Chicken Penne with Sun-Dried Tomato & Fresh Red Pepper Sauce

What I'm about to tell you, might shock you...I LOVE PASTA!!!  In any form, with any cheese, I'm pretty much sold on most pasta dishes.  The biggest problem that I run into with pasta recipes, both at home, and when I dine out, is that no red sauce is EVER comparable to my father's sauce, so I rarely attempt to make, or order it for dinner.

What initially drew my attention to this dish was that the sauce was not a typical red sauce, and also that with my recent withdrawal from most dishes with chicken, I am forced to start looking for new ways to prepare this protein.  As with most people who eat clean, when you're limited to certain lean proteins, at some point you start to get bored with the way you habitually cook a particular protein.  I was reaching the point that I had about as much desire to eat chicken, as I did to lick a cardboard box.  Sooooo...time to switch it up.

This recipe started as a by-the-book dish, meaning I was't planning on altering it at all.  But, as I started to really prepare the dish, I realized that it was supposed to be served room temperature, the sauce wasn't hot, and the yellow pepper was tossed raw.  Ummm...NOPE!  I'm like a 90 year old woman. I need my food so hot that I can barely stand to eat it, and so I took this recipe from The Best of Clean Eating 3, and modified it to how I wanted it to be built.  AND...IT WAS AMAZING!!!

Ingredients:
- 2 5 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp low-sodium dry rub
- 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked whole-wheat penne
  (or other small whole-wheat pasta)
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
- 1 garlic clove finely diced
- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil



Red Pepper Sauce:
- 1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup unsalted raw cashews
- 1/4 cup whole fresh basil leaves
- 1 garlic clove
- fresh ground pepper to taste
- 3 oz. shredded Romano cheese, divided evenly

Instructions:
1. Preheat saute pan with chicken stock to medium-high.
2. Prep chicken breast with a thin coating of olive oil (1 tsp.), black pepper, and seasoning of choice.  Cook chicken in preheated pan for about 7 minutes per side, until juices run clear when pierced with a fork.  Set aside to cook for about 10 minutes, and then slice chicken.
3. Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to package directions.  Rinse in cold water to remove sticky starches; drain well and set aside.
4. Prepare Red Pepper Sauce: In a blender or food processor, add all sauce ingredients; blend until very smooth.
5. Dice yellow bell pepper, yellow onion, and garlic, and saute in a pan heated to medium-high with 1 tsp. of olive oil.  Saute vegetables for about 5 minutes.
6. Add chicken, pasta, and Red Pepper Sauce to the pan with vegetables, and toss until everything is heated through.
7.  Divide evenly, and top with 1.5 oz. of shredded Romano cheese, and garnish with freshly sliced basil.

The recipe directions claim that this serves 2, and that a 2-cup serving is 648 calories.  I'll be honest when I say that I actually split this into three servings because it was a little too high, calorie and carb wise, so it will largely depend on how big of a portion you want for your lunch or dinner.  Where some people really try to avoid pasta, I recommend this:  always make sure you know what one portion looks like, and try to eat your carb-heavy meals early in your day so that you have hours to burn those carbs off.

I also want to point out the importance of recognizing what your food preferences are when you're trying a new recipe, and learning how to modify the recipe so you can fully enjoy it when all of your hard work is done.  I know I don't like luke warm food.  I also know that I don't like raw vegetables in my hot pasta.  So, I changed the recipe.  Get creative, step outside of your comfort zone, know what you like and don't like, and learn to modify your recipes according to your nutritional desires.  If you're going to try something new, wouldn't you rather fully enjoy it, rather than go in knowing there are certain things you're not going to like right off the bat?  So, if you're reading through this recipe, and you decide there's something you want to change, go ahead a mix it up to suit your needs!  ENJOY!!!

