We’ve all had those wonderful moments at mealtime, where you’re blissfully eating away at the most delicious bite of heaven on earth… you take another bite… mmm… and another. Before you know it, you’re scraping your plate clean, then licking it clean (sorry, Spot, none for you today), and a feeling arises from the pit of your stomach, and it’s not from the dinner. You realize just ate something that’s only going away if you park ten miles from the grocery store’s front door. You can’t easily work this off by “taking the stairs” at the office tomorrow. We all know that feeling, and I’m here to help you avoid it.

Now, I’m not here to tell you that you can’t eat yummy food! You simply have to know how to plan what you want to eat, then turn it into something that you can devour guilt-free. There are countless ways to make a meal healthy, so let me point you in one direction to get started. We’re going to explore low fat chicken recipes to incorporate into your healthy dinners. I would like to share three scenarios of how to change your life, starting with changing your recipes.

1. You are a one-dish mess sergeant. You plan to bake your family a casserole tonight because the shepherd’s pie leftovers are gone and enchiladas are in the Tupperware at your hubby’s office. I love casseroles, so I can totally relate to this, but, we all know that they are infamous for being on the higher calorie end of the spectrum. One of my favorite dishes is chicken enchiladas. This is a tasty that most of us have tried, and I’ll tell you how to make it into one of the low fat chicken recipes. Boil your chicken. You don’t need any fat to do this. When you need to add flavor to the chicken, use double amounts of green chiles! (BTW, if you’ve never tasted green chiles, then stop reading this right now, Google “chicken enchilada recipe”, and head off to the store. It is so worth it!) Finally, when you make the sauce, use fat free sour cream and low-fat cream soup. Now this is all assuming your recipe is similar to mine, but I think you get the idea. It’s okay to deviate from the script, while still having the ease of the one-dish meal.

2. You are a crockpot momma. I am not. But, I have had my share of attempts at the crockpot, and here is my most successful recipe. First, you must use skiness, boneless chicken breast or turkey breast, or this is a lost cause. When you crock pot meat, it tastes so moist and juicy because the food is simmering in its own fat for hours and hours and hours. We all know this can’t be good for our health. Here is the trick. Get a can of soda. Cola is best because I understand it is more acidic, and it is A-OK to be diet! So grab that diet soda or two and add it to your chicken in the crockpot. And last, add a flavor, like a bottle of salsa, some Season-All, some salt and pepper… almost anything. The soda will essentially tenderize your meat, just like when you put acid (i.e. lemon juice or vinegar) in a marinade. So… give it a try… no fat necessary.

3. You are a restaurant critic. Or you’d like to think you are. We all have our favorites. I can think of my favorite ten right now, and I was tempted to visit all of them on my last trip to my hometown, but no… I held back. I wanted to be a good example to my sisters, and I taught them one of my latest discoveries. The Internet. Well, I didn’t JUST discover this, but I told them what I had recently learned.

We have a favorite meal at a restaurant called Cafe Rio. They have a meal called the “Pork Barbacoa Tostada”. I wanted to have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner… and snack. Needless to say, at our weekend party, I taught them how to make it. I had simply Googled a variety of words until I ran into the recipe for the pork. Lo and behold, this is where I had learned about the soda pop crockpot trick. We made the meat this way. The other unique taste in this meal is the dressing. I was able to find two recipes for it… one complex, and one simple. Of course, I used the simple one…. why not? FYI, if you’d like to try it, you mix a bottle of ranch dressing (low cal or fat free in my modified version) with a bottle of green salsa.

We were floored when we tasted it. It was perfect, and maybe even BETTER than the restaurant’s version of the salad. Alas, we were in control of our portions, calories, music selection… everything that makes the restaurant experience awesome was now perfect. So, let me just remind you that starting your journey to good health with low fat chicken recipes is a great way to go. It is simple and exciting to know you have made your own weight loss success!