Mmm...Indian Food...

So, once upon a time I blogged about how much I adore Indian food. Because I do adore Indian food. I love Indian food so much that I hope when I die, heaven is actually just an Indian buffet that is all-you-can-eat and you never get full.

That being said, however, I've really been wanting to make Indian food in the meantime (before my all you can eat Indian buffet heaven plans). :) While I have always been a huge fan of Indian food, the budget is a bit tighter now and a typical Indian restaurant trip usually runs us in the $40 range once you figure in all the delicious appetizers!

So when I came across this recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala (aka my favorite Indian dish!) on AllRecipes, I knew I HAD to try it.

It sat in my recipe box for a while (btw, I'm going to take a quick minute to plug AllRecipes. It's awesome. And the recipes are endless. And most of the ones I've made have been delicious! So I suggest that you finish reading this blog and head over to AllRecipes to log in and create your own account!), but I finally decided I really needed to eat Indian food since I don't think I've had anything save my Trader Joe's frozen meals since New Year's Eve. Or maybe February. But that is too long ago.

The one thing I noticed (which surprised me a bit) was that I pretty much had all of the ingredients already: chicken, plain yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne pepper (okay, well, had to borrow this from the neighbor since ours ran out a few months ago and forgot to replace it, but now it's been replaced!), black pepper, ginger (recipes calls for fresh, I used powdered), salt, butter, garlic (minced), paprika, tomato sauce, jalapeno pepper, heavy cream & cilantro. Aside from the heavy cream & yogurt, most of the ingredients were here or already on our regular grocery list.

The recipe was clear and easy to follow. Aside from using powdered ginger instead of fresh ginger, I didn't really make any modifications. Chicken marinaded in the fridge for about an hour while we ran some errands (including to get some cilantro, since the stuff we'd bought about a week earlier was already gross). Trader Joe's has frozen naan, both plain and garlic, but I decided not to get any this time.

After marinading and soaking the wooden skewers in cold water for about 1/2 hour, we threaded the chicken onto skewers and tossed them on the grill.

While the chicken was on the grill, we started on the cream/tomato sauce. The recipes calls for melted butter and then jalapenos and a whole bunch of spices to be sauteed prior to the cream & tomato sauce being added. Almost burned the butter! but was able to keep it from burning by hurrying up the spices and tossing in the cream. Phew. Crisis averted. The jalapenos and spices combined with the cream & tomato sauces turned into the lovely orange chicken tikka masala sauce that I know and LOVE! :)

I also had a bag of basmati rice so I made sure to cook that up to go along with the meal, especially given that I had passed on the naan.

After the chicken was grilled and the sauce was ready, we added chicken to the sauce & let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

THIS. WAS. AMAZING.

Holy crap and holy crap again. I honestly think this is one of the best dinners we've EVER made and that's saying something as it includes the Sprecher beer cheese soup, the Pioneer Woman mac & cheese, the chicken tortilla soup, the Jamaican jerk chicken and any of Andy's awesome chili. So yeah, I highly recommend this. A lot. And did I mention you should possibly go out and make this tomorrow?

So given that a chicken tikka masala dish at a good Indian restaurant will usually run about $10 (on the low end), and I don't really think this is "healthy" (though it yields 4 servings at 404 calories a pop, so really not as bad as I thought it would be), but I think it fits the "frugal" aspect.

Chicken: 3lbs @1.99/lb = $6

Heavy Cream: 8oz @0.89 = $0.89

Yogurt: large carton = $2.25

Tomato Sauce: 8oz @ ~$1

Cilantro: ~$1

Jalapeno Pepper: ~$0.50

Cumin, Cinnamon, Lemon Juice, Cayenne Pepper, Black Pepper, Salt, Ginger, Butter, Garlic & Paprika, Basmati Rice: Already found in the house. :)

So for the whole dish, it was roughly $11.65. For 4 servings. No tip necessary! :)

Next time, however, I am going to try a few different things to try and make it a bit healthier. The entire recipe as written calls for 7 teaspoons of salt. Uhh...sodium much? A few of the reviews on allrecipes said the salt didn't matter. So I think I'll just do a bit of trial and error with that. The recipe also calls for a tablespoon of butter, but it really was just to saute the jalapeno and spices. I am going to try substituting grapeseed oil for that next time. No risk of me burning then either....