<3 MARIA

What It Means to Eat Clean on a Menu Plan

The reality is, that even when we are clean eaters, we can still over eat in calories.  This is where I found myself a couple of weeks ago.  It's few and far between that I put a ton of crap in my body (minus out my rare visits to Ugly Omelete, where I absolutely must have their Peanut Butter Chip Pancakes), but the reality hit around last Wednesday when I just knew that I had been over eating.  I had been using my extreme workouts as an excuse to eat what ever portion of food that I desired, and so, I found myself making very little progress with my appearance, and great gains with my actual cardio.  TRAGIC!!!  To spend so much time kicking my own butt, and then to over eat so that I see no results on the outside from it.  Well, c'est la vie! It's over, it's in the past...

Monday I started a Les Mills Challenge Group with a group of girls, some who I currently working with, some who I knew from other restaurants.  Going back to a menu plan was indeed some work.  Just setting it up was a mini project, and then teaching others my process was also a learning experience.  The first week of the Eat Right for the Fight Nutrition Guide is a 7-Day Metabolic Jump-Start Program where women are suggested to eat around 1200 calories and men 1500.

1200 calories for me was like food prison.  With P90X I was eating about 1800-2100 calories a day, never mind that I had been over eating for the last week leading up to that Monday, so you can imagine how that caloric deficit made me feel!  But, I went through the meal plan, set up my meals for the week, and made my grocery list based off of that.  Little did I know, this was going to not only introduce me to some awesome new recipes, but it was going to finally catapult me out of the 'snack' rut that I had been in for months.

What follows is just a brief glimpse of what I ate during our 7-Day Metabolic Jump-Start Plan.  In the end, some meals near the end of the week ended up getting swapped around because I did not want anything to go past it's expiration date.

7-Day Metabolic Jump-Start Plan

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
BREAKFAST	Rainbow Scramble	Eggs with Smoked Turkey	Pro-Oatmeal	Broccoli and Feta Omelet	Rainbow Scramble	Eggs with Smoked Turkey	Pro-Oatmeal
SNACK 1	PB Toast and Cottage Cheese	Chocolate Green Tea Smoothie	Turkey and Cheese on Rice Cake	Chocolate Green Tea Smoothie	PB Toast and Cottage Cheese	Chocolate Green Tea Smoothie	Turkey and Cheese on Rice Cake
LUNCH	Avocado, Tempeh, and Almond Salad	Brown Rice Bowl	Burger and Salad	Greek Pita Sandwich	Avocado, Tempeh, and Almond Salad	Brown Rice Bowl	Burger and Salad
SNACK 2	Citrus Berry Smoothie	Turkey & Cheese of Rice Cake	Citrus Berry Smoothie	Mediterranean Eggs	Citrus Berry Smoothie	Roast Beef Sandwich	Citrus Berry Smoothie
DINNER	Southwestern Chicken Salad	Grilled Tuna over Mixed Greens	Spicy Tomato and Lentil Soup	Grilled Steak and Arugula Salad	Southwestern Chicken Salad	Grilled Tuna over Mixed Greens	Spicy Tomato and Lentil Soup
Calories	1207	1243	1207	1220	1207	1234	1207

Day 1

Proved to be pretty darn delicious.  Convenience definitely went out the window basically because I had to learn new recipes, prep, and remember how to measure ingredients and use correct portion sizes, but it definitely refreshed my memory on how I had been way over eating! 

Day 2

Again, the food was amazing.  I had never really used Shakeology with Greek Yogurt, and truth be told, I didn't love this recipe, but I like that it included the the metabolic boosters of yogurt and green tea, and for that, I'll make sacrifices on my usual recipe.  Also, my original scheduled snack wasn't Turkey and Cheese on Rice Cake with Raspberries, but I wasn't in the mood for what I had originally put on, so I substituted.  The Tuna salad for dinner was amazing, although I could find Tuna Steak in either of the two grocery stores near me, so I ended up having to use canned tuna.  Still, it was an amazing recipe!

Day 3

LUH-UV the Pro-Oatmeal, although I have to say I was a bit shocked to see just how little the portion size was for it.  I mean, I served it with egg whites and fruit, but still, it didn't even fill the 1 cup ramekin that I had it in, and that was just disappointing!  However, the burger was AMAZING, and the tomato and lentil soup was something I couldn't wait to have again.  

