Whats for dinner?
 

I'm looking around for a good phase 1 friendly dinner for my husband and I (he's not on south beach) Any suggestions??

I think I found one, It looks good for phase 1 but I'm a little worried about the heavy cream...

Cilantro Cream Chicken

4 boneless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons butter
1-2 teaspoons southwest seasoning (or anything else you'd prefer)
3 ounces cream cheese, cubed
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon lime juice, 1/2 of 1 lime
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped, about 2 big handfuls

While heating the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, liberally season the chicken on both sides with the rotisserie chicken seasoning. Don't bother measuring the seasoning, just use as much as necessary. Brown the chicken on both sides in the hot butter. Remove the chicken from the pan. Lower the heat and add the cream cheese and cream to the drippings in the skillet. Whisk to blend well as the cream cheese melts. Whisk in the lime juice and stir in the cilantro. Return the chicken to the pan; cover and simmer 15 minutes, turning after about 7 minutes. When chicken is cooked through, place on serving plates and pour about 1/4 cup of the sauce over each serving.

Lkelly, good question and good answer :) that looks really good.

I had planned to make a chicken recipe I found in Kalyn's Kitchen, but a midday meeting lasted longer than I expected, so there's no time. I'm going to pan grill a steak, with mixed chop vegetables on the side.

Any other dinner ideas?

I think the heavy cream is a no but someone else should weigh-in because I never cook with cream. You should replace the cream cheese with reduced fat cream cheese. This seems very high in saturated fat

Thanks for that, Cyndi. I'm so used to substituting low fat for full fat foods and milk for cream in my recipes from low carb days that I didn't think about it.

What do you and he like?

You could do the taco bake from the recipe section,
Or make all the taco fixin's and eat yours as a salad and he can have his on tortilla.

Im partial to having homemade meatballs (no bread crumbs) w/ (nsa) marinara & freshly grated parmasean.... he could have his w/ pasta. Side with a salad (i usually go w/ caeser with my meatballs)

Chili, topped w/ lf cheddar

Soup or stew, you could even pair this with a sandwich for him & deli rolls for yourself.

Stuffed peppers w/ veggies & ground meat topped w/ (nsa) salsa

That is what comes to mind this very second... there are lots of choices out there (and that is coming from someone - me - who I am told is a extremely picky eater)

plus there are a number of excellent recipes for phase one dinners over in the recipe index, if you havent already done so, check those out!

Originally Posted by CyndiM:
I think the heavy cream is a no but someone else should weigh-in because I never cook with cream. You should replace the cream cheese with reduced fat cream cheese. This seems very high in saturated fat

Heavy cream is a definate no no... I dont cook with cream either, but I imagine using skim milk (or 1%) would be fine.... probably just a little on the thin side.
I cant remember for the life of me if its ok for phase 1, but arrowroot could most likely be used to thicken up the milk mixture.

Lindsay, how do you keep your meatballs together without any breadcrumbs at all? I've been making turkey meatballs (mostly white turkey meat) with wholewheat breadcrumbs, but I always end up using more breadcrumbs than I'd planned. What's the secret?!

Use LF yogurt in place of the cream.

Arrowroot is VERY starchy and high in carb. Anybody use Xantham gum as a thickener?

Originally Posted by EliseVi:
Lindsay, how do you keep your meatballs together without any breadcrumbs at all? I've been making turkey meatballs (mostly white turkey meat) with wholewheat breadcrumbs, but I always end up using more breadcrumbs than I'd planned. What's the secret?!

I usually use the following:
Lean ground beef,
Egg
Parmasean
milk (just a splash)
worcestershire sauce
salt, garlic & other seasonings

I just throw every thing in to the food processor and whizz it all together, then form the balls.

Just a note to keep in mind, when you take them out of the oven, they tend to have 'meat foam' that I just wipe off with a paper towel.... I think that I just because there isn't any bread crumbs to absorbs that 'stuff'.

Lindsay, thank you for your recipe. I'll try it your way. Plus, I just realized that for years I've been mixing up the meat and stuff with my hands when I could have been using a food processor!

Oh, and thank you for possibly the grossest phrase ever. "Meat foam." :-)

Originally Posted by EliseVi:
Oh, and thank you for possibly the grossest phrase ever. "Meat foam." :-)

Hahahaha :lol:
It wasnt until I read your response that I realized just how gross 'meat foam' sounds... made me laugh!