Green "Enchilada" Chicken Casserole (from genaw.com)

 My favorite food in the world is Mexican--or, more specifically, Tex-Mex.  Long ago, I learned to low-carb it (mostly just leave out the rice, beans, and tortillas), but it's nice to find a recipe that is already in a low-carb form.  Once again, thank God for Linda and genaw.  This recipe was posted on my facebook group page, Lo-Carb Fat Camp, yesterday.  It looked so good that I pulled the ingredients out of the pantry and got started.

Here is the link to the recipe on genaw.com: 
Green "Enchilada" Chicken Casserole

Photo from genaw.com 

 First of all, I checked to make sure that I had all of the ingredients.

Ingredients gathered together prior to putting the casserole together

If you followed the link to the recipe, you will note that I made a couple of substitutions/additions to the recipe.  (It seems that I am incapable of making a recipe according to the original instructions.)  In this case, I couldn't find the green chiles (found the 4 hours after the casserole was finished) and forgot that I had green onions growing in the garden.  I used green tomatillo sauce instead of chiles and onion powder instead of green onions.  I didn't realize that I had chicken in the freezer, so I used canned chicken (Daily Chef, from Sam's Club, because it has the nicest big chunks of chicken meat) and home-canned turkey chunks.  The jar of turkey and two cans of chicken added up to exactly 4 cups of meat--for which the recipe calls.  I did not have Monterrey Jack cheese, so I used a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella.  I also added 1 small can of mushrooms (chopped fine).  These substitutions did not significantly affect the carb count.

After getting my ingredients together, I followed the directions in the recipe:

Green "Enchilada" Chicken Casserole

Ready to go into the oven

I baked the casserole in my toaster oven (large oven still needs repairs) at 350*F for 25 minutes.  Once it was heated through and bubbly, I took it out of the oven and topped it with snipped green onion pieces.

I divided the casserole into 8 servings (3 net Carbs each), and it ended up being 1-cup servings.  Next time, I will divide it into 10 servings--one cup is a LOT of meat and cheese to eat at one meal!

Notes to my girls:

The recipe at the link is in the correct format for printing--that makes life easy. 

Relza--Joel asked for recipes for food that he could take to work.  With a salad, this would be a very filling meal.  Look for the glass bowls with lids so that he can reheat the casserole safely.  Salad can go in plastic, but I know how you feel about putting plastic in the microwave.  One good thing about casseroles is that they usually freeze quite well.  This is a good example of that: portion out the servings, hold out what you need for dinner, and put the rest in the freezer.  Joel can grab a serving and go when it is time for work.  If you are busy during the day and don't have time to cook, you can pull out a couple of servings and dinner is ready.

This is 2 cups of lettuce, 1 TBS of sunflower seeds, 2 TBS of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, and 1 cup of the Green "Enchilada" Chicken Casserole.  Despite its looks here, it is a filling meal.  When packing the lunch, I put the two small containers in on top of the lettuce.  That way, it takes up less room and I keep the salad stuff all in one place.


Erika--I know that you are not low-carbing, but this is still a good recipe for you.  Serve it with refried beans and Spanish rice--just watch the portion sizes on the high carb stuff.  One cup of the casserole, 1/2 cup of beans, 1/2 cup of rice, and enough salad to 'fill you up' is a good habit to instill in the kids.  Actually, now that I think about it...1/4 cup of beans and 1/4 cup of rice is probably more than enough for each of the kids.  If I was going to take a chance and eat beans or rice, 1/4 cup would be plenty for me.