BARBECUE CHICKEN SANDWICHES

 Back last or when I went f. or my yearly wellness check, my doctor and I learned my cholesterol was the highest it has ever been. As a result, she wanted me to watch my diet, get plenty of exercise (at least 20 minutes a day), and take medication to bring it down. Since she didn't elaborate regarding my diet, I decided to check out what was considered a good diet when trying to lower your cholesterol. Long story short I only eat a forbidden meat (beef or pork) once a week. So for seven and a half months, I've consumed a lot of chicken, some turkey, and some fish. My husband enjoys cooking fish so we try to have it once a week. I will eat turkey burgers at home and turkey sausage. The rest of the time it's --- Chicken.

The fun part is trying to come up with different dishes with chicken. In all of my cookbooks I finally saw a recipe for Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches. I like barbecued chicken and am not sure why I hadn't even thought of making it, but what a delight to enjoy a sandwich made with shredded chicken and a homemade barbecue sauce.

I cooked two chicken breast because I wasn't sure how much I needed to make 2 cups after I shredded it. The recipe actually said to chop it, but I prefer shredded chicken to chopped chicken. If you like extra bbq sauce, you might want to make a double batch of it. It was enough for me, but Wayne added a little of bottled sauce I had since the recipe made exactly enough for the 2 cups of chicken.

BARBECUE CHICKEN SANDWICHES

2     cups, chicken, cooked and shredded or chopped, whichever you prefer

1/2  cup ketchup

1/4  cup brown sugar

1     tablespoon mustard

1     tablespoon sauce

salt & pepper to taste

Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl.

Place the prepared chicken in a saucepan and

add the sauce,

stirring to cover

all of the chicken.

Cover the pot with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes or until sauce mixture is warm on the chicken.

(You could also heat the sauce in the microwave and then add it to the chicken.) 

Serve on rolls. 

P.S. When I went back to have my cholesterol checked at 4 months it had dropped almost a hundred points. Now I don't know if it is the statin or my diet or maybe both.

CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES

 We finally have a Snowflake Contest winner. That means we had officially at least1 inch of snow. I don't know if this is the latest in the winter that it has happened. We have only been here 13 years. Our weather has gotten a little crazier every year since we moved here. We barely got an inch of rain in November. But we did get about 3 inches of snow that started Friday evening late and ended by noon Saturday. We did start with rain so that meant we had ice under the snow. That made it a little slippery going to church yesterday morning. I just made sure I drove home a different way. The sun came out during lunch so it turned into a pretty day.

When I sat down last night to writeup this post, I almost thought I wasn't going to be able to because I couldn't find the cookbook that the recipe was in. But I did so that was good.

I made these brownies for the canasta group back in November when I was the hostess. I'm not sure why I am just now getting around to sharing it. I forgot to pull a knife through the mixture in the pan, but the ladies said they liked it the way I made it. I used 1/3 less fat Neufchatel cheese. 

CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES

Brownies:

1     box fudge brownie mix (9 x 13" size)

1/4  cup water

1/2  cup oil

2     large eggs

Cream Cheese Mix :

1     (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened or at room temperature (I used 1/3 less fat Neufchatel cheese)

 5     tablespoons butter, room temperature

1/3   cup sugar

2      large eggs

2      tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to temperature called for on the brownie box. Grease or spray a 9 x 13" pan and set aside.

Mix brownie mix, water, oil, and eggs together.

Set aside.

Beat together the cream cheese mix by starting with the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and flour until it is nice and smooth.

Add eggs and beat until smooth.

Set aside.

Pour half of the brownie mixture in the pan.

Drop the cream cheese mix using a teaspoon over the brownie mix to cover evenly.

Pour the remaining brownie mixture to cover the cream cheese mixture. 

Bake for 28 - 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Cut into bars when ready to serve.

I couldn't believe this hand I was dealt and wanted the ladies to know what I had had so I took a picture of it to show them afterwards.

CHICKEN RICE SOUP

As winter has finally come to the midwest, you can expect soup recipes from me. The Brunswick Stew I made and shared earlier hasn't seen much traffic. That's really too bad because it was so good. I had never made Brunswick Stew but it was easy and I was surprised how good it tasted. 

