Sun-Dried Tomato and Feta Chicken Roll Ups

Well I am home from a very fabulous weekend with my girlfriends scrapbooking! We go on this trip annually and it is where we get the bulk of our scrapbooking done for the year. I completed 50 pages! Together we finished 218 pages and we are pretty proud of ourselves. We also eat way too much on this trip. They make it easy for us by providing such delicious meals and snacks. The problem is we are too sedentary to really need that much food and there is a small issue with a lack of vegetables for me. (I forgot my V8 this year.) Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining in the least. I loved the Saturday morning breakfast of oatmeal and yogurt with all kinds of fruit toppings and brunch yesterday was a delicious egg bake. We also had sandwiches on homemade bread, taco salad, and chicken cordon blue. The highlight of the trip comes Saturday afternoon when they do the cheesecake parade. That is right, a parade for cheesecake!

We all stand up and clap to some very fun music as he parades his cheesecakes around. Then they go cut them up and we go enjoy! I picked pumpkin and a slice of green grape cheesecake. They are small slices so no worries. There are SO many different kinds it is hard to choose.

Here we are Friday night just getting started really!

Needless to say after a weekend of indulging and a lot of sitting I came home feeling pretty stuffed! Since Miles was home with the kids by himself all weekend he didn't do too much cooking either. It is possible that no one ate a single vegetable all weekend long. So we declared today and probably tomorrow to be a phase one kind of day. By that we basically mean no carbs, no sugar, and no fruit. We will then eat fairly strict the rest of this week with limited carbs and fruit but still no sugar. That's the problem with indulging too much! You can do it for a couple days but then you have to be strict for several days to even things out.

So tonight I made a little invention. Even though we will be eating strict I still want my food to taste great and feel like it is something special. I made a sun-dried tomato paste tonight that I rolled up inside some chicken breasts. Miles' words, "Oh my gosh! Did you write this one down?" I think we have a winner folks!

First place some sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl of water to soak. I used about 1/2 cup of julienned tomatoes. Next you need to pound your chicken breasts flat with a rolling pin or mallet and set them aside. The recipe for the filling will do about 4 chicken breasts. You could probably sneak out a fifth if you needed too.

Give the tomatoes at least 10 minutes to soak and then grind them up with a little of the water. To this I added 1/4 cup of feta cheese, 2 tsp. of chopped basil (jarred), one tablespoon each of balsamic and olive oil, and 3 garlic cloves minced.

It was having a hard time getting chopped and mixed well so I took it all out and microwaved it for 30 seconds then gave it a few more whirls in the food processor. It came together nicely after that. I also added a bit more feta at this point.

Spread it generously over your flattened chicken breast.

Then roll up the chicken starting with the most narrow end and place some toothpicks in to hold it in place. Put in a pan seam side down and cover with aluminum foil. They go into a 400 degree oven and cook for 30 minutes. I decided after eating them that a couple minutes less would have been perfect! They weren't really dry but they weren't super moist. So just watch them closely.

While my chicken was cooking I did my favorite trick with green beans. I had already steamed them in the microwave for 5 minutes. Then I put them in a pan with some olive oil, a little chopped red onion, red wine vinegar (be generous), and sliced almonds. Saute them for about 5-7 minutes.

I sliced up the chicken and served them up with the green beans and some salad. Remember we are eating strict so we needed to have 2 vegetable servings tonight. I don't mind though. I was vegetable deprived. I ate salad for lunch too. It felt good to be back to my normal diet. My body is really thankful too! I also think that these would be great just smothered in the sauce if you don't want to take the time to roll the chicken.

Even though I have to eat strict the next few days it is worth it and this is why. My little girl poured over her completed pages for quite some time last night. Her brother was equally thankful and excited to see his pages too. Portion of goodness, you bet!

I think now I will have some hot tea and catch up with the DVR. It has been a while and we miss each other!

Recipe:

4 chicken breasts pounded flat

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes soaked in water

1/3 cup feta

2 Tbsp. chopped basil (I used jarred but fresh is good too)

1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

When tomatoes are soft, drain the liquid reserving 1/4 cup, and place in a food processor. Chop up finely with the liquid. In a small bowl place the rest of the ingredients listed (except the chicken) and add the tomatoes. Microwave for 30 seconds and put all ingredients back into the food processor. Spin until mixed well.

Spread a generous amount over each chicken breast. Roll up starting with the narrow end and insert toothpicks. Place seam side down in baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 28-30 minutes at 400 degrees. Slice and serve immediately.

