So Many Dishes

I know that a colorful plate of food is generally a healthier plate. But sometimes you end up with a meal where everything is essentially the same color, but still a well balanced and delicious dinner.

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday. I hadn’t planned to bake any Christmas cookies this year. Ken and I just don’t need them, we haven’t done any entertaining, apart from our early family celebration, and I had enough other baked goods planned. But an announcement was made on Sunday that there will be a cookie exchange after our Christmas Eve service, and I knew I had to participate. I have a reputation to uphold 😄

So, after a full afternoon of baking, an easy dinner was definitely welcome. We had put a chicken recipe on the menu that’s one of those “why don’t we make this more often” dishes, chicken breasts in a creamy mushroom sauce. It’s delicious, but also easy and quick to prepare. I paired it with steamed cauliflower and rolls that we had picked up at the market. It was all tasty and healthy, even without much color contrast.

What makes a cream sauce healthy? Well, this is based on a Weight Watchers recipe, and the creaminess comes from plain nonfat Greek yogurt that is stirred in at the end. Weight Watchers recipes are notoriously stingy on sauces, and you know how much I like sauce, so I doubled the sauce. Neither of us could imagine it with less sauce. Ken sopped up every bit on his plate with his roll. I’ve served this over rice, too, which works really well.

The original recipe calls for fresh tarragon. For me, tarragon is what cilantro is to others, although I don’t think there’s a genetic component in this case. Whenever I see tarragon in a recipe, I substitute. This time I used basil, and I truthfully can’t imagine using anything else.

Chicken with Creamy Basil-Mushroom Sauce

• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 6-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil

Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken to skillet and cook, turning occasionally, until chicken is cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate, cover to keep warm.

Add remaining teaspoon of oil to the pan. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring often, until mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes. Add wine and bring to a boil. Cook until wine is slightly reduced, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in yogurt, mustard, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the chopped basil.

Serve chicken with mushroom sauce, sprinkled with additional fresh basil. Serves 2.

You’ll notice that I served this on our most colorful plates!

Happy eating!