Clean Eating: Chicken, Spinach, Tomatoes & Mozzarella with Couscous

Chicken, Spinach, Tomatoes & Mozzarella with Couscous 

Makes about 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

2-3 chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces

2 T olive oil

1/2 t. garlic powder

1 Cup whole wheat couscous

1 1/4 Cup chicken broth

Fresh basil leaves to taste or 1/2 T. dried basil

4 Cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 Cup fresh mozzarella cubed

Directions:

1. Place cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with 1 T olive oil and garlic powder. Roast  at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
2. In a large saute pan cook chicken in remaining 1 T olive oil until cooked thoroughly, then remove from pan and set aside.
3. Add chicken broth, basil, spinach to pan and bring to a boil. 
4. Add couscous and mix well.
5. Remove from heat, place chicken on top of couscous mixture and cover for 5 minutes.
6. Remove lid and add roasted tomatoes and mozzarella before serving.

This is an easy and delicious clean meal that has become one of my favorites. Next time I'm going to drizzle balsamic reduction over the top for extra flavor.

Pumpkin Pie Energy Balls

It's that time of year ~ the season for pumpkin everything! Here is a healthy and tasty recipe perfect for fall.

Pumpkin Pie Energy Balls ~  by Fueled to be Fit

Pumpkin Pie Energy Balls

Ingredients:

1/2 C Rolled Oats
1/4 C Pepitas (aka Pumpkin Seeds)
2 Scoops Vanilla Protein Powder
1/4 C 100% Pure Pumpkin
1/4 C Pure Maple Syrup
1/2 C All Natural Peanut Butter (no sugar added)
2 T Organic Ground Flax Seed
2 T Organic Chia Seeds
2 t Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 t Pure Vanilla Extract
Optional 1/4 C Mini Dark Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Blend Oats & Pepitas in a blender food or processor into a medium-fine powder
2. Combine Pumpkin, Peanut Butter & Maple Syrup in a medium bowl, stir well
3. Add Oat/Pepitas mixture, Protein Powder, Flax Seed, Chia Seeds, Pumpkin Pie Spice & Vanilla & optional chocolate chips, stir until well combined.
4. Roll dough into 3/4" balls 
5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set before enjoying. They will keep well in the refrigerator for up to a week (if they last that long!)

I made half with and half without chocolate chips and I must admit they were a little bit better with!

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken

I absolutely love slow cooker recipes, especially ones as simple as this. It literally takes just minutes to put together, then cooks itself, so it's basically ready to serve when you get home. When I get home from a long day at work I usually have dozens of other things I want to accomplish. Using up my limited time to cook dinner is the last thing I want to do!

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken

It only takes a few minutes to throw this together before heading out the door in the morning

Cover chicken with onions & seasoning

Add tomatoes & balsamic vinegar

chicken will shred a bit as you stir it

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken Recipe

Ingredients: 
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders
Salt & Pepper
1/2 T Organic Olive Oil
Medium Onion, sliced (to save time, I used frozen chopped onion)
1/2 T Organic Italian Seasoning
1 t Organic Garlic Powder
14.5 oz. Can Organic Diced Tomatoes
1/4 C Organic Balsamic Vinegar

Directions:

1. Coat bottom of your crock with olive oil
2. Place chicken over olive oil, in a single layer and add salt & pepper
3. Top chicken with onions, then add seasoning, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar
4. Cook at low until chicken is fully cooked (6-8 hours)
5. Stir before serving

We ate this last night over cooked quinoa but it would also be good over brown rice or a pasta. Bonus, we had leftovers and it tasted even better for lunch today.

Taco Tuesday ~ Slow Cooker Carnitas

Clean eating doesn't mean you can't eat anything delicious. This is one of our favorite recipes and it's really simple to make. You can serve it as tacos on clean corn tortillas or over lettuce as a taco salad. My personal favorite is a copycat of Chipotle's Carnitas Burrito Bowl over cilantro lime brown rice & black beans.

