Vegetable Chicken Salad

I have been very absent for a while now and I apologize. Between the yoga studio and kids and sports I am hardly cooking! Oh and the fact that we got the Big Green Egg and now my hubby is making all kinds of yummies for us! I will get back on it this winter for sure!

Anyhow this is totally a stolen recipe, from Trader Joes, I was in there a couple weeks ago and they were sampling this and it was way too good and easy not share!

Ingredients:
1/2 package or 2 cups of Trader Joe's Healthy 8 Veggie Mix
2 cups chicken breast, diced very small
1/3 cup mayo (I use the real thing...it's just so much better)
Siracha Hot Sauce, to taste

Directions:
Mix all together and serve! Wow that was hard right???
It is so good!!!

*If you don't have a Trader Joe's near you, you can cut up the veggies your self it includes, red cabbage, green cabbage, jicama, broccoli,green bell pepper, radish, carrots and celery.

 

WW Friends: This dish serves 6 and each serving has 4 points! It is so crunchy and delicious!

Asian Sesame Chicken Salad

This a a great dinner or lunch salad. I made it a few weeks ago and it was too good not to share. Nothing crazy out of the ordinary just really good! I use the dressing from Trader Joe's and usually mix it with a little soy sauce because it's a little too sweet for me. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 cups romaine, chopped
4 cups cole slaw mix
1 cup edamame
1 cup sliced red bell pepper
1 cup sliced cucumbers
1/4 of red onion, sliced
1 lb grilled chicken breast
Asian Style Vinaigrette (amount to taste)
1/4 cup crunchy Chinese noodles

Directions:

Marinate the chicken in a bag with the Asian Vinaigrette for at least 30 minutes but could be as long as 8 hours. I use one from Trader Joe's that I like. Arrange the lettuce and vegetables in a large salad bowl, lettuce, cabbage, bell pepper, edamame, cucumbers  and top with onion slices. Grill or saute the chicken then slice and add to the top of the salad. Toss with 4 tablespoons of dressing then top with crunchy Chinese noodles.

Weight Watcher Friends: This salad serves 4 and has 5 Points Plus before you add the dressing. 

This Week's Menu

Finally the original intent of this blog comes to fruition! When I first started this blog the point was to share my weekly menus with those who wanted some healthy recipe ideas to feed their family for the week. I am a total planner! I find that when I plan ahead for the week I am more successful in so many ways. I spend less money at the grocery store, because I know exactly what I need and what I'm going to make each night so I don't make multiple trips to the store during the week. I eat healthier because I plan healthy meals and I can plan my day and even lunches because I know what I'm going to make each night. I look at my calendar and plan accordingly, for example this week my son is in a basketball tournament on Monday and Thursday  my daughter also has dance on Monday and I teach a 4pm yoga class, there is no way I am going to be able to make a healthy dinner that night if I don't plan ahead! I had to make meals that I can make ahead of time or in the crock pot because I am not going to have much time for prepping.

I typically get the paper on Sunday mornings and while having breakfast and coffee with my family on I ask for everyone's input on what they want for dinner during the week I plan my menu and my big Sunday grocery shop. This also helps during meals times when my kids try to complain about what we are having I can remind them that they each made suggestions on Sunday so to zip their mouths up if they have something negative to say. Ha!

Now that I am working and have less time to plan and prepare meals I am feeling grateful  that I have so many recipes on this blog to pull from. This morning my daughter and I went through recipes on my blog and picked out what we wanted to eat this week.

Today I am heading to the store. I am going to buy all the ingredients we need for the week! Fingers crossed that I get it all. I am leaving my kids home with my hubby so I can focus when I am there!

Weekly Menu (Just click on the meal name and it will take you to the recipe link)

Sunday: Brunswick Stew

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, we are still depressed since the Falcons didn't make it so we aren't planning anything big for tonight, just a bowl of sweet southern comfort to ease our pain.

Monday: BBQ Pork in the Crock Pot

We will have these sliders with left over Brunswick stew and I will whip up some quick slaw!

