Sun-dried Tomato, Spinach & Bacon Chicken

With all the wedding planning I’d been slacking on making us home-cooked meals (Lance actually did more of the cooking this past year than I did since I was always so busy…) Well, this week I’ve tried making up for it – I’ll post a couple really great recipes we tried out the last few days!

Chicken can sometimes be a boring dinner but this was far from that – loaded with all sorts of exciting toppings.  Plus, I made Caesar salad from scratch which was easier than I thought.  Adding these to my go-to recipes.

Sun-dried Tomato, Spinach & Bacon Chicken: (adapted from Julia’s Album)

Ingredients:

• 6 small chicken breasts
• 1 T butter
• Italian Dressing powdered mix packet
• 1 T olive oil
• 10 oz fresh baby spinach
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 2/3 cup pepperjack cheese, shredded, plus 6 slices
• 1/8 t salt
• ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, drained of oil & chopped into pieces
• 6 slices bacon, cooked

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2. Butter the bottom of a baking dish.  Season the chicken breasts on both sides with the Italian seasoning mix.  Place chicken into the baking dish and cook for 15 – 20 minutes.

3. In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat.  Add spinach and cook for about 2 minutes until it begins to wilt. 

4. Remove from heat and add the garlic & half and half.  Return to the heat, bring to a boil, then add the shredded cheese.  Keep stirring on high heat until the cheese starts to melt.  Reduce heat and continue to simmer & stir until you have thick creamed spinach.  Season with salt and remove from the heat.   

5. Remove the chicken from the oven after baking 15-20 minutes.  Top with creamed spinach, then sun-dried tomatoes, chopped cooked bacon, and broken slices of pepperjack cheese.

6. Bake in the oven uncovered for 15-20 more minutes until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Homemade Caesar Salad:

Dressing Ingredients:

• ½ cup Greek yogurt (the original recipe used mayonnaise and sour cream but this is healthier and I think tastes better)
• 1-1/2 t anchovy paste
• 1-1/2 T olive oil
• 3 T lemon juice
• 1-1/2 t whole grain mustard
• 1 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 t black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

Croutons:

• Old loaf of bread
• 3 T olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ t salt
• ¼ t pepper

Salad:

• 1 large head Romaine lettuce, chopped
• ½ cup fresh parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Whisk together all the dressing ingredients (you can also add whole anchovies if you want)

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Slice bread into cubes and bake 5 minutes.  While they are baking, mix together olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper.  Take the bread out of the oven, toss in the olive oil mixture, then bake 5 more minutes.  Toss again and continue baking until golden brown and crisp. 

3. Toss the Romaine, croutons, cheese, and drizzle with dressing. 

Healthy Chopped Cobb Salad

I had dinner at my friend Katie’s place on Friday while her husband (!!!) was at Topgolf with his boss.  Since their wedding the week prior, I’ve seen her almost every other day (they’re honeymooning later in May…)

Katie cooked us a delicious pizza with fresh Garlic & Herb dough from Trader Joe’s.  I brought a salad over and I think it’s now one of my favorite recipes.  If you already had eggs hard-boiled, it would only take a minute to throw together.  And compared to a typical Cobb salad, it was actually pretty healthy with the dressing made mostly from Greek Yogurt.   

Healthy Chopped Cobb Salad (adapted from Club Narwhal)

Ingredients:

• ½ head romaine lettuce, chopped (I had a pre-chopped bag…)
• 2 ears corn, shucked (you could use canned corn, but the fresh only takes a few minutes and is definitely worth it!)
• ½ pint cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in halves
• 4 eggs, hardboiled
• 5 slices bacon, cooked (I used Smithfield Cracked Peppercorn Coated)
• 2 avocados, sliced
• ¾ cup blue cheese crumbles
• 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• Salt and pepper, to taste

 

Directions:

1. I already had my hard boiled eggs prepared ahead of time, but if you don’t, place your eggs in pot with cold water, covering them by about 1”.  Put them on the stove with medium high heat.  As SOON as the water starts to boil, turn off the stove, cover the pot, and set a timer for 10 minutes.  When the timer goes off, put them directly into ice water – you’ll have perfect hard-boiled eggs that should be easy to peel.    

2.  At the same time, bring another pot of water to a boil.  Add the ears of corn and boil for 4-5 minutes, or until corn turns bright yellow.   

3. While cooking the corn and eggs, you can prepare your bacon in a skillet, getting it nice and crispy. 

4. Add your romaine, tomatoes, avocado, and ¼ cup of the blue cheese crumbles to a bowl.  Slice the eggs into halves, cut the corn from the cobb, and break the bacon into pieces.  Add all to the bowl. 

5.  For the dressing, mix together the remaining ½ cup blue cheese, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and garlic powder together.  Drizzle over the salad & serve. 

When transporting it to her place (which is only a 3-4 minute drive), I used the silicone poppy lid that Lance’s sister Brandi gave me for Christmas!  It seals completely to the top of the bowl to keep anything from spilling – and it keeps me from wasting plastic wrap.  Plus they’re heat resistant, so you can use them on the stovetop, in the microwave or oven, and put them in the dishwasher! 

I made a mini-bowl for Lance to enjoy as well while we had our girls’ night (and I brought home plenty of leftovers from Katie’s place for lunch the next day).  

Copycat Olive Garden Salad

Having only eaten breakfast sandwiches & ice cream earlier, we decided to have a salad for dinner so we at least had one healthy meal today. 

There was a coupon in the paper last week for bottles of Olive Garden’s Signature Italian dressing.  While I’ve seen several copycat versions of the dressing recipe, this bottle is the official mix of ingredients used at the restaurant. 

The salad is very simple but so amazing – at the restaurant most dishes come with unlimited soup or salad, and I always opt for the salad.  Most of the time when I dine there, I fill up on the salad and bring my entrée home as leftovers. 

For any of you who want to recreate it at home, I’ve included instructions for a copycat dressing if you are unable to find the official version at your grocery store. 

I didn’t really measure the ingredients – I put more olives and onions than the Olive Garden normally puts and less banana peppers (the original uses pepperoncini but I already had banana peppers in my fridge). 

Copycat Olive Garden Salad

Ingredients:

• Romaine lettuce
• 1-2 tomatoes
• ½ onion, sliced
• Black olives
• Banana peppers or pepperoncini
• Croutons
• Parmesan cheese
• Pepper
• Olive Garden Signature Italian Dressing (or you can make your own – Family Fresh Meals has a copycat recipe)

Directions:

1. Toss all ingredients together & serve!