Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Cooking for Paul and myself has gotten interesting. We are both on very-low-carb diets. Coming up with interesting things when you crave rice, potatoes, and pasta has been a challenge. The other night I invented something that he claimed was the best thing I've come up with yet, so I have to share.

Neil's Stuffed Portabella Caps

2 large portabella caps, de-stemmed, and skirt trimmed for stuffing
1 medium sized onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed in a press, or minced
2 chicken breast-halves, diced, or one can chunk style chicken
2/3 cup 4C brand low-carb bread crumbs
3/4 cup shredded Italian-Blend cheese
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning blend
1/2 cup cooking wine
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a small oven dish with cooking spray. Heat olive oil in large skillet, cook onion, pepper, and garlic just a few minutes and add chicken, and Italian seasoning. Continue cooking until chicken is done. Add bread crumbs and stir well, then add wine. Continue cooking while stirring about 30 seconds more and remove pan from heat. Let sit for about 5 minutes, then add 1/2 cup of the cheese, salt and pepper, and save remaining cheese for topping. Spoon mixture into caps, and make a nice dome shape. Top with remaining cheese. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until cheese is browned and stuffing heated through. Serves 2.

I suppose you could use ordinary bread crumbs if you are not carb-concerned, but we have found these low-carb crumbs to be excellent for our diet. We also use them in other dishes. When you add liquid to the crumbs in whatever dish they are used in, the swell a bit, and seem to imitate rice, or some other starch. The low carb 4C breadcrumbs are hard to find. I emailed the company and they sent me a list of who has them in the NYC area: A&P, Key Food, Super Fresh, Food Emporium and Waldbaums.

For you low carb folks, I have calculated that this dish has about 13 net-carbs per serving. Using one of the new low-carb wines that have appeared recently would cut another few off the total. I suppose you could also skip the wine, but use some chicken broth for the liquid instead.