Chicken and Veggie Night

I have to admit that last night I winged it a bit. There was no real recipe I followed, other than a quick one I found at a recipe site when I decided at the last moment to include chicken with our dinner which was intended to be just all vegetables.

We have a local farmer's market that we have started frequenting. With all the news about salmonella being found in fresh produce over the recent months, I figured this was a better avenue to take in obtaining as much of the fresh produce we use as we could. After all, many of these people are our neighbors in this small town of ours, so it had the added benefit of supporting our local farmers.

So, our dinner last night consisted of:

• Brown Rice
• Chicken in Worcestershire (it's not as bad a it sounds and, with a bit of splenda brown sugar, tasted very much like teryaki sauce without all the sodium!)
• Zucchini and summer squash Bake
• Green Bean and Potato Salad

We've really been trying not to eat so many enriched carbs. So, I try to use brown rice as much as possible to get the nutrients that are usually lost in the enrichment process of white rice. All of the vegetables I used are fresh, and I steamed them all for maximum nutrient conservation. All in all, it was quite a low fat dinner and low sodium as well.

I was cooking for only the two of us last night. What we fixed and ate was more than one serving of veggies --- but that's not a bad thing! I used only one chicken breast between us and we each had half.

Brown Rice

• 1 cup of rice
• 2 cups of water

Brown rice is made a bit differently and must cook longer than white rice.

1. Combine the rice and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Lower heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes.

Worcestershire Chicken
(I swear this is good!)

This doesn't seem like it would be "low sodium" but keep in mind that, while it has 65 mg of sodium (roughly 3% of RDA based on a 2,000 calorie diet) per teaspoon and this recipe calls for 1/2 cup, it is used mostly to marinade the chicken during cooking and most of the liquid will be left behind in the pan. You may get an actual teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce on the actual chicken on your plate, so the sodium level should be acceptable.)

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into strips (cooks easier this way)
• 1/2 cup of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon Spenda Brown Sugar (optional)

1. Spray skillet with nonstick spray
2. Brown Chicken pieces
3. Add the Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar
4. Lower heat and cover, letting simmer for 20-30 minutes (or more)

Zucchini and Squash Bake
1 zucchini, cut (the one we had was quite large and may have equaled two regular ones from the store)

• 1 summer squash
• 1/2 sliced sweet onion
• 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and sliced
• 1/4 cup of water
• sprinkle of mozzarella (Parmesan works great too)

1. Spray casserole dish with nonstick spray
2. lay zucchini, squash, onion, pepper and water in dish
3. sprinkle with mozzerella
4. Cover with aluminum foil and cook at 350 for 30 minutes

Green Beans and Potatoes

• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (omega fats -- the GOOD fat)
• 1 lb of fresh green beans
• 1/4 cup of water
• 4 red new potatoes, quartered
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 minced garlic clove
• pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic to pan; saute 30 seconds.
2. Add potato, celery and beans. Saute 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup of water; cover and cook for 5 minutes until green beans are crisp-tender.
3. Add tomatoes. Cover, reduce heat and cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in pepper.

Without salt, it's not super flavorful, but is good. The hardest part in cutting out sodium is learning to enjoy the natural taste of the vegetables you cook. I happen to loooooove fresh green beans and cook them a lot.


Until another day....signing off.