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Healthy Chicken Salad Wraps

I have to admit, as a busy mom, I don’t always have time for a healthy lunch. I try to sit down to a plate of veggies and protein but there are days that 2 p.m. hits and I realize I’m starving and settle for a fruit leather and a few spoonfuls of almond butter. Not exactly a fabulous lunch.

2016-02-09 18.53.41To avoid such a scene, I try to make big batches of healthy lunches I can eat all week.

This chicken salad is one of my favorites. My 5-year-old daughter loves it as well. If you don’t want to eat it in a wrap, this also tastes fabulous over a bed of spinach or arugula, or just strait from the bowl (my daughter’s favorite way). But no matter how you eat it, having a bunch of this in your fridge will just make your week better.

 

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One-Pan Apple Chicken Breasts

20150115_181247Chicken is cheap and has great protein, so we buy a lot of it. But chicken can easily become very boring. This is a fun change from a basic grilled chicken. I read a recipe similar to this in a “healthy” cookbook. I was shocked it was considered healthy with all the sugars and hydrogenated oils. I changed up some of the ingredients and left out the processed sugars and was very pleased with the results. My daughter loved it and since kids are always a good indication of whether a recipe is actually good, I’d say this one is a keeper.

Saute a sliced apple in the coconut oil until it’s tender. I used a Granny Smith apple because they were on sale but any apple will work fine. Set the apple slices aside in a bowl.

Season the chicken with the cinnamon, salt and pepper and add that to the pan with the rest of the coconut oil. Just brown both sides here. You’ll completely cook the chicken a little later. Browning it a bit before cooking it keeps it juicy and locks in the great flavors.

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Now set the chicken aside. Don’t worry about keeping it warm as it’s going to go back in the pan later. Add the onion, cover the pan and cook the onion until it’s soft. If you don’t cover the pan, the onion with get brown and  crunchy. You don’t want that. You want the onion as soft as the apple.

Now add in the liquids and let that simmer a bit before adding the chicken back in. Once the chicken is completely cooked, add the apples and make sure everything is warm.

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The best part about this dish (besides the flavor) is the fact that it comes together in one dish. I hate washing dishes so I cut out as many as possible when cooking. We ate this over rice, but you can use quinoa or mashed sweet potatoes.

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The Easiest Way to Cook Delicious Chicken

Everyone has that one thing they can’t cook. That thing that no matter how simple it is, no matter how closely you follow directions, you always fail. Right? Or is it just me? So I admit, there are actually two seemilgly simple things I just can’t make. One is rice. I truly feel like the laws of physics defy themselves when I try to make rice. Luckily, I solved that problem with a rice cooker. Done.

Cooking fail number two: a whole chicken. I can make turkey with no problem, but no matter how long I keep a whole chicken in the oven, it comes out raw in the middle. I don’t get it. Luckily, I found a solution to this problem too: the slow cooker. Not only does cooking it in the slow cooker ensure I can actually cook said chicken, but it always comes out moist and is so easy to put together. And I can come home to the smell of dinner and a warm, hearty meal. I will never try to cook a chicken in the oven again.

 

2016-01-10 10.58.03They are all generally around the same size, but I always try to buy the biggest chicken I can. This way I know I’ll have healthy leftovers during the week for salads. I would tell you how best to slice this chicken, but slicing is not an option. It basically just falls off the bone when you try to pull it out.

 

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Slow Cooker Pesto Chicken

Every year we try to grow basil. I have dreams of jars and jars of homemade pesto and Caprese salad. I plan to spend the summer sprinkling basil on everything. I’ll look like the cover of a magazine, smiling as I harvest my basil surrounded by my perfectly dressed children who never fight and always obey me.  Sadly, I generally kill everything I plant. Luckily, jarred pesto is getting healthier and tastier than it once was.

I love to use pesto for salad dressing, veggie dip, mixed with mayonnaise for a spread and a topping for chicken. This pesto chicken is one of my favorite uses for pesto. And it comes together in the slow cooker, which just makes life better in general.

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Just drizzles avocado oil in the bottom of your slow cooker, top with chicken breasts and top each breast with jarred pesto and cook on low 4-6 hours. It’s hard to think of a recipe that’s easier.

The oil keeps the chicken moist and cooking it slowly allows the pesto to really penetrate into the chicken and give it lots of flavor. Maybe one day I’ll make this with my pesto made with home-grown basil. Then when I serve it to company and they “ooh” and “aah,” I can tell them I grew the basil myself and act like it’s no big deal. Yeah. I want to be that person.

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Healthy Slow Cooker Chuck Roast

Few things are as comforting on a busy day as coming home to the smell of a roast in the crock pot. Throw some whole wheat bread in the bread maker as well and the comforting smells are right up there with world peace. Plus, using a slow cooker always makes me feel like someone else made me dinner. Life doesn’t get much better.

In my opinion, the best roast for a slow cooker is a chuck roast. They’re not as thick as other roasts so they cook more evenly.

The secret to cooking tender beef is to brown the meat before putting it in a slow cooker and to cook it low and slow.

2015-10-08 09.37.41Before you brown your meat, rub it down with a spice mixture.

Then place the browned meat on a bed of root vegetables. I use carrots and sweet potatoes. If you don’t like sweet potatoes, russet potatoes are fine. I just like the flavor and health benefits that come from sweet potatoes.

