Recipe: Cheesy Chicken & Stuffing Bake

I've finally gotten back into the groove of cooking dinner on a regular basis and I am trying to build my repertoire of easy to throw together meals that are both fast and somewhat healthy.

While this meal isn't exactly what one thinks of when you say healthy, it's definitely not that bad, and it's what I made for dinner tonight. I know it doesn't LOOK particularly appetizing, but trust me on this.

Cheesy Chicken & Stuffing Bake (Basic Version)

1 lb of chicken breast, cut into small pieces

1 box of stuffing (I used Stove Top Low Sodium)

1 1/2 cups of cheddar jack cheese

1 can of cream of chicken soup

Preheat oven to 350*.

Cook stuffing according to directions, leaving a bit dry.

Put chicken, soup, and cheese in a 9 x 13" baking dish and mix together. 

Put cooked stuffing on top.

Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Serves 6

That's it. It's the easiest recipe ever. Want to jazz it up? Toss in some veggies. I had some leftover chopped onions on hand, so I tossed those in this time around. It would also be great with broccoli, corn, cauliflower, carrots, peas...anything you want, really! Or you can always serve the vegetables on the side, which is what I did tonight.

And if I did the calculations right, it should only be about 6 WW points. Not too shabby!

Recipe: Healthy Corn Chowder

This is a recipe post. But first I want to point you all over to Casey of Girl in the Poodle Shoes because I hung out with her last weekend, and it was an absolute blast, and she wrote all about it. So until I get around to writing my own re-cap, go check hers out! :)

Onward...

I freaking love corn chowder. It's creamy, it's buttery, it's sweet, it's salty. Oh mama.

Of course it is decidedly un-healthy due to the aforementioned reasons. Luckily, Weight Watchers stepped in and created a more healthful and lower fat version that is pretty darn good. It may not completely take the place of delicious corn chowder in a bread bowl (hold me!) but it has satisfied my corn chowder cravings on more than one occasion.

Here's the recipe, taken from WeightWatchers.com:

Ingredients:
1 medium Yukon gold (or yellow) potato
1 spray cooking spray
1/2 cup uncooked celery, chopped
1/4 cup uncooked onions, chopped (or one shallot, chopped)
4 pieces corn on the cob, kernels removed (or just some corn...really however much you want)
1 cup red pepper, diced
4 oz Canadian bacon, diced
2 cups fat free skim milk
salt & pepper
1/8 tsp hot pepper sauce, or to taste

Directions:
1. Pierce potato in several places with a fork; microwave on high power until tender, turning over once, about 8 minutes. Allow to cool; peel and mash. *I've also done this without mashing and instead just cutting the potato into small pieces, leaving the skin on. It was equally tasty.

2. Meanwhile, coat a large saucepan with cooking spray. Add celery, onion, corn and red pepper; sauté over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

3.  Stir bacon and milk into saucepan; stir in mashed potato and mix well. Season with salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce; stir to combine. Cover and simmer 10 minutes (do not allow to boil). Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.

For 6 points a serving, that's not too shabby! Enjoy!