Dinner with friends....sesame crusted chicken with oven veggies

This weekend we had friends invited to our place.

For dinner I wanted to cook something special but not over the top. And...since my new laptop finally arrived...it was the best opportunity to test my new cooking app (actually it was the first app I installed!)

But I didn't find exactly what I had in mind. So I made my own recipe.

Sesame crusted chicken breast with oven roasted vegetables.

Doesn't it sound delicious??

Plus: Sesame has quite a lot of health benefits. For example it contains up to 20% high quality protein and moreover micronutrients such as magnesium, zinc and calcium (good for hair and skin). Furthermore the high fiber content keeps you full throughout the day.

Let's go...here are the directions:

Mix one tablespoon of soy sauce with one tablespoon of honey and one glove of garlic for every chicken breast. For example if you cooking four servings, you need four chicken breast wich means four tablespoons of honey and four tablespoons of soy sauce and for gloves of garlic. Place all the ingredients in a blender and mix until everything is well combined.

Place your chicken breast in a bowl and marinate with your soy sauce mix. Cover it with foil and let it sit for at least six hours. I recommend letting it sit overnight.

Take your chicken breasts an roll them in roasted sesame seeds and place them in a ovenproof dish. Bake for about 20 minutes until it's cooked thoroughly and golden.

Meanwhile you can prepare the veggies. Slice up two bell peppers and two zucchini (makes four servings again). Put them on a lined baking tray and sprinkle with a little bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. 

Put them in the oven too...but don't forget to stir once in a while. As soon as the bell peppers turn brown your veggies are done and you can remove chicken and veggies from the oven.

Ready to dine!

I hope you enjoy! (...as much as I did)

Please don't forget to subscribe to my blog or follow me on social media if you like my recipes.

Have a great week and stay tuned for more healthy recipes.

xo

Andrea

Cinco de mayo...with chicken and beans

 

Since cinco de mayo is right around the corner I thought it would be a great idea to cook something Mexican.

First I looked for a recipe with sweet potatoes. But unfortunantely I didn't get sweet potatoes at the grocery store. So I got beans and corn and decided to do a chicken quinoa stir-fry.

Curious about the recipe?

Here are the directions:

First drain corn and pre-cooked beans. Set them aside.

Bring four cups of water to a boil, pour in two cups of Quinoa and cook until there's no excess water left. (Please notice that I used a bulgur & quinoa mix, this is optional and totally your choice. Take whatever you prefer.)

Next heat up a pan and pour in one tablespoon of olive oil. Cut up one chicken breast in bite-sized chunks and add in. As soon as the chicken is cooked through put it on a plate and set it aside.

Then slice up one onion, add it to the pan and stir-fry until it's slightly brown. Then mix in beans and corn. After a few minutes reduce the heat and add five tablespoons of tomato sauce. 

 

Afterwards add in the roasted chicken breast and heat up all together again. Season with a lot of black pepper, chili and a binch of salt.

Place a little bit of the quinoa on a plate and top it with the bean & corn mix. If you want you can add a little cheese as well or decorate with some flowers. (by the way: My boyfriend brought me these purple flowers from Egypt)

I hope you enjoy

Have a great cinco de mayo!

xo

Andrea

Chicken wrap....Italian style

I recently read the article “My day on a plate” written by a juice company founder, on twitter. (#MyDayOnAPlate) I was shocked!

It led me to write a post about lunch break and a healthy food option.

For me as a nutritionist, I’m not a big fan of all those fruit juices. Juice has less dietary fiber than the entire fruit, which led to more consumation, which means more sugar and more calories as you would have eaten when eating entire fruits.

To be clear,…once in a while it can’t hurt anybody and it’s definitely better than no fruits or veggies at all. But it’s important to prefer smoothies over juices (because of the fiber) and don’t overdo the whole stuff.

Besides studies had proven that those people who eat 5 smaller portions a day get less total calories per day than those who eat only three bigger meals. Due to the fact that healthy snacking prevents food cravings, you won’t overeat during single meals.

Because we all know how hard it is to stick to our (more or less) healthy diet when all those cravings come up during lunch break.

I try to prepare lunch or a quick snack for every day so that I won’t eat the first eatable thing I can find. But packed lunch requires some special qualities. It shouldn’t get gross, watery or dry until lunch break. (I remember all those extremly dry sandwiches during my school years. You know…when the bread absorbed the spread.) Moreover it should keep your belly full but nevertheless not too hard to digest so that you won’t get tired. And…easy to prepare, duh!!

May I introduce the Italian style chicken wrap…

Easy to prepare, easy to pack and it stays delicicous ‘til lunch break. And longer! ;)

Can’t wait to cook?

Here are the directions:

First you have to prepare the pesto Genovese.

 

For that purpose place one big bunch of basil, one glove of garlic, about 50g of parmesan and a pinch of salt in a blender. Pour in about 100ml of olive oil and mix until all is creamy and smooth. Set aside.

Heat up pan and pour in a dash of oil. Cut one chicken breast into stripes. As soon as the oil is hot, stir fry the chicken until it’s well done. This will take about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Then wash about six cherry tomatoes and cut them in halves. Drain about 12 mini mozzarella cheese balls. Set both aside.

Heat up the pan again, put your wholegrain wrap in and toast for 2 minutes each side.

Next put yout wrap on a plate and spread a thin layer of pesto on it. Place six tomato halves and about three mini mozzarella cheese balls on it. Season with black pepper and salt. 

Then roll in carefully and cut in halves afterwards. Continue with all four wraps. Wrap each piece into foil and store everything in the fridge until you get hungry!

Here the grocery list:

Enjoy your wrap, have a nice day at work…

…and tell me what you think about #MyDayOnAPlate.

Don’t forget to send me pics of your lunch break. I wanna see office selfies!! ;)

xo

Andrea