Week 6: Make Over Your Favorite Comfort Food

CONGRATULATIONS ToriNBama
JOB WELL DONE !
L

Well done Vicki! Congrats...now that you've won...where will you be going?

to...DISNEYWORLD!!!!...

(he he he he he)

A comfort food for me has always been steak with gravy served with egg noodles.  I knew when I joined South Beach my days of steak with gravy were over. So I was excited to find this Beef Scaloppini with Cremini Mushrooms recipe last week in the newspaper. The recipe reminded me of steak/gravy, but it was a lot healthier.  After I saw the week six challenge this morning I knew it was time to make this meal for dinner tonight.  However; I realized that I still needed to make some adjustments to the recipe to make it SB friendly (see red highlights) and I added green onions for additional favor.  My husband and I loved this meal; it was easy to make, has great favor, and I plan on making this recipe again.  Thanks for challenging me to find a way to make my comfort food healthy.

Beef Scaloppini with Cremini Mushrooms

Hands on:  20 minutes,     Total time: 20 minutes,    Serves:  6

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

¾ pound Cremini mushrooms, sliced

Juice of ½  lemon

1 teaspoon salt*

½ teaspoon black pepper*

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup whole wheat flour

1 ½ pounds grass-fed top round, cut into thin slices and pounded to 1/8-inch thickness

½ cup white wine

½ cup low sodium beef stock

3 green onions, sliced

Whole Wheat Noodles

Parsley, for garnish

*used less as my family has always adds their own salt and pepper to the meal

In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat.  Add mushrooms, lemon juice, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook until mushrooms are tender, about 8 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside. 

While the mushrooms are cooking, in a large skillet, melt remaining butter and add olive oil over medium-high heat.  On a plate, combine flour and remaining salt and pepper, mix thoroughly.  Dip each slice of beef into the flour to coat both sides.  Shake off excess flour.  Place a few slices at a time in hot butter-oil mixture. Do not crowd pan.  Brown meats quickly, about 1 minute per side, remove beef to a plate.  Cover to keep warm and repeat with remaining beef.

Pour off any fat from skillet and deglaze pan with white wine.  Bring mixture to a boil and cook until reduced, about 2 minutes.  Reduce heat to simmer, add stock and reserved mushrooms with their juice; return beef slices to pan.  Cook until sauce thickens about 5 minutes.  Adjust sauce for seasoning.  Serve with or over noodles and garnish with parsley.

Congrats, I loved your plan to get ready for the walking on your upcoming vacation. 
Great idea!!

Sandy; wow that looks delish. That was one of my pre-SBD favorites too. I'd completely forgotten about it. Thanks, for the healthier version recipe; I think I'm going to have to give it a try. I have a little "issue" with noodles though; so perhaps I'll just up the mushroom count in place of the noodles. One thing I've learned is that I cannot stop when there is a plate of pasta (even whole wheat) or rice in front of me. I try and only eat it sparingly when I do.

Great recipe thanks for posting!

I have lots of thoughts about what to make this week. It's going to be a busy week again for me so it will have to be quick and comfortable food. More to come later, can't wait to read everyone elses stuff.

I am happy to say that I have been able to re-invent one of my favorite comfort foods in a healthy way.  

Last night for dinner I whipped up some chicken fingers. Now the prior version would have been dredged in white flour, then egg and then dipped into white breadcrumbs. Finally, they would be fried in oil. Alongside that I would typically have had a big pile of mashed-p with butter and half and half, and lots of salt. Sometimes we might throw some corn next to it or broccoli if lucky.

 

Not anymore…

My new version of chicken fingers is MUCH better, lots less oil and calories and some extra fiber to boot. I started with about a pound of chicken tenders and removed the tendons. I then dredged them in one beaten egg and a cup of whole wheat bread crumbs (just added salt and pepper). Instead of frying. I put them on a cookie sheet drizzled with a little olive oil and baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. They are still crispy and I love the nutty flavor of the whole wheat bread crumbs. (hubby enjoyed and devoured them too)

 

As a side veggie I sliced up some fresh cauliflower and caramelized it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Browning the cauliflower brings on a sweeter flavor and adds a little color too.

 

There you have it!

Glad you liked the recipe, I loved this meal and hope you give it a try.  I'm pretty lucky I have pretty good control when it comes to noodles or pasta, but I like your idea of mushrooms instead of noodles. 

Have a good week!!!

Love your recipe, I think my grandsons would love this meal!!  Thanks!!!

Hey everybody! Hope you're having a great week! I just got back from being away, and I feel like I haven't been on these boards in so long! Missed you all. :)

So here I am, catching up with the new challenge! I love the idea of the chicken fingers and am definitely going to try that.  Do you know how much of the bread crumbs constitutes a serving (roughly)? Would you say maybe 2 chicken fingers? I haven't done the whole wheat bread crumbs thing yet, but anxious to try!

My favorite meal growing up was spaghetti with marinara sauce.  YUM.  My mom used to let the sauce cook all day and it was AWESOME.  Later, I found out that her sauce had tons of stuff in it that, let's just put it this way, is a big no-no in the South Beach world!!!!! Soooo, I decided to turn this big-time comfort food into one I can enjoy without worrying about all those no-nos!!! And since our servings of pasta can't be too big (Natalie, I'm with you, I could go to town on a dish of pasta!) , I paired it with my second favorite dish growing up, which was chicken parmesan!!! (What kid doesn't love fried chicken dredged with sauce and cheese?!)

