Balsamic Grilled Chicken over Roasted Vegetables and Lemon Pasta

October 15, 2011 by · 11 Comments

I like to think of this type of dish as a layered dish. One layer is your starch, another layer is your vegetable and then the third layer is your protein. This is a complete meal and when we layer all three types of food (our protein, carb and veggie) you get so much flavor and end up feeling full and very satisfied when the meal is over.

To get the most health benefits you will want to pack a layered dish with as many healthy foods as possible. A good example of this would be chicken breast (a lean protein) veggies roasted in a little olive oil and some seasonings and something like brown rice or whole grain pasta. There are some great whole wheat pasta options out there and if you are a bit averse to the whole wheat you could always try Barilla’s Plus Pasta. My girls don’t like whole wheat pasta, but they don’t notice a difference with the Barilla Plus.

Another layered meal option might be brown rice, sautéed peppers and onions with some salsa and jalapeno and then some black beans or grilled chicken (or both). Top that off with a bit of cheddar cheese and cilantro and you have another great “layered” meal option.

This particular meal is one of my absolute favorites and I love all the flavors in here so much. I roast one red pepper, an onion and a bag of frozen broccoli from Trader Joe’s in some olive oil and their Everyday Seasoning (any seasoning blend will work here.) I also pound out some chicken and  marinate it in some  balsamic vinegar with olive oil, salt and garlic. I cook up 16 oz of whole wheat pasta and then toss that with some olive oil, lemon juice and zest, garlic and salt. If you like a little heat you can add some red pepper flakes. Layer everything and then grate some Parmesan over top. This is so good, I can’t even tell you….you just have to try it!

My tip for grilling chicken is this. Trim the chicken as much as you can and then toss it into a Ziploc bag with your marinade. Take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you are going to grill it and pound it out with the flat side of a meat mallet right in the bag.  You might have to move the chicken around a bit as you are pounding your chicken out and make sure there are no air pockets when you do this. Then let it sit to come to room temperature. Take it right out of the bag with some tongs and put it on the grill. Make sure to let as much of the marinade drip off your chicken as possible before you place it on the grill. I also like to massage the marinade into the chicken as much as possible after you pound it out. Also, I usually put a decent amount of salt in my marinade. I really think doing all of this makes my chicken exceptionally moist and pounding it out makes it cook nice and evenly. I will never place another piece of chicken on the grill again without pounding it out and this method (with the Ziploc bag) makes the process really easy.

So here is the recipe. I have to say, this is one where you can really change things up and you almost can’t go wrong. The one thing you do still have to be careful of is portion size. I find that if I go easy on the starch and heavy on the veggies I still get at least one or two pieces of pasta in every bite.  Enjoy!

Balsamic Grilled Chicken over Roasted Vegetables and Lemon Pasta
 
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Recipe type: Main

Ingredients
  • 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 16 oz whole wheat pasta (I like to use rotini or penne)
  • 2 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • ½ tsp lemon zest
  • ½ tsp dried basil
  • 1 red pepper cut into strips
  • 1 medium onion cut into strips about the same size as your pepper
  • 1 lb frozen broccoli florets
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning (any seasoning blend will work here.)

Instructions
  1. Trim chicken of all fat and place in a ziploc bag with next 5 ingredients. Mix everything in the bag and make sure that the marinade is evenly distributed to coat the chicken. Let this marinade in the fridge for about 2-3 hours ideally. About 30 minutes before you are ready to grill, take the chicken out of the fridge and pound out right in the ziploc bag to about ½ inch thickness (make sure there are no air pockets in the bag when you are doing this and use the flat side of the mallet.
  2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set grill to medium high temperature.
  3. Place veggies on a large baking sheet and toss in olive oil, everyday seasoning and salt. Toss this mixture until everything is thoroughly coated. If you feel like your veggies need more oil, add, but be careful not to add too much (just enough to coat evenly.)
  4. Roast vegetables for about 20-25 minutes stirring every ten minutes.
  5. Grill chicken until thoroughly cooked and then slice lengthwise.
  6. Cook pasta according to directions and when done, toss with the remaining olive oil, garlic powder, kosher salt and pepper.
  7. Layer the pasta, roasted vegetables and then sliced chicken. Grate parm over top and enjoy!

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Beef & Tortellini Marinara with Green Beans

October 4, 2011 by · 5 Comments


This. Is a keeper.

This was a huge hit with everyone involved. Everyone involved being my family…and that says a lot. My family isn’t picky really, but not all dishes are a hit with everyone at the same time. This dish was. For me it was a huge hit because it was simple to make and pretty healthy. The flavor was deep and rich – which doesn’t always happen with slow cooked meals.

