Cooking Lighter :: Cheesy Chicken & Pepper Casserole

This is such a good recipe, and not to mention, a serving of it is only 357calories!

No lie, it's from Cooking Light Magazine, one of my true favorites even though we've only had it once now, I can see it becoming a part of our rotation quickly.

I searched high and low on the website for a link to this recipe, but couldn't find one!  It wasn't a featured recipe, but a part of a "swap" issue, where if you like "x" ingredient, then you'll love this dish-type article.

So, this one was, "if you love Velveeta..", ok so we don't love Velveeta, at all.  

And it actually freaks me out because it's so shelf-stable, but whatever, this is delicious, and can't be worse than any of the queso junk we ingest! Plus, at 357 cals for 1 1/2 cups, you can't go wrong (based on six servings).

Lots of veggies, brown rice and chicken makes this very filling.  Mine is adapted slightly because the original called for diced onions which we didn't have (bc of course i have to forget something at the store every time) so I used 3 types of peppers instead.

Ingredients list:

2 cups of cooked brown rice
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
Olive oil, about 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3/4 c. low-sodium chicken broth
8 oz. of Velveeta Mexican queso or pepperjack (I got the queso b/c it's what the store had.)
About 1 1/2 cups of shredded chicken or diced, cooked chicken (We had leftover rotisserie chicken from my lunch chicken so we used that!)

2 oz. shredded cheese of choice

How to make it:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Make your brown rice however you prefer to prepare it-stove top/microwave, just so it's ready.
2.  In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  I just used our Misto oil sprayer for this part.  Once the peppers are just slightly crunchy still, add in your flour, cumin, and chicken broth:

3.  Let this go with the broth for about a minute, and then add in your cubed Velveeta.  If you have a personal issue with processed cheese, take it up with Cooking Light please lol. Stir the cheese until the whole mixture is smooth.

5.  Take the pepper mixture off of the heat, and add in the chicken and brown rice, mixing it well.  Once you've mixed it, smooth the mixture evenly into a casserole dish of your choice.  The one below is from Ikea, I think it's about 10x6 or something.  Pretty small.

6.  Top with some cheese-we had some shredded Mexican cheese in the fridge so I added that on.  

7.  Cover with foil and bake for about 25 minutes or until the cheese on top is to your liking and the whole dish is hot! 

Enjoy it in your lap while still wearing your under armour workout gear! :) so tasty and reheats like a boss.

Linking with Taste of Tuesday!