The version we'd be used to would include white spaghetti, pasta sauce (with tons of sugar, in my house, apparently), chicken dredged in either flour or white bread crumbs, oil, and lots of full-fat cheese for the chicken.  While I can remember how delicious it used to be when Mom made it, I re-created this and I gotta tell you, I wouldn't go back!!! I LOVED it, and my husband ate every last bite.  I even gave some little bites to my 7-month old, and he ate it up like I've never seen!!!


Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 slices low fat provolone cheese

For the sauce:
Canned tomatoes (no sugar)
Fresh basil
Fresh oregano
Fresh parsley
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Minced garlic

Whole wheat spaghetti

Instructions:
Place large pot with water on the stove and boil.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

While the water is boiling, start working on the chicken.  (Now, I know that many people would modify this recipe by using whole wheat bread crumbs, which would be delicious, but I decided to opt against it since I was also preparing spaghetti.)  Believe it or not, I didn't even miss it. 

Sprinkle some seasonings on the chicken - garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, oregano, basil were the ones I chose.  Either grill or cook the chicken on the stove (I chose the stove and opted against cooking in the pouring rain)!! Sometimes I find that cooking the chicken on the stove actually keeps in the seasonings a little better anyway.  So, I sauteed a little garlic and oil on the stove, then added the seasoned chicken.  Once you put the chicken on, start working on the sauce.

In a food processor, puree the whole tomatoes.  In a small or medium-sized pot, on medium-low heat, add the minced garlic.  We love garlic so I put in a whole bunch.  Let that simmer for a bit, then add the pureed tomatoes.  Add your seasonings - I used generous portions of garlic powder, onion powder, and chopped fresh seasonings of basil, oregano and parsley.  At this point, taste it.  Let your senses be your guide.  So I added a little more basil and garlic powder, and woila, pefect taste.  I let that simmer for the rest of the food preparation, stirring every so often.

Once your water starts boiling, add some salt to the water, then add spaghetti. 

When the chicken is cooked, spray a baking dish with cooking spray and add the chicken to it.  Place the chicken on the dish, spoon some sauce on top of the chicken (along with my trick, which is to then add some FRESH - not cooked - basil to the top of the sauce), add provolone cheese (or you can use mozzarelle - sometimes I mix it and it's great), and put it in the oven. 

Let the chicken cook in the oven until the cheese is melted to your desired amount, then remove.  Drain the spaghetti, add a little sauce to the pasta, and mix together so it doesn't stick.  Dish out the spaghetti, add some sauce, then on the side, serve the chicken parmesan.  Serve with some parmesan cheese, and you have yourself an awesome meal!!!

We had this last night and let me tell you, it was awesome.  I served it with a little bit of salad on the side with red onions, cucumbers, and light Italian dressing.  My husband confessed that he didn't even miss having bread on the side and loved the meal.  Now, he's Italian, so coming from him, that said a lot!

How exciting! I've been meaning to adapt this recipe and this week was a perfect excuse to do it!!

My FAVORITE comfort food is Shephard's pie. Normally consisting of 80/20 ground beef, corn, peas, super loaded mashed potatoes, lots of cheese, and cream of mushroom soup. Its carb heaven!!

Today though...I still got the basics of what I crave and LOVE about shepards pie with a surprisingly good and tasty, beachy transformation.....  what a surprise!!

(body)
3 pounds of 90/10 ground beef (browned and then drained and rinsed)
2 Diced Zuchinnis
2 Diced Yellow Squash
1 Diced Purple Onion
6 Diced cloves of garlic

(sauce)
1 pound diced mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups of fat free half and half (minus 1 ounce)

(topping)
Surprise South Beach Diet Mashed Potatoes x2
4 cups cauliflower florets
1 ounce Fat free half and half
Salt
Pepper
2 cups of 75% fat free shredded sharp cheddar

For this, I combined and browned all of "body" ingredients while cooking sauce on another burner and steaming Cauliflower in Microwave. For the sauce, sautee the mushrooms in Olive Oil then add half and half on VERY low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

Transfer body and sauce to baking dish and stir, then Set aside. Cauliflower should have already steamed in microwave (took about 5 minutes). Combine all "topping" ingredients in food processor and puree then spread over top of mixture in baking dish.

Top this with shredded cheese and bake until heated through and cheese is melted.

This fed all of us with leftovers and everybody LOVED it!!! YAY

Everybody's recipes look so good. I think on Monday..... I'll just make the shopping list based on this week's post and try them all!!!

Wow, you did a great job with this recipe, really creative!! Thanks for sharing!!!

Loved your new recipe, this too is one of my favorite comfort food. In fact, Chicken Parmesan was one of the first recipes that I made over when I joined SBD in 2009.  Isn't it great that we can continue to eat our favorite comfort  foods "made" healthier!!!

Next time try serving it over Spaghetti Squash !  Really good.
L

That is a FANTASTIC idea!!