Easy Dinner: Pesto Chicken with Veggies Recipe

 
I'm all about healthy and delicious dinners, especially ones that don't take a long time to make. I love this pesto chicken recipe and make it frequently. I also just discovered this delicious veggie dish which I will be adding to my regular rotation of meals. The pesto chicken is adapted from Gina's Skinny Recipes and the veggie dish is adapted from Simple Vegan Blog. I love both of them for creating these amazing recipes! I added a warm roll because who doesn't love rolls?! The whole wheat frozen rolls are super great because you pop them in the oven for 8 minutes and they are warm and taste heavenly! You can work on both these recipes at the same time to condense the total prep time!

Chicken
Total time: 20 mins
Prep time: 8 mins
Serving: 6 pieces

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
6 oz of pesto
1 tablespoon of basil
2 large tomatoes
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese (buying the bag of shredded mozzarella makes things a lot easier!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice each chicken breasts to make 2 thinner pieces of chicken by cutting it across (not down the middle).
3. Spread pesto evenly on each piece of chicken. Drizzle the basil on top of the pesto.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken breasts (I like to cut through a piece of the thickest piece after 20 minutes just to make sure it's fully cooked!)
5. After the chicken is about done cooking, add 2 thick slices of tomato on each piece of chicken and top with mozzarella.
6. Bake for another minute and then serve!

Veggies
Total time: 40 mins
Prep time: 20 mins
Serving: 6

Ingredients:
2 green peppers
1 zucchini
1/2 bag of baby carrots
1 white onion
1 sweet potato
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp all-spice
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Boil the sweet potato in a pot of water as you prep the other veggies.
3. Chop the green peppers, zucchini, carrots, and onion. Add to a bowl and mix together the spices and the olive oil.
4. The sweet potato won't be completely cooked but it'll be soft enough to cut through. Chop the sweet potatoe and add to the mix of veggies.
5. Place the veggies in a cooking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

Thanks for reading!

How to Eat Healthy When You're Busy

Hia! Sorry for not posting in a little while, things have been pretty crazy. Since I've been so busy, I thought it would be fitting to do a post about how to eat healthy when you're busy (aka most days for me and I'm sure for you too!). It's super easy to be healthy when you have lots of time to prep healthy meals but when I'm busy, all my healthy habits go out the window. I've started to find my rhythm and I wanted to share some of my tips with you! For me, eating healthy has to be the easy and simplest option, otherwise I'll go for the super easy take-out or vending machine snack.

1. Water - I always carry around a bottle of water (I especially love these because I am more likely to drink it if there is minimal effort on my part aka I don't need to even unscrew the cap because there is a straw, plus they don't leak which is super nice!!). Drinking water keeps me hydrated when I'm drinking a lot of coffee and tea (caffeine dehydryates you!) and helps me have better work outs. Drinking water also makes sure I'm not overeating because a lot of times when you think you're hungry, you're actually thirsty/dehydrated! *Ideally* you should drink 2 liters a day.

2. Salads - Salads are SO easy to make. They are perfect for if I need to make dinner very quickly. I'll buy salad ingredients (mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded carrot) on the weekend and they last all week for daily salads. I like to mix it up with protein so 1 day of the week I'll make lots of chicken or salmon and then cut it up and put it in a container in the fridge. When I'm making the salad the morning of, I'll just mix the fixings (mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded carrots, protein, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, fruit) into 1 tupperware. It's seriously that easy! I like to put vinaigrette in a separate container just so my salad doesn't get soggy. It only takes a few minutes in the morning, it's super healthy, and because of the protein I'm actually full afterwards! I also like to have bread with my salad (hello fellow carb lovers!), so I'll either get sandwich bread or baguette and toast it when I'm about to eat dinner. This is definitely minimal effort (only a few minutes for a super healthy dinner vs 30 minutes to 1 hour of cooking a hot meal). Plus, if I have the salad already made it's much easier to eat the salad than to decide on and go get take out.

3. Smoothies - Smoothies are a game-changer for me. They're a perfect snack either in the afternoon or after dinner. They also only take a few minutes to make and are packed with fruits, yogurt, chia seeds, and oatmeal, so you'll stay full for longer than just if you just ate some fruit! I'm only slightly obsessed with smoothies. Again super minimal effort for a fancy, delicious, and extra healthy snack!

4. Healthy snacks & cutting your fruit - In addition to my smoothies I need to snack throughout the day. In the morning,  granola bars and mixed nuts are my go-to. For lunch I'll have a sandwich and then have a cut-up apple or strawberries as my post-lunch "dessert". Again with the minimal effort idea, I'm super weird and if you put an apple in front of me, I probably won't eat it. BUT, if you cut up an apple and put it in front of me it will be gone in 5 seconds. I'm weird like that but maybe cutting up fruit might work for you too!

Do you have any healthy go-to's for when you're busy? Comment below :)

Thanks for reading!  

Scarves and Sweets

PS The Contigo water bottles are 10% off today at Target with code "FURNITURE". 

4 Delicious Recipes for Ripe Bananas

One of my least favorite things is when you're at the end of the week and your bananas are too ripe. You don't want to throw them away but you also don't want to eat them plain. (Does anyone else hate the texture of over-ripe bananas?!) I have a few recipes to save the day and your bananas!

