easy chicken and spinach dishes

Sautéed baby spinach with garlic, avocado, and grilled chicken. Delish! All-in about 560 calories (6 oz baby spinach, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp garlic, half Haas avocado, 5 oz grilled chicken breast, salt and pepper to taste). It's just protein and healthy fats to keep you feeling sated. Because I had the chicken prepped in the fridge already, this dinner took all of 5 minutes to make. It isn't just easy for me to eat right, especially because I love to cook and to eat. It is very hard to make healthy portions for one and sometimes it makes me sad not to have someone to cook for, so I don't put the same effort into cooking for myself that I do for others (uh, yeah, I'm a stupid girl sometimes!).

If I could keep fresh (or frozen) veggies in my boat icebox-turned-fridge easily, I would definitely be getting more bright, colorful veggies and especially dark, leafy greens in my diet. But bagged baby spinach does do pretty well if I use it up quickly and I can easily eat a bag myself at any given meal. I just heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet or wok, sauté some chopped garlic in it, and then toss in half the bag, stir it as it cooks down, and then toss in the other half. I learned this super-quick, tasty technique when I was cooking Brazilian food all the time. Collard greens, couve in Portuguese, are very popular in Brazil, especially Minas Gerais. You lay all the big leaves flat and create a stack, then you roll them very tight, and slice from the end of the roll, making thin collard green "spaghetti." You heat olive oil in a large pot very hot, toss in the sliced collards, and then throw in salt to taste. Much healthier and nutritious than American southern style collards, that's for sure. While I skip slicing the spinach up, larger spinach leaves or other tougher greens will do well with that technique. The best thing about this side dish is you can have it ready in about 3 minutes! It only takes 4 ingredients and it's  packed full of nutrition. 

Here's another yummy chicken and spinach dish... I just sautéed up the spinach as usual, crumbled 2 ounces of light feta on top (half the calories but all the taste), and then topped it with the chopped grilled chicken. It's easy to add whatever other veggies you like; I can see going Greek with some oregano, red onion and, as one friend suggested, olives. If you come up with a good variation share it as a comment!

The other thing I like to have on hand for a quick and simple meal is grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast. If there is a Fresh Market near you, (I think they are along the US Eastern Seaboard from the mid-Atlantic to Florida), they have amazing plump chicken breasts on sale for just $2.99 per pound on Tuesdays. I generally buy two or three pairs of breasts and just have to separate them and trim only the slightest bit off (you will never want to eat Perdue or Tyson chicken again once you've had real, healthy stuff). I take a gallon Ziploc bag, add a few tablespoons of olive oil, lemon or lime juice if I have it, a couple tablespoons of chopped garlic, salt (pink Himalayan, sea, or Kosher), and fresh ground pepper. Then I put the chicken breasts in, zip the bag up, and massage the marinade all over to evenly coat the chicken. I just toss the bag in the fridge for one to three days and then grill it all up at once. Once it's grilled I chop it all up and either measure out 5 ounce portions or put it in a large container or Ziploc and measure out what I need during the week. The chicken is easy to heat up, or it's delicious cold with some tzatiki sauce, on a salad, or whatever. The options are only limited by your own palate and creativity.

garlic chicken with rice noodles

Here are the ingredients, clockwise from bottom left: butcher-wrapped chicken, Parmesan cheese, rice noodles, baby spinach, olive oil, pink salt, black pepper, and chopped garlic in the middle.

I picked up the fresh rice noodles at Trader Joe's. The appeal was that they cook in just 1.5 to 2 minutes. Especially in the winter, it helps to minimize the steam created in the boat--all that steam becomes condensation and can lead to mold. Thus, it is handy to have pastas on hand that cook quickly. These rice noodles are refrigerated, but each package comes with two smaller sealed bags of noodles, 6 ounces each. The noodles are very sticky, so I think they'd be very good with a lot of broth, some vegetables, and a few potstickers.

I'll be cooking lots of chicken this month since it is on sale for $2.99/lb. every Tuesday this month at The Fresh Market. I decided to try out the noodles with some chicken.

Garlic Chicken with Rice Noodles

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. olive oil (119 calories)
3 tsp. raw garlic (13 calories) 
8 oz. / .5 lb. / 224 g boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed (247 calories)
1 bag (about 3 cups) baby spinach (40 calories)
1 vegetable bullion cube (5 calories)
6 oz. rice noodles (320 calories)
7g Parmesan cheese, crumbled (28 calories)
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Total calories: 772
Calories per serving (serves 2): 386

Directions:

In a large sauté pan on medium heat, sauté chopped fresh garlic and cubed chicken in olive oil. Add salt (kosher, pink, or sea salt) and fresh ground pepper to taste. Add spinach, 1/3 of the bag at a time, until mostly wilted. Add 1 cup boiling water and vegetable buillion cube (or 1 cup vegetable stock). In a separate pot, boil water for the noodles. They do not need a lot of water so a small sauce pan will do. The noodles are extremely sticky, so as soon as they are done, drain them and add them to the chicken and stir in to distribute them evenly. Lower heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Much better served hot than cold! Best served in large pasta bowls. Top with a little crumbled Parmesan. Sorry the picture is blurry... the steam always does that to my photos!

red pepper and feta-stuffed chicken breasts

I recently had a friend over for dinner aboard the boat. He does not eat red meat, so my much-loved chicken and italian sausage was not a menu option. Therefore, I opted for red pepper and feta-stuffed chicken breasts accompanied by a white wine and parmesan risotto and fresh spinach sauteéd in olive oil and fresh garlic, with a touch of Kosher salt.

The chicken came from The Fresh Market; large, antibiotic-free, vegetarian fed. Here is my mise en place of crumbled feta, chopped red pepper, and chopped garlic, and then the breasts before they went in the oven.


The chicken breasts were large and much thicker at one end. I took the four breasts and created six servings by cutting the breasts in half and stacking the thinner ends, then taking the thick halves and slicing them horizontally for stuffing. I put a few tablespoons of olive oil in the baking dish, added a heaping tablespoon of garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and Kosher salt to taste. I dredged each piece of chicken in the oil and garlic marinade, then placed a spoonful each of red pepper and feta on the bottom six pieces of chicken, stacked the top pieces of chicken in place, and garnished each with a little more feta and red pepper. In my propane oven aboard, they were baked uncovered at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.

Here is the finished product. You can easily tell which side of the pan was adjacent to the gas flame.

Everything was so delicious I forgot to take a photograph before plating up our meal and forgot to take a photo of the plated dish. Sorry!

Here is a snap of the risotto in the works. It begins by sauteíng half a medium onion (chopped) in two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter. When the onions are translucent, add one cup of arborio rice and sauté for one or two minutes. Three cups of water are called for. The only rice I ever cook in water is white basmati. All other rice should be cooked with flavor. For risotto I use one cup of vegetarian vegetable broth and two cups of wine. I often use a dry Washington Riesling, but I am currently on a kick drinking a lovely Vinho Verde from Portugal, pictured below with the parmesan that is added at the end.


Once the liquid is added, stir the risotto constantly until it is thick and creamy and stir in the parmesan at the very end. I save some time by using my pressure cooker and putting it under pressure for 10 to 15 minutes.