Day 4

This was probably one of my favorite days of meal plans.  I loved that I could have Feta Cheese, in fact I love all cheese, so any cheese is better than no cheese.  Also, I cannot believe how much I like the hard boiled egg whites with the hummus in place of the yolk.  It tasted so much like deviled eggs, that I'm pretty sure it tricked my brain into thinking it actually was deviled eggs.  I was bummed when I realized later in the day that I forgot to put Feta Cheese on my pita. It was still pretty delicious, but I was bummed nonetheless!  And steak on my salad, well, I am a red meat lover, so that was a nice little treat.

Day 5 repeated Day 1's meal plan, and Day 7 repeated Day 3's meal plan, so there were no big surprises there.  Day 6 did have a tiny bit of a change up in that I made the Roast Beef Sandwich (I wish I had done that earlier in the week, it was delicious), and the Grilled Tuna over Mixed Greens got a bit of a remix because of what we had left in the fridge.

Day 6

The Roast Beef Sandwich was amazing, and I ended up modifying the Tuna Salad again because I couldn't find tuna steak, and I put an over easy egg on the salad because I didn't have any hard boiled.  I also used the remainder of some canned tomatoes because I didn't have any fresh tomatoes, and I didn't want to waste what I had already opened.  

I do want to briefly touch on how I felt during this 7-Day Metabolic Jump-Start Plan because I think it's important for other people to realize that this journey is not easy, even for someone who has made the clean eating jump already, and knows how to organize and set up a menu plan, and shopping list.

The first couple days of this Challenge we extremely hard.  The workouts weren't nearly as intense as Asylum, which I had just finished, but the lack of calories really did a number on my energy levels.  I know that the second day at work was a real challenge, not only for myself, but for the other girls who were working that night as well.  We were all hungry, we were all tired, and we were all cranky.  When your body is used to a certain number of calories, and you introduce a new and different workout, you're going to see a reaction in how you function and how you sleep.  FACT.  I found that my Coaching really took place during these first few days when we were all getting in the swing of things, and were struggling to adjust our daily caloric intake.  

Just like my workouts, I approached this caloric deficit day-by-day, crossing off each day on my calendar.  Was I hungry the first couple of days?  ABSOLUTELY, but I trucked on until I was feeling amazing by day four.  I had adjusted to the calories that I was taking in, I was in a rhythm with my meal planning, and I was enjoying being introduced to new recipes.  I had totally fallen into a rut with my clean eating where I was eating the same snack all of the time, and preparing the same meals all of the time because I was getting lazy, and not paying attention to what my body needed.

Below you will find a video on how to transition from the 7-Day Metabolic Jump-Start Plan to the day-to-day menu planning for the remainder of the program.  So, if you're someone who is interested in the program, and is curious what the meal plans are like, or you're someone who's currently doing the program, and needs help moving forward, definitely check it out!

Stay tuned throughout the next couple months, as this journey continues for myself, and my Challenge Group girls.  Who knows, maybe I can get one of them to share their experience with changing over to a new clean eating lifestyle!

Until then, KEEP STRONG.  KEEP MOVING. And, KEEP PUSHING PLAY!!!

Maria

Summer Eatin'

It's Almost Too Simple to Post About

Leftover Summer Chicken Salad

I haven't posted in quite some time.  For myself, much like everyone else in New England, when summer comes, almost all my other responsibilities come to a screeching halt. I'm lucky enough to work a job that allows me afternoons to sit by the pool, or drop by the beach.  Sometimes I'm not sure how I make it day to day (total sarcasm).  

It's because of this that I rarely post, but it's also the fact that my meals seem to become extremely simplified in the summer.  I stop by the same Spring Brook Farm farm stand every ride home from my mother's pool, pick up my produce for the next few days, and head home to decide what I'm going to make.  Protein, vegetable, complex carb, and then most likely grill.  I'm not losing time in my kitchen, and everything tastes so simple and fresh.  I also get to use every little bit of produce in my fridge, and whatever protein I already have cooked.  I'm a simple girl in summer, no frills, just fresh food and grills.

