Marinated Chicken & Veggies

Hello friends!! How are you?! I am BEYOND excited, I am one week away from my favorite event of the year, Coach Summit. NashVegas better be ready for us again! 

Anyways, speaking of Coach Summit, I have been TRYING to keep myself in check with my food prior to us leaving but I have also been on the lookout for new ideas for my meal plan. I was very good about my meal plan while I did Hammer & Chisel, I had no issues sticking to pretty much the same foods throughout the entire program but I am ready for a change.

One thing that came to mind yesterday while meal planning was chicken kabobs with veggies over brown rice.  When we BBQ with my parents, we used to always do skewers marinated in Italian dressing with this amazing brown mushroom rice my mom makes (full of BUTTER baby, but oh so good), sooooo, I wanted to make something similar but Fix approved, of course! 

So here it is! My marinated chicken & veggie recipe, I made plenty extra for meals throughout the week too. Keep in mind, I feed Aaron and myself, if you are prepping for just 1, you could cut back on the ingredients.

What you need (makes about 6 servings):
2 Bell Peppers (I did red/ orange), cut  
Small Container of Whole Mushrooms, cleaned
3 small-medium Zucchini (you can do Squash too), sliced
Onion (optional, I don't like onion but many do), sliced
2lb (or a little over) chicken, cut into chunks
1/2-3/4 C Bolthouse Farms Classic Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
3 C cooked brown rice (or quinoa, etc.) 

Preparation: 
1. Grab a ziploc bag, open it and pour in about 1/3 cup of the dressing. Place your cut up chicken in the ziploc, seal it and make sure all the chicken is covered before placing back in the fridge to marinate. Leave in there for at least 2 hours.
2. Do the same for the cut up veggies! Place in fridge for at least 2 hours. 
3. Heat up indoor/outdoor grill (if using an outdoor grill, make sure to cook on some type of pan that is grill safe so you don't lose the food in the grill!).  I used an indoor grill. 
4. Place veggies on grill, grill until desired tenderness.  (I also cooked mine separately because I didn't have space to cook both at the same time)
5. While those cook, measure out your cooked brown rice into separate containers. 1/2 cup per container. 
6. Measure veggies out (about 1 cup) and place into containers.
7. Place chicken on the grill, grill until no longer pink and fully cooked. 
8. Measure out chicken (about 3/4 cup) and place on top of veggies in containers.

You can add 1-2 tsp more of the dressing if you want/need when you eat or cook it but I did not need it. I personally had two servings of veggies today with my lunch and it was a TON of food.  

Caprese Chicken

What do you do when you have leftover basil and fresh mozzarella from your Margherita Pizza? You make Fix approved Caprese Chicken, of course!

This is one of my favorites and it is beyond simple but taste like it took hours to prepare...sometimes literally depending on if you are good at cooking chicken or not, mine sometimes tastes a little chewy and overcooked but I don't mind. ;) 

What you need for the top:
Pesto (2 tsp per chicken breast)
Tomato (I use 1 roma per chicken breast & eat any extra that doesn't fit) 
Basil Leaves (about 4 leaves per piece of chicken breast)
Fresh Mozzarella (1oz per chicken breast)
Salt & Pepper, just a dash will do

What you need for the chicken: 
Chicken Breast (4oz piece per person)
Dash of pepper
Olive Oil Spray

1. Spray a pan with olive oil spray and turn on medium heat. 
2. Season your chicken with some pepper and add to the pan. 
3. Cook your chicken about 4 minutes per side or until no longer pink in the middle (I use thinly sliced chicken breast so they cook quicker).
4. Place 2 tsp of pesto on top of your chicken breast, then layer it with 1oz mozzarella and 1 small roma tomato, alternating between the two.  
5. Cover and cook on low for about 2 minutes or until cheese starts to melt and tomatoes are soft. 
6. Take out of pan, place on a plate and top with fresh basil!   

I ate mine with a side of leftover tomatoes and broccoli with leftover cheese from my blue container melted on it...I mean, everything is better with cheese, right?! 

Margherita Pizza (Fix Approved)

Update: When I originally posted this pizza, I had mentioned I was having issues with it being watery in the end...I think I have perfected it! Not only that but I used a new crust from Golden Home that has 16g of protein which is perfect for this recipe in particular since it doesn't have any meat on it! So here it is, new and improved....and so pretty I didn't really want to eat it.  Oh, who I am kidding, I cut that "ish" up and devoured it! 

I am loving finding new pizzas to make each week. I had my standing meat and veggie, then I went for buffalo chicken...now on to the Margherita! We love pizza in our house so it is in a weekly rotation. And it is approved for pretty much every program I have done (21 Day Fix, Hammer and Chisel, 22 Minute Hard Corps, Insanity Max: 30).

Serves 1

This was from my original post, see new pictures below! 

What You Need: 
(Updated info is in parenthesis!)
1 Whole Grain Ultra Thin Pizza Crust from Golden Home  or their amazing protein crust (pictured below)! 
1/4 C Sauce - I use just enough Marinara or Pizza Sauce from Trader Joe's to cover the bottom.
1 small tomato sliced (preferably romo)
3 slices precut mozzarella (pictured), broken up
4-6 pieces of basil (sliced into strips)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Place pizza crust on foil, top with sauce.
3. Place in oven for 5 minutes.
4. Take your 3 slices of mozzarella and dab with a paper towel to get rid of the extra water.
5. At the 5 minute mark, top your pizza evenly with your cheese. 
6. While the pizza, sauce and cheese are cooking, cut up your tomato, take out the middle seeds, etc. and place in a paper towel to remove excess moisture. 
7. With 3 minutes left, top your pizza with the tomatoes and finish cooking (cooks for 10 minutes total).
8. Take your pizza out and top with your cut up basil. Slice and enjoy! 

Tips: When you buy a sauce, make sure it is natural, has no added sugars or other artificial crap! If you can only find a sauce WITH sugar, it will count as a purple on the Fix meal plan versus a green if you can find one without the sugars! Which I know you can. ;) 

BBQ Chicken & Sweet Potato

I have totally been MIA but summer is busy! My main focus has been my kids and my challengers, so the blog has definitely seen better days but I did want to share a new recipe with you all that was SUPER simple and yummy!! Next time I make this, I want to top it with a slaw of some sort! I love an extra crunch in my food! 

Serves: 2 servings, 1 sweet potato and about ¾ cup chicken each

Ingredients

• 2 small sweet potatoes, washed, pierced several times with a fork

• 1½ cups shredded cooked chicken breast, boneless, skinless, warm (I cheated and used a rotisseree chicken & peeled off the skin)

• ¼ cup barbecue sauce (they always call for reduced sugar, I can't find one, so I use Trader Joe's or you can make your own)

• ¼ cup Quick Pickled Red Onions (or 2 Tbsp. chopped red onions) (optional, I skipped this step)

Instructions

1. Place sweet potatoes on a plate. Pierce each sweet potato 3 to 4 times with a fork. Microwave 4-6 minutes or until tender. 

2. While sweet potato is cooking, combine chicken and barbecue sauce in a small bowl; mix well. Set aside.

3. Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise.

4. Top sweet potatoes evenly Quick Pickled Red Onions and chicken mixture. Serve and enjoy! 

Tips:

1. Look for barbecue sauce that has an ingredient list that does not contain artificial sweeteners, additives, or preservatives. There are many brands on the market that are sweetened with small amounts of honey, maple syrup, or molasses.

2. Use Healthy Barbecue Sauce as a homemade alternative to store-bought barbecue sauce.

3. UPDATED (2025): USE WHATEVER BBQ SAUCE YOU LIKE!!!!