Skip to main content

Recipe #1 - Chicken Pasta 'Alfredo' (approx. 500Kcal per serving)


We all love good food, am I right? (I mean, of course I'm right, it's something we live with every day so you have to enjoy it). 


One thing I've done on my journey is to find ways to eat the dishes I love, but tweaked to fit in with the new lifestyle we're enjoying. If it feels more like a regime than a lifestyle then it's tougher to stick to.


I love chicken pasta alfredo. Creamy, cheesy pasta, spiced chicken breast and a mountain of parmesan. Big, hearty and welcoming. Problem is that the requirements to make a creamy, cheesy pasta is a lot of cream and a lot of cheese. Butter too. Delicious it is, healthy it ain't.


Here's the good thing - every so often it's fine to have the full fat version as an occasional treat. If you're wanting to fit these things into everyday, then you need to be a bit clever and this one is my own recipe. We replace the cream and butter and the like with fat free yoghurt. It's not quite the same but it's more than good enough. It still feels comforting and by using a really strong parmesan to get as much flavour in with as little cheese as possible, you still get a great cheesy kick. Broccoli goes really nicely with this (particularly tenderstem broccoli) which adds a portion of veg to this too. 



This serves three (I cook for two but always make sure there's leftovers for lunch the next day)


2 medium sized chicken breasts, skinless, any bits of fat trimmed off

175g dry pasta

4x heaped tablespoons fat free natural yoghurt

1x heaped teaspoons low fat butter style spread

2x shallots, finely diced

3x cloves of garlic, finely diced

200ml chicken stock

1x teaspoon (heaped) cornflour)

Grated parmesan (the stronger the better)

Splash of skimmed milk

Tenderstem broccoli

Chicken coating:

Smoked paprika

Onion granules

Garlic granules

Salt

Pepper

Dried Oregano


METHOD:

- Trim and butterfly your chicken breast. Use about 1tsp of your herbs and spices and lightlycoat the chicken in them. Season and fry in a frying pan on medium heat with a couple of sprays of 1 calorie cooking spray. Fry on both sides til slightly charred and cooked through then transfer to a plate, cover with foil and leave to rest.

- Cook your pasta in salted boiling water as per packet instructions.


- Fry your diced shallots in the chicken pan with another spray or two of spray until translucent and add your garlic. Add a teaspoon of dried oregano.

- Add the heaped teaspoon of low calorie butter spread and the cornflour, mix well. Add your stock and a splash of skimmed milk. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and leave for 2-3 minutes to thicken.  Season with salt and pepper

- Add your parmesan to taste into your sauce and stir well. Be sparing with it as we'll top the finished dish with a little parmesan as well for flavour.

- Remove your pan from the heat and set to one side.

- Once cooked, add a couple of cooking spoons of pasta water to your pasta sauce and stir in. Drain your pasta and keep it to one side. Boil a kettle

- Two tablespoons at a time, add your fat free yoghurt into the pasta sauce. Taste, adjust seasoning and stir your pasta through. Put back onto a very gentle heat to warm through again. 

- Fill your pasta pan with water from the kettle and boil some tenderstem brocolli for three and a half minutes on a rolling boil.

- Slice your chicken. 


- Plate your pasta, top with some of the sliced chicken and a small grating of parmesan and plenty of black pepper. Top with your broccoli

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The things I'll always have in the kitchen

I'm properly happy to be corrected, but I truly don't think that cooking healthily is too tricky. If anything, it's been a source of real fun for me to take the things that I love eating and finding ways to cut the calories and fat from it whilst keeping it as a tasty, satisfying option. I've said before on this blog but I've failed many times at losing weight before this attempt and this tie it's stuck, and this is the attempt where I've stopped trying to deny myself the foods that I love. During the first lockdown when everything was closed, I tried to replicate things I got out and about - not trying to make them healthy like I do now - but looking to scratch the itch that wasn't otherwise available. Big Mac - got it down to a fine art. Starbucks Cinnamon Swirl - you betcha. Pizza - I'd challenge anyone to a cook off for that. Cooking healthily but in a satisfying manner kind of follows the same method; take what you can't have (much as I'...
Post a Comment
Read more

Photos - the importance of comparison

  That's me above. Hello! Nice to meet you.You're looking well.  That was a photo of me on the 1st of January 2022. Aroundabout mid day, away to take part in the Loony Dook where everyone runs into the sea and has a swim to welcome the new year. I'd been playing a bit of fives before this for a few weeks but my diet was its old self and not quite what it should be, to put it nicely. I forgot to take a proper, official "before" photo or set of photos for when I started the Man v. Fat football programme and so the above is really the best comparison I have. I'm glad I have it; it shows off me at near enough my heaviest I've been, I was around 20st and 9lb at that point. I don't know precisely as I can only go from when I weighed myself shortly after Christmas so it's a few days out, but never mind. There are points when you've embarked on your new lifestyle where it seems hopeless. Your clothes are still tight, your cravings are at their absolute...
Post a Comment
Read more

Man v Fat and all the other things

 I've mentioned it before but I play in the Man v Fat football programme. It's something that I put as a big part of the successes that I have enjoyed so far in terms of losing weight and will mention quite a few times again.  The premise is simple; it takes place weekly and starts with a weigh in. You're allocated a team when you sign up to the league and are asked to wear a certain coloured shirt. If you lose weight that week, it's worth half a goal headstart. Lose weight three weeks in a row and then that's a full goal head start for a hat trick. Hit the goal of losing a multiple of 5% of your body weight from joining, that's a full three goals. If all your team complete a food and activity diary then that's another goal. You then go and play a competitive game of football, usually around 15-20 minutes. Our group also choose to play an extra game on a Friday between us for fun.  You also get access to the Man v Fat online gym which gives you all sorts of ...
Post a Comment
Read more