Baked Chicken Mozzarella with Basil

This is a great healthy version of Chicken Parmigiana that will make its way into your weekly menu! I served mine over zoodles to keep it super fix-friendly but served it with pasta for the rest of my family.

Serves 4

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into strips

4 tomatoes, sliced

Fresh basil

1 cup fresh mozzarella

2 cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 cup marinara sauce

Optional: Panko breadcrumbs

2 zucchini, spiralized

Preheat oven to 350. Pour marinara over bottom of casserole dish to coat. Layer chicken over top and, if you are using the Panko crumbs, sprinkle on about 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Lay spinach and basil leaves over top, a thick layer is ok! Top with tomato slices and a generous helping of mozzarella. Bake for 35 minutes, finishing with a 2-3 minute high broil to brown the top.

Heat raw zucchini in pan over high heat for about 2 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

1 red container

1 green container

1/4 purple container (depending on the kind of marinara you use! Here is my clean tomato sauce recipe)

1/4-1/2 yellow container (if you use breadcrumbs)

5 Tips for Eating Clean

Eating clean is ALL THE RAGE right now. This is so funny to me because at the beginning of this century, eating clean was the only way to go. Meaning, it was the only option! You see, eating clean means avoiding processed foods and sugars and those things didn't even come on the scene until the 1940s. So basically what we are doing is going back to the basics. It's really quite hipster of us. Yet, trendy as it is, our bodies will thank us.

Here are some of my favorite tips for eating clean:

1. Make Your Own. Take almond milk, for example. So much of what you find at the grocery store is filled with extra stuff I can't even pronounce. Have a sweet tooth? Make your own treats from scratch! I have two little lady monsters running around that are always dying to make a mess help me out in the kitchen. 
2. Read the Label. This one seems like a no-brainer but we really really really need to get in the habit of reading what's IN our food. If you don't know what it is or if the ingredient list is really long, be skeptical. BE VERY SKEPTICAL. Especially if it's something like pasta which should have about 3 ingredients in it. 
3. Shop the perimeter of the supermarket. This is my absolute favorite tip from food expert and U.S. food policy critic Michael Pollan. The best stuff is around the edge and should be 90% of your cart! 
4. Don't eat in front of the television. Once you sit down on that couch, mindful eating goes out the window. And there is something about your favorite show that makes you reach for something with a crinkly package...
5. Start a meal with greens. I don't always do this (for example, if my meal is a salad this would be just silly) but it's a good one. Before I eat, I will frequently serve myself a big handful of greens with a little olive oil and vinegar. I eat this first and then head for the rest of my meal. I invite my body to feast on the really valuable stuff first (leafy greens are just about the perfect food) and then dig into my proteins and the rest. 

Eating clean shouldn't be as hard as it is. We should be able to shop without scouring the labels like a crazy person. We should be able to trust that there aren't superfluous ingredients in our food. We should be able to eat our food without wondering whether or not there are hidden additives that will make us keep eating it. 

We should be able to do a lot of things when it comes to food but we can't. In the meantime, do your best and follow these tips! Happy CLEAN eating!

Easy Vegetarian Lunch

Enjoy this great vegetarian dish! It's also an easy meal-for-one.

Ingredients, serves 1
2 eggs
1/2 red onion, chopped into large chunks
1/2 bell pepper, chopped into large chunks
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
Olive oil
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 375.
Toss vegetables in olive oil or use an olive oil sprayer. Combine with goat cheese and add the mixture to a small crock or baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
Crack eggs over top of vegetables and return to oven for another 15 minutes. Eat as is, with whole-wheat toast, over quinoa or with couscous.

Roast Chicken with Anjou Pears, Potatoes and Thyme

I love this recipe using fresh pears-- it adds a certain sweetness to this dish.

I would also recommend adding chopped carrots to up your vegetable intake!

