Grilled Chicken and Mango Salad with Spicy Avocado Dressing

Today's Fit Friday recipe is a healthier take on a dinner salad.  And it's full of fresh fruits and vegis.  I love Summer and the fresh produce that comes with it.  I so love going to the market and buying fresh, ripe fruits, like these mangos.  The smell that these all have is amazing.  When it is hotter than the inside of an oven outside, all I want is a cool salad made with ingredients that are simple but full of flavor.

Coating the chicken with some season salt is a nice contrast to the sweetness of the mango.  The dressing can be adjusted - using 1/2 jalapeno gives it just a slight edge.  If you want more spice, use the whole thing.  If you want less, just use 1/4 of it.  It makes it very easy to make this salad kid approved.  To take it one step further, I just grilled 2 of the chicken thighs with some salt and pepper.  So get ready for summer and dish yourself up some salad.

Grilled Chicken and Mango Salad

with Spicy Avocado Dressing

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 Tbs. seasoned salt
2 ripe mangos, peeled and cubed
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and Pepper
1 avocado, pitted and sliced
1 cup goat cheese crumbles
4 cups salad mix (I like spring mix)

Dressing:

1 avocado, pitted
2 limes, juiced
1 bunch green onions
4 cloves garlic
1 cup cilantro
6 oz. plain Greek yogurt
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded
1/2 cup water
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Prepare the dressing.  Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Process until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

2. Preheat grill over medium high heat.  Pour seasoned salt into a large ziploc bag.  Add chicken and shake bag to coat with salt.  Place on grill and cook for 20-25 minutes, rotating once, or until chicken is no longer pink inside.

3. After placing chicken on grill, pour olive oil into a shallow bowl and toss tomatoes in oil to coat.  Add to grill and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Turn frequently to cook evenly, for about 5-10 minutes or until skin begins to char.

4. Layer salad with salad mix, avocado slices, mango cubes, grilled tomatoes, and sliced chicken breast.  Sprinkle goat cheese over the top and add 1/4 cup dressing to each salad.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4

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Tandoori Grilled Chicken with Cilantro Lime Quinoa

If you asked me what my favorite food was, I'd say sushi.  Hands down, every day, all day long, 365 days a year.  But since I'm not a millionaire, I can't afford to eat sushi every day.  So if you asked me what my second favorite food was, I'd say Indian food.  Holy crap.  I love the aroma of it cooking.  I love the spices involved.  Just looking at all the different spices in a recipe for an Indian dish gets me giddy.










So for today's Fit Friday recipe, I'm cooking up some dark meat with a handful of fragrant spices.  Tandoori Grilled Chicken.  Now, I have to say that Tandoori chicken isn't about the spices alone.  A tandoor is actually a type of oven used to cook meat and bread in, native to India.  It's made out of clay or metal and is cylindrical.  It reminds me of a very deep fire pit.  But we here in America known this type of chicken used with these spices as Tandoori Chicken.  Paprika, cumin, turmeric, garam masala, all spices used to give the chicken a smokey flavor while the cayenne pepper gives it a pop.  Let me say this - this IS a kid friendly recipe.  Even though it has cayenne pepper in it, it's really not spicy.  The yogurt tones that down.  Just gives it great flavor.

Using quinoa as a side dish just makes sense to me with Indian food.  I could use couscous, but I'd rather get some protein and fiber packed into my side dish.  The lime and cilantro compliments the chicken so well, you really don't need anything else.  Again, something the kids will enjoy.  Here's your tip for this recipe.  If you can't find skinless chicken pieces, it's VERY easy to skin them yourself.  All you have to do is find a place where the skin is loose, slide your thumb underneath the skin, and pull the skin back.  If you find it a little difficult, just grab a paper towel, grab the skin, and you'll find that pulling the skin off is so easy.  And it's cheaper to buy it with the skin on!  Winner winner, chicken dinner!

Tandoori Grilled Chicken

with Cilantro Lime Quinoa

Ingredients:

4-6 skinless chicken pieces (I used drumsticks and thighs)
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves
1 Tbs. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. garam masala
2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro
1 (6 oz.) container plain Greek yogurt
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 cup quinoa
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 limes, juiced
2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Pierce chicken pieces with a fork several times.  Place in a large ziploc bag.

2. Place onion and garlic in a food processor.  Process until smooth.  Add spices, yogurt, and lemon juice.  Process until mixed well.  Add liquid to chicken in bag.  Place in fridge and allow to marinade for 4 hours.