Tuesday: Skillet Lasagna

We have swim lessons at 4:50pm on Tuesdays so I need something quick this busy weeknight! This is so easy, lasagna in 30 minutes...sign me up!! Sever with a quick salad for the perfect meal!

Wednesday: Sweet and Sour Pork

This is a total family favorite. I usually serve this with edamame in the shells my kids love those!

Thursday: Mediterranean Chicken 

This is one of my favorite dinners ever! Can't wait for Thursday night!

Enjoy and have a great week!
Cheers!

Brunswick Stew

Oh my my...I have been a bad bad blogger! One problem is not enough daylight to take pictures of food! Half the stuff I make I haven't been photographing because I refuse to use a flash! I have probably 10 recipes to upload but have been completely slammed with the holidays and one other very important thing in my life right now, opening a yoga studio with my mom!
We are opening a yoga studio down the road from where we live and we have been working non-stop! Check out our website at http://www.breatheyogaatlanta.com/ and if you like us on Facebook then you get a free class... https://www.facebook.com/BreatheYogaAtlanta We haven't officially opened yet but have done a couple donation classes and raised money for some great causes. We will open in January.

I have made lots of things and have a really yummy lemon chicken that I made the other night but tonight I am going to post a family favorite and a fool-proof way to make Brunswick stew. It is easy as pie and out of this world delicious! It's my mom's recipe and it is always amazing but for some reason it always intimidated me. Now that I made it I have no idea why it is really a dream it's so easy. I didn't take any pictures in the beginning and and just took one of the final product when I realized it was way to good not to share!

So here goes.

Ingredients:

2 large onions, chopped

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 lb lean ground beef, browned 

3 cans cream corn

1 cup corn (fresh or frozen)

1 28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes

1 cup Lima beans

1/2 cup ketchup

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce

2 T butter cut up

2 T cider vinegar

2 T Mustard

salt and pepper to taste

hot pepper sauce to taste

Directions:
Place onion in a large slow cooker, place chicken over onion.  Add all other ingredients, EXCEPT the browned ground beef. Cook covered at HIGH 6 hours.  Remove chicken and shred, return to stew.  If desired, cook and brown 1 pound ground beef, add to stew. It is even better the next day!

Weight Watcher Friends:
Each cup has 5 points. Recipe makes 12-13 cups.So hearty and delicious!!!!

Honey-Beer Chicken

I am very lucky to always have a supply of good beer! When I say good, I really mean it in every sense of the word. My husband makes it so I know where all the ingredients come from and that always makes me a little happier but it doesn't hurt that he actually makes GREAT beer, he recently entered some of his brews in a competition of over 500 local home brewers, he came in 3rd place so I feel pretty confident saying that his beer is good, great and fantastic! When I found this recipe in my Cooking Light magazine I knew I had to try it.

Ingredients:
2 t canola oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 shallots, sliced
1/2 cup good beer (I used a rye ale of my husband's but a pale or IPA or would be great too)
2 T soy sauce
1 T whole grain Dijon mustard
1 T honey
2 T chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper (to season the chicken)

Directions:
Heat a skillet on high heat and add the oil. Add the oil to the pan and turn the pan so it coats the bottom. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to the pan and saute for 3-4 minutes per side or until the chicken is done. Remove from pan. Add shallots to the pan, cook until wilted, add beer, soy sauce, mustard and honey and whisk in the pan, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for about 3 minutes. Pour sauce over chicken and serve. I served this with quinoa and fresh beets with goat cheese. It was a great dinner, my kids were pouring the honey beer sauce all over their quinoa like it was gravy!

Season the chicken.

Slice Shallots and parsley

Set the chicken aside while you make the sauce

This is just after I added the beer

After the sauce cooks, it's dark brown and yummy!

Weight Watcher Friends: Each chicken breast has 4 points.