Ingredients:

1 t salt
1 t garlic powder                                                                    
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t ground coriander
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1 (4 pound) boneless extra lean pork roast
2 bay leaves
2 C low sodium chicken broth

Directions:

1. Mix spices together in a small dish
2. Coat all sides of pork roast with spice mix
3. Place bay leaves inside the bottom of  your slow cooker & place the pork roast on top
4. Pour chicken broth around sides of the pork, be careful not to rinse off the spices
5. Cover & cook on low for about 10 hours, turning once during cooking
6. Once pork is cooked tender, remove from slow cooker and shred with 2 forks
7. Return shredded pork to remaining liquid in slow cooker and set to "keep warm" until ready to serve

Baked Caprese Quinoa

I am slightly obsessed with tomatoes, basil & fresh mozzarella, it's my favorite summer food combination. I still have an ample supply of tomatoes in my garden but with summer coming to an end, soon they will be gone, so I put together another Caprese recipe while I still had the chance. This one is perfect for the cooler weather, yet still has the taste of summer. I hope you enjoy!

this recipe uses some of my favorite ingredients

 I like to cook my quinoa in chicken broth and this time I added a little Italian Seasoning to the mix. While the quinoa is cooking, roast your halved cherry tomatoes in the oven.

While the quinoa and cherry tomatoes are cooking, slice up some fresh mozzarella and roma tomatoes. This recipe was only tested with fresh mozzarella which I highly recommend.

sliced tomatoes & fresh mozzarella

Once the quinoa and cherry tomatoes are done combine them in a shallow baking dish and stir in the Parmesan and spices.

mix in a little Parmesan, garlic powder & basil 

Smooth down the top and layer the tomatoes & mozzarella, overlapping each other.

layer the cheese & tomatoes

While the dish was baking I made some balsamic reduction by simply slowly boiling down some balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan until it turned thick & was reduced in half.

topped with fresh basil leaves & drizzled with a little balsamic reduction

Once finished baking, top with some fresh basil leaves and optional balsamic reduction.

Baked Caprese Quinoa Recipe

Ingredients:

1 C uncooked quinoa
2 C water or chicken broth
1 t Italian Seasoning
15 - 20 Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1/2 T Olive Oil
Fresh Salt & Pepper
2 - 3 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, sliced
1/2 C shredded Parmesan Cheese
1 t Garlic Powder
1 t Dried Basil
Fresh Basil Leaves for topping
Optional Balsamic Reduction

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Combine quinoa and broth or water and cook according to package directions.
• Drizzle halved cherry tomatoes with 1/2 T olive oil and salt/pepper, roast at 400 for 10-15 minutes.
• Transfer cooked quinoa to and roasted cherry tomatoes to baking dish and stir in Parmesan, garlic powder & basil. Pat down to smooth out the top.
• Layer sliced roma tomatoes and mozzarella, slightly overlapping each other on top of the quinoa mixture.
• Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes.
• Remove foil and bake another 15-20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and slightly browned.
• Top with fresh basil leaves and optional balsamic reduction drizzle before serving.

Taco Tuesday: Clean & Simple Chicken Tacos

Clean eating doesn't need to be complicated. Here is a super easy clean recipe that only takes a few minutes of prep work in the morning and is ready as soon as you get home from work.

Clean chicken tacos. I serve mine with shredded lettuce, homemade bean & corn salsa and avocado.

Ingredients:

1/2 C chopped onion
1 can organic diced tomatoes
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Clean Homemade Taco Seasoning:
1 T chili powder
1 t ground cumin
1 t paprika
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 black pepper
dash of crushed red pepper

Directions:

• Spread chopped onion on the bottom of crockpot/slow cooker
• Place chicken breast over onions
• Sprinkle Taco Seasoning on top of chicken
• Pour can of tomatoes over the top
• Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours (or longer)
• Before serving stir to shred up chicken
• Serve on clean corn tortillas like these ones from Trader Joe's 

These are a good choice because they only contain 3 ingredients: corn, water and lime

Running makes me crave pizza!

I couldn't stop thinking about pizza on my long run this morning so there was no way I was getting through today without eating some! My zucchini pizza crust last week turned out really good so I thought I would try a cauliflower version today. There are dozens of recipes out there, this is the one that I mostly followed with just a few slight alterations.

