Warm BBQ Chicken Salad

We are LOVING our BBQ! It’s so nice that I can just throw some chicken in some marinade before bed and Mr. Gaunt can grill it in the morning. Then I have yummy BBQ Chicken to do whatever I want with. Pleasing.

This BBQ Chicken Salad is super easy, healthy and delicious. I had Mr. Gaunt BBQ two LARGE chicken breasts that had marinated in BBQ sauce all night. Then I cut up a zucchini into slices, sprayed with some olive oil and had him grill that up too.

When it was done I cut up half a breast and chopped up the zucchini. Tossed them both in a bowl of Spinach and Romaine, topped with a little Olive Oil/Balsamic/Honey homemade dressing…done!

I love warm chicken in a salad.

Healthy Chicken Nuggets

Jenny reads lots of Healthy Kids Foods Books and she gave me this idea/recipe for a healthy chicken nuggets. I made them tonight and they are pretty yummy, definitely would be popular with children…or boyfriends…(=

INGREDIENTS:

5-6 Chicken Tenders Thawed

1 cup Fat Free Greek Yogurt

1 Tablespoon spices of choice

3 Pieces of Ezekiel Sprouted Bread

1/2 cup Italian Bread Crumbs

DIRECTIONS:

-Cut Tenders into nugget size pieces.

-In a Tupperware container mix yogurt and spices together. Add chicken pieces, toss until coated in yogurt.

-Put the container in the fridge to marinate (a few hours) or overnight if you can.

-Meanwhile toast 3 slices of Ezekiel (in the toaster or in the oven on 500 for 5-8 minutes) then throw them in a food processor with 1/2 cup Italian Breadcrumbs and blend until crumbled.

-Preheat oven to 375

-After chicken has marinated in yogurt, get out a glass casserole pan and line with foil and spray with Pam.

-Toss yogurt covered chicken into bread crumbs, cover completely and lay on foil.

-Bake for 10-15 minutes on one side then flip and do the other side.

We enjoyed these with sweet potato fries and Parmesan and pepper broccoli.

Chicken Parmesan

I made Chicken Parmesan a few nights ago and it was DELISH! It took a smidge longer than expected because the oven temp wasnt set (ehm…mr.gaunt) none the less we finally ate at 8:00pm (boo that is way past six!). It’s also super easy. I baked breaded chicken (I have made my own bread crumbs, but these were store-bought) and then sprinkled parmesan on it about 3 minutes before it came out of the oven. I boiled some whole wheat angel hair and sauteed some onions, zucchini and cherry tomatoes in olive oil. I mixed the veggies into the pasta and put the chicken on top of it, poured over some spaghetti sauce and sprinkled with a little more cheese. Super yummy and pretty healthy. We are on a major veggie kick, and I can not get enough!

I’m going to Washington in SEVEN days! YAY! Its my mom’s birthday next Friday and I’m so glad I get to spend it with her! I havent seen her since July (which is a damn crime against mother/daughter bonding!) and we are gonna do Deep Water Running, and I want to cook with her! I really want to try to make Kale Chips while there (yah down mom?) because we both love a good chip, and I LOVE KALE! Anyway, tomorrow is Ms. G’s Birthday and we will be going to Fresh Fish for dinner. I’ve already decided I’m getting clams…becuase clams are heaven in a shell. Oh and its Friends and Family Weekend at Old Navy, and a friend sent me the 30% off coupon (total purchase) and 5% goes to Boys and Girls club! How sweet is that! CLICK HERE FOR THE COUPON!

I LOVE KALE

Its true! I do love Kale! I can’t believe I havent been eating this in EVERYTHING! I had never really had kale before making this soup a couple weeks ago, and now Im on my third batch of it! I think it tastes WAAAAY better than steamed spinach and its uber healthy:

Nutritional value

Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory.^[2]

Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Because of its high vitamin K content, patients taking anti-coagulants such as warfarin are encouraged to avoid this food since it increases the vitamin K concentration in the blood, which is what the drugs are often attempting to lower.

Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties.^[3]

Tonight I made a pretty stinkin yummy pasta dish. Pasta is always a bit dangerous, who doesnt want to sit and eat a giant plat of alfredo? We switched to Whole Wheat a long time ago, but now its important to watch quantity too. A serving of pasta looks like this:

See thats not very much, sure isnt a whole plateful is it?

Tonight’s dish was Whole Wheat pasta topped with Chicken Garlic Kale cream sauce. Well not very much cream, just enough. Basically I sautéed Onions, mushrooms, garlic in EVOO. Added some shredded Rotisserie chicken (we buy one of these about once a week and it last about 5-7 days) and steamed Kale. I then poured in about 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and 3/4 cup Fat Free 1/2 and 1/2. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Pour over pasta…yum.

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HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Weight Watchers Baked Potato Latkes

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Casserole Revamp!

Growing up my family had a favorite meal, so favorite in fact that we actually just called it “The Favorite” as in “Mom please make the favorite tonight!” Yeah it was so amazing. In fact it was one of the first things I learned to make when I moved out, and have made it for every boyfriend Ive had (who of course also love it). But since being on Weight Watchers I just cant bring myself to make it. This is what the OLD recipe intaled:

1-2 cans (depending on how much you were making) of Cream of Mushroom Soup

2-200 Dallops of Mayo, Sour Cream, or any other white creamy sauce

2-200 Cups of shredded cheddar cheese

A good few splashes of curry powder

Maybe a splash of milk and a bit of salt and pepper.

Mix in a bowl.

Layer a LARGE casserole dish with white rice, topped with cooked chicken and cooked broccoli, then pour your cheesey creamy curry mixture on top and sprinkle with MORE cheddar cheese. Bake at 450 until crisp on top. Now eat at least half the pan by yourself. DO NOT SHARE!

Ha! So umm yeah I dont make this anymore for the above reasons! But Mr. Gaunt is ALWAYS asking about it, or encouraging me to try a modified version which I finally got around to tonight.

The new recipe is the following

1 Can of LIGHT Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 cup of light Sour Cream

2 Tablespoons real Mayo

A few good splashes of Curry Powder

1/2 cup of grated fresh mozzarella

Mix in a bowl

Then coat a SMALL casserole dish with cooked Quinoa. Add shredded chicken (or not) and broccoli (or mixed veggies if you look in your freezer and realize you dont have any broccoli even though you SWEAR you bought some) then coat with your cream mixture and bake on 450 for about 20 minutes or until crispy.

And the final key is eat only ONE SMALL PORTION AND SHARE SHARE SHARE!

This recipe was obviously not as delicious as the real one, but Mr. Gaunt and his friend both really liked it, and I didnt love it so much that I felt the need to eat 1/2 the pan! Yay! But for real it was pretty good. Oh and add a Spinach salad with tomatoes and Un-Pickled Pickle slices (like a tiny cucumber I bought at the Farmers Market) toss with a little olive oil and vinegar! Yum-o!