Making recipes healthy

Some of us have our favorite, comforting recipes, that we may not make anymore because…well let’s face it, butter does make everything taste better! But is there a way to make them healthier, and still enjoyable? I say yes, and here’s an example, Breast of Chicken Florentine, from the New York Times Cookbook. When adding all the ingredients together, it comes to roughly 280 calories per serving, which isn’t bad, but we can make it better. The main culprit is the butter. 12 tablespoons of it, for a whopping 1200 calories for the whole dish. The chicken is cooked in the butter, and so are the mushrooms. What I did, is cooked the chicken in the oven with a little olive oil, and used butter with canola oil to cook the mushrooms. Butter with canola oil has 1/2 the calories of regular butter. So instead of adding 1200 calories to the dish I added only 200 for a savings of 1000 calories or 125 calories per serving for a total of 155 per serving. Not bad. In WW speak the dish went from 6 points to 3!  Here’s the original recipe. Try to see where you can make it healthier.

Ingredients:

Flour for dredging
Salt and pepper to taste
4 whole chicken breasts cut in half lengthwise
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup grated parm cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I use a combo of panko and seasoned bread crumbs)
1/4 lb butter plus 4 tablespoons (yikes!)
2 pounds spinach cooked and drained
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 pound sliced mushrooms
chopped parsley

Directions:

1. Mix flour, salt, pepper and dredge the chicken. Beat the eggs and the water and dip the chicken in. Mix the breadcrumbs and cheese, and coat the chicken pieces. Refrigerate for 1 or more hours so the coating has time to set
2. In a large skillet heat 1/4 lb of the butter. Add the chicken and brown on all sides, then lower heat, cover, and cook for 25 minutes or until done.
3. Chop the spinach coarsely and season with the lemon juice. Pile onto a platter and arrange the chicken pieces on top. Keep warm.
4. To the skillet add 2 tablespoons of butter and saute the mushrooms until tender. Spoon over chicken.
5. Brown the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the skillet and, through a sieve, pour over chicken and mushrooms. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

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