Yields: 6 servings of 1 1/3 cups each
Cook Time: 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low

Ingredients:

Nonstick Cooking Spray
10oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced into 1inch pieces
12 oz turkey kielbasa, sliced into 1/2inch thick rounds
1 red onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp flour
1 (28oz) can no salt added diced tomatoes and their liquid
1 (15.25oz) can reduced sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp salt
1 cup water
1 (8oz) package frozen cut okra, thawed

Take okra out of the freezer to thaw. Spray a large skillet with nonstick spray and brown the chicken for about 4 minutes. Place the chicken in a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker, along with the kielbasa, onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Sprinkle with flour and stir to coat. Add the black beans, tomatoes, cayenne pepper, salt, and water. Cover and cook 3.5 hours on high or 7 hours on low. Stir in package of thawed okra, cover, and cook another 30 minutes on high or 1 hour on low.

Nutrition Info:

Nutrition Disclaimer: I am not a certified nutritionist…these are just the calculations I’m pretty sure are close to correct. I use BodyMedia to generate my information.

• Calories: 273
• Fat: 7.2g
• Saturated Fat: 2.1g
• Cholesterol: 72.7mg
• Sodium: 846.9mg
• Carbohydrates: 26.2
• Dietary Fiber: 7.2
• Sugar: 7.2
• Protein: 29.6

Nutritional Breakdown: 3 Meat, 2 Starch, 2 Vegetable (at least)
Jenny Craig: 1 serving is a little higher in protein than your average Jenny dinner, but it’s pretty close in everything else.
Weight Watchers: 7 Points (using calculatorcat.com)

The great thing about this recipe is how flexible it is for a mom. I think the most time consuming part (and this is pretty usual) was chopping up the veggies.

I wish I was one of those super fast choppers…you know what I’m talking about…the people who can grab an onion and dice through it in under a minute. But I’m not.

Still, I make cutting veggies a priority because really, volumizing makes eating less calories possible. And like I always told clients when I worked at Jenny Craig: if you don’t have time for something, it’s just not a priority.

What I mean when I say that it’s flexible is that you can switch back and forth between high and low, depending on how your day is going.

For example, I started this in the early afternoon, put it on high and timed it for 3.5 hours. But after 3 hours, I wanted to take Ginny out for a walk, so I went to the slow cooker, changed it to low, and changed the timer to an hour so that I would be back in time to put the okra in. Then I found out Thomas was going to be home from work in half an hour, so I moved the slow cooker back to high. It was literally done as he walked through the door…something I often aim for but very, very rarely succeed at.

I’m not entirely sure if you’re “supposed to” do that or not, but I don’t really care. The stew turned out great. And it wasn’t too spicy either, so even Thomas enjoyed it.

This meal is really packed with protein…something I have a hard time getting in, especially because I’m breastfeeding and Ginny is lactose intolerant. So lean protein is hard to come by. But this stew has a whopping 29.6g and only 7.2g fat! And you can have a whole cup and a third per serving.

I did try to keep the sodium down in the ingredients, but if you look at the nutrition information, it’s still at 846.9mg. Yikes! I’d like to get it down to around 500mg, because that’s usually what I aim for.

Most of the sodium is in the kielbasa, but at least it’s turkey kielbasa so that keeps the fat down. And by the way, that’s important, so pay attention when you pick up your kielbasa at the store…most of it isn’t just 5g fat per 2 oz. So get the turkey kind.

As far as veggies go, there’s an onion, a bell pepper, tomatoes, and okra. Anyone got any ideas for other veggies to throw in? What other veggies go well with Cajun food?