Stuffed Jalapeno Soup

This recipe was inspired by two soup recipes:  Jalapeno Popper Soup (myfridgefood) and the Jalapeno Popper Soup on "I breathe, I'm hungry".  One of the campers (Lo-Carb Fat Camp, on facebook) posted about the soup and I thought, 'What a great idea!'  From there, I used the ingredients for my Stuffed Jalapenos and added a quart of chicken broth (and a can of Rotel--since I needed the can).  There ya' go!  Great soup!! 

I've been craving stuffed jalapenos lately, so this helps. 

Picture from "myfridgefood."

Ingredients:

• Cream Cheese, 8 oz, cubed
• Chicken Broth, 4 cup
• Heavy Whipping Cream, 1 cup, fluid
• Chicken Breast (cooked), no skin, 6 breast, bone and skin removed
• *canned rotel tomatoes, 3.5 serving (1 can)
• Jalapeno Peppers, .5 cup, sliced
• Cheddar Cheese, 2 cup, shredded
• *Turkey, Louis Rich Turkey Bacon, 4 slices, chopped
• Onions, raw, 1 cup, chopped
• Garlic, 2 tsp
• Fajita Seasoning Mix, 1 tsp
• Butter or oil

Instructions:

1. In a heavy skillet, melt the butter/heat the oil and add the chopped onion and minced garlic.  Saute until onions are almost clear. 
2. Add the chicken (I used canned chicken breast, which made things easy) and chopped bacon. 
3. Sprinkle the fajita seasoning over the meat. 
4. Continue cooking, stirring often, until the chicken is heated through. 
5. Transfer the meat and onion mixture to a large soup pot and add the chicken broth and Rotel tomatoes/peppers.  
6. When the broth is hot, stir in the cubes of cream cheese.  Once the cream cheese has melted, stir in the cream. 
7. When the soup has heated back up, stir in the shredded cheddar.   

 When the soup is heated through, ladle into individual serving bowls, and store in the refrigerator.

 Notes:

• I added the tomatoes--I needed an empty can that day.  I liked it, so I've kept on doing it.
• I ladle the soup into individual bowls to control my servings sizes--and to plan meals ahead.  If you are making this for a large family, don't bother with this step.
• You can garnish this with the chopped bacon, but I find it easier to figure out the nutritional value on individual servings if I include it instead of using it as a garnish.
• This is pretty with chopped green onions for a garnish, but it adds carbs (so I didn't do it).

	Nutrition Facts

  8 Servings

Amount Per Serving

 

  Calories
564.8

  Total Fat
35.7 g

  
  Saturated Fat
20.1 g

  
  Polyunsaturated Fat
2.4 g

  
  Monounsaturated Fat
9.9 g

  Cholesterol
222.6 mg

  Sodium
1,196.1 mg

  Potassium
678.9 mg

  Total Carbohydrate
7.4 g

  
  Dietary Fiber
1.0 g

  
  Sugars
3.3 g

  Protein
52.8 g

Vitamin A	24.5 %
Vitamin B-12	22.2 %
Vitamin B-6	55.2 %
Vitamin C	10.4 %
Vitamin D	4.8 %
Vitamin E	4.4 %
Calcium	27.9 %
Copper	11.8 %
Folate	7.1 %
Iron	13.9 %
Magnesium	16.8 %
Manganese	17.2 %
Niacin	113.7 %
Pantothenic Acid	18.1 %
Phosphorus	62.3 %
Riboflavin	24.8 %
Selenium	56.4 %
Thiamin	11.2 %
Zinc	18.9 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Garlic Parmesan Flax Seed Crackers (from About.com)

Someone posted about Flax Crackers on my facebook page today, so I Googled it and this is what I found.  It's a great recipe for this time of year (with the Days of Unleavened Bread coming soon), so I decided to try it today.

My oven has not been repaired, and I am using a toaster oven, so it took two trays to get these done.  Before baking, I scored the cracker dough (using a pizza cutter).  Mine worked out to 6 servings of 8 crackers (roughly 1" square) each for 1 net Carb. 

Garlic Parmesan Flax Seed Crackers

A great high fiber, crunchy, nutritious, and tasty snack. Good with dips, spreads, or plain.

Want to see how it's done? Check out this video of How to Make Flax Crackers.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flax seed meal
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup water

Preparation:

Heat oven to 400 F.

1) Mix all ingredients together.

2) Spoon onto sheet pan which is covered with a silicone mat or greased parchment paper.

3) Cover the mixture with a piece of parchment or waxed paper. Even out the mixture to about 1/8 inch. I find a straight edge, like a ruler, works well, though you can use a rolling pin or wine bottle too. The important thing is not to let it be too thin around the edges or that part will overcook before the center firms up. So after you spread it out, remove the paper and go around the edges with your finger and push the thin part inwards to even it up.

4) Bake until the center is no longer soft, about 15-18 minutes. If it starts to get more than a little brown around the edges, remove from oven. Let cool completely - it will continue to crisp up.

5) Break into pieces.

The whole recipe is 6 grams of effective carbohydrate plus 35 grams of fiber.

My notes:
I like it better when I use a tablespoon of garlic powder.

I have discovered that this recipe is much easier if you mix all the ingredients together in a gallon-size zip-lock bag.  No wash-up!  

You can roll out the dough INSIDE the gallon bag.  Again, no wash-up--which can be important when you need to roll out several different recipes and don't have time for the rolling pin to dry between preps.  It also allows you to roll out the dough without worrying about the edges being too thin--the sides of the bag let you keep the thickness even.

 

 After the dough has been rolled out, make a Y-cut in the top layer of the bag--from the middle of the opening to each corner of the bag.  Do this carefully.  If you lift the bag away from the dough, you avoid poking holes in the dough.

 Fold the plastic to the sides and place a piece of parchment paper on top of the dough. 

Carefully flip the dough and then score with a pizza cutter into 1" squares.

I found this worked better (for my small toaster oven) when I mixed the dough in a gallon-size bag and then separated it into two quart-size freezer bags for rolling out.

This recipe does not do well if you try to cook it on a griddle instead of in the oven.

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.