Creamy Chicken & Mushrooms with a White Balsamic Spinach Salad

This is my last major week of classes before finals! I have had tests, papers, and presentations, so I have been living off of leftovers for every meal. I wasn't going to have time to cook tonight, so I planned ahead for a crock pot dinner. I bought all of the ingredients on Saturday at the store, and since then I have been REALLY looking forward to this recipe. It comes from my new "Best Weight Loss Recipes" cookbook, the same one I got my recipe for Goat Cheese Manicotti from.

Three awesome things about this meal: 1. Creamy...enough said. 2. Mushrooms. I used to hate them, but now I think they're soooo good. I haven't cooked with them for a while, so I'm looking forward to it 3. Crock pot. I did all the prep for this before I went to class this morning (including my salad dressing), so tonight I can just throw everything on a plate and dinner is served.

I also threw in a recipe for a spinach salad that I love to make. If you've never tried white balsamic vinegar, I highly recommend you do. It is a lot lighter than regular balsamic, and it has a really fruity and sweet taste. I love vinegar (weird, I know), so it's a little bit vinegar intense. If you don't like it that acidic, just add some more oil, honey, etc.

Recipe Notes: I couldn't find quick cooking tapioca, but it just acts as a thickener. Corn starch was a good substitute. I also doubled the wine to get some more liquid in there. Fancy mushrooms are too expensive, so I just used plain white mushrooms. Since I taste everything before I eat it, I found that it was a little bit bland with the recipe alone. I added 1/4 tsp each of dried thyme, dried rosemary, and dried oregano leaves.

Creamy Chicken & Mushrooms

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp trans-free margarine
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp quick cooking tapioca
2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed and halved
1 lb mixed fresh mushrooms (shiitake, cremini, or portobello), cut into smaller pieces if necessary
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4 oz. fat free cream cheese

1. Coat 5 quart or larger slow cooker with margarine, leaving excess inside. Add wine and tapioca to cooker  and stir to dissolve.

2. Add chicken and mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Cover. Cook on low 7 hours. Stir well to combine and cook 1 hr more.

4. Stir in cream cheese and serve.

Servings: 4
Per serving: 359 Calories, 59 g protein, 16 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 6 g fat, 2 g sat fat, 571 mg sodium

White Balsamic Spinach Salad

4 cups fresh baby spinach
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
The juice from half a lemon
1/4-1/2 tsp honey to desired sweetness
A small squirt of dijon mustard (about 1/4 tsp)
S&P to taste
Any toppings you'd like. I love this one with chopped pecans/walnuts or toasted almonds and dried cranberries.

Combine all ingredients except spinach in a container that seals. Shake well. Pour dressing over spinach and toss to coat. **I think this recipe makes too much dressing, so just use what you like and save the rest in the fridge.

Taste Rating: 7
This has nothing to do with my taste, but my dish completely does NOT look like the picture in my cookbook. The one in the book is of course beautiful, with full pieces of chicken and a light colored sauce. My chicken completely fell apart when I added the cream cheese, so this turned into a sort of creamy shredded chicken mess. But aside from that, it tasted pretty good. Not my absolute favorite dish, but I would absolutely eat it again.

Easy Rating: 9
Crock pot meals are the best. Just throw everything into the pot, and let time do the rest. All I had to do was cut the mushrooms into quarters. So easy!

Overall Rating: 8

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Omelet

I've heard from a couple of you that you've tried some of my recipes, and I am so excited to hear it! I love getting feedback, so please feel free to leave some in a comment, or just tell me in person.

The May issue of Self is out. I picked it up at the store the other day so I could get this month's workout. Sadly, this one requires a stability ball, which I don't have (nor do I have room in my apartment to go out and get one). I was enjoying that I could do the other workout from home (all you need is a resistance band), because sometimes I just don't feel like driving to the gym. At least I still have a good home workout from month 1! 

This issue also has 28 new "recipe" suggestions (most of them are like "a bowl of cereal topped with banana and walnuts"), and I decided to try this one for a caramelized onion and goat cheese omelet. I still had some goat cheese in the fridge from when I made manicotti last week, so I jumped on the opportunity to use it up.

Recipe Notes: I just sliced an entire small onion. It ended up being about 1/2 cup post-caramelization. I just really like onions, so don't feel like you need to use that much. I also used skim milk instead of 1%, because that's what I drink. The goat cheese I had was soft goat cheese, so I used that and broke it up with my fingers a little bit instead of using crumbled goat cheese. Also, a tip for caramelizing onions: Use a medium-low heat. You want the sugars to really break down, and if your skillet is too hot, they'll just cook the outside of the onion. Keep it on medium-low when you add the eggs, because they'll burn before they're cooked through if the pan is too hot. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup thinly sliced onion

1 tsp olive oil

1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites

1 tsp 1% milk

1 oz. crumbled goat cheese

1/2 cup baby spinach (I gave this a rough chop so I wouldn't get massive chunks of spinach in a bite)

Saute onions in the olive oil until onions begin to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Whisk the egg and egg whites together with the milk. Pour in egg mixture and cook until the eggs set, 3-4 minutes. Top with goat cheese and spinach, fold omelet and cook until eggs are no longer runny in the middle, about 3 minutes. 

Taste Rating: 7.5

Not bad! I would definitely make this again. It could have used more spinach, so now I know for next time. Also, some possible variations: feta cheese instead of the goat cheese, add mushrooms when you cook the onions, tomatoes, maybe even some diced grilled chicken.

Easy Rating: 6

I think breakfasts should be easier than other meals. The only time anybody has time to cook it is on the weekend, so if you can't just whip something up, it's hard to justify making it. This whole meal took over 20 minutes, which makes in a no-go for weekdays. It wasn't necessarily difficult, it just took some time. 

Overall Rating: 7