Mushroom Spinach Chicken

I was a little tired of ground turkey last week and boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale, so I whipped up this mushroom spinach chicken for half of my meals.  Like my other meal prep “recipes” (wherein I throw a bunch of clean ingredients together and call it a meal), it took less than 20 minutes to prepare. This batch made 3 servings (I had a six pack of breasts and used the other half for another recipe that I’ll be adding soon) but there would easily be enough sauce and veggies for 4.

 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (5-6 ounces each)

8 ounces sliced baby portabello mushrooms

3 cups baby spinach leaves

3-5 cloves of garlic, chopped (I like a LOT of garlic in mine)

2 cups organic low-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons flour (or arrowroot powder)

Salt and pepper

 

Method:

Place chicken breasts between sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap and pound to 1/2″ thickness with a mallet or the smooth surface of a meat tenderizer. Remove wrap and season chicken with salt and pepper.

Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side until done, then remove from skillet and place on a serving platter.

Add garlic, mushrooms and 1/2 cup of the broth to skillet and stir while bringing to a boil. Cook until most of the liquid evaporates.

Sprinkle flour or arrowroot powder over mushrooms and stir for 30 seconds, then add the remaining broth and the lemon juice ** and bring back a boil, stirring constantly until slightly thickened.***  Turn heat down to low and add spinach leaves, stirring them in until they are lightly wilted. Slice each chicken breast and portion out into your meal prep containers, then ladle equal amounts of sauce into each container.

** If you don’t have lemon juice, use lemon pepper to season the chicken and add another pinch or two at this point.

*** If you want a creamier sauce, you can add a tablespoon or two of milk (or almond milk) too at this point – but mine was plenty creamy without the addition.

 

Nutrition per serving: 263 calories, 7 grams of fat, 8.3 grams of carbs, 39.6 grams of protein, 1.8 grams of fiber.

 

 

 

Kabocha Lentil Curry

I’ve been back on my meal prepping kick lately – I’m working on building more muscle and leaning out a bit, so it’s nice to have a fridge full of healthy options to fuel my workouts.  I’ve been asked to blog some of my recipes, so I thought this would be a nice one to share – it’s vegan, gluten-free and packed with fiber. The flavors came together so well that you’d never guess that I came up with this on the fly and later had to backtrack to list the ingredients after throwing them together!

My original plan was to make dahl with some red lentils I picked up at Sprouts this morning, but then I noticed the kabocha squash still sitting on my counter from last week. I’m a huge fan of kabocha squash – it’s so tender and creamy and its sweetness works beautifully in curry. I grabbed a can of chickpeas from the pantry and a bunch of kale from the fridge and bam!  Curry with very little time or effort.

This made six 1-cup servings, one of which was promptly eaten as I packed away the rest.

Ingredients: 

1.5 cups vegetable broth

1 kabocha squash (also known as Japanese pumpkin), peeled and diced (if you cannot find kabocha squash, pumpkin would also work nicely in this)

1 cup red lentils, cooked and drained (I boil a big batch for 10 minutes, then drain and freeze the leftovers in a muffin tin for 1/2 cup servings to add to future recipes)

1 15.5oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

2 cups curly kale, torn into small pieces

Mochi curry powder to taste (I use a LOT so I don’t want to micromanage your spice rack, but I’d suggest a couple of teaspoons to start out)

 

Method:

Simmer squash in broth over medium heat in a covered nonstick skillet until tender (took about 10 minutes, so lentils and squash were done around the same time).** Add lentils and chickpeas and simmer for a few more minutes, then add the kale and simmer until barely wilted. Season with curry powder (I like mochi curry powder best with kabocha but any variety will do), simmer for another 2-3 minutes and serve.

** Note: for a creamier sauce, you can hit the squash with a stick blender or mash part of it with a fork to break it down a bit more, but as it simmers it’ll soften enough to add creaminess without this being a vital step.

 

Nutrition:

According to MyFitnessPal, each 1-cup serving contains 254 calories, 2.3 grams of fat, 44.9 grams of carbs, 15.1 grams of protein and 14.4 grams of fiber.