anyone wanna help w/ a recipe revamp? : )

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booty_wurk
booty_wurk Posts: 29
in Food and Nutrition
One of my favorite comfort foods that my Mom makes is Chicken Spaghetti. It's simple, but soooo good. I've only been on here for 4 days, but am sticking to it and eating as clean as possible. Just out of curiosity, I decided to see how many calories the recipe contained (since I know it's pretty rich). Oh. my. Christ. Over 4,000 calories in one little casserole. I'm going to post the recipe and would love suggestions on how to tweak it into a healthy version! Thanks guys!

1 box spaghetti noodles
1lb. box Velveeta
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
1 can Rotel
4 chicken breasts

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  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    personally, i would just double the chicken, leave everything else and call it 8 servings. 568 cals, 42g protein, 17g fat and its not that bad. maybe use low sodium soups *shrug* or you could leave it at 4 chicken breasts, and itll be 506 cals, 29 protein, 16 fat.
    not something to eat all the time, obviously - but every once in a while it wouldnt hurt. could use whole wheat pasta if you want i guess..
  • pinkyleigh83
    pinkyleigh83 Posts: 148 Member
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    Depending on how you wanna go with this....
    Roast a spaghetti squash & use its "noodles" as the pasta. Or use a spiralizer & spiral a few zucchinis.
    Ditch the highly processed, sodium filled cans & make your own "cream of...." base. I've seen some online.
    Use a block of cheese. Cheese from 100% grass fed cows is always preferable. And use less of it.
  • pinkstay
    pinkstay Posts: 61
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    One way to help make it more clean and I would say it would cut out some of the sodium would be to not use canned cream of chicken and cream of mushroom... here is a link to a site that teaches you how to make your own! Yes, there is butter and flour involved, but at least there is no added chemicals or preservatives :)
    http://www.milehimama.com/how-to-make-cream-of-chicken-soup/

    I also love the idea of using a block of cheese like pinky said above!!! that would be another great way to cut out the chemicals and make the dish more clean and healthy!
    Good luck!
  • pinkyleigh83
    pinkyleigh83 Posts: 148 Member
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    Oh...and add some good veggies in there if you go with real pasta! Or even if you don't.....:)
  • blu_meanie_ca
    blu_meanie_ca Posts: 352 Member
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    I've given you a recipie for a quick white sauce w/ cheese and chicken stock. You can keep it rich with whipped cream and milk, or make it a bit lighter with just milk.
    You will need:
    3tbs butter
    3 tbs white flour
    Melt butter in a small frying pan. Add flour small amounts at a time, and stir constantly. Heat until it bubbles and no longer smells like play dough. This is rue. It can thicken anything. You may want all of it, or not, depending on how thick you like your sauce.

    for sauce
    .5 cup whipping cream
    .5 cup skim milk
    1 cup chicken broth
    2 oz cheddar cheese grated
    your rue

    100g mushrooms sliced
    100g celery chopped
    50g diced onion

    2oz/person - 8oz whole grain spagettini
    5oz each - 20oz cooked chicken breast


    Saute veggies on med heat until carmelized (nice and brown). (I calculated using pam, if you use oil you will be a bit higher in fat/cals)
    Add chicken stock, bring to a boil.
    Slowly add milk and cream over med-low heat -stir contantly and DO NOT BOIL (milk scalds quickly, and tasted digusting)
    Add rue small amounts at a time (about a tsp at a time). Stir for 1 min and see how thick your sauce gets before adding more. Thicken to desired consitancy. Remove from heat. Melt in cheddar cheese. Season to taste w/ salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, and paprika.
    Serve over pasta and chicken

    This comes in at 2556 calories for 4 people, or
    639 per serving
    52g carbs
    22g fat
    40g protien
    7g fiber

    As mentioned before, to reduce fat and cals, sub more milk in place of cream. You can sub extra stock in place of milk/cream, but you will start to loose in flavor (and it will get very salty). Personally, I'd sub out the pasta with a boat load of veggies, as you can eat a ton of them for less cals/carbs, and everything tastes better with a good sauce.
  • blu_meanie_ca
    blu_meanie_ca Posts: 352 Member
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    ps rue will thicken any food. I like using whole wheat flour for beef gravy.. it gives a richer flavor. I always stick with white flour for poulltry though, as it has a more delicate flavor. The cream sauce is pretty interchangable. You can use different cheese (or no cheese), use it with seafood, pork, on rice, over cauliflower.... it's a basic kitchen staple. Once you've made it a few times, you never need to "cheat" with canned soup again (it really is super easy).
  • shelbystatic
    shelbystatic Posts: 61 Member
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    I've never tried this but I want to, here is a recipe for Velveeta with out all the chemicals and additives

    http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/do-it-yourself/2011/09/how-to-make-american-cheese/

    Also with something that yummy it's easy to sneak in extra veggies without complaints from the fam. :)

    Maybe bulk it up with more veggies and half the noodles?
  • styledsky
    styledsky Posts: 121 Member
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    Depends on what you want it to be in the end. If you want to keep the creamy, cheesy style then I'd suggest the following:

    Make the basis for the sauce by using low fat milk thickened with cornflour (corn starch), then melt some strong cheese (eg: parmesan) into it. You'll get the texture and cheesiness but without using 1lb of processed cheese. Something like this:

    500ml (2 cups) low fat milk, 4 tablespoons (or so) reserved
    4 tablespoons cornflour
    100gm grated parmesan cheese

    Bring the milk up to just under a simmer over a low heat. Mix the reserved milk with the cornflour and stir vigorously until combined. Add to the milk and simmer gently, stirring constantly until thickened. Add the cheese, stir through and adjust seasoning to taste.

    Then you can fry up your chicken with the mushrooms, make a sofrito from carrot, onion and celery, add in some nice home made chicken stock (reduce down to almost a syrup), combine and you're probably not far from being done.
  • booty_wurk
    booty_wurk Posts: 29
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    Thanks everyone! These are all really great ideas. I've yet to tell my mother how many calories the original contains. She will die. lol
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    Half the pasta replaced with veggies, use real cheese but use a sharper/stronger flavored version and use half as much. Ditch one of the canned soups and add a little milk to make up for it.

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