Overall I give the recipe an A+. It tasted pretty similar to my favorite Indian restaurant's chicken tikka masala (though I'm not going to stop frequenting my favorite Indian restaurants because of it). I was really surprised at how relatively easy it was to make, and I was very impressed.

Pudding Pops!

I've never mentioned it before on this blog, but I have been signed up for SparkPeople for a while. I don't use it very often, but I do get recipes emailed to me every day. Most of them get put in the circular file of my email account (haha), but some make it into the "SparkPeople Recipes Folder" that I have. :)

One of the recipes that made it to the "SparkPeople Recipes Folder" is their recipe for Frozen Pudding Pops. As you can imagine, I am all about sweet frozen treats (see also Diet...Ice Cream??), so the recipe's promise of a low-fat frozen snack that you can actually make yourself sounded like a fun 'challenge.' Soooooo I picked up a packet of Trader Joe's Instant Chocolate Pudding (sigh, here I go again promoting TJ's, but really I haven't been to P&S in forever!) on my last grocery run. But any sort of pudding mix will do- next time I may try a Jell-O pudding mix. ;)

Anywho, according to the recipe, just make the pudding according to directions, then put the pudding into either a popsicle mold or just paper cups with popsicle sticks. Since I'm attempting to be more conscious of buying things I can reuse versus just throw away, I was hopeful of finding a popsicle mold, but wasn't sure where I would find one. Let me tell you, today was my lucky day! I was at the Dollar Tree picking up cleaning supplies (including some Totally Awesome Laundry Detergent which I'm linking to because I probably wouldn't have believed that this was in fact the brand name either....but I digress) and I thought to myself that I should check into buying some paper cups and popsicle sticks. I was perusing the aisles when I actually found a popsicle mold! Score one for me....

So I mixed up the batch of pudding- it probably took about 12 minutes altogether before the pudding was set, and 10 of those minutes were waiting. I put the pudding into my spiffy new popsicle mold and then rummaged around in my freezer to find some space to set the mold so it wasn't tipping over or anything. The jury is out on how they will taste frozen, but the pudding itself was quite tasty :)

Caloric breakdown:

Per the pudding box, serving size is 1/2 cup prepared with 4 servings. I made the whole box, so I'll quadruple the calories. 1 serving = 110 calories, 5 calories from fat, with 1g fat and 0g saturated fat, 23g carbohydrate with 19g of sugar. Calories for the whole box = 440. The recipe called for 2 cups of milk, and 2 cups of skim milk has 160 calories. Total calories for the pudding mix = 600. I figure I used about 1/3 of the total to make my pudding pops, so 200 calories for all of the pops, and there were 8 pops made, so 25 calories each. Not bad...not bad. :)

One of the best ethnic foods...ever.

One of my very favorite ethnic foods to eat is Indian food. There is nothing better, in my opinion, than a tasty serving of Chicken Tikka Masala or Chicken Makhani (aka Butter Chicken!), with some fresh naan (even better is garlic naan!) and basmati rice. Man, I'm salivating just thinking about it.

The problem (if there is one) with Indian food is that it is usually impossible for me to go out for Indian food and not have to waddle out of the restaurant. Really, I should just bring a set of wheels so I can roll myself out. In addition to the tasty main course, the side of naan and unlimited basmati rice, the meals often begin with papadum, and then tasty appetizers, often which include samosas and pakora- cheese, chicken and/or shrimp.

Like I said...Indian food is delicious. And filling. And extremely bad for your diet. And bring a set of wheels so you can roll yourself out afterwards.

However, I have found an option for those days when you want Indian food, but not all the calories. Or for those days when going out for Indian food isn't really feasible (aka the days of 1/2 hour lunches!).

Once again, Trader Joe's comes to the rescue (they really should pay me since I promote them all the time!!)!! :) They have a delightful frozen Chicken Tikka Masala. I've had it twice now, and it really does taste pretty good. Not quite the same, but it's a pretty decent option. Also, there are portion controls. :)

Photo originally found here.

There are between 3-6 pieces of chicken. The first time I had it, I had 6 smallish pieces of chicken, the second time there were 3 huge chunks of chicken. So roughly the same amount of chicken, just portioned differently. It also comes with a side of basmati rice. And it can be heated in the microwave in just over 5 minutes!

Photo found here.

