Healthier Chicken Pillows

Chicken Pillows are a favorite of my children and husband (me, not so much). Being kind of a health nut, I don't like making these as often as they are requested (which is weekly). The original version calls for a cream cheese, sour cream and chicken mixture inside of crescent roll dough, with the uncooked rolls dipped in melted butter, bread crumbs and then covered with a condensed chicken soup gravy. While still not the healthiest meal ever, this version makes me a little more comfortable serving it to my family frequently.

Healthier Chicken Pillows 

• Shredded chicken taco meat (I usually plan to make these the day after I make chicken tacos with the leftover meat) or plain shredded chicken meat. 
• 2 containers of Pillsbury Crescent rolls
• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese 
• Fresh spinach (or other vegetable, such as zuchinni, shredded carrot, etc)
• Olive oil
• Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• Homemade cheese sauce from Skinnytaste 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Mix shredded chicken and cream cheese together. Lay out the Pillsbury triangles so two triangles go together to form a square. Put a scoop of the chicken mixture on each square and add some torn spinach leaves. Bring the corners of the dough together at the top. Brush each "pillow" with a little olive oil on the top and bottom of the pillow and roll it in a bowl of Italian seasoned bread crumbs. Put the pillows on the cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

For the cheese sauce:

1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour

2 cups skim milk
1 cup fat free chicken broth (vegetarians use vegetable broth)
8 oz (2 cups) reduced-fat sharp cheddar (Cabot 50%)
salt and fresh pepper to taste

In a large, heavy skillet, melt butter. Add flour and cook another minute, or until the flour is golden and well combined. Add milk and chicken broth and whisk, raising heat to medium-high until it comes to a boil; cook about 5 minutes or until the sauce becomes smooth and thick. Season with salt (or seasoning salt) and pepper. Once the sauce is thick, remove from heat, add cheese and mix well until cheese is melted. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Cover a pillow with cheese sauce and enjoy.

today

Praying for: Friends who are going through a difficult time

Wearing: Jeans and a black shirt with 3/4 sleeves and a fun necklace 

Working on: Getting to bed by 11:00 (so difficult and so far, unsuccessful considering that I don't usually start working out until at least that time)

Eating: Lots of veggie wraps lately, consisting of a high fiber whole wheat wrap, hummus, avocado, spinach, arugula, grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, a little bit of Tillamook medium cheddar cheese, some green onion, a little bit of whole grain mustard and some salt and pepper. I have this for lunch and dinner on a lot of days.

Dreaming of: three things: 1. My graduation 2. Going to Hawaii this Summer 3. Our much-needed bedroom makeover

Realizing: I have been somewhat prideful lately and I really want to change. I plan to write more about this in my next post, which will be about school...no guarantees as to how soon I will post it, but it's on my mind.

Impatiently waiting: For a new episode of Parenthood. It was a re-run this week. Bummer.

Anticipating: Losing 1/2 a pound more so I can hit my goal weight and go into maintenance (with Weight Watchers)

Loving: Oliver's cute little chatter.

Stalking: My school email account to see if I am the recipient of a scholarship I applied for

Feeling: Happy that the quarter is over but also grateful for the opportunity to be in school, and sad to say goodbye to a friend tonight (whom I will likely not see again, at least not for a while)

the school "dream"

It happened again. I had the dream. The one where everything is moving along nicely...I've been working hard in my classes, doing well, and the quarter is just about over. Just before it ends, I realize there is a class I was enrolled in that I haven't attended all quarter. Panic washes over me. (Hence the fact that the word "dream," which implies something pleasant ("something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence" according to www.dictionary.com), is in quotations.)

In this particular dream, I was walking on campus (not my campus, but some random campus that was supposed to be my campus) with my friend Crystal. We were apparently in school together. We just got out of class and we were going to do something fun to take our minds off of school. She mentioned that we should just ditch our next class. "What class...?" Enter panic mode. Oh, yeah. The class I signed up for at the beginning of the quarter and then completely forgot about until now...that class. Is it too late? Can I save my grade? Who is the teacher? When is the final? How could I forget about something so important?!?

And so it goes. I actually haven't had this dream in several quarters (I think my subconscious was a bit preoccupied with me trying to juggle a family, including a new baby, graduate school, and work...it had other things to think about that could easily bring me into panic mode). Why must I dream such dreams? Nothing productive comes of it. Only stress. Next quarter is my last quarter of college (other than my part-time practicum that I will be doing next year, but that's like working part-time without taking any classes, or writing any papers, or stepping foot on campus, so it's not the same thing at all in my mind. To me, I will pretty much be done with college after next quarter. That is HUGE! Words cannot express how I felt as I typed that sentence.)
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In other news, I am co-facilitating a goal-setting workshop for foster youth tomorrow. I am kind of excited about it. This is part of my Senior Capstone Project that I wrote about here.

One more noteworthy comment: Thanks to Weight Watcher's and Jenni's fitness challenge (which I have a love / hate relationship with), I have lost 10 pounds! Yay for that! I am down to my pre-pregnancy weight and wearing my pre-pregnancy clothes, which I had put into a box, thinking they might remain there for a very long time. (By the way, watching Gilmore Girls reruns makes working out go by so fast. It's even more motivating than music. Thank you Loreli and Rory!) Of course, my body doesn't quite look like it did before I was pregnant, but that's okay. Worth it. (That's an understatement.)

Okay, I'm going to bed now.

workout music?

Image via Flickr

I am in that phase of post-pregnancy where I finally have a little time to workout, and a lot of desire to lose the weight. I go on walks with Oliver a few times a week, I am attempting to jump rope in the evenings (um, my calves are killing me...I am so out of shape!), and I'm going walking slash jogging with a friend one night a week. We are also looking for a treadmill. It's not much, but at least it's something. All of this = I need a good playlist for working out.

So tell me, what songs motivate you to work out? Tell me your favorites and help me build my list. Thanks!