Thursday, January 17, 2008

Food, food, food!

Q: How can you post a picture of such delectable food and not share about it? :)

A: I was so busy cooking, I hardly had time to blog! I made two pans of chicken divan since both chicken and broccoli are on sale. It's great for diabetics, due to its lack of starchy filler.

Try Miss Daisy's easy recipe or the fancier version for condensed-soup-snobs!

(I like to send pretty paper napkins along when I can find them for a quarter, like this pack!)

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't believe it.

I just took a package of shredded Thanksgiving turkey out of the freezer to thaw; we are keeping friend's children this weekend while they travel and need to feed a crowd without busting the budget.

I looked at the turkey, looked at a more expensive, crowd-pleasing pork shoulder recipe (which required a trip to the grocery), looked at the leftover cooked brocolli in the fridge, pondered ... opened the email ...

VOILA! I am going to make this divan, only in turkey! Thank you!

deb meyers

Anonymous said...

Hee hee. I thought the same thing, but I didn't even have time to leave a comment to beg for the recipe. :) Thanks for sharing ... I have a Miss Daisy cookbook around here somewhere I need to dig out.

Eleanor Joyce said...

Great timing! I bought chicken on sale yesterday. This will be our dinner tomorrow (Friday is always home-made pizza).
By the way I posted a link to your site on my blog today. Thanks again for all your inspiration!

Anonymous said...

So, which recipe did you use? The Miss Daisy one does not sound very healthy. I have most of ingredients on hand for the other recipe(except whipping cream) so think I may try that this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration - including making 2 small pans instead of 1 large one so that I can take one to a friend, along with some napkins. I'm sure I have unopened packages stuck around and that is just a nice little touch.

Jenny's Vegcafe said...

I'm still wondering what's in the pan behind the chicken divan. It looks really yummy like a custard or a spoonbread. I'm probably really off so let me know.

Anonymous said...

Meredith,
I love your blog and visit it every day! Actually, several times a day! Just in case you add something. Which you sometimes do. I wish I could visit you at your house. You seem like a really neat lady. Thank you for sharing your ideas. I am trying to add them to MY life! You are right...we really do DESERVE to treat our families and ourselves nicely! Thanks again for teaching us how to do that! Have a GREAT day.
September Lady

Meredith said...

Deb, the original Miss Daisy recipe calls for turkey! I rarely have it around, so I use chicken.

I use the Miss Daisy version with low fat ingredients. I have never made "the real version" because I trust Miss Daisy's advice that she has tried most every version but that this one tastes the best.

The other two pans have a banana pudding and roasted sweet potatoes and carrots.

Meredith said...

VERY IMPORTANT: I add at least twice as much chicken as the recipe calls for--4 breasts for one preparation.

Otherwise, it's too much sauce. This also stretches out the less healthy ingredients.

I also use fresh steamed broccoli instead of frozen, especially when it's on sale for $1/bag.

Anonymous said...

Condensed soup snobs? If you knew how much salt was in a can of condensed soup, you wouldn't serve it to your family either. :(

It's just as easy to make a white sauce base as to use condensed "cream of" soups, and so much healthier.

TJ said...

Comments were down yesterday, because I wanted to ask what the food was. Thanks for the recipes!

Condensed soup does come in low sodium varieties and we use whatever we have on hand. Whether it's a bechamel sauce or a dented low sodium can of cream of mushroom.

Anonymous said...

: )

deb m

Tubo Family said...

Looks so yummy and easy, I am going to try it this week. Thanks for including both recipes, the "fancy" is useful for me who needs to figure out dairy-free subs.

Kizz said...

I don't use the L'Oreal bare essentially stuff but I have a friend who swears by it and she looks beautiful in it.

Anonymous said...

Meredith,
I noticed your comment about having to use more meat since your husband is diabetic. My husband is on Atkins and I am on South Beach and meat is very expensive right now. I have been watching sales and picking up almost expired meat with coupons attached and cooking it the same. Day. I would really appreciate a post on how you budget for the protein your husband needs in his diet. Thank you, Miss Kris

Anonymous said...

I use a recipe very similar to Miss Daisy's, & it is delicious! I love the curry powder in it, both for color as well as how it gets under & seems to "hold" the other flavors. In fact we just had this dish just two nights ago, & there is only enough left for my husband to take to work with him on Monday. I like to use the reduced fat soup, reduced fat mayo, & lower fat cheese....the quality definitely does not suffer!

Brenda

Meredith said...

I can say "condensed soup snobs" because I consider myself to be one of them!!!

I honestly get tired of making casserole after casserole after crock pot meal with the exact same taste--and little wonder why, with condensed soups as the base of so many recipes.

I've also found that more scratch-type cooking with white sauces keeps me from running to the store so often.

However, this recipe is one of the few where I do use the condensed soup in a reduced sodium, reduced fat version.

I did just find a Southern Living version that is very similar, but uses a white sauce--not quite as fancy as the other recipe I linked to. Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to try that one, too.

Anonymous said...

Just be careful to not get sucked into the tricks of careful product labelling. "Lower sodium" or "reduced sodium" cream of soup is still awful for you, and loaded with sodium.

Example:

Campbells 25% Reduced Sodium "Cream of Mushroom" has 650mg of sodium per 1/2 cup condensed

Campbells 98% fat free "Cream of Mushroom" has 630 per 1/2 cup condensed

Regular "Cream of Musrhoom" has 830mg per 1/2 cup condensed

The "Healthy Request" Cream of Mushroom has 470mg per 1/2 cup condensed

Each can has a serving size of 2.5, meaning each can has 1.25 cups of condensed soup. Adding 1.25 milk as suggested on the can adds sodium as well (my 1% has 125mg per 1 cup). So for the overall sodium count for the whole of the lowest sodium soup is around 1331mg, or 332mg per 5/8 cup.

Doesn't sound like a lot, until you hear that is the same amount of sodium as in a large order of McDonalds fries, or 3 chicken McNuggets, or half a Quarter Pounder, or twice the sodium as 1 serving of Cool Ranch Doritios, more than the sodium in a jelly donut from Dunkin Donuts... If you're getting the reduced sodium "Cream of," that's 445 grams per 5/8 cup. More than an order of large fries, plus another small fry, 5 pieces of Chicken McNuggets, 3 times the sodium per serving of Doritos, 1 and a half jelly donuts, ... And just about half the RDA of mg of salt for children 12 and under.

That's a lot of sodium... A LOT of sodium. Reduced sodium is better than the 570mg for 5/8 cup, but not enough to blow anybody's socks off. It's only a difference of 125mg... About a small McDonalds fry order.

Vs two cups of make-it-yourself white sauce base... Which is about 140mg of salt per 1/2 cup (using butter, not reduced salt).