Creamy chicken and mushrooms with cauliflower mash

And low-carb recipes for your fall baking

Chicken and mushrooms is a big deal for my family. Ian has often requested it as his birthday dinner, and my go-to used to be the Julia Child recipe for Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Cream Sauce, a page that is stained and dog-eared in my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

It’s one of the meals I made a lot when I first really started to enjoy cooking. My own spin on it is non-complicated and quicker- simplified over the years and adapted with healthier ingredients in order to get a version that is doable on a weeknight and still just as loved.

I almost called this “Any Cut of Chicken and Mushrooms,” because that’s essentially what it is (with the exception of bone-in chicken). The key to making it a weeknight dinner is to cut larger pieces of chicken in half (e.g. a large chicken breast or boneless/skinless chicken thighs) or use chicken tenderloins. This allows the chicken to cook faster and the dish comes together in 30 minutes.

Add the creamy sauce with a rich, earthy flavor of mushrooms and onions, plus a ridiculously-easy cauliflower mash, and you have a hearty comforting fall dinner that is low carb, blood sugar friendly, and gluten/grain free.

It’s weeknight comfort food with all the shortcuts, but it doesn’t compromise on flavor.

When I served this for dinner the other night, I learned that this meal is a favorite of my two older kids, who were both so excited to sit down to eat. It was a beautiful moment of agreement and appreciation after a long day of what felt like non-stop sibling conflict. (Proof that this meal can actually halt sibling rivalries. 😜 )

If you’re serving even littler eaters, chicken and mushrooms is incredibly baby/toddler friendly, too. Even Millie, our 9-month-old, enjoyed her share of cut up chicken and mushrooms and cauliflower mash, going in for seconds and thirds.

The recipe, nutritional calculation, and printable PDF is available below to my lovely paid subscribers- THANK YOU for supporting my newsletter!

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Fall baking inspiration

The temperatures are (finally) cooling down for us here in AZ, and the change in the seasons has been so wonderful this week! It has also been inspiring me to bake, bake, bake.

So I wanted to share some of my favorites at the moment! From an easy tahini bread to an indulgent spice cake, there are lots of options over on the blog. All of them are gluten and grain free, and blood sugar friendly.

Some ideas for what to bake right now:

• Keto Spice Cake with Chai Cream Cheese Frosting

• Low-carb Pumpkin Bread

• Almond Flour Biscotti

• Low-carb Apple Cake

• Grain-free Vanilla Almond Butter Granola

• Tahini Bread

Spice cake with chai cream cheese frosting; Low-carb pumpkin bread; Almond flour biscotti; Vanilla almond butter grain-free granola; Tahini bread.

I got to thinking that many of you might have some questions about low-carb and grain-free baking, ingredients, etc., especially if you’re new to baking this way.

If you do, I’d love to answer them and find a way to share more info to help out!

Please message me with any specific questions about baking!

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Creamy chicken and mushrooms with super-easy cauli mash

Here’s this week’s recipe, friends. Chicken tenderloins will cook the quickest, but use what you have on hand. The day I made it for these photos, I only had chicken breasts and I cut them in half so they would cook quicker (cut them in half either lengthwise or horizontally).

For the mushrooms, cremini mushrooms (also called baby bellas) will give you a better mushroom flavor than white button mushrooms, but again, use what you have.

For the cauli mash, you’ll microwave the cauliflower florets (in a heat-safe bowl), then either mash it with a fork or use a stick blender to get a good, smooth-yet-chunky consistency. A blender or food processor is also fine, but just pulse it a few times so you don’t end up with a puree (baby food) instead of a mash.

One note about microwaving: this is not my ideal cooking method for cauliflower since you can lose a lot of the phytonutrients. However, it’s a quick and easy way to get a deliciously creamy, neutral base for this meal in just a few minutes.

If you prefer a cooking method that retains more of the vitamins and nutrients of the vegetable, and you have more time, check out my recipes for roasted mashed cauliflower with garlic and dairy-free mashed cauliflower.