Chicken Salad

4 oz. chicken, grilled or broiled, sliced

1/2 Cucumber, peeled and quartered

1/2 Tomato, diced

1/2 Yellow pepper, diced

2 C. lettuce or spinach or green of your choice

1 tsp. Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste 

Now, here's where it gets really complicated.  Put it on a plate.  

Yup, that's why most of the time it's just hard for me to blog about food in the summer.  Why go and mess a good thing up.  The most complicated this can get is marinating or boiling the chicken with some salt, pepper, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and chicken stock.  Why not just enjoy the amazing food that is summer produce???

Lemon Chicken Soup with Spaghetti

I like spaghetti.  I will not stop eating spaghetti.  These are facts.  I suggest that you look at the facts of food in your life.  Maintaining a healthy life, and lifestyle should be about balance, and knowing where certain foods stand in your eating habits.  Like anything else, pasta is not bad for you, depending on the type that you buy, and the quantity that you eat it in.  I can honestly say that as a child, it seemed abnormal not to eat at least half of a box of pasta to my face.  And I wonder how I ended up overweight!!!


This recipe intrigued me because I love chicken noodle soup, and the citrus made it sound so light and refreshing.  Likewise, the small amount of pasta in the dish (remember, this is compared to the half of a box I would eat in one sitting), seemed like a great way to get the taste and texture of my pasta craving, but not in over abundance.  I know you'll all be shocked to find out that I found this recipe on Food Network while watching Giada at Home, and it only took about two days to experiment with it in the kitchen.


Ingredients:

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 (2-inch) piece Parmesan cheese rind, optional
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 cup (about 2 1/2 ounces) spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces
• 2 cups diced cooked rotisserie chicken, preferably breast meat
• 1 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• Kosher salt

In a large stockpot, bring the chicken broth, lemon juice, bay leaf, and Parmesan rind, if using, to a boil over medium-high heat.

Add the carrots and simmer until tender, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the broken pasta and cook until the pasta is tender, for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken and heat through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the Parmesan rind and discard. Stir in 1/2 of the cheese and the parsley. Season with salt, to taste. Ladle the soup into serving bowls and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

When choosing your pasta, read carefully.  You'll most likely find your best choices in the health food isle of your grocery store.  As much as Barilla pasta seems like a good choice because it's boasting "whole wheat grains" and "enriched" with something or other they're trying to sell the healthy shopper with, it's usually not much better than picking up a regular box of 99 cent store brand crap the next shelf over.  The pasta you choose should contain ingredients like: kamut, buckwheat, whole grains etc.  I spent about 10 minutes holding two different brands of pasta, reading ingredients and checking out nutritional facts.  Find the brand that fits the best into your diet.  Also, be aware that pasta will go bad if you only use part of the box and leave the remainder sitting in your cabinet,  especially the kind with all natural ingredients. If you don't have a pasta container that is air tight, I suggest cooking the remainder of the box, and freezing it until you need it for another recipe.  

In regards to the chicken in this recipe, I had roasted a chicken earlier in the day, and therefore had no problem with finding, or including fresh cooked chicken in the recipe.  If it's easier for you, I don't see why you couldn't add two chicken breasts in place of rotisserie chicken.  Although most grocery stores do have a section where they offer a "fresh cooked rotisserie chicken", be aware, that many of them use sugars in their rubs and marinades.  Only you can decide exactly how much control you want to have over the ingredients in your dishes.  

Spinach, Mushroom & Chicken Sausage Frittata

It's pretty evident that in order to eat healthy on a regular basis, it helps to have meals that are already made and ready to go in the fridge.  I find this especially helpful for my husband because he works mornings, and doesn't always have time to make a breakfast before he heads out of the house.  I don't know why it took me so long to give this recipe a try, but it was definitely great to have something already made, and that could be portioned away for when one of us needed a quick breakfast in the morning.  And, for the love, if I'm not using my cake pans for cake, then I'll use them for my eggs!