Source: Cooking Light Magazine

Greek Chicken Pasta Toss

We were out of town last week and I am heading to New York this weekend for a girls trip of eating at great restaurants and lots of shopping, with my mom, aunt and cousins. So I don't have much in the fridge this week. I was trying to not make a trip to the store and just use what I had on hand. So all day I was staring at these two red bell peppers and some bacon in my fridge thinking 'what the heck am I going to make for dinner?' Around 5pm when I was getting pretty hungry, this somehow all came together...and we ate every bit of it. But about half way through I had a feeling this was going to turn out just fine, so I grabbed my camera. I was feeling so proud that I used things I had in the pantry and freezer to pull off something healthy and delicious. Funny thing is at that momemnt my husband came to the table took one look at the dinner and said, "what is that?" I said,  "ummmm, Greek Chicken Pasta Toss" (completely making that up) he made a weird face like he wasn't too sure, then he looked at me and said "you know I don't like olives." So I said (in my OMG-is-this-guy-for-real-after-all-I-did-today-and-created-this-dinner-out-of-thin-air tone) "then don't eat!" About half way through dinner he looked at me and said, "wow, this is really good!" And I felt some serious satisfaction, for a job well done! Both of my kids loved it and ended up eat the rest of the olives in the can, stuffing them each with feta cheese, YUM!

Ingredients:
1 large onion, sliced
1 large red bell pepper, sliced
4 strips bacon, chopped
2 chicken thighs, diced
3 T Greek Dressing
1/2 cup chicken stock
10-12 Olives
1/4 cup feta cheese
3 cups cooked whole grain pasta
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat a non-stick skillet to medium high. Add bacon and cook until done, remove bacon from the pan and place on a paper towel to drain. Add the diced chicken thighs to the pan, there should be just enough bacon grease to cook the chicken without it sticking to the pan and it will add flavor to the meal. Cook for 4-5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from pan and cover. Add the the onions and red bell peppers and saute for 2-3 minutes. Then turn the heat to high and add the chicken stock, bringing to a quick boil and scraping the bits of chicken and bacon from the bottom of the pan. After about a minute add the 3 T of Greek dressing stirring constantly to combine with the stock. At this point you may need to add a bit more stock just a tablespoon at a time to get to your desired consistency and flavor.  Finally add the pasta to the serving dish then add the onion, pepper, sauce, top with chicken, bacon, olives and feta. Toss together and serve.

Saute the onions and peppers quickly, it's better if they are still a bit crisp

I love this dressing from Trader Joes

This is how the sauce should look, a light and delicious

I used Rotini but you could use whatever you have in your pantry

Pour the veggies and sauce on top of the pasta

Top with bacon and chicken

Then add the feta and olives and toss together!

Weight Watcher Friends: This dish serves 4 the points value for mine was 9 points per serving. Obviously this will depend on the Greek dressing you use. I used one from Trader Joes it added 4 points to the total dish so if you just use chicken stock and Greek seasoning then it would be 1 point less.

BBQ Chicken Salad

At my Publix there is always this cute little man cooking something up that my kids just have to try. A couple weeks ago he was making a BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad and it was great! He made it with breaded chicken tenders and lots of cheese and those fried onion things it was really good, but it wasn't a healthy salad! But I knew I could skinny it up, make it cleaner and healthier without losing any of the flavor. My kids never even noticed that mine didn't have the junkie ingredients that are full of additives, preservatives and artificial flavors. This was a great weeknight dinner for me, I prepped the salad and chicken while my son was at school, then just chopped the apple and added the chicken on top right when we were ready to eat.

 Ingredients:
3 heads of Romaine, cleaned and chopped
1 large Granny Smith Apple, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, sliced and quartered
2 ears of corn, kernels removed
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/4 cup BBQ Sauce plus 2 Tablespoons
1/4 cup light ranch
3 cups cooked chicken breasts, diced

Directions:
Toss the diced chicken breast with 2 T of the BBQ sauce and set aside.  Next, spread the lettuce in the bottom of a large serving dish. Then in rows spread the following ingredients cucumbers, corn, chicken, apple, tomatoes, red onion. Next mix the ranch and BBQ sauce together and serve on the side.

You could use a rotisserie but I just took some chicken breast, seasoned them with salt, pepper and paprika and sauteed them in a pan.

Then I diced them up and tossed them with my sauce.

Once the chicken was cooled I added it to the salad.

Don't cut the apple until right before you are ready to serve!