For those counting calories: 300 calories per serving, with 110 calories coming from the 12g of fat (5g saturated fat). From a weight watchers perspective, about 7 points. Given that many of the SmartOnes/Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice frozen entrees are between 5-8 points, this pretty much falls into the same category for frozen entrees. There is also a lot of rice, so it's more filling than it would initially appear to be.

So while it is not nearly on the same level as Indian Food Bliss that can be found at an Indian restaurant, it is much healthier (and portioned!), and cheaper, too. :)

Lauren's Organic Chicken Noodle Soup (+recipe)

A few days ago I attempted to post my chicken noodle soup recipe, but blogger was making me mad and was putting the picture wherever it felt like putting it! So I finally gave up, but then it posted anyway...yeah, it was fun times with blogger! :)

Anyway....so my husband had the flu last week so I decided that I wanted to make chicken noodle soup from (mostly) scratch because there is nothing better than chicken noodle soup when you're sick.

I didn't really use a recipe, aside from the basic concepts of chicken noodle soup: chicken, chicken broth, carrots, celery and salt/pepper.

However, I made two little adjustments and I think that the finished product was even more tasty. Not quite to the level of taco chicken soup I made a few years ago with leftover taco chicken and homemade (yes, you read that right HOMEMADE noodles), but it was still quite tasty.

Adjustment number 1: Use organic!

Adjustment number 2: Curt's Cooking Spice!

And now, Lauren's Organic Chicken Noodle Soup. Apologies in advance as this is the first recipe I've ever written. :)

Five 14oz cans of Swanson's Chicken Broth.

1.5-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used Trader Joe's).

2-2.5 cups uncooked Trader Joe's Organic Fusilli Pasta.

3-4 large organic carrots

5-6 large organic celery hearts

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (can use just regular salt & pepper too, but it won't taste as good!) :)

Curt's Cookie Spice to taste.

Bring medium sized pot of water to boil and add chicken. Boil chicken for 20 minutes. You may have to boil the chicken half at a time. Remove chicken from water and shred with two forks. General chicken shredding instructions here.

Slice up carrots and celery as desired. Set aside.

Add chicken broth to a large pot and simmer until chicken is fully shredded. After chicken is shredded, add the chicken to the broth and continue to simmer. I also added about 14oz of water to the broth even though it said "do not add water." It gave more broth, but I didn't find it to be any less flavorful.

Bring medium sized pot of water to boil and add noodles. Cook noodles about half-way, drain.

Add noodles and vegetables to chicken and chicken broth, turn up the heat. Add salt, pepper and Curt's to taste.

Once spices are added as desired, cover pot, and turn heat on high for 5-7 minutes.

Turn heat back down to simmer, uncover and eat.

As one can imagine, this soup was not very high in calories or fat (a little high in sodium though).

Chicken broth = 10 calories per half can, 20 calories per can x 5 cans = 100 calories.

Carrots = according to this website, 100g of carrots have 43-48 calories. I had a hard time figuring out how many carrots is 100g...I'm guessing that the 3 carrots I used would be about 150 calories?

Celery = according to this website, 110g of celery has 18 calories. I'll go out on a limb and guess that I had about 60 calories of celery.

Fusilli Pasta = per the bag, 3/4 of a cup has 210 calories. I'm going to guess I used about 2 cups, so that's approx 500 calories or so of pasta.

Chicken breast = I had a hard time finding a definitive calorie count for chicken breasts, and the package is long gone. Generally, 8oz of chicken breast = 250 calories. I used about 32 oz of chicken breast so roughly 1000 calories.

Salt, Pepper and Curt's = 0 calories.

So for the whole, huge pot of chicken noodle soup, we're looking at 1800 calories. This sucker had about 8 servings in it, so per serving we are looking at 225 calories per bowl. Not bad!

There are different ways to add fewer calories. Add more veggies, less chicken. Add less pasta, or take a whole wheat pasta with fewer calories and more fiber. Use egg noodles, they are bigger and take up more space, so you can use less. You could also substitute rice for pasta. The possibilities are endless!

My next quest is to try and reproduce that taco chicken soup- probably won't make the noodles from scratch again though.

Note to Self

When actively trying to maintain target weight, it is a poor idea to walk to CVS, buy two bags of Easter candy and eat a small percentage of about half of majority of both bags over the course of three days. Just sayin'.

