So, since David and I are trying to trim down, I've been trying to cook better-for-you foods (take no example in the planned peach pie I will be making tomorrow for potluck...)
So, today, the meal plan was Tomato-Basil Chicken. I actually got this recipe out of the cookbook
Hungry Girl: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories. We received this as a gift for our wedding (yes, guests, I can take a hint!) and we use it pretty often. Sometimes the recipes she calls have ingredients that a bit esoteric or don't quite fit our budget, but we can usually find substitutes (in other words, she obviously got some sort of advertising deal with Hunts and Skinny Cow, etc.). One of those ingredients she calls for that I actually love and is affordable and isn't that bad for you is crushed Italian recipe tomatoes.
The best part of her recipes is they are all fairly simple and call for very few ingredients. So, if you have after-work plans but still want a home-cooked meal, this is your cookbook. This particular recipe only called for chicken, the crushed tomatoes listed above and onion. Yup. That's it. It's like the ultimate college recipe! So, first up, spread a thin layer of the crush tomatoes on the bottom of a baking dish and put the chicken on top of the tomatoes.
After you place the chicken oh-so-carefully on top of the tomatoes, it's time for you to grill up some onions! I sliced them very finely (well, David chopped them. After all, as previously addressed, chopping onions makes me cry) and put them in a pan. Technically I sprayed the pan with some olive oil spray, so I guess that makes
four ingredients instead of just three. Anywho, I grilled them for about three minutes on high heat. It's also this point that I start to preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
After the onion-y smell was filling the kitchen, it was time to spread those onions over the chicken breasts. Can you tell by this photo that I'm super OCD? Well, if you can't, trust me I am. I was extremely disturbed when a few onion pieces fell
in between the chicken breasts instead of stacked directly on top of them. God forbid, right? Well, maybe not that bad, but Chef Blair is about as OCD as Non-Chef Blair is, so it's a battle I'm always losing.
So, in case you didn't get the drift, this is almost like a ghetto chicken lasagna. It's all about the layering. First the crushed tomatoes, then the chicken, then the grilled onions and then, finally, the rest of of the crushed tomatoes. I spread it rather evenly on top of the chicken breasts, but Chef Blair paused for a bit and stared. "What's missing?" I asked myself. I mean, the spices are already in the crushed tomatoes (as listed on the can above...) so what else could be needed for this lasagna-like chicken dish? I sprinkled some garlic salt on top (because when in doubt, add more garlic, right?). But, this still didn't satiate my wonder and confusion. Then. It. Hit. Me.
Ahhh, that's better. Cheese. Turns out, just like garlic, cheese also answers the question: "What is missing from this meal right now?" The recipe didn't call for it, but I splurged in the caloric department and spread a thin layer of Parmesan cheese on top of the tomato basil chicken dish. At this point, it was to bake for 30 minutes in the oven that we already preheated to 350 degrees. This is probably one of the first recipes I've used up here that was made for sea-level chefs, but actually translated really well for high-altitude too. So, that makes this meal a winner in my high-altitude book of ratings. So, this one goes right to the top of our recipe list.
In fact, when I pulled out the dish from the oven right on the 30-minute mark, it was perfectly cooked. I sliced right into the chicken with ease. The chicken breasts were juicy and well seasoned (shockingly enough). To be honest, I was shocked that I liked this dish because it had no pepper in it. Usually, I nearly over-pepper dishes because I love the kick that normal table pepper has. But, in less than 45 minutes, we had a home-cooked meal that was delicious to both of us. And after pairing it with some leftover rigatoni as a side: Voila. Easy dinner. We sat down after our tennis game with this lovely plate of food, some tea and watching some "Flipping Out." What? Jeffrey Lewis is amazing.
So, today, the meal plan was Tomato-Basil Chicken. I actually got this recipe out of the cookbook Hungry Girl: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories. We received this as a gift for our wedding (yes, guests, I can take a hint!) and we use it pretty often. Sometimes the recipes she calls have ingredients that a bit esoteric or don't quite fit our budget, but we can usually find substitutes (in other words, she obviously got some sort of advertising deal with Hunts and Skinny Cow, etc.). One of those ingredients she calls for that I actually love and is affordable and isn't that bad for you is crushed Italian recipe tomatoes.
The best part of her recipes is they are all fairly simple and call for very few ingredients. So, if you have after-work plans but still want a home-cooked meal, this is your cookbook. This particular recipe only called for chicken, the crushed tomatoes listed above and onion. Yup. That's it. It's like the ultimate college recipe! So, first up, spread a thin layer of the crush tomatoes on the bottom of a baking dish and put the chicken on top of the tomatoes.
After you place the chicken oh-so-carefully on top of the tomatoes, it's time for you to grill up some onions! I sliced them very finely (well, David chopped them. After all, as previously addressed, chopping onions makes me cry) and put them in a pan. Technically I sprayed the pan with some olive oil spray, so I guess that makes four ingredients instead of just three. Anywho, I grilled them for about three minutes on high heat. It's also this point that I start to preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
After the onion-y smell was filling the kitchen, it was time to spread those onions over the chicken breasts. Can you tell by this photo that I'm super OCD? Well, if you can't, trust me I am. I was extremely disturbed when a few onion pieces fell in between the chicken breasts instead of stacked directly on top of them. God forbid, right? Well, maybe not that bad, but Chef Blair is about as OCD as Non-Chef Blair is, so it's a battle I'm always losing.
So, in case you didn't get the drift, this is almost like a ghetto chicken lasagna. It's all about the layering. First the crushed tomatoes, then the chicken, then the grilled onions and then, finally, the rest of of the crushed tomatoes. I spread it rather evenly on top of the chicken breasts, but Chef Blair paused for a bit and stared. "What's missing?" I asked myself. I mean, the spices are already in the crushed tomatoes (as listed on the can above...) so what else could be needed for this lasagna-like chicken dish? I sprinkled some garlic salt on top (because when in doubt, add more garlic, right?). But, this still didn't satiate my wonder and confusion. Then. It. Hit. Me.
Ahhh, that's better. Cheese. Turns out, just like garlic, cheese also answers the question: "What is missing from this meal right now?" The recipe didn't call for it, but I splurged in the caloric department and spread a thin layer of Parmesan cheese on top of the tomato basil chicken dish. At this point, it was to bake for 30 minutes in the oven that we already preheated to 350 degrees. This is probably one of the first recipes I've used up here that was made for sea-level chefs, but actually translated really well for high-altitude too. So, that makes this meal a winner in my high-altitude book of ratings. So, this one goes right to the top of our recipe list.
In fact, when I pulled out the dish from the oven right on the 30-minute mark, it was perfectly cooked. I sliced right into the chicken with ease. The chicken breasts were juicy and well seasoned (shockingly enough). To be honest, I was shocked that I liked this dish because it had no pepper in it. Usually, I nearly over-pepper dishes because I love the kick that normal table pepper has. But, in less than 45 minutes, we had a home-cooked meal that was delicious to both of us. And after pairing it with some leftover rigatoni as a side: Voila. Easy dinner. We sat down after our tennis game with this lovely plate of food, some tea and watching some "Flipping Out." What? Jeffrey Lewis is amazing.
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