Chicken & Gorgonzola Pizza

chicken, Gorgonzola cheese, spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes on a whole wheat crust.

12.99 + tax and tip =16.75.

Scrape the bottom of your shoe and throw it on a piece of toast. It'll taste better.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms

Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms

Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 6 chicken thighs
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 16 ounces button mushrooms, thinly sliced
* 1 cup sliced yellow onion
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 2 cups dark chicken stock
* 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
* 4 cups steamed brown rice pilaf
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Essence

* 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
* 2 tablespoons salt
* 2 tablespoons garlic powder
* 1 tablespoon black pepper
* 1 tablespoon onion powder
* 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
* 1 tablespoon dried oregano
* 1 tablespoon dried thyme


Directions

Set a 10-inch, straight-sided saute pan over medium-high heat and add the oil. Season the chicken thighs with the Essence, salt and pepper.
Place the chicken, skin side down in the pan and sear until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the chicken over and sear on the second side for another 3 to 4 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the pan and add the butter and mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until browned and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the onions and garlic to the pan and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and cook, stirring often to make a light brown roux, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the tomato paste, stock and rosemary to the pan, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
Return the chicken to the pan, skin side down and cook the chicken for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken over and cook until the meat is very tender, about 30 minutes. Serve the chicken over rice and garnish with the chopped parsley.

GORGONZOLA-STUFFED BURGERS WITH CUCUMBER-YOGURT SAUCE

Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Cooking spray 1 pound extra-lean ground sirloin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 1-inch cubes Gorgonzola or any blue cheese (about 4 ounces total)

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt

1/4 cup shredded cucumber

2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon garlic powder

4 whole-wheat rolls

1. Coat a large grill pan or griddle with cooking spray and set over medium heat.

2. In a large bowl, combine sirloin, salt and black pepper. Shape mixture into 4 equal balls. Press 1 cube of Gorgonzola cheese into the center of each ball, covering cheese completely with meat. Shape balls into patties, each about 1 inch thick.

3. Add burgers to hot pan and cook 5-6 minutes per side, until cooked through (less for medium-rare meat).

4. Meanwhile, mix next 5 ingredients well in a small bowl. Place burgers on rolls and spoon 2 tablespoons yogurt sauce over each burger. Serve remaining sauce on the side.

Nutrition score per serving (1 burger, 1/4 cup yogurt sauce): 292 calories, 30% fat (10 g; 4.6 g saturated), 36% carbs (28 g), 34% protein (26 g), 3 g fiber, 210 mg calcium, 2.5 mg iron, 595 mg sodium.

America's Best and Worst Burgers

The burger industry in America is looking more and more like an arms race these days. Every few months, we watch in horror as another bacon-enhanced, cheese-embalmed, ranch-riddled weapon of mass inflation hits menu boards at the country’s largest restaurant chains.

The Baconator, the Monster Thickburger, the FlameThrower — they sound like weapons, not something you’d order for dinner.

What makes our hamburger habit particularly scary is the Super Size Phenomenon, which for years has been mutating our burgers into double burgers and our double burgers into 1,250-calorie Triple Whoppers with Cheese.

A 1957 burger contained little more than one ounce of meat, but by 1997 that same meat wad had grown to six ounces. Stack one of the bloated burgers out there next to a beverage like those among these unhealthiest drinks in America and you’re risking two days' worth of calories in a single, misguided meal.

Each year Americans eat about 40 billion burgers, which means that each of us downs nearly 150 of them. Choose better burgers, and you can save 10 or 15 pounds over the course of a year.

To get you started on your own burger war, we’ve compiled a list of the seven greasiest patties ever to be sandwiched between two buns. But because we understand you still need your burger fix, we’ve thrown in five of our favorites that you can eat with relative impunity (along with a delicious burger recipe at the end of this post).

Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
2,040 calories
150 g fat (53 g saturated)
110 g protein
4,900 mg sodium

You know this burger's in trouble when it takes more than 20 syllables just to identify it. If you think the name’s a mouthful, just wait until the burger hits the table. You’ll be face to face with two-and-a-half day’s worth of fat — a full third of which is saturated. To do that much damage with roasted sirloin, you’d have to eat about eight 6-ounce steaks. It’s nearly three days’ worth of saturated fat.

T.G.I. Friday’s Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger
1,590 calories
unknown g fat
unknown mg sodium

Although Friday’s is mum on the fat and sodium, it takes only one number to realize that this burger suffers from bigger-is-better syndrome. T.G.I. Friday's average burger has 1,250 calories, and their appetizers are some of the toughest in the country to swallow, calorie-wise, as we've shown with this America’s worst appetizers list.


Red Robbin A.1. Peppercorn Burger
1,440 calories
97 g fat

There’s hardly a burger on Red Robin’s menu that contains fewer than a thousand calories. What pushes this particular burger to the position of worst — aside from the gratuitous use of cheese and bacon — is the bed of fried onion straws wedged between patty and bun. Now we’re beginning to understand why, while researching the story 16 Secrets the Restaurant Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know, it may have taken Red Robin so long to come clean about the impact of its burgers.