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower
1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 C grated mozzarella cheese
1 egg + 1 egg white
2 T ground flax seed
1 t Italian Seasoning
1/2 t garlic powder

Directions:

• Place baking stone in the oven & pre-heat to 450 degrees
• Wash & dry cauliflower, then break off into florets
• Pulse cauliflower in a food processor for 30-60 seconds until rice like texture
• Transfer cauliflower to a microwave safe bowl, cover and cook 4 minutes
• Pour cauliflower onto clean white dishtowel and allow to cool
• Once cool enough to touch, ring out to remove as much water as possible, then transfer to a mixing bowl 
• Add remaining ingredients to the cauliflower then mix together using hands
• Place the "dough" on a sheet of aluminum foil sprayed with olive oil and press into a round crust
• Place the crust still on the aluminum foil on the preheated baking stone
• Bake for 8-10 minutes
• Flip crust over and bake an additional 3-4 minutes, or until browned on both sides
• Remove from oven & add your toppings 
• Return to oven & bake another 8-10 minutes or to your liking

This is what the cauliflower will look like after microwaving

 

Rung out cauliflower

Pressed out into crust

Baked crust

Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella ~ my favorite!

Obviously I'm a fan of margarita pizza, especially in the summer when I have fresh tomatoes & basil, but you can top yours any way you like. If you top with meat just be sure it is pre-cooked. I liked this enough to eat over half of it myself (I did run almost 20 miles earlier today!) However I think I preferred the zucchini version I made last week.

Zucchini Take 2

As I mentioned yesterday, I wanted to try making a zucchini pizza crust with all the left overs I had after making my bread. I found a recipe labeled "The best zucchini recipe ever" so I decided to give that one a try. In my case it turned out to be the worst ever, most likely due to the fact that I failed to squeeze enough of the water out of the shredded zucchini. Needless to say, we did not enjoy pizza for dinner last night.

Zucchini pizza crust recipes seem to be all over Pinterest lately so I knew it could be successfully done and I had to give it another try. Today I tried a recipe based off this one I found on Recipe Girl. I made a few modifications based on what I had on hand. I must say it turned out great!

Zucchini Pizza Crust
makes one small crust

Ingredients: 

2 C shredded & chopped zucchini 

2 eggs, beaten 

½ T Olive Oil

1 C finely grated Parmesan cheese  

1/3 – ½ C Flour - I used Namaste Gluten Free Flour Blend

½ tsp dry oregano

½ tsp dry basil

Directions: 

• Place a baking stone in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees
• Shred then chop the zucchini and place in a colander
• Press as much of the water out of the zucchini as you can
• Place the shredded zucchini in the center of a clean white dishtowel then ring to squeeze out even more water.Getting as much of the liquid removed is key to the success of this recipe
• Place zucchini in a mixing bowl with all other ingredients & mix well
• Pat the mixture into a thin round crust on aluminum foil sprayed with olive oil or non-stick cooking spray 
• Transfer the crust, still on the aluminum foil, onto the preheated stone in the oven
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until browned
• Remove from oven and flip onto a new sheet of foil sprayed with oil 
• Return to oven to cook other side for an additional 3-5 minutes or until browned
• Remove from oven and top with your favorite toppings then bake for another 7-10 minutes or to your liking

I brushed mine with a little bit of olive oil and garlic and topped with fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced Roma tomatoes from my garden and fresh basil that I grow in my kitchen window. It was delicious! 

Lunch is served

One Big Zucchini!

Every summer I like to grow zucchini in my garden and it always does great so we eat a lot of grilled zucchini. I usually try to pick them before they get too big like this one:

I'm also training for a marathon so I have a big appetite and always feel like baking something so I thought I would try a clean zucchini bread recipe that I adapted from a couple different recipes.

Ingredients:

2 C 100% whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 C organic honey
1 1/2 C shredded zucchini
2 T organic coconut oil, melted
1/4 C organic, unsweetened apple sauce
1 whole egg 
1 egg white
3/4 C plain Greek yogurt
1/4 tsp almond extract

1 drop nutmeg essential oil (optional)

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Coat large loaf pan with coconut oil
• In medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda & cinnamon
• In larger mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients
• Using wooden spoon, stir flour mixture into wet mixture & blend well
• Pour into loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean
• Cool before slicing

Results: 

My total baking time was 55 minutes and it turned out pretty good. It was pretty dense, but not too dry. It was not very sweet so next time I may add just a touch more honey or try using pure maple syrup instead. But overall for a clean version it was pretty darn good!

Since this recipe only called for 1.5 cup I still had a lot of zucchini left to use so I'm going to try a zucchini pizza crust later and if it turns out I'll share it too. 

And there was even some zucchini left to feed to the chickens! I love giving scraps to the chickens because it doesn't feel so wasteful plus it's extra nourishment so they can keep producing eggs for us.