Ingredients:
3 c. Baby spinach
1 c. Mushrooms, your choice, diced
2 Chicken sausage links, your flavor choice
8 Eggs, scrambled
4 oz Reduced-fat goat cheese, or cheese of your choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a saute pan heated on medium, sprayed with non-stick spray, saute mushrooms for about 5 minutes, or until soft, and add the spinach and cook until wilted.  Remove from pan.  

Slice the chicken sausage (I like to remove the casing because I find it to be a little bit chewy), re-spray the pan, and saute the sausage until browned (most chicken sausage is already cooked, but I like the flavor of a re-heated link).  Remove from pan and let cool about five minutes.

Spray the 9 in. pie pan with non-stick spray, and then lay the sliced chicken sausage on the bottom of the pan, covering the entire pan.  On top, spread out the mushroom and spinach mixture.  Take the scrambled eggs and pour them over the chicken sausage, mushroom, and spinach mixture. Top the mixture with crumbled goat cheese.  (You'll notice here that one side varies from the other.  This is because my husband doesn't like goat cheese, so I did one side with goat cheese, and the other with non-fat mozzarella.)

Place the pie pan in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and eggs are firmly set.  Let cool for about 5 minutes and serve immediately, or cut into 8 wedges and portion them away for later use.

I liked to pair this breakfast with 1/2 an English muffin or a piece of fruit.  By itself, the frittata wedge can be a little bit light, so eating something else filled me up a little bit more.  Remember, the frittata's greatness lies in the fact that it can be a vehicle for almost any protein and vegetable.  Take whatever you have in your fridge, throw some scrambled eggs over it, and bake away.  You'll find that this can be an extremely versatile dish, and great for left-overs.   

Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Vegetables

Sounds super boring right?  Chicken.  Potatoes.  Vegetables.  How does one celebrate this meal?  Well, for starters, the herbs, onion and lemon that you stick in the chicken make it so moist and flavorful, that it won't taste like the precooked roasted chicken you pick up at your grocery store, that you and I both know has been sitting under that heating lamp for a solid two hours.  Seriously.

Another one of my Food Network favs is "The Best Thing I Ever Made: (Insert whatever food they choose for this particular episode)".  This one was obviously chicken, and I personally have always been a bit intimidated by roasting my own chicken because I'm always afraid I'm either going to under cook it, or over cook it.  But, I am trying to take new steps this year, and so I jumped in head first, bought the chicken and took the advice of my Chef de Cuisine about temperature.  I suggest you use a meat thermometer, and you won't ever have to worry about over, or under cooking your chicken again.  What drew me to this recipe, was the use of shallots, and the way Marc Murphy sautes the endive with the chicken liquid.  It just sounded so homey and flavorful.  

Truth be told, the Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Vegetables was super easy, and super delicious.  The only thing that I did differently was place a bit of the chicken liquid in a pan and sauteed the endive separately, rather than keep it in the roasting pan.  I did this because I use stoneware, and I didn't want to put that on my stove burners.  But let me tell you, the flavors you get in this recipe will blow your mom's roasted chicken out of the water, and the best part is, you can use your chicken carcass to make your own chicken stock in a crock pot, where you can just leave it in the pot, and walk away for 12 hours.  Imagine the dinner possibilities with your own stock?  Amazing!

 Chicken and Summer Vegetable Cacciatore with Polenta

I absolutely love this dish.  The recipe that I followed to make this suggested you pan sear the chicken and saute the vegetables, which I'm sure would taste fantastic.  I, however, had the Weber fired up for some reason or another (when you cook with charcoal, you tend to cook three meals at once to take advantage of the grill being lit), and decided that I was going to grill the chicken and the vegetables.  I cannot stress enough, how happy I am that I decided to take this approach instead of sauteing.  The flavor that you get out of the vegetables is amazing, and I don't think you can go wrong with any grilled protein.