3. Preheat grill over medium high heat.  Place chicken on grill and cook for 20-30 minutes, turning once.  Remove from grill and serve immediately.  (I served mine with lemon slices to be juiced onto chicken)

4. While chicken is cooking, prepare quinoa.  Pour chicken broth and quinoa into a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil and cover.  Reduce heat and cook until moisture has cooked off, about 10-15 minutes.  Remove lid and add lime juice and cilantro.  Toss with a fork.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4

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Green and Gluten Free Shrimp Pasta

I am finding more and more people are allergic to gluten.  I have had some close friends remove gluten from their diets, and I thought it was by choice.  But apparently more and more people are becoming allergic to gluten and their bodies are having awful, painful reactions to it.  For a long time, it was difficult for those people to find ready made products in the store.  Now, it seems more and more packaged items are coming gluten free.  For example, Barilla pastas.  I was so excited to see this box of penne pasta and knew that this week's fit recipe had to include it.










One of my favorite pasta sauces is pesto.  But since I was trying to create this from scratch, I thought I'd
beef it up a bit with some superfoods - asparagus, spinach, avocado, basil.  All green, all full of awesome nutrients.  If you prefer, you can leave the cheese out of the sauce.  I added it to be more like a traditional pesto sauce.  Either way, this sauce is thicker than a normal pesto because of the avocado.  It coats the pasta well, it's chock full of flavor, and it's very hearty.

I chose to use cooked shrimp mainly for getting the dish on the table quickly.  But because I used cooked shrimp, I made sure not to reheat it for too long.  If you do that, the shrimp will curl up tight and become tough.  Just tossing it with the hot oil will be enough.  Serving the pasta, shrimp, and green sauce gives you a well rounded meal with healthy carbs, protein, and vegis.  Simply awesome.

Green and Gluten Free Shrimp Pasta

Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus, ends removed and cut in half
1 box (12 oz.) Barilla Gluten Free Penne Pasta
1 lb. cooked shrimp, tail on
1 Tbs. seasoned salt
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 Tbs. olive oil

2 avocados

3 cups baby spinach leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
5 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
4 Tbs. lemon juice
1/2 cup parmesan cheese


Directions:

1. Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water.  Bring to a boil.  Add asparagus.  Cook for 3-5 minutes to blanch.  Remove asparagus with tongs and add to an ice water bath immediately to stop cooking.  Do NOT discard water.  Set aside.

2. Prepare pasta according to directions on box.  Drain pasta.

3. While pasta is cooking, prepare shrimp.  Remove tails from shrimp and rinse under cold water.  Pour season salt into a ziploc bag and add shrimp.  Shake bag to coat shrimp.  Preheat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add shrimp and 1/4 cup pine nuts to hot skillet and toss with olive oil for 2-3 minutes, just to heat shrimp through.  Place lid on skillet to keep hot.

4. Place asparagus, avocado, spinach, basil, olive oil, remaining pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese into a food processor.  Add 1/2 cup hot water from asparagus saucepan.  Process until smooth, adding more water as needed until desired consistency is reached.

5. Pour 1 cup of pasta onto a plate, top with green sauce and shrimp.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4-5

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Paleo Blackened Chicken

It can be difficult to find healthy recipes that your family will like.  So when I had some blackened chicken cravings and wanted to make it even healthier with a side of quinoa, I knew that my kiddos wouldn't go for just that.  I had to "oomph" it up a bit.  I had a couple of avocados hanging around and I knew they'd go bad soon.  So a variation of my Avocado Dipping Sauce was the result.

The nice part of this recipe is that the chicken has just enough spice.  A lot of times blackened chicken can be spicy.  So I toned down the cayenne pepper (not too much though, you still want it to have a little zing) in order to be kid friendly.  And I'm kind of a sucker for Cilantro Lime Rice.  But with paleo recipes, you need to convert your rice over to quinoa.  It turned out to be a fantastic dish that was gone before I was even done taking pictures.  Yup, I ate my meal by myself.  But that's okay, it was a hit, and the kids had no clue how good it was for them.  SCORE!

Paleo Blackened Chicken

with Quinoa and Avocado Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 lime, zested and juiced
2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro

Avocado Cream Sauce:
1 avocado
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1 Tbs. milk
2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbs. white vinegar
1/2 Tbs. lime juice

Directions:

1. Place quinoa and chicken broth in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook quinoa until opened, all liquid has cooked off.  While quinoa is cooking, preheat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat.

