I tossed this in my slow cooker around lunch time, and it was so good and so easy for dinner that I thought I would post the recipe here! This is a perfect fall/cold weather low calorie meal. I recently discovered butternut squash - the texture and taste is so similar to potatoes. It is also lower cal & lower on the glycemic index than white potatoes!
Ingredients:
1/2 of a large butternut squash
16 - 20 oz. of boneless/skinless chicken breasts (4 oz. per serving)
1 - 1.5 or so cups of fat free chicken broth
Favorite chicken spice (I used Red Robin spice)
1-2 Tbsp cornstarch
Directions:
Peel, seed & cut butternut squash into large cubes. Put squash in bottom of slow cooker. Pour chicken broth over squash and add a dash of salt (if you want). Lay chicken breast pieces on top of squash and sprinkle with chicken spice. Cook on low about 6 hours. I believe you could probably cook in high for 3 hours or so.
Turn slow cooker up to high and remove chicken & squash. Cover them to keep warm. Mix cornstarch with equal amount of water and stir into remaining liquid in slow cooker. Let cook until thickened (about 20 min or so). Serve chicken with butternut squash on the side and pour gravy over chicken - or even over both. I also served this with some steamed sugar snap peas & made some cornbread for the kids. It was a delicious, hearty meal and the chicken turned out very tender.
Calorie breakdown:
Gravy - entire amount of gravy is 50-60 calories if 1 Tbsp cornstarch & 1.5 cups broth (if serving 4, about 15 cals per serving)
Butternut Squash - one cup - 82 calories
Chicken breast - 125 calories per 4 oz.
Total Cals: 222
Total Fat: 2 grams
Total Carbs: 22 grams
If pairing this with sugar snap peas, as I did (60 calories per cup), the meal is only 282 calories - and you would get an entire cup each of squash & sugar snaps.
Hope someone can use this and enjoy!