Denny’s Double Cheeseburger
1,540 calories
116 g fat (52 g saturated, 7 g trans)
3,880 mg sodium

Add this to our ever-expanding list of the Trans-Fattiest Foods in America. (This burger has more than three days' worth of the stuff.) In fact, with as much saturated fat as 52 strips of bacon and more sodium than 21 small bags of Lay’s potato chips, this burger also belongs on the salt-packed list of 20 Foods Your Cardiologist Wouldn’t Eat.

Dairy Queen ½ lb. FlameThrower GrillBurger
1,140 calories
82 g fat (27 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)
1,940 mg sodium

Regular consumption of the FlameThrower will torch any hopes you have of losing weight. This potential aortic uh-oh contains 60 percent more calories than the Bacon Cheddar Grillburger and more than twice as many calories as DQ’s own Double Hamburger.

Hardee’s Two-Third Pound Monster Thickburger
1,420 calories
108 g fat (43 g saturated)
2,770 mg sodium

Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. take a misplaced pride in their shamelessly caloric approach to everything they put under a heat lamp, which is probably reason enough for some to find another place to eat. Need more motivation? Many of their burgers break the perilous 1,000-calorie barrier; their worst bun-buster has nearly 75 percent of your entire day’s calories and as much fat as a dozen Taco Bell soft tacos.

Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger
1,057 calories
65 g fat

The scariest part about this burger is how completely harmless it sounds: a slice of Swiss melted over sautéed mushrooms and ground turkey. Yet somehow Ruby Tuesday manages to slick it up with as much fat as five Baby Ruth bars. The kid’s version of this — the Turkey Mini — has an astounding 893 calories, earning it the No. 7 spot in our list of the 20 Worst Kid’s Meals in America. (To find out what’s best (and worst) for your kids at the nation’s big restaurant chains, check out this revealing report first.)

THE EAT THIS! BURGER HALL OF FAME

DQ Original Burger
350 calories
14 g fat (7 g saturated)
680 mg sodium

Wendy’s Quarter-Pound Single
430 calories
20 g fat (7 g saturated)
870 mg sodium

Burger King Whopper Jr. w/o mayo
370 calories
21 g fat (6 g saturated)
570 mg sodium

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder
410 calories
19 g fat (7 g saturated)
730 mg sodium

In-N-Out Protein-Style Protein-Style Cheeseburger
330 calories
25 g fat (9 g saturated)
720 mg sodium

And to make your very own gourmet burger at home with great supermarket brands — with just 350 calories and $3.79 a serving — check out this great recipe.

Sour Cream and Paprkia chicken

this version is so easy

I used a boneless breast of chicken, dipped it in some whole wheat flour mixed with some Parmesan cheese and fresh basil and some italian seasonings along with pepper. I suppose you could brown it but I just threw it in the oven with this:

Mix a cup of low fat sour cream with a cup of organic chicken broth
I added fresh mushrooms
and a shit load of paprika, like a tablespoon or more and some fresh ground pepper.

I only made one breast because I'm alone and I'm a loser so poured some over my lonely bodacious piece of chicken breast and covered it and baked it for an hour at 350. The rest of the sauce I will save for another exciting night of eating chicken alone. Again. Naturally

It was delish

Chicken Tetrazzini- Bluez Style

I got bored today and being an off pay week I decided to plan meals ahead as I'll be eating lunch daily until the daughter comes back from CT. Gotta let the pups out at lunch time!

This recipe is tweaked from your normal tetrazzini, first off I didn't have any cooking sherry, but thats about the only thing I omitted from the normal recipe
I added more veggies.

this is what you'll need

2 or 3 boneless breasts of chicken, no skin!
fresh mushrooms, as many as you like as far as I'm concerned
1/2 diced onion
couple stalks celery
a handful of chopped broccoli& red bell pepper
smart balance or butter
2 cups low salt/fat free chicken broth (1 can)
1 cup fat free half and half
paprika
salt and lots of pepper
nutmeg
Parmesan cheese
whole wheat breadcrumbs
whole wheat flour about 1/4 cup to desired thickness
Handful of barilla multi grain thin spaghetti

Cook the spaghetti, al dente
In a saucepan I sauteed all the veggies and chicken in butter then put aside
I added the broth, 1/2 & 1/2 and flour, salt/pepper, nutmeg and Parmesan cheese until smooth and bubbly.

Add the chicken and veggies back in and stir, let simmer until thick then pour into a casserole dish and sprinkle with whole wheat breadcrumbs and more parmesean cheese, if I had had some low fat mozzarella cheese I would have put that on top too.

350 degrees until the top is brown and its bubblin in the center.

A mouthful of delishishness, swear its the nutmeg!

My Parmesan chicken

This is one of my all time favorite chicken recipes when you just don't know what the hell to have for dinner


4 boneless breasts of chicken
Dijon mustard
butter or smart balance
1.2 cup parmesan cheese
1.2 cups bread crumbs (I use whole wheat)


easy easy easy

melt the butter (about a 1/4-1/2 cup for 4 pieces) with about a tablespoon of the mustard

mix the cheese and the breadcumbs together

dip the chicken in the butter/mustard mixture then the breadcrumb mixture and bake it for 45 minutes-and hour at 350 degrees.

delish