2. Combine paprika, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, onion powder, cumin, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl.  Sprinkle half of the spice mixture over the top of the chicken breasts and place spice side down in skillet.  Sprinkle remaining spice over chicken and cover.  Cook chicken for approximately 8-10 minutes on each side, or until no longer pink in center. Remove from heat but leave cover on pan.  Let rest until ready to serve.

3. While chicken and quinoa are cooking, prepare avocado sauce.  Put avocado, greek yogurt, milk, 2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, vinegar, and lime juice in a food processor.  Process until smooth.

4. Fluff quinoa and add lime juice, lime zest and 2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro.  Serve chicken over quinoa and top with avocado cream sauce.

Serves 4

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Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

Today's Fit Friday recipe is about the Zone Diet.  This is really how we prefer to eat at our house.  Why?  Because the Zone Diet is all about portions and being well-rounded in your meals.  Of course it also means using minimal sugar and fats, being careful on salt and processed foods.  Where possible, I try to use simple ingredients, whole grains, and lean meats.  It might seem complicated, but it really is not.  It might also seem like it takes a while to cook this way, but it doesn't.  I have a policy in my meals - if it takes me more than an hour to get dinner on the table, it's not going there during the week.  I might make a fancy meal on the weekend, but during the week when I pressed for time and have other obligations, I make meal preparation as simple as possible.

So today's recipe, Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry, is exactly that.  Simple, easy to prepare.  I used asparagus, mushrooms, and onion as my vegetables.  Fresh and compliment the chicken and sauces.  I like to use water chestnuts in my stir fry to mix up the textures.  If you don't like water chestnuts, it's not a deal breaker.  It still tastes great without them.  But I like variety, and crispy is a nice change up in this recipe.  One note though - for photography purposes, I used white rice.  But with a true Zone Diet recipe, you would have brown rice. Or better yet, Quinoa.

Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. canola oil
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
8 oz. sliced white mushrooms
1 can water chestnuts, drained
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup stir fry sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
Brown Rice (or Quinoa)

Directions:

1. Prepare rice.  While rice is cooking, prepare stir fry.  Add oil to a wok or large skillet and preheat over medium high heat.

2. Add chicken.  Stir fry for 5 minutes or until center is no longer pink.  Remove chicken with a slotted spoon and place on plate.  Set aside.

3. Add asparagus and onion to wok and stir fry for 3 minutes.  Add mushrooms.  Stir fry for 3 more minutes.  Add water, cover, and allow vegetables to steam for an additional 3 minutes.

4. Return chicken to wok.  Add sauces and toss with vegetables and chicken to coat.  Serve immediately over rice.

Serves 4

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Fit Friday - Asparagus and Pesto Pasta Salad

How's about another Weight Watchers friendly recipe for this fit Friday?  We're getting into the Spring months, and I know that my tastes are starting to change.  I'm craving more and more lighter dishes.  We've broken in the grill, and that calls for some tasty side dishes to compliment.  Grilled meat can really hold its own, if you want.  But it has to have a good side to make it pop.  Pasta salads are something that can be made ahead of time and served cold.  

This pasta salad has crunchy asparagus, giving the dish an extra dose of nutrition.  The pesto keeps it light but again gives it a flavor punch.  A lot of pasta salads have chunks of cheese in them.  But to keep this lighter, I opted for some shredded parmesan - a little goes a long way.  And the last addition, sundried tomatoes.  The give the salad some color and some zing.  Even though this pasta salad is a healthier substitute than a traditional macaroni or pasta salad, it doesn't substitute in flavor.

Asparagus and Pesto Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 lb. asparagus, ends removed and cut into 1 inch pieces

2 Tbs. olive oil

Salt and Pepper

1/4 cup julienned sun dried tomatoes

3/4 cup pesto sauce

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

8 oz. Farfalle/Bowtie Pasta

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Spread asparagus out across sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over the top and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and toss with sun dried tomatoes in a large bowl.  Add pesto sauce and cheese.  Set aside.

2. Bring a pot of salted water to boiling.  Add pasta and cook according to package instructions.  Drain well and add to other ingredients.  Toss well and serve either warm or cool.  

Serves 4

Weight Watchers Points: 5

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