Chicken and Spring Salad Delight

Happy Friday to Everyone! Who doesn't like a good Friday??

Last night we had delicious and light chicken with a colourful salad and asparagus.

You may have noticed that I tend to eat my main protein with vegetables and no carb. That's because our bodies can't digest complete protein and carbohydrates at the same time, so for ease of digestion I tend to eat my vegetables for with protein for dinner and eat the carbs another time! There's no rule saying you can't eat carbs at all, that's simply crazy speak! Its all about giving your body what it wants, needs, and can break down. There's no sense in having steak and potatoes if its just going to make things "difficult" the next day!

You may have also noticed that the "Boys addition" is often a carb. That's because no matter how healthy or reasonable it may be, try telling a hungry working man he doesn't get any potatoes with dinner. It doesn't work. Just make some potatoes or rice on the side. There's no rule saying you have to eat everything you cook!

What you need:
Chicken breast x3 Halved
Romaine Lettuce
Yellow pepper
Cucumber
Apples
Grapes
Asparagus
Potatoes
Olive oil
Diced Garlic (lots, we love garlic and put it on the chicken, the potatoes, and the asparagus! while you're chopping for the potatoes you might as well chop enough for the rest too (think 3x)
Spices (I have a no salt seasoned herb medley that I love to use for just about anything and I used Italian seasoning for the potatoes but pick and choose how you please! Some day (soon!) I will have my own fresh herbs and we'll practising using those instead)

Preheat to 400
Put the potatoes in first, they'll take the longest. Chop them up to desired size (the bigger they are the longer they're going to take) Mix about a tablespoon of olive oil with your desired spices and lots of chopped garlic, throw the potatoes in the bowl and toss to coat. Lay evenly on a baking sheet and throw them in the oven.

If your potatoes are bigger you're going to want to take a ten minute here. I like to use cooking breaks to clean up some dishes. Even if there's only 8, if you wash them, they're done.

Next lay your chicken out on a baking pan (on parchment paper if you're like me and hate greasy pans) Sprinkle herb medley and garlic on all breasts, flip them over and repeat. Turn the oven down o 350 (400 is good for starting the crisp on the potatoes but it will be too hot for nice chicken) and Bake for about 30 minutes or until meat is not pink and juices run clear.

While you're waiting for the chicken, start up your salad. We had leftover romaine and cucumber and yellow pepper and decided apples and grapes would be a nice touch to that. You can pick choose mix and match whatever your heart desires. Lots of people like berries (think blueberries, raspberries, strawberries) or for something fresh and different, try peaches or apricots! In my salad making experience, I have discovered that most things slide on into a salad together just fine, even if you think its weird!  Experiment with flavours, complementing or contrasting.

When you're done, put the salad in the fridge. I mixed everything except the apples which I cut up and put in a container with water so they wouldn't brown while we waited for chicken.

Finally, with about 10 minutes to go in the chicken, put your asparagus in a pan with about 1/2 cup of water and diced garlic. Cook covered with lid until desired tenderness. Take the lid of and continue to cook until the water is evaporated.

Take the chicken and potatoes out of the oven and the salad out of the fridge.

There you have it!

We have a meal fit for a working man

And a meal fit for a girl who wants to fit a bikini!

Just a note. You may have noticed that the apples are missing from these pictures! I made it all pretty and we sat down to eat and then I jumped up because I remembered that the apples were still in the container in the fridge!! Luckily, I remember in time and only the pictures are missing the apples, the final product did manage to have them in there.

As you can see, roasted potatoes were the "boys addition"

On my salad I used a red wine balsamic dressing (eating right only 10 calories a tbsp) and the boyfriend enjoyed a mango chipoltle sauce on his salad.

Final verdict: I thought my salad was delicious! (but then I would, wouldn't I)

Bofriend Rating says everything was good but he likes BBQ chicken better. I tend to agree I think. Lesson learned! Baked chicken is good but not as good as grilled! Its Spring time so now is the time to be utilising our BBQ anyways!

Also, make more then two potatoes! I only had two left so he got what he got but he definitely said he could have eaten like 3x as many!

But overall, delicious and healthy. Lots of vegetables in this one!

Until next time we eat Healthilicioulee!

Baked Falafels and Homemade Tzadaki

First of all, welcome to my blog! As you probably read in the "about me" section, this blog is all about delicious healthy eating! Who says that to be healthy you have to eat boring and unsatisfying food? Not this girl!! There is far too much life to enjoy to always eat plain salads and oatmeal and what not. Spice it up a little. Boyfriends don't like it very much when you try to feed them tofu everyday. But there are lots of delicious healthy things that you can whip up in your kitchen that will have him going "Mmmmm" and you doing a little victory dance because he thought it was delicious and you thought "Woohoo summer beach body here I come!" Best of both worlds, right?