I used frozen green beans (the haricot vert if you are fancy) from Trader Joe’s and they worked wonderfully. I love their frozen veggies and I very often use frozen instead of fresh veggies when it is more convenient. I don’t know what it is, but TJ’s has the best frozen veggies.

****Can I give you my tip on frozen vegetables? Don’t microwave them. Maybe there is a good way to nuke frozen veggies, but I haven’t found it yet. I will sometimes sauté them in a little olive oil right from frozen and sometimes I will boil them in some water with a little bouillon. I have even roasted veggies in the oven right from frozen and it works great. Another thing I will do is put them in some foil with a little seasoning salt and some olive oil and throw it on the grill. It steams in the foil and cooks up really nice. I do this with frozen asparagus quite a bit.

Thank you for that brief interruption, now back to our regularly scheduled program:-)

Seriously – try this dish today. This is some absolutely delicious Italian food. Another great recipe from Taste of Home.

Enjoy!

Beef Tortellini Marinara with Green Beans
 
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This is a great slow cooker recipe with some amazing Italian flavor!
Recipe type: Main

Ingredients
  • 1 lb beef stew meat
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 jar (26 0z) marinara or spaghetti sauce
  • 2 cups dry red wine or beef broth
  • 1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed – (I might do 1.5 lbs next time)
  • 1 can (14½ oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
  • lb small fresh mushrooms
  • 2 envelopes thick and zesty spaghetti sauce mix
  • 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
  • 1 Tbsp minced onion
  • 2 tsp minced fresh rosemary
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • tsp salt
  • 1 pkg (9 oz) refrigerated cheese tortellini

Instructions
  1. In a large skillet, brown beef in oil until no longer pink. Add garlic, cook 1 minute longer. Transfer to a 5 or 6 qt slow cooker.
  2. Stir in the marinara sauce, wine, green beans, mushrooms, sauce mix, parsley, onion, rosemary, pepper and salt. Cover and cook on low for 6 – 8 hrs or until meat is tender.
  3. Stir in tortellini. Cover and cook on high 30 minutes longer or until tortellini are heated through.

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Easy Spaghetti and Meatballs

August 10, 2011 by · 4 Comments

Spaghetti and Meatballs

One of my favorite comfort foods is spaghetti and meatballs.  We like to make this on a Sunday and let it simmer for a while on the stove top.  However, we can also make this on a weeknight when it doesn’t have as much time to simmer (and we don’t have as much time to make it) and it still tastes great.  This is a basic recipe that we use, but to be honest every time that we make some it’s probably a little bit different depending on what we have in the pantry or the fridge.  If we have some bread that needs to be used up we will use fresh breadcrumbs.  If we are in a hurry we will use panko.  Sometimes we will use straight ground beef and sometimes we will also add some pork.  If we want to get really crazy we might use part Italian sausage.  On any given day this dish can turn out in many different ways.  It’s always good though and with some freshly grated cheese it’s a great meal for the whole family.

This is a recipe that Jim and I made together.  He was mostly responsible for the meatballs and I put the sauce together.  We hope you enjoy!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

1-1.5 lbs ground beef – we use lean and it tastes great

1 egg

1/3 c onion minced

2 garlic cloves minced

1 tsp dried Italian herbs or a handful of fresh basil, oregano, parsley finely chopped

1/2 cup panko

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

You can also add some grated parmesan if you would like some more flavor.

Gently combine all ingredients and shape into golf ball sized meatballs.  Cook on the stovetop in a little bit of olive oil until browned on all sides.  Drain  some of the fat and remove meatballs from the dutch oven to a plate.

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 red wine

Cook the onion in the fat that remains in the dutch oven until translucent.  Add the red wine and reduce by almost half.

28 ounce can of good whole peeled tomatoes

14 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

3 garlic cloves minced

Salt, pepper dried or fresh herbs and sugar to taste.

Add the remaining ingredients to the onion/wine mixture adding only half of the paste at first.  Break up the whole  tomatoes with a potato masher.  As the spaghetti cooks down add more of the paste to your own preferences.  Add the meatballs back in.  Let this simmer ideally one hour (longer is good), but if you have less time, that is fine, too.  Serve over hot noodles and freshly grated parm.  I use my microplane to shred the cheese.

If you want more sauce than this you can also add another can of sauce or some more diced tomatoes.  If you want your sauce less chunky you can throw it in a blender and process.

**Note: if you want to make this more healthy use the lean ground beef and drain all of the fat and then use olive oil to saute the onions.  Use whole wheat noodles – or the Barilla Plus noodles which is a good compromise.  Also, instead of serving garlic bread serve with a veggie salad and toss with an olive oil based dressing.  If you can’t live without the bread, get a whole wheat baguette and dip in some extra virgin olive oil flavored with herbs***

We have also added red peppers or zucchini into the sauce for more flavor.  Mix it up to your own taste and enjoy!

 

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