Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Trim Healthy Tuesdays: Sweet Potato Pasta with Chicken - E


This is a quick, easy and inexpensive meal (in the E category for fellow THM's)! It has very few ingredients and if you have pre-cooked chicken, it will take even less time. I usually buy one or two LARGE containers of chicken (I try to buy ahead when there is a good deal and freeze it - but admittedly I'm not always organized enough to make that happen) and then I cook it all at once in my electric pressure cooker (which, by the way, is my all time FAVORITE kitchen accessory! I can cook the chicken just like a crockpot would take all day- in less than an hour!) and then keep it in the fridge to add to meals throughout the week when I am in a rush (read: ALWAYS). The whole recipe takes less than a half hour to prepare, unless the baby starts to cry and wants to nurse in the middle of the recipe, then it takes a little longer. ;)


 
Ingredients(this fed our family of 6 with enough for 2 servings for three of us, and leftovers for Hubby's lunch- although the baby didn't eat much.)
 
2 large sweet potatoes
3 cups cooked and diced chicken(I pre-season my chicken if you don't you may want to add a little seasoning to it)
3 cloves garlic (more or less according to your taste)
1 cup chicken broth (fat free to keep it in and E setting)
1 TBS Coconut oil
Salt, Pepper and Onion powder to taste (I added about 1 tsp of onion powder)
Parmesan cheese to top and cilantro for a garnish
 
Peel your sweet potatoes. I used a mandolin to slice the sweet potatoes in pasta-like shreds.
 You could use a spiralizer or even just your peeler if that's all you have. I like the mandolin because it gives more of the pasta feel when you eat it. That being said PLEASE be careful if you use the mandolin, because the sweet potato is very firm and doesn't slice easily. Absolutely use the safety holder!
 
(I found, for mine, it seems to work a little smooth when it was at the back of the potato like this)
 
One of my sweet potatoes cut smoothly, the other refused and I ended up finishing it with a knife
 
 
 
Add the chicken broth and coconut oil to your pan. In a lot of recipes you'll find that they would tell you to chop your garlic and add it here. I don't for two reasons, you can make your own choice. One, I always seem to overcook the garlic if I add it early in the recipe. And two, garlic is a powerful antibiotic and we are headed into cold and flu season. We know that garlic is most powerful when it's raw. I try to keep it as lightly cooked as possible when adding it to recipes to keep as many of the medicinal properties as I can. My kids and husband all love garlic (my kids probably because they've been exposed to it in high doses since the womb). If you have a sensitive stomach or dislike a strong garlic flavor then you may add it now.
 
 
When the coconut oil melts, add the sweet potato shreds.
 
Then lament that you chose the wrong pan, which is clearly to small, and try again!
 
 
Much better! Add salt, pepper and onion powder and stir to make sure all the potatoes are a little wet from the broth. Cover and cook until the "noodles" are softened.
 
softened sweet potato "noodles"
 
Chop your garlic and add the garlic and chicken to the pot. Stir together!
 
 
 
Add the parmesan cheese and cilantro garnish and you have a beautiful meal!!
 

 
Baby and Daddy approved! (and my husband normally dislikes sweet potatoes, but he loved this!)



All the kids enjoyed it (although we did have a mostly chicken picker on the left). Don't worry I made sure they had some good healthy fat for dessert (peaches and full-fat homemade whip cream) so they weren't in the weight loss category for this meal.

 
 For easier Printing
 
Sweet Potato Pasta with Chicken -E
 
Ingredients
 

 

2 large sweet potatoes
3 cups cooked and diced chicken(I pre-season my chicken if you don't you may want to add a little seasoning to it)
3 cloves garlic (more or less according to your taste)
1 cup chicken broth (fat free to keep it in and E setting)
1 TBS Coconut oil
Salt, Pepper and Onion powder to taste (I added about 1 tsp of onion powder)
Parmesan cheese to top and cilantro for a garnish
 

 

Peel your sweet potatoes. I used a mandolin to slice the sweet potatoes in pasta-like shreds.
 


 You could use a spiralizer or even just your peeler if that's all you have. I like the mandolin because it gives more of the pasta feel when you eat it. Absolutely use the safety holder!
Add the chicken broth and coconut oil to your pan. 
When the coconut oil melts, add the sweet potato shreds.  Add salt, pepper and onion powder and stir to make sure all the potatoes are a little wet from the broth. Cover and cook until the "noodles" are softened.
Chop your garlic and add the garlic and chicken to the pot. Stir together! Add the parmesan cheese and cilantro garnish and you have a beautiful meal!!


 

 

 

 
 linked up for Trim Healthy Tuesdays
 

 

 

4 comments:

  1. Definitely trying this one! We have quite a few sweet potatoes to use up from the garden this summer and everyone here loves them. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That looks soooo good! I love sweet potatoes. My husband isn't a fan of them but maybe with the chicken he'd like this as well.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment Deanna! My husband liked it enough to have seconds and take the leftovers to work! =) And on Thanksgiving he always lets the mashed sweet potatoes pass him by. But this didn't have a super strong sweet potato flavor, so I think that's why he liked it =)

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  3. Thanks for linking at Centsibly Sugar and Grain-Free! I am pining after a spiralizer. :-)
    ~Stacy @ Stacy Makes Cents

    ReplyDelete

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