Healthy Chicken Casserole

Food on Pinterest, by and large, is divided into two categories, super, rediculously healthy food that may or may not fall into a "diet" category like vegan or gluten free or... the reason why America is fat, gooey, sweet, deep-fried monstrosities. It's like Pinterest people have those little angels and devils on their shoulders like you see in cartoons. These Pins represent what we aspire to be and what most of us really are (and eat). I, myself try and live mostly on the angel side (hence this Pin) but that's not to say I don't sometimes enjoy some good devil food.  Closer to Christmas you'll see that a lot more.

Here is the original Pin:

Balsamic Chicken

Original                                                                      Mine 

The first problem I have with this pin is it's name.  There is but a mere teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and it is not noticeable at all. First tip for this recipe... add more balsamic... it's delicious and flavorful.

The only things that I altered about this recipe was that I used a yellow onion instead of a red one (because that's what I already had at the house) and I used garlic from a jug instead of peeling and chopping the little bulbs.  I swear none of my cooking would have any flavor if it wasn't for those jugs of prepared garlic.  To start, you brown off the chicken.  I used smaller pieces instead of whole breasts because that's what I could find, and I used a little olive oil instead of cooking spray. When the chicken is cooked through, you place it at the bottom of a casserole dish.

Then you make your pesto topping with the basil, garlic, oil, etc.  Blend until smooth. 

Add the pesto to the casserole dish, then the onions, tomatoes and mushrooms.  Any number of other veggies would be fine in this recipe.  I think spinach would be especially nice.

Cover and put in the oven for about 40 minutes. While it was cooking I put some brown rice in my rice cooker and it timed out pretty well.

Overall, this recipe is definitely healthy, as for tasty... it's pretty good, but not great.  It tastes like you're eating a healthy meal, which isn't a bad thing, it's just not particularly inspirational.  If I were to make this again, I would try and up the flavor a little bit... more garlic, some salt, and definitely more balsamic vinegar.

Cost: About what you'd expect to pay for a home cooked meal.  I had to buy the chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms and basil, but I already had everything else. It's about 4 portions, so we were able to put some leftovers away for lunch for Nugget another day.

Time: Maybe 10-15 minutes prep, then 40 minutes cooking.

Difficulty: I think it would be difficult to ruin this, but there's any number of things you can do to make it better.

Aesthetic Appeal: The red tomatoes and green pesto make it a fairly attractive meal.

Life Enhancement: I think this recipe is a good base for future ideas rather than an excellent meal as is.  It is very healthy, no doubt... gluten free, low fat, but the seasoning needs to be bumped up to make it memorable.

Grilled Goat Cheese & Avocado Sandwich

I'm fairly well known, in my house anyway, to not thoroughly read a recipe, which could prove to be my undoing with this project. I saw the picture of this Pin and it looked delicious. I scanned the list of ingredients and bought everything at the grocery store I needed. Breakfast is our main meal of the day as I work later in the day. Usually my husband prepares it. He has quite a way with an egg and a spatula! The night before I told him it was my turn. He made some homemade bread for me that evening. Obviously this step is not truly necessary, there is plenty of fine bread available commercially, but call us pretentious, fresh home baked bread is mighty good. Anyway, morning broke (well, Nugget woke up) and I went to start our delicious sandwich.

Here is the original Pin:

Green Goddess Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I looked at the recipe again, and noticed that I hadn't seen the entire second half.  There was an elaborate recipe for herb pesto that was supposed to go on the sandwich.  Well... that wasn't going to happen, so I figured out what we had in the house.  I thought that we might have a jar of prepared pesto, but I was wrong.  I did find mustard that had basil in it. Done!

So I found my ingredients and put the sandwich together... bread, basil mustard, spinach, avocado and goat cheese.

I decided not to fry it.  I find that crumbly cheese always falls out of sandwiches. We have a super awesome George Foreman grill and used that instead.  Turned out great! Nicely brown minus the grease. Super simple and very delicious.  I suppose sometime I might try it with the herb pesto mentioned, but I kind of doubt it... maybe jarred pesto.

Even without the special pesto sauce I thought this turned out really nice.  It's an easy way to get veggies into breakfast or lunch without it feeling forced.  Nugget tried it and at first she wasn't really having it.  I think she probably thought the cheese was a bit sour, which it is, but she kept coming back for more and ended up eating quite a bit of it.

Cost: About the same of any ordinary sandwich. I used one avocado for 2 sandwiches and the small container of goat cheese I got was enough for 4 sandwiches.

Prep & Execution time: 10 minutes tops, from beginning to end.

Difficulty: Easy... although one day I'd like to learn how to make those pretty avocado slices instead of scooping it out with a spoon.

Aesthetic Appeal: Pretty, green sandwich with a nice golden crust.

Life Enhancement.  It enhances a life as much as you can expect from a sandwich.