And for all you boys out there; I will add a "Boys Addition" to each recipe.. Generally its what I make on the side (or chop up from leftovers) to complement the less satisfying meals (chick peas, tofu) so that my boyfriend doesn't look at me like I'm from another planet! He gets the added protein or carb (Because it's not like he's watching his waistline) and I still get to feel like I'm eating a healthy meal.

All right, enough talking for now. Lets get to it.

Last night, I made falafels and home made tzadiki. Falafels are traditionally deep fried (and spectacularily delicious) but for a healthier version (and because I don't even have a deep fryer anyways) we had baked falafels.

Here's what you're going to need:
For Falafels:
1 can of Chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup Cilantro, fresh, chopped
1/4 cup Onion, minced
2 cloves of Garlic (I use 3 or 4 but we're big garlic fans around here)
Spices (use what you've got.. things like coriander, parsley, maybe a little hot sauce!)
Olive oil
Pitas (Use whole wheat for the healthiest option)
Tomato
Lettuce (Romaine is the healthy pick here!)

For Tzadiki:
Yogurt, Plain (buy the greek stuff so you don't have to drain it; the more natural the better!)
Cucumber, seeded
Juice of one lemon
Dill


Make the Tzadiki first thing in the morning so the flavours have time to meld. You could even make it the day before if you're super way more prepared then me!

Start by seeding the cucumber. Simply slice it in half lenghtwise all the way down and grab a small spoon. Scoop the seeds out with the spoon starting at one endand following through all the way to the opposite end. The seeds will scoop on out. I tried it with a big spoon first and it was too wide. Small spoon it is!
Then grate your cucumber with a cheese grater. Cheese cloth or paper towel the grated cucumber until it is as dry as possible (the more water there is the runnier your tzadiki will be)

Then mix the one cucumber with approximately 1 cup of yogurt. Depending on your cucumber you may need a little more (my cucumber was abnormally large and I used about a cup and a half)
Pour lemon juice and about a teaspoon of dill (or to taste) and mix. Cover and store in refridgerator. (Trust me on this one. Tzadiki is one of those things that slowly gets better and better. Try it when you're done making it and then six hours later, you'll see what I mean!)

All right, now it's getting a little closer to dinner time. If you don't have a food processor, you're muscling it like I did. Now that I've done it once, I think I'll buy a food processor! They turned out good but I think the finished product would have been a little more complete if it had been mixed just a little better!

Preheat is to 350 degrees

You drained and rinsed your chick peas, minced your onion and garlic and cilantro. Now you're going to mash it all together to form almost a paste. Mmm. Chick pea paste!

Form the paste into balls and squish lightly. Place on pan, brush both sides of each falafel with olive oil. Bake 20 minutes each side. They will be lightly golden crisped when they're done.

Now you take your falafel, lay some tzadiki on it, some lettuce and tomato, four or five falafel balls and you roll it up. If you luck out and get sturdy pitas you can cut them in half and stuff them but I find as a general rule, the healthier the pita, the more it tends to fall apart so we roll them up like a wrap! I put a little piece of parchment paper on the plate first and wrap it around the pita so it holds it together. Then you can slowly rip the parchment paper off as you eat. No mess, no fuss, only delicious!

"Boys Addition"
We had falafels at a restaurant once and my boyfriend jokingly suggested that it would have been better with chicken. So last night I cut some chicken up and heated it right before the falafels were done. He made one falafel one chicken/falafel and one plain chicken pita. And he didn't complain about being hungry once! So for the boys, chop up some of their favourite meat to add to at least one pita. Then you can have them try your crazy healthy food and still have something satisfying to keep their tummy from grumbling too much!

Finished Product Note:
The falafels were indeed a teensy bit dry. This was solved by heaping the tzadiki (which was home made and therefore there was no guilt involved in the heaping) but I think next time I'll try to find a way to add a little moisture(maybe an egg?)

Experiment with the spice and herb combination! I'd love to grow herbs this summer to have fresh ones. I saw the neatest shoes organizer herb closet on Facebook the other day, it was quite nifty! If I end up giving that a go, I'll make sure to keep everyone posted.

Tonight.. well I'm not quite sure what the plan is yet! I imagine tomorrow you will find out!

Here is a picture of the finished product!
Happy Healthiliciouless Eating!