more liberal with my butter brushing.

The dish makes 6 servings and we paired it with our tomato and cucumber salad.  According to the recipe card, it has 340 calories, 21 g of fat, 19 g of carbohydrates and 19 g of protein.  Cary liked it so much, he said it should go in our normal rotation of dinner entrees.

If you are interested in checking out other recipes by Publix, they are listed here.

*Full disclosure:  Publix doesn’t know who we are.  We just like them. 

Avalon Acres Roasted Chicken

by Sarah


With the flooding in Nashville, Avalon Acres lost many of their chickens.  We didn’t think we would get any fowl this year, but were pleasantly surprised when we opened our CSA to find a whole chicken!

We also received zucchini, squash and potatoes and decided to use those too.

We cut the vegetables in large chunks and tossed them in a little olive oil.

We lightly salted the chicken.

We lightly seasoned the vegetables and chicken with rosemary and thyme.  In our excitement, we cooked the bird upside down.  Forgive us…  it still tasted great!

We baked the chicken at 375 for 1 hour.  The skin was delightfully crispy and the meat was incredibly tender and juicy.  The potatoes were well done, but the zucchini and squash were a little overdone for my taste.  Next time, we’ll put those in for just 30 minutes.  The next day, the chicken was great on a salad.