Chicken Pistachio Salad -AKA The Wife's Favorite

Tonight I made my favorite meal. It just so happens to be right up there for Miles too.  I will admit that this recipe is a little involved. It is not quick like I usually like but COMPLETELY worth it! It is a South Beach Diet recipe that became a favorite early on in our weight loss journey.

I really hate telling people that we did the South Beach Diet. I feel like people get the impression that we are just dieting, when we have completely changed our lifestyle. We are not going back. All we have to do is look at pictures from our former fat days to know we will continue to eat healthy for that and many other reasons. However, we did begin with the South Beach Diet and I believe it is an excellent, quick, and healthy way to begin if you need to lose weight. Just had to say it. Sorry. On to the food.

Oh. My. Goodness. Good.

Begin with about 1 cup of shelled pistachios. Buy them already shelled to save some time. You can get them at Walmart that way for not a whole lot extra. It is worth it.

Grind them up finely in the food processor and put them on a plate. You can mix in a little salt and pepper if you like. I skip the salt because I feel like pistachios are already salty enough but if you must then go ahead.

Coat both sides of your chicken breast in the pistachios. I just get my chicken wet with water. No egg. Press the nuts into the chicken fairly firmly.

Place them in a pan of heated olive oil and cook for about 1-2 minutes per side. Use a fork to turn them gently so you don't lose all the nuts in the pan. Do not be tempted to cook them longer. The nuts will burn as you can see mine started to do because I was washing my hands and I had the heat up a little too high. Then you put them in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes. Flip them over and cook another 10-15 minutes on the other side. The time depends on how thick your chicken breasts are. I just use a 9x13 baking dish. There is no need to grease it.

Now you can get started on the best avocado dressing! The recipe calls for one avocado but I ALWAYS use two. I always want more of it for other things too and I like to make extra of this meal so we have leftovers the next day.

To the avocado you will add a couple tablespoons of grated sweet onion. Don't put the onion away though. You need to chop about 1/2 cup onion to saute later.

You will also add 3-4 tablespoons of fresh lime juice. A few tablespoons of olive oil, water, and salt to taste. Blend this all in the food processor until very smooth.

Saute that 1/2 cup sweet onion in a little olive oil. You might be tempted to skip this to save time but DON'T DO IT! These little sweet onions are what really make this dish so delicious. Do you really want to eat a piece of cake without the frosting? Me neither! So make the sauteed sweet onions.

When the chicken is done I take it out of the oven and let it rest for a couple minutes. Then I slice it up, put it over a bed of lettuce, and top with several dollops of dressing and the cooked onions. Tonight I served it with some sauteed yellow squash with green onion, tomato, and basil and some fruit - tangerines and pears.

I kid you not I looked at Miles' plate when I heard a noise come from him and it was clean. I still had half my dinner on my plate. I said, "You should really slow down and enjoy your dinner!" His reply, "I did! I enjoyed every little bite!" Thankfully he left the extra alone so we still have lunch tomorrow!

A couple things to know: If you can, make the dressing in the morning or a day ahead and chop the onion too. You can also grind up your pistachios ahead. It will save you lots of time. I can coat 4 fairly large chicken breasts with the pistachios but I usually like to error on grinding up more than a cup in case I run out. Then I don't have to go back and do more grinding.

That was a lot of food on my plate tonight for only about 550 calories. I am stuffed! Did you know you could eat all that food or just 1 and 1/3 bagels for about 550 calories! Eat more not less!

Here is the recipe! I promise you will love it!

Salad                                                                                     Dressing

1 cup  shelled pistachios (Walmart)                          2 tsp. grated sweet white onion

½ tsp salt                                                                           2 large ripe avocado

½ tsp. fresh ground pepper                                         3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts                        3-4 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (2 limes)

2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil                                         1 Tbsp. water

½ cup diced sweet white onion

1 head romaine lettuce

To make salad: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grind the nuts in a food processor. Mix the nuts in a pie plate with salt and pepper.  Press the chicken into the nuts. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a non stick skillet and cook the coated breasts, 1-2 minutes per side. Place the chicken in a baking dish and bake for 10-15 minutes per side. 

Heat the remaining  oil in a nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the diced onion, pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. Cook until the onion is browned.

 Slice the chicken breasts and arrange 1 breast on top of the lettuce on each plate. Serve with several dollops of the dressing  and the onions on top.

To make the dressing: Puree the onion, avocado, oil, lime juice, and water in a blender or small food processor.

P.S. I can't believe it was dark out when we sat down to eat at 5:15 tonight. The price you pay for that extra hour of sleep Satuday I suppose. I did like that it wasn't dark when my kids went to school this morning however!