Half & Half

This entry is entitled "Half & Half," because of the two recipes I prepared today, one was a low cal Hungry Girl recipe, and the other was a ... not-so-good-for-you recipe. The good recipe was Hungry Girl's take on Green Bean Casserole: "Rockin' Lean Bean Casserole," and the naughty one was a recipe entitled "Joy's Chicken" that was from a cookbook John's sweet grandma June gave me us as a shower gift. I'll go ahead and get the not-so-good-for-you one out of the way:

Joy's Chicken







Day 1

Ingredients

• 12 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tsp celery salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp pepper
  

Directions

1. Wash chicken & pat dry.
2. Combine all other ingredients, and then coat chicken with mixture.
3. Let chicken marinate in fridge for 24 hours

Day 2

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups ritz cracker crumbs
  
• 1.5 cups saltine crumbs
• 1 cup butter*

*That's right, this recipe called for a whopping 1 cup of butter (that's two full sticks!) I did end up using that much, but both John and I felt like it was a bit too much (especially considering the calories).

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. Combine ritz crumbs and saltines crumbs, and roll chicken in the crumbs.
3. Place chicken in a casserole dish (10 x 15 is good) coated w/cooking spray.
4. Pour melted butter on top and bake for 1.5 hours.

Nutrition
Who would want to know?? I did use FF sour cream and reduced fat Ritz, but with all that butter, I shudder to think of the calorie and fat content.

The Verdict
Yummy!! John gave it an 8/10, and I'd give it about the same. If only it wasn't loaded in fat, I might make it more!


Rockin' Lean Bean Casserole










Ingredients

• Two 16-oz. bags frozen French-style green beans, thawed, drained & thoroughly dried
• Two 10.75-oz. cans Campbell's 98% Fat Free Cream of Celery Soup (98% FF Cream of Mushroom or 98% FF Cream of Chicken would work fine too)
• One 8-oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 1 bag (about 1 oz.) Crispy Delites Red Onion Chips or 1 oz. (about 25 pieces) onion-flavored soy crisps, crushed**

**I couldn't find either of these, so I subbed Sun Chips French Onion (+ a little onion powder) instead. They do have a bit more fat/cals, but not tons. It probably increased the points value by 1, maybe 2 points.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
   
2. Make sure green beans are thoroughly drained and completely dry -- use a towel if you need to. Then, place half of the green beans in a casserole dish (a 2 - 3 quart rectangular one works best).
   
3. Pour 1 can of soup evenly on top of the layer of green beans. Place half of the sliced water chestnuts over the soup layer.
   
4. Cover with remaining green beans, and then top with the rest of the soup. Evenly top with the remaining water chestnuts. Place dish in the oven, and cook for 45 minutes.
5. Top with crushed soy crisps, and return dish to the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until chips turn golden brown.
   

Nutrition
PER SERVING (1/10th of casserole): 76 calories, 2g fat, 431mg sodium, 13g carbs, 3.5g fiber, 4g sugars, 3g protein -- POINTS® value 1

The Verdict
Pretty good! A much lower fat/calorie version, but still tasty.