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Anjou Pears

Ingredients, serves 4 (adapted from a whole chicken recipe from Martha Stewart)

4 chicken thighs, skin on

2 cups red potatoes, chopped into chunks

4 shallots, cut into chunks

2 Anjou pears, cut into chunks (these do not need to be ripe)

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Fresh thyme

Juice of ½ lemon, fresh

Preheat oven to 350.

Layer potatoes, onions and pears into bottom of casserole dish and sprinkle in some fresh sprigs of thyme. Place chicken thighs over top of mixture and spray lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and some more fresh thyme. Squeeze juice of lemon over top.

Cook for about 1 hour 15 minutes until top of chicken is browned.

1 red container

1 yellow container

1/2 purple container

1/2 green container 

Chicken Stock from a Slow Cooker

Ingredients, Makes about 8 cups of stock

Step 1 Ingredients:

●      1 Whole Chicken, about 4 lbs

●      1 onion, chopped

●      1 lemon, halved

●      Seasoning, your choice

            Toss chopped onion in bottom of slow cooker. Remove innards from chicken and coat in seasoning of your choice. I used a good mix of paprika, cayenne pepper, thyme and so much more. I’ll leave this up to you since it’s not my focus today. Stuff chicken with lemon halves and place breast-up in cooker. Set to medium/high and cook for 6 hours.

Step 2 Ingredients:

Adapted from www.100daysofrealfood.com

●      1 carrot, roughly chopped (or a few baby carrots)

●      1 sprig fresh parsley

●      ½ tsp dried thyme

●      A dash of salt

            Add all these ingredients (and more if you like- bay leaf? Celery stick?) into the slow cooker after you have removed all the meat. I removed the lemon halves but left the chopped onions. Fill slow cooker with water until almost full. Cook on low for 8-10 hours (I did this overnight). When finished, strain bones and any other solid things from the stock and store in fridge or freezer. Voila!

Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker

This is a meal prep dream. Cook a chicken in a slow cooker and you will eat for days!

Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker

Ingredients

●      One whole chicken, about 4 lbs

●      1 lemon, halved

●      1-2 sweet onions, largely chopped

●      Potatoes, largely chopped (vary amount based on people eating) (Skip this if you like!)

●      Adobo seasoning or just salt and pepper

            Layer potatoes and onions in bottom of crock pot. Stuff lemon halves inside chicken and place chicken breast up in crock pot. Rub seasoning (and feel free to use one of the seasoning recipes from the 21 Day Fix booklet) on chicken. Slow cook for 8 hours. Serve and use leftovers for EVERYTHING.

Mostly a red container per serving unless you added the potatoes, yellow. 

In addition to being able to eat for days off of this recipe, you can easily make your own chicken stock!

Seriously the easiest ever!

Chicken Fajita Casserole

This recipe is really similar to my Clean Chicken Fajita recipe BUT it's super easy to make ahead of time and just pop in the oven.

Chicken Fajita Casserole, Serves 4

• 2 chicken breasts cut into 1-inch thick strips 
• ½ sweet onion, sliced 
• 1 green pepper, sliced 
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 
• 1 cup salsa 
• Fajita Seasoning (I really wing it! Make sure you taste and test) 
• 1 tbsp. chili powder 
• 1 ½ tbsp. Adobo seasoning 
• ½ tsp. paprika 
• 1 tsp. dried minced garlic  
• ½ tsp. cayenne pepper 
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch 
• ¼ cup water 
• Serving suggestions: Tortillas (yellow container), Plain low fat Greek yogurt (in lieu of sour cream- blue container) Avocado Slices (blue container)

           Preheat oven to 350. Place sliced vegetables in bottom of 9X9 casserole dish and top with chicken. In a small bowl, mix together spices, cornstarch and water to make fajita seasoning, being sure to test along the way. Pour “sauce” over chicken evenly and then pour the salsa over the chicken evenly. Sprinkle cheese over top and bake for about 40 minutes, until cooked all the way through. Serve on tortillas with sour cream or avocados.

1 red container
1/4 purple container
1/2 blue container
(without toppings and tortillas)