1. Bananas with cinnamon and honey! Adding cinnamon and honey makes the banana sweeter and masks the mushier texture of an over-ripened banana. I love this combo so much! I especially love this combo on a piece of peanut butter toast! *perfection*

2. Banana oat chocolate chip cookies - These cookies are SO easy to make! I usually mix together a banana or two, oats, chocolate chips, and cinnamon. You can also halve the recipe if you only have 1 over-ripened banana! Trust me, the cookies will be gone after a few minutes because they are so stinking delicious! It's totally okay to eat 6 at a time because they're healthy, right?! ;)




3. Smoothies - I love adding an over-ripened banana to a smoothie because it makes the smoothie taste extra sweet and adds extra fruit! You can read about my favorite smoothie recipe here!

4. The easiest banana bread - This is the most delicious banana bread I've ever tasted, and it is so easy! You only need bananas, eggs, yellow cake mix, and chocolate chips. It may not be the healthiest banana bread but every time I make it, people immediately get seconds!!


Do you have a special recipe you make with over-ripened bananas? Comment below :)

Thanks for reading!
  

Scarves and Sweets

Easy and Delicious Quiche

Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I take forever five-ever to pick out groceries, clothes, toiletries, medicine, really any item where I have to spend money. I want to weigh all my options, which ends up taking way too long and drives all my friends and family crazy. The other day my sister and I were at the grocery store and my sister was starting to get stir crazy from me weighing the pro's and con's of every type of lettuce (There were mixed greens, spinach, romaine, the possibilities were seriously endless!). We were both exhausted from a long day and weren't thrilled about having to come home and cook dinner. Suddenly my sister spotted the pre-made pie crust and suggested making a quiche. I jumped at the idea because it's easy, healthy, delicious, and pretty cheap to make. Get ready to for one of the best quiche recipes in the world, handed down from hundreds of quiche-making experiments from my lovely dad!

Total time: 50 mins
Prep time: 30 mins
Bake time: 20 mins
Serves: 8 slices

Ingredients:
-1 store-bought pie crust
-1 spritz of no-stick spray
-1 tablespoon of olive oil
-1 bag of frozen spinach*
-3/4 of a white onion
-1 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon pepper
-4 eggs
-1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
-2 teaspoons of sour cream

Directions:
1.Take the pie crust out of the plastic container but do not unroll it. Let the rolled up pie crust sit on the counter for 15 minutes.**
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Add no-stick spray to pan and then unroll pie crust. Place pie crust in the dish and poke it with a fork to make holes all around the pie crust.
4. Bake pie crust at 350°F for 8 minutes.***
5. Dice onion. Add olive oil and onions to a pan and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add spinach and stir until spinach is cooked, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
6. Crack and beat eggs. Add sour cream to eggs and stir until incorporated.
7. Add veggies to pie dish and place a layer of cheese on top. Add the eggs, followed by a second layer of cheese.
8. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes, or until firm.


*You can switch out spinach for broccoli or asparagus but I love how it tastes with spinach!
**The pie crust comes from the refrigerator and will tear if it isn't at room temperature. Letting it warm up to room temperature will allow it to be more supple and less likely to tear when you're placing it on the pie dish.
***This makes the crust extra flaky and delicious!

Thanks for reading!

Scarves and Sweets

Healthy Pizza Recipe//A Slice of Heaven

What?! "Healthy" and "pizza" in the same name?! Crazy, I know! This is the real deal, though. My sister made this recipe a lot growing up and it is beyond delicious. It tastes better than any restaurant-made or store-bought pizza and it is very simple to make. If you're like me and you love thick crusted pizza with lots of veggies, this is a slice of heaven (see what I did there :D)?

I like to use red, yellow, and green bell peppers to add color, but you can use whichever type of bell pepper you want. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 bell peppers, so I like to slice the left over bell pepper  and save it for later in the week to eat as a snack with hummus. Below I served my pizza with a side salad of mixed greens, cucumber, fresh blueberries, and oil and vinegar dressing.

Total time: 45 mins
Prep time: 20 mins
Bake time: 25 mins
Serves: 6 thick slices*

Ingredients:
-1 bag of store-bought white pizza dough**
-1 1/2 bell peppers
-1/2 onion
-6 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese
-1 small can of tomato sauce (~4 oz)
-1 tbsp basil
-No-stick spray
-optional: crushed red pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Clean and slice bell peppers and dice onion.
4. Add no-stick spray to a pan. Remove dough from plastic and stretch it out with your hands. Place dough onto the pan, and make sure you spread it out as much as possible. Do not worry about it being too thin in certain places because the dough will rise in the oven!
5. Add tomato sauce to the dough, and then add 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese.
6. Spread veggies onto pizza and top with the second 1/2 of the cheese.
7. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of basil on top, and crushed red pepper if you chose.
8. Bake for 25 mins at 400°F.


*I usually eat this with a salad on the side, so 1 slice is plenty for me! We keep any leftovers in aluminum foil or in Tupperware in the fridge and it will last another 2-3 days.

**You can use wheat dough, but it is much thicker and harder to spread on the pan.

Thanks for reading!

Scarves and Sweets