This was another recipe from The Best of Clean Eating, a book I would highly recommend.  Regardless of how frustrating I find the layout of the actual book, the recipes are always amazing.  

I pre-marinade my 1 lb. of thinly sliced chicken in a large plastic zip-lock bag with salt, pepper, chopped fresh oregano, and chopped fresh basil, 2 tbsp. of olive oil, and tbsp. of water. Mush it around in the bag to ensure even coverage, and put in the fridge for at least 30 min.  Slice into 1/2 in. slices: 1small zucchini, 1small yellow squash, 1 red bell pepper, 1 orange bell pepper, and two tomatoes which have been cored. Grill the vegetables on medium heat until soft and slightly charred.  Grill your chicken until cooked through.  

Polenta, or boiled cornmeal, can be served many different ways including grilled, soft or baked.  I bring 1 c. of low-sodium chicken broth to a boil, add 1/2 c. of polenta, mix until it's absorbed, and then remove it from heat, add salt and pepper, and sometimes, I add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  If served directly from the pan, the polenta will be nice a smooth and creamy texture, almost like a cream of wheat.  You'll notice in my picture, however, that the polenta is firm and holds shape.  This will occur when you put polenta in a pan, and cool it down in your refrigerator.  I usually cook the meal, put it directly into tupperware and then cut it when I'm taking a portion for a meal.  Either way, I enjoy both textures, and you can decide yourself how you would prefer the dish.    

I can't wait for summer, and all the farm stands to open so that I can pick up all my veggies farm-fresh and grill this dish up! 

Chicken Sausage Spinach Mushroom Grilled Pizza

A couple of years ago, when my husband and I tried to make the change into clean food, and a healthier lifestyle, he would constantly say that there were some things that he could just not let go of.  Greasy, gross, disgusting Greek pizza was one of those things he craved.  Where I'm an admitted sugar-whore, my husband is a greasy food lover.  It wasn't until I introduced this pizza into our dinner rotation,  that my husband openly stated that this pizza, was much better than any pizza you could get at a pizza shop, and this only two months after we had a full blown conversation about how there is no substitute for the nasty pizza you get at your local Main Street pizza pub.  Celebration!

The recipe itself was inspired by the Spinach and Chicken Sausage Pizza in The Best of Clean Eating, but took on a whole new life when we were watching a Grill It episode with Bobby Flay.  Grilling pizza dough?  Yup, that's what we're talking about here.  

I had tried making my own clean pizza dough at one point, which was very good, but found that my local grocer had a multi-grain pizza dough, already defrosted and ready to go, that was healthier, and easier, and so, I shaved some time of my prep and went in this direction.  

Grilling the pizza, again came out of necessity.  Our oven had given up on us, and in order to prep all our food for a couple days before we received our new one, I decided this was a food adventure I wanted to jump into.  I formed the dough, and brushed one side with a thin layer of Canola oil.  I placed that side down on a preheated grill grate and let it cook until browned.  In the meantime, I brushed the other side with Canola oil, and flipped when it was ready.  

I then topped the pizza with one can of organic diced tomatoes, drained, and over this put sauteed mushrooms onion and spinach.  I then placed on two sliced, grilled chicken sausages, and topped it all with part-skim mozzarella cheese that was grated.  Throw the lid back on your grill, and let everything get nice and warm and gooey, and you're good to go!

If you want to cook the pizza in your oven, you can always do that as well.  Just follow whatever instructions are on your pizza dough, and top your dough when raw, and then cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  Not quite as tasty and delicious, but still pretty freaking yummy!

I think what I love most about this recipe is the idea that you have all sorts of Superfoods on here.  Spinach, tomatoes, grains, chicken...who knew pizza could fall under the Superfood category???  Just don't go eating half the pizza in one sitting.  This would completely eliminate the meal as a healthy alternative.  

