Light Louisiana Gumbo

In an effort to stick to my Project 52 goals I've started cooking something new at least once a month. Now that I'm back on the "eating healthy wagon" [for life, and you can quote me on that!] and trying to lose weight I've been keeping my eye out for healthy and light options for new meals.

The other day while paging through a new SELF magazine I came across a recipe for Light Gumbo. I was skeptical of course, but after reading the ingredients I got excited about trying to make it. The fresher the ingredients to me the better something is going to taste and the better it's going to be for me and Mike.

I wanted to share this recipe with you because it was too delicious not to. And I figured why would I share half delicious or down right gross food with you right? Please note that while I am trying new recipes all the time I'm only going to share with you the ones that I truly enjoy! You have my word on that.

Light Louisiana Gumbo

Save 200 calories—enough for a Hurricane!

with Skinny Chef Jennifer Iserloh's slimmed-down spin 

on a New Orleans classic.

via self

INGREDIENTS
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 chicken sausages, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
3 cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup cored, seeded and chopped green bell pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup packed chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
15 oz diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined (about 20 shrimp)
16 oz frozen sliced okra
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley


PREPARATION
Sprinkle chicken with Cajun seasoning. Heat oil in large pot over high heat. Brown chicken and sausage, turning once, 2 to 3 minutes. Add celery, onion, bell pepper, garlic and thyme. Cook until vegetables start to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1 tbsp water if vegetables stick. Reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle flour over meat-vegetable mixture. Cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add tomatoes, juice and broth. Simmer, covered, until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add shrimp and okra; simmer, covered, until shrimp is cooked through and okra is tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Garnish with parsley.

THE SKINNY
4 Servings, 276 calories per 2 cups, 7 g fat (1 g saturated), 26 g carbs, 8 g fiber, 27 g protein

D2BD's NOTES:
I was shocked to see the calorie count for this meal. It's so filling and SO good. I will admit I added extra Cajun seasoning to make it hot. You could always use hot sauce to doctor yours up if you like it spicy and I also added a bit of Old Bay Seasoning to the Shrimp before cooking and pepper and went light on the salt when added to the pot. This stuff was AMAZING!!! I also had to substitute turkey sausage for chicken sausage since Wally World here doesn't carry it. There are a lot of things that Wally World doesn't carry but that's a bitch session for another time. I also added three chicken breasts instead of just one, since we were expecting company to share this with us and we like to use left overs for lunches. I usually use the rule of thumb 1 chicken breast per person when making spaghetti or soup but in this case we had three left in our old pack of chicken, and honestly with the shrimp and the sausage you truly don't need the extra chicken. I just wanted to finish off the package of chicken and be sure that Mike and his brother had enough meat, they are growing men after all.

I hope if you like gumbo and Cajun cooking you'll give this a try. With spring and summer right around the corner I know it's hard to think about eating warm soups, stews or gumbos but this is an amazing bowl of delicious and one not to miss! It was the perfect ending to a long weekend.

Mike made some beer drop biscuits to go with this and I also made a pot of wild rice as a side. Mike mixed the rice into his gumbo which is traditional but as you know will add to the calorie count of this meal. The biscuits were amazing! He used an instant biscuit mix and substituted room temperature beer for the water that you add. The beer gives the biscuits a deeper flavor, the darker the beer the more flavor you will get. Simply drop the biscuit batter on a non-stick baking sheet and and bake according to the package directions. You can also roll these out and cut them as you would a traditional biscuit but we weren't in the mood for all that last night. I limited myself to 2 small biscuits [seriously, they were super small and flat] without butter and a small side of rice that I didn't finish due to how filling my 2 cups gumbo actually was.

This recipe doesn't disappoint!!! SO ENJOY!!!!