On a note of actually sticking to a plan of eating healthy, Trader Joe's (oh, how I ♥ you) has a "light" version of string cheese. It has 60 calories per, um, piece (what is the unit of measurement for string cheese?) and approximately 1 WW point. Since I reside in that great dairy state (happy cows don't come from California that's for damn sure) of Wisconsin, I loves me some CHEESE! And as it seems that all cheese that is good is also full of calories and fat and is generally just not so good for you, the fact that Trader Joe's has a decently relatively VERY tasty lower-fat/lower-calorie (unit of measurement) string cheese...well, that just merits even more love to the Trader Joe's (I am sincerely sorry to those who do not have Trader Joe's near them). It's no Union Star Cheese Factory, but it'll do.

Diet....Ice Cream?

In my last post, I blogged about what diet sodas I love and mourned the lack of diet ice cream. However, in the interest of full disclosure, that's not completely true. Over the last year or so (ESPECIALLY during the summer months, ah, summer, what is that?), I have looked over the freezer section of my local Pick N Save in hopes of some sort of ice cream that would allow me to eat ice cream, while not breaking my diet too badly. Or at all.

I would be lying if I said that it was all ice cream- it's not, but there are some very tasty alternatives to ice cream that are just as good or maybe, in the eyes of some, better than ice cream. While I don't have a list of 10 as of yet, I've got a few tasty options in the ice cream variety. And this is coming from someone who lives in the city where custard is king!

But I digress, there's nothing diet about eating Red Velvet Custard.....

Lauren's Favorite Diet Frozen Treats (okay, so it doesn't have a ring to it, oh well).

• Skinny Cow Chocolate Truffle Bars. Yum. Yum. Yum. YUM. Chocolate ice cream with chocolate drizzled over it. And it doesn't taste low fat. Or low flavor. Or low anything. It tastes fatty, ice creamy, chocolate-y and delicious-y. And at 100 calories for one bar with only 25 calories from fat? It doesn't get much better than this. Around here, it's usually about $5 a box for 6 bars, so it initially seems pricey, but then you realize it's less than $1 per bar. I have also had the Skinny Cow French Vanilla Truffle Bars, and while they are good, I don't like them as much. But other people I've talked to like them better. All a matter of preference. Aaaaaaaand if you're counting Weight Watchers points, only 2 WW points per bar.
• Skinny Cow Mint Ice Cream Sandwich. Again...YUM. Does not taste a bit like diet ice cream. Again, about $5 for a pack with 6 ice cream sandwiches, so more economic than walking to Dairy Queen (even though you burn calories by walking there) anyway. 140 calories per sandwich, and only 15 calories from fat...and only 2 WW points. I feel like this should be too good to be true....but it's not.
• Skinny Cow Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich. See above, but substitute vanilla for mint.
• Edy's Fruit Bars. It's like a fruit-filled heaven that is frozen and on a stick. Okay, that might be a bit over the top, but I don't tend to like fruit....except these fruit bars. My very favorite is the strawberry. Only 80 calories per bar, and no fat. That's right, no fat. Yay! Pick N Save puts them on sale every few weeks at 2 for $6 (but they'll sell you 1 box for $3 too), which puts them at 50 cents a bar.
• Trader Joe's Frozen Fruit bars. These are pretty much identical to Edy's Fruit Bars, but they only come in a few flavors (strawberry, lime and one other that I can't remember). It's 1.99 for a 4 pack all the time. I couldn't find any nutritional info online, but from what I remember, they are pretty much identical to the Edy's in all ways. Might be a touch bigger though and IIRC, I think there were a few more frozen strawberries in them. If you've got a Trader Joe's near you, I would definitely check them out. They also have 100-calorie chocolate bars! :)
• Edy's Slow-Churned Ice Cream. A long list of flavors of yummy ice cream including ice cream with 1/3 the calories and 1/2 the fat. It does taste a bit diet-y, but it is still very very good. And if the other options just aren't up your alley and you want some ice cream, damnit, then I would definitely recommend the Slow-Churned. In fact, right now, you can even get Girl Scouts Thin Mint ice cream. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

So there you have it. Some good, diet-friendly frozen treats. This list will probably be updated as I add more flavor favorites, but for now, I'd suggest starting with the Skinny Cow and going from there. Happy Dieting!