Stuffed Chicken Three Ways

Today I had some extra time so I decided to prep some food for the rest of the week. I work from 7am-8pm tomorrow and I work all weekend so I wanted to make sure I had some good food on hand for the upcoming weekend.

I first started off with three chicken breasts and butterflied them (to the best of my ability) You butterfly chicken by taking a sharp knife and cutting it down the center. Be careful not to cut your hand (Been there, done that)

Next I wanted to flatten them out a bit. I threw the butterflied chicken breast into a ziplock bag.

I didn't have a meat clever so I just took a sauce pan and pounded the chicken breast out so they got nice and thin. If you have experienced a bad day, this is the best way to get your anger out!

Once I finished pounding the chicken out I grabbed the ingredients I was going to use to stuff the chicken. I had two different types of Goat Cheese I needed to use up so I decided to stuff one chicken breast with the herb goat cheese and the other with the cinnamon cranberry goat cheese.

The third chicken breast I stuffed with part skim ricotta and a little bit of Parmesan cheese.

The first chicken breast was stuffed with the cranberry goat cheese and some pecans.

The second one is the parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, and some crushed red pepper flakes for a little spice.

Finally, the herb goat cheese with some fresh tomato slices.

Next try and roll the chicken breasts to the best of your ability. If you have toothpicks place them into the chicken breast to hold them together. I didn't have any so mine came a bit unraveled.

I seasoned all three chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Next preheat a pan with a little olive oil in it. When the pan is nice and hot put the three chicken breasts in the pan and saute until browned on one side and then flip!

As you can see my last chicken breast was a bit over stuffed!

Nice and brown!

I let the chicken cook for about 5-7 minutes on each side then took them out of the pan and let them rest on a plate. Remember they will continue to cook while resting so make sure you don't overcook them or you will get some dry chicken.

While the chicken was sitting I prepared a salad with arugula and yellow bell peppers. Then I took the herb goat cheese and tomato stuffed chicken breast and sliced it up to fit on top of my salad.

YUMMMY! The tomato was all warm and the goat cheese melted. Absolutely delicious.

A great salad after a great workout (swam for an hour today and my body is killing me!)

I topped my salad with a little dressing!

The salad was fantastic and extremely filling! I wrapped the other chicken breast and plan on eating one for lunch tomorrow and one for Friday. So excited :)

Quick Turkey Meat Sauce

On Monday I was EXHAUSTED to say the least. By 4pm I literally thought my eyes were going to burn out of my skull. I came home around 4:30pm and just vegged out on the couch for about an hour and a half. Around 6 I decided I needed to get off the couch and cook something for dinner. I wanted to make something quick but filling and I came up with this recipe.

I absolutely love pasta and meat sauce. Its super filling and I was in the mood for some nice comfort food! Therefore, I took some onion and diced them up and threw them into a sauce pot with a little olive oil.

Next I threw a Jenny-O all natural white meat turkey burger. They don't need to be thawed so I can take it from the freezer and throw it right into a pan.

While the turkey burger was browning on its side I diced up some vegetable to add volume to my sauce. I diced up some orange and yellow bell peppers, garlic, and some fresh spinach.

One the turkey burger was half way cooked I took a wooden spoon and broke it up into chunks.

Next I added the vegetables and let them cook for about 5 minutes with the turkey meat. I love having my vegetables still to have a little crunch to them. If you don't let them cook for about 10 minutes so everything wilts down.

Next I threw in some canned spaghetti sauce. I added some extra Italian Seasoning and let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes.

Put the lid on the pot if you can. It will allow the sauce to simmer a bit faster!

While the sauce is simmering I cooked up some whole wheat pasta.

Once the sauce is finished, take the lid off and put the heat on low until the pasta is finished cooking.

Soooo delicious!

Now all you need to do is add your sauce on top of the pasta and sprinkle on a little bit of Parmesan cheese!

Delicious and super healthy.

You want some don't you?

I took the left over sauce and threw it in some tupperware. On Tuesday I wanted a really quick dinner again because I had to go swimming at 5pm until class at 6:30. I didn't want to have a lot of carbs so my friend Stephanie gave me the idea to use zucchini instead of pasta! WHAT A GREAT IDEA! Just take some zucchini and use a vegetable peeler to make really thin slices.

Add some salt and pepper to the zucchini.

Then throw the sauce right on top and sprinkle with the Parmesan Cheese.

I threw it in tupperware, put the lid on and was out the door in five minutes.

It was absolutely delicious!!!!! I didn't have a chance to heat it up before class so ate the food at room temperature and it was amazing and there was soooo much food! I was so full afterwards! A great spin on a traditional dish, thanks Steph :)

Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins

I decided to make muffins again, I am in a very muffin mood. These muffins are delicious and very healthy. I got the receipe from one of my favorite websites again Fannetastic Food! It is super easy and they are SOOOO GOOD

Ingredients:

(makes 12 muffins)

Dry:

• 1.5 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 C oats
• 1/3 C ground flaxseed
• 1/3 C walnuts (optional)
• 1/8 C brown sugar
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Wet:

• 1 C canned pumpkin
• 1/2 C (overflowing) frozen (or fresh) blueberries
• 3/4 C skim milk (or dairy substitute)
• 1/3 C pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

First put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Then all the wet into a separate bowl

Mix the wet into the dry. Now I used whole wheat flour instead of pastry flour and the muffins came out a little dense. Therefore, I'd suggest definitely sticking with whole wheat pastry flour.

Yummy! The dough is delicious!

Next spoon the mixture into a muffin tin. Top with raw oats and a little bit of cinnamon to look pretty :)

Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees! Then viola!

Tasty, delicious, and nutritious muffins.

Super portable which is great for the morning when I am always on the go!

Final picture, just to make you drool a little more!

Perfect! Now off to do some homework at Panera then a long swim before class :)

Scrambled Egg Muffins

So I decided to try and revamp the other recipe I did for the Quiche's to go. They weren't bad, but I wasn't the biggest fan. Therefore, I found a recipe on this amazing website that I am obsessed with for scrambled egg muffins. They are low in carbs and high in protein! First you need 9 eggs

Crack the 9 eggs and place them in a large mixing bowl.

Add 1/4 cup reduced fat cheese (I used 2% mozzarella, spinach, 1/3 cup spelt flour, 1 diced tomato ( I used the left over salsa I had from the Turkey Southwestern Salad, salt, pepper, and then add any additional seasonings you would like.

Whisk them all together

Then put them in muffin tins. The recipe makes 12 muffins.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, let the muffins bake for around 25-30 minutes

TAH DAH!

They are absolutely delicious...

And super healthy!

I know you want to see another close up...

Yummy! I packed two of them for breakfast this morning along with some Greek yogurt and berries! Such a great way to start off the day, especially when your day starts at 4am!