This time I decided to make Chicken Rice Soup using brown rice. I cooked too much chicken so I had chicken ready for my next recipe. I found the recipe when I was going through some Taste of Home magazines that were about 15 years old. I followed the recipe and only used 1/c cup uncooked rice but it wasn't enough. We ate the soup the first time, but then I cooked a cup of rice and added it to the pot. Some might think it was too much rice, but we liked it. I would definitely cook 1 cup of rice for the recipe.

CHICKEN RICE SOUP

3       quarts water

3       lbs chicken breast halves

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4    teaspoon pepper

1/4    teaspoon poultry seasoning

1       teaspoon chicken bouillon granules (I used 2 bouillon cubes)

3       medium carrots, chopped

2      celery ribs, chopped

1      cup uncooked long grain rice (I used brown rice.)

1      small onion, chopped.

In a large Dutch oven or soup pot, place water, chicken, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes or until chicken is tender.

With a slotted spoon, remove chicken from broth.

When cool enough to handle, shred or cut chicken into bite-size pieces.

Return the chicken to the broth and

add remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes or until vegetables and rice are tender. As I said above,

I cooked 1 cup of additional rice and then added it to the pot.

A bowl with just 1/2 cup of uncooked rice used...

and a bowl with 1-1/2 cups of rice used.

CHOCOLATE SUPREME PIE

 Any time I see a recipe that says chocolate in the title, it is almost impossible for me to not stop and check it out. I especially like if I can remake it and reduce the calories a lot. 

When I was looking through my cookbook called Given to Hospitality II , another collection of recipes from the ladies of the Ozark Mennonite Church and School, it didn't take me long to see that I could make it completely "sugar-free" except for the crust. That meant it would definitely be a keeper for me to make especially for us.

I know "sugar-free" doesn't mean "calorie-free", but you gotta eat something. Right? We have been trying to eat less sugar for many years. We occasionally splurge but we try not to do it too often. We also reduce the fat when we can. I almost always substitute 1/3 less less fat Neufchatel cheese for traditional cream cheese. When a recipe calls for milk, I always use fat-free milk. I do use sugar-free whipped topping instead of fat free because the fat-free topping contains high-fructose corn syrup and the sugar-free one doesn't.

CHOCOLATE SUPREME PIE

1      graham cracker crust (I used a ready-to-use pecan pie crust)

*     *     *     *

6      ounces cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat Neufchatel cheese)

3/4   cup powdered sugar

1/4   cup chopped pecans 

*     *     *     *

1/3   cup instant chocolate pudding

1/4   cup instant vanilla pudding

2      cups cold milk

3/4   teaspoon vanilla

*     *     *     *     *

1/2   cup whipping cream, whipped or about 2 cup of whipped topping

extra pecans for top (I grated some chocolate on top instead)

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until

smooth.

Spread on the bottom of the crust.

Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Set aside.

Measure out the amounts of pudding from a 3.9 oz box of instant pudding. In another bowl, combine the pudding mixes, milk, and vanilla. Beat on low for 2 minutes. (Tip: gradually sprinkle the pudding mix in the milk. I added all of the amounts of pudding mix at once to the milk and I had all of these very small soft lumps that didn't ruin the taste or actually the finished look. It just didn't look good while I was making it.)

Spoon over pecans and smooth out.

Cover. Refrigerate for 2 hours. (I made the pie up to this point the night before we ate some so I left it in the refrigerator overnight.)

Remove from refrigerator and

top with whipped topping.

Sprinkle the pecans on top or grate some chocolate on top. I grated the chocolate instead of sprinkling additional pecans on top since I had used the pecan pie crust. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Store leftovers in refrigerator. 

   

Oh my gosh! It was so good! Especially with the pecan crust. The cookbook says you can also use a regular pie crust, baked. That would reduce my sugar content even more. Yay.

P.S. I combined the rest of the pudding mixes and gradually added enough milk to just make some pudding for us to eat.