White Bean and Chicken Chili

This recipe was initially introduced to me by one of my besties, who is also an amazing cook, and who also loves the food network.  It was so great to find a different chili recipe than the Three Bean red chili that I had been making, although that remains my husband's favorite, and as soon as the weather changes to cool, it is the first  thing that he asks for in his meal rotation.  

I love Giada De Laurentiis despite her annoyingly perfect life, and her constant need to whisper, "There we go" whenever she adds an ingredient or mixes something.  Whether it's her Italian heritage, or her recipes that can be cleaned up and modified, I DVR every episode, and throw it on in the background whenever I'm doing tasks around the house.  So, imagine my excitement when I found out that this was one of her recipes!  

White Bean and Chicken Chili

The only ingredients that I changed was the AP flour to Whole Wheat flour, and instead of Swiss chard, I added kale (upon trying the one at my friends, I didn't want to change her recipe because it tasted so yummy).  

I also made a half batch of this recipe, thinking that 2lbs. of chicken was a bit absurd, but in retrospect, I wish I had just made the full batch because I would have like to have more for left-overs. 

Expand your chili horizons and try a new type of chili today!

The Better Monte Cristo with Kale Chips 

Once upon a time, my relationship with kale went no further than a steakhouse restaurant, where it was beaten into our heads "NO KALE, NO SALE!"  In this atmosphere, kale was used as a garnish; a pretty green flower-looking plant that decorated the plate full of bacon, butter, and steak.  Well, imagine my shock and surprise when I learned that people actually ate kale!  

I'm the first to admit, that with many greens, I'm not such a huge fan, primarily because the not so popular ones: kale, Swiss chard, endive and such, were not introduced to us in our household, and therefore I had no idea that they even existed, never mind that they could be eaten as a side.  However, the fact is, these yummy greens have nothing but great vitamins and nutrients to offer us, and so, they have made their way into my household in many different varieties.

The Better Monte Cristo Sandwich was a no-brainer.  I like turkey or chicken, Dijon mustard, spinach, pear and low-fat Swiss cheese and I definitely like it more when it's been dipped in egg and milk and then pan-fried.  So, when I saw it in The Best of Clean Eating, I thought, "Yes, please!"

Again, I use Food For Life 7 Sprouted Grains Bread, place spinach on the bottom slice, place thinly sliced pear on top of the spinach, place thinly sliced turkey or chicken, top it with Swiss cheese, spread some Dijon mustard on the top slice, close that puppy on up and dip it in an egg white and milk mixture (I use WestSoy Unsweetened Milk) with some cayenne pepper.  Spray your pan with some non-stick spray, heat at medium, and cook on both sides. 

When it comes to the protein in the sandwich, I've done this with grilled meat because I buy the large packages of the already sliced chicken, and cook it all at once.  It's not necessary, but I will say that it adds a large amount of flavor.  Use whatever meat you want, but grilled meat = yummy meat!

So I guess the main problem with just the sandwich, is that who wants a delish sandwich with no chips?  And as much as I love baked pita chips, and all the other options there are out there for those similar products, they are not vegetables, and they are usually filled with a carb load that is unnecessary when you're already eating a sandwich.  And so, the research of the kale chip was born.

Important note.  When you wash your kale, do it hours before you plan on baking them.  If they are at all wet when you oil them, you will end up with a chip that is chewy and kind of gross.  When clean, pull out the inner rib and rip into bite size pieces. Once they are dry, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In a LARGE bowl (and capitalize this because one bunch of kale is going to produce more chips than you think you can handle) mix together two tablespoons of Olive Oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Throw in your kale, toss it around to make sure all the leaves are coated, and lay them out in a single layer on a LARGE baking sheet.  Cook for about 15 minutes, but as you get nearer to the finish time, check on them, because they can go from really delicious chips to ashes in your mouth within a two minute span. You'll know they're about done when you see them browning around the edges.  And, the really great part is that you can use whatever seasoning you want.  Get creative and have fun.  

Isn't it great that your sandwich sidekick is also a Superfood sidekick?  I'd say so!