Chicken Lime Soup

Chicken Lime Soup

Olive Oil Cooking Spray
3 half chicken breasts, boneless & skinless
4 limes
1.5 quarts chicken broth
1 cup diced red bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
.5 cup diced celery
1 cup diced zucchini
1 cup diced skinned and seeded tomato

Spray Olive Oil over the chicken breasts. Then squeeze the juice of a lime over the chicken. Grill the chicken over medium heat for 5 minutes per side. Cool and then dice. (Next time I am going to shred the chicken.)

Bring the chicken broth to a simmer. Add bell pepper, garlic, celery and carrot. cook over low heat for 15 minutes. Stir in the zucchini and cook for 5 minutes. Add the chicken, the juice from the remaining limes and tomato. Simmer until heated. Optional Garnish: Cilantro and salsa.

*Recipe from The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook

This soup is low-fat and super delicious. The limes give the soup an interesting tang without over-powering the other flavors of the soup.

Quick Sesame Chicken

I made the Sesame Chicken from Cooking Light's 1990 Annual Recipes Cookbook. The chicken was nice and moist, but I honestly would have preferred chicken with barbeque sauce. The chicken tasted like honey more than sesame. I would make this again, but would have to add sesame oil to the basting mixture. Of course, that would up the fat content.

Quick Sesame Chicken

1 (8 oz.) can pineapple slices

1 TBSP sesame seeds, toasted

3 TBSP Honey

1/4 tsp sage

4 (6 oz.) skinned chicken breast halves

Drain pineapple, reserving 3 TBSP juice. Set aside. Combine the 3 TBSP juice, sesame seeds, honey, and sage in a small bowl; stir well. Place chicken, skinned side down, on rack of a broiler pan that has been coated with cooking spray. Brush chicken with honey mixture. Broil 8 inches from heat for 25 minutes, basting often. Turn chicken; broil an additonal 5 munutes or until tender.

Baste reserved pineapple slices with honey mixtue and broil for 5 minutes, turning once.

4 Servings: 240 calories, 4.8 Fat, Fiber unknown

Shown is 4 oz of sesame chicken and two slices of pineapple. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

Apricot-Glazed Chicken

4 Servings
6 points per Serving

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup dried apricots, quartered
1/2 jar of apricot preserves
1.5 TBSP lemon juice
salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Move rack to the center of the oven.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the orange juice, apricots, preserves, lemon juice and salt & pepper. Set aside.
3. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. In a skillet, sprayed with non-stick spray, lightly brown both sides of the chicken breasts. Remove chicken breasts and place in a baking dish.
4. Wipe out any chicken fat/grease from skillet. Add the orange juice mixture to the skillet. Over high heat, briskly whisk the juice mixture until it becomes a syrup (about 3 minutes).
5. Cover the chicken with the apricot syrup and bake until the chicken is done (160 degrees). About 12 minutes.

I served this with plain couscous and a veggie, preferably a 0-point veggie or mixed greens. The apricot glaze is delicious spooned over the couscous. This recipe was modified from a recipe in Cook's Country Magazine.