Wednesday, February 22, 2012

OH! MY! GOODNESS! My #Lowcarb Lunch

I know I've used the word AMAZING quite a bit in the past, but I didn't know what AMAZING was until I ate today's lunch. It was TRULY AMAZING. And cheap...and easy...so it fits perfectly into this blog :)



First I cut three 3/4"-1" slices of cabbage, brushed both sides of each slice generously with olive oil, seasoned with S&P, and put them on a baking pan in a 400* oven.

Next I chopped up 2 small yellow onions - no particular size or shape, just sliced them up and cut through each slice a couple of times. I put them in a hot frying pan with olive oil in the bottom, gave them a stir to coat, and let them cook over medium heat.

Then I pulled a breast and a thigh off of the chicken I roasted a couple of days ago, and diced up the meat. (As a side note, this makes meal #3 from that $4.40 chicken, and I still have the legs and wings left which will be a nice lunch for Pete at work.)

At this point I opened the oven and flipped the cabbage over, turning the heat up to 425* to get some browning action going on.

Then I added the chicken to the onions, which were now translucent and starting to brown, sprinkled in a generous amount of dark chili powder, S&P, and a can of diced tomatoes (with the juice - but there wasn't much juice). Stirred together, covered, reduced heat to medium low, and let heat together for 10 minutes.

To serve, I scooped a slice of cabbage onto the plate (arranging the wonderful crispy bits along the side), then the chicken mixture (using a slotted spoon so it wouldn't be runny), and topped it with a generous dollop of full fat sour cream which both balanced the spiciness of the chili powder and added some much-needed fat to the dish.

It was heavenly! The cabbage was tender but with some firmness to it, and so sweet from being roasted - you just don't get cabbage to sweeten up by boiling or frying! The outer leaves that came loose in the oven got dark brown and crispy, adding not only another texture, but also were even sweeter - they were like crispy candy! The slight spiciness of the chicken mixture blended with the sour cream just set off fireworks of pleasure in my mouth. I just can't begin to describe what a fantastic dish this was, and my husband is totally in awe of my skills in the kitchen - lol!

And, it was cheap. About $1.25 worth of leftover chicken, 59c for the can of tomatoes, half of a head of cabbage - or 50c worth, 35c worth of onion, and I'll add a generous 50c for the olive oil (maybe 4T in all?) and seasonings. This made 3 LARGE servings, and would easily serve 4. For about $3.20 TOTAL, plus maybe 25c worth of sour cream per serving.

THIS, ladies and gentleman, is what Cheap'n'Easy Low Carbing is about :).

7 comments:

  1. This sounds really yummy, Sherry!

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  2. Oh boy....this is right up my alley! And it seems like it would be easy to substitute ground beef or even some left over steak too...heck, cubed pork also...And I am intrigued by your comment about baking cabbage. My wife and I love cabbage...I want to surprise her with this dish some night. THANKS for posting this!

    frank weir

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  3. I just bought more cabbage, and plan to fix this whenever we have any kind of leftover meat, or meat we want to use up! Let me know how you like this ok? I'm sure your wife will be very pleased!
    Tonight I will be roasting cabbage slices the same way, and having them with some ham that I'll fry in butter until it gets some color on it - we like our meats with some "carbon" on 'em :).

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  4. Sounds good, will try and cook this for our church service on Sunday nights:)

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  5. Sounds great but onions are pretty high in carbs :(

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    1. If it doesn't fit with your plan then don't use them :).

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