Tips: I layered mine in a large Tupperware dish so I could save the salad and eat it all week. I pulled out part of it and tossed it in a separate bowl with the dressing for my family so the dressing wouldn't wilt the lettuce. If you want, add some lemon juice to the apple before you throw it on your salad to keep it from browning in the leftovers part.
Weight Watcher Friends: The salad without dressing has 4 points for 2 cups. The points of the dressing you use will depend on your BBQ sauce and Ranch. I make my own BBQ sauce and use Naturally Fresh light ranch. I need to post my homemade BBQ sauce recipe just need to take some pictures the next time I make it!

Honey Cashew Chicken

For my birthday last year my sister-in-law gave me subscriptions for Cooking Light and Rachel Ray. Both have been great! I love getting good ideas from them, testing things out and tweaking the recipes.When the June issue of Cooking Light came I was super excited because there were several recipes that looked great, I kept going back to this one several times to put it on my weekly menu but finally made it this week and it was delicious.  My husband complained because he doesn't like cashews, he whined a bit but then ate two plate fulls so I guess he got over it, my kids ate it up and were hunting for the cashews and were both clean-pate-clubbers. Hope you and your family enjoy this one too!

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced thin then in strips
1/2 t salt
fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 T canola oil
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup shelled edamame
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 onion, sliced (I used a red one but it doesn't matter)
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/3 cup unsalted cashews
1 T rice vinegar
2 T honey
2 T soy sauce (I use Tamari, gluten free)
Sriacha (hot chile sauce) to taste

Directions:
Heat wok over medium-high heat, add the oil, season chicken with salt and pepper then add to the wok. Cook on high until chicken pieces are browned and cook through. While that is cooking whisk together the rice vinegar, honey and soy (if you don't have kids and like a little spice go ahead and add some Sriacha about 1t-1T be careful it is really hot). Remove chicken cover with foil then add to the wok the broccoli, onion, garlic and bell pepper. Stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes then add the edamame, cook for 1 minute then add the chicken back in along with the cashews. Pour the sauce over the top and toss a few times to combine. Serve over rice or just eat it alone, delish!

I usually slice my veggies for my meals early in the day when my kids are having 'down time'

These are what you need for your sauce, whisk until the honey is no longer sticky

Slice the chicken thin, then in small pieces

Stir-fry the veggies

Then add back in the chicken and the sauce.

Weight Watcher Friends: This dinner is healthy, colorful and delicious you won't feel at all like you are 'cutting back' when eating this one. If you divide this into 4 servings each serving is 7 points. It is a lot of food, I served mine over 1/2 cup of rice and it was a 10 point dinner.
Source: Cooking Light June Magazine

Mexican Chicken Soup - Crock Pot

My kids have started swim team which means for the next month I will leave my house at 4:45 and not get back until 6:15. In order to get the kids bathed and fed I have to be quick so I am planning to use the corck pot a lot (even though I usually hate it-I love it for it's ease of use I just think evverything I make in the crock pot is mushy!) However my girlfriend Catey makes her Chicken Tortilla Soup like this so I wanted to try it! It was great and not mushy at all! I called this Mexican Chicken Soup because I already posted my recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup here.  This is more like a stew, it was great, so thanks Catey!!

I have a great recipe to post for Cinco de Mayo but I hurt my back so haven't made it yet...I hope to feel better tomorrow so I can get it posted for your celebrations!

Ingredients:
1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can beans (whatever you like)
1 cup corn
1 cup fresh salsa
32oz chicken stock
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch cilantro

Optional toppings:
Avacado
Lime
Cheese
Tortialla chips

Directions:
I put the chicken in my crock pot still frozen and litterally dumped the rest of the ingredients on top leaving the cilantro in a small bunch on top so I could remove it after cooking. Turn the crock pot on low and cook for 6-8 hours. After it is done cooking, remove the cilantro and toss it then shred the chicken and serve. Could that get any easier??? Nope I don't think so!

This is right before I put the lid on and cooked it all day.

Dished out and ready to eat! I topped mine with fresh cilantro and 2 slices of avacado

Weight Watcher Friends: This makes 6 servings. Each serving is 1.5 cups and has 5 point each. Enjoy!