Sandy's Creamy Buffalo Chicken Bake

This has become a regular and a favorite recipe in our house. The chicken bake with the buffalo sauce is creamy, hot and spicy. I have had tons of people ask me for the recipe. I usually serve it on a bed of broccoli. The sauce is really a good compliment to the broccoli and gives the old veggies a little kick. I hope everyone enjoys this recipe as much as me and I encourage you go to over to www.lighterrecipes.com and check out the rest of Sandy's wonderful recipes!!! Thanks Sandy for another wonderful mainstay recipe in my house!!!

Creamy Buffalo Chicken Bake

(Aka Buffalo Chicken Dip)

www.lighterrecipes.blogspot.com

Slightly adapted from Melissa Aka Want2BeThin789

Ingredients:

13-14 oz raw, boneless, skinless chicken breasts - yields 9 oz cooked (1 1/2 Lean)

2 oz or 1/2 cup 2% reduced fat cheddar cheese (1/2 Lean)

1/4 cup Frank's Hot Wings Sauce (4 Condiments)

1/4 cup Light Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing  (2 Healthy Fats)

2 tbsp reduced fat cream cheese (2 Condiments)

6 Servings of Veggies (6 Greens)

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake chicken breasts for 30-35 minutes or until cooked. Remove chicken breasts from pan and chop the chicken into small pieces. Place chicken inside of a baking dish. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, combine Frank's Hot Wings Sauce, ranch dressing and cream cheese. Heat over medium high heat, stirring until cream cheese is completely melted. Once melted, pour the sauce mixture over chicken. Then sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve with 1 1/2 cups of celery or your favorite veggies for a complete lean and green meal.

2 Servings with 1 Complete Lean and Green, 3 Condiments and 1 Healthy Fat per serving

*Note: You can use 1/4 cup fat free ranch dressing and treat it as 2 condiments. Then use 2 tbsp of regular cream cheese as your two healthy fats.

Italian Stuffed Peppers

I love stuffed peppers!!! With this recipe I didn't even miss the rice that is normally stuffed into the green pepper mixture. This is one that I will be happy to cook again and again!! This is a FAVE!!!  The original recipe is below for the Italian Stuffed Peppers from the time savor gourmet cookbook.  I changed a lot on this recipe. First, after cleaning up the bell peppers I boiled them for 5 minutes. Second, I  cooked and browned my ground beef and mixed all of the remaining ingredients in the pan letting them simmer before inserting it into the bell peppers. This recipe only allows you to have 2 green so to make it 3, I added 1C of tomato puree! YUMMY!!!!!

4 Small bell peppers, about 1/2 C equivalent each
1 1/2 lb Lean ground beef
1C Mushrooms, diced
1C Zucchini, diced
1T Time Savor Gourmet Tuscan Fantasy
1T Time Savor Gourmet Viva Italiano

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and dry the peppers. Cut the top 1/2" off the pepper horizontally to crate a cup. Remove the seeds and rinse. Set peppers in a 9 X 9 baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Divide the mixture equally into four parts and stuff into the peppers. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until meat in thoroughly cooked.

Serving: 1/4 of this dish is 1 lean and 2 green. I added 1C of tomatoes to make it 3 green.