My fave chicken dish

We eat a lot of meat in this house.  We are a high protein family since I had gastric bypass 4 years ago.  So, over time I have had to reinvent favorite recipes to cut down carbs and fat.  One dish I had just before WLS was Hunter's Style Chicken.  It was amazing, but high carb and fat.  So this is my take on the dish for my family now.

This dish feed my family of 4 (2 adults, 2 small children)

3 skinless chicken breast- split and bone in
corn starch or arrowroot for coating the chicken
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 pound of mushrooms sliced very thin
2 tsp of rice vinegar with garlic
1 cup of chicken stock- reduce sodium
4 tbsp of tomato paste
1 cup water
2 tsp of dry oregano
1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes (or more if you like it spicy)
salt and black pepper to taste

In a large nonstick skillet put in the olive oil and 2 gloves of garlic on medium heat.  Coat the chicken with the corn starch and shake off the excess.  Before placing the chicken into the oil pick out the garlic and save for later.  Cook the chicken until browned.  Now put in all the garlic, the mushrooms, and tomato paste.  Once the tomato paste is cooked out it's raw flavor add in rest of the ingredients making sure everything is combined.  Cook for 45 mins, but if the sauce gets too thick add part water/part chicken stock a little bit at a time.

I serve this with a little salad on the side.  If you don't have to watch your carbs you could have this with mashed potatoes as well and a little garlic bread.

A meal Popeye would be proud of...

Spinach.  One of those leafy green "things" that are hit or missed in most households.  I know I didn't like spinach until I started to fix it for myself... and made sure it didn't smell bad or look like wet grass clippings.

For me the key was buying it fresh and wilting it down myself. I could also control the flavor and fat.  Now this is one meal that I can get the girls to eat with spinach in it, which makes me super happy!

4 boneless skinless chicken breast- cooked and diced
1 bag of fresh spinach
3/4 cup of reduce fat sour cream
1/2 cup of reduce fat mayo
1 cup of mozzarella shredded
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tbsp of diced garlic
1/2 a sweet onion finally diced
1 egg- beaten
black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.  In a mixing bowl toss in all the ingredients and mix well making sure everything is well coated.  In a greased 9x13 baking dish spread the mixture and pat it down.  Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes then take the foil off and turn the boiler on and brown the top till golden brown.

Set aside and let it cool for about 15 minutes and then cut and serve.