Then top the meat with sliced onions and a can of diced tomatoes and cook the whole thing in a flavorful broth for eight hours.

Cooking it this way makes the meat just fall apart. This is perfect on a cold night. Or a warm night. Or a Tuesday. Whatever. There’s no reason not to make this for dinner.2015-10-08 18.01.39

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Healthy Pico Frittata

Last week we were supposed to have chicken for dinner. About an hour before dinner, I realized I had failed to thaw said chicken. This always leaves us with two options: Go out to eat or throw together something quickly with what we have on hand. In the past I would have boiled some pasta and topped it with canned sauce. That amounted to very little protein, lots of sugar, and basically just a lot of processed junk. So I needed a solution that would give us a protein and vegetables without loading us down with processed ingredients. The solution: eggs. Eggs are packed with protein, vitamins, minerals and iron. It’s hard to beat the nutrients of an egg. Plus, turning it into a frittata makes it seem more fun and elegant. If I were Fancy Nancy I’d say, “We’re eating frittata. That’s a fancy word for eggs.” Can you tell I spend a lot of time with a 5-year-old girl?

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Brown a pound of turkey sausage. Let this cool a bit or the eggs with scramble as soon as you add it.

Whisk together the eggs and almond milk. Stir in some Pico de Gallo. Pico is so versatile and adds all the seasoning this dish needs. Add the sausage and mix everything together.

I like to bake this in a pie dish but you could also bake it in a 9×9 pan or an oval casserole dish.

This dish is great because it’s so versatile. Add whatever meat you want or leave it out completely. If you’re not a fan of pico, switch it out for different vegetables. Use what you have on hand and what your family likes.

This goes great with roasted veggies, a green salad or sliced fruit.

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Leftover Round Steak Salad

Even though I enjoy making dinner for my family, there are nights I’m tired, cranky, hungry NOW, or would rather sit on my tuckus and not make dinner. That’s when I love “2-for-1” dinners. That’s when I make dinner one night and can use the leftovers to make dinner the next night. That’s what I do when I make Grilled Round Steak. The night after we have this delicious steak, we have Steak Salad.

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A salad is a great meal option for families with picky eaters. Each person can customize their own salad based on what they like. I’ve listed our favorite ingredients, but feel free to customize this however you like. I like to top it with guacamole (my favorite salad dressing) but use what dressing you have and like.

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Creamy Cauliflower Soup

I love to trick my family by adding healthy things to their food. I add beans to their brownies, avocado to their frosting and now cauliflower to their cheese soup. I gave them the soup, listened to them “ooh” and “aah” and never said a word about what was in it. Mwa ha ha! I love the small victories.

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Start by steaming the cauliflower. I got this lovely steaming basket at Ikea years ago. It’s one of my favorite kitchen tools because it fits in any pan and is dishwasher safe.

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While the cauliflower steams, cook the onion and garlic in the butter and avocado oil. Do this right in your soup pot. Add the salt, pepper, almond milk and chicken broth and heat this all together.

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Add the steamed cauliflower and puree with an immersion blender. I love my immersion blender for the same reason I love my veggie steamer. It’s extremely versatile and dishwasher safe.

Add the cheese and continue to cook the soup until the cheese melts.

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Top each serving with green onion, turkey bacon and more cheese.

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No-Bean Chili

I don’t like beans. It’s not the taste or the texture; it’s the after effect. The night I eat beans, I’m groaning on the couch, my stomach churning. The problem is, I love chili. I love it on chips, I love it on fries, and I love it in a bowl with avocado and sour cream. But every no-bean chili I’ve tried is usually just glorified Sloppy Joe meat. So I decided we needed to come up with a healthy no-bean chili that still has that great chunky chili texture. Here is what we came up with.

Start by cooking the meat and onion, just as you do in every chili.

The great texture comes from a bunch of vegetables. Add a chopped carrot, red, green and yellow peppers and a can of diced tomatoes.

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Then add the great flavor with your seasonings. Stir in your seasonings and flavored liquids and let this simmer in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours.

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Eat this in a bowl with your favorite toppings or spoon it over hot dogs, sweet potato fries or veggie chips. Better yet, freeze half and reheat it to use in a fun, new way.

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Chicken Avocado Lettuce Wraps

My son has activities on Monday and Wednesday nights. We have to make dinner in advance so we can eat right when we get home. This leaves us with three options: crock pot, salad or sandwiches. This can get old, so we’re always looking for something to mix it up. These chicken avocado lettuce wraps are fabulous because we can make them in advance and they’re super yummy.  Plus there’s usually enough to have leftovers the next day for lunch. As a busy mom, those are always my favorite kind of meals.

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Start by cooking some chicken breasts. I always poach them because it’s a fast way to cook chicken. You can also use store-bought pre-cooked chicken. Then work some magic. Put the cooked chicken in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

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Turn it on and… VOILA! Yep. That just happened. Since I learned this trick, I never used two forks to shred chicken.

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Then add the avocados, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper and mix again.

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I like to serve this in a lettuce leaf. I generally use green leaf lettuce, but romaine or even iceberg would work fine. If you really don’t like lettuce wraps, serve it in a whole wheat tortilla. I personally love the crunch the lettuce gives.

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