Dinner for One

I discovered a delicious dinner for one.  So delicious that after making it and inhaling it last night I waited anxiously all day to get home and make it again tonight.  It was fabulous!  I did not take the time to take any pictures for you – but trust me when I say this is a great dinner.

Before I share the recipe, I have a confession to make…  I had sautéed spinach for the first time last week and have discovered my love for cooked spinach.  I’ve had chopped spinach in a lot of meals before and Green Monster smoothies but never had spinach by itself.  So I decided to stock up and find some recipes to use spinach.  I did a search for chicken and spinach recipes and discovered this one and tweaked it a bit (reduced to one serving and left out the mushrooms)

Balsamic Chicken with Spinach and Tomatoes for One

• 3 handfuls of prewashed spinach
• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, uncooked
• Tastefully Simple Seasoning salt
• Pepper
• Diced Tomatoes
• Kraft Light Sicilian Roasted Garlic – Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
• 1/4 cup shredded Sargento’s Reduced Fat 4 Cheese Italian

Directions:

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.  Place spinach in the bottom of the dish.  Place chicken on top of the spinach; season chicken with seasoning salt and pepper.  Place the tomatoes on top of the chicken.  Pour the dressing over the spinach, chicken, tomatoes.  Top with the cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Simple. Easy. Perfect!!!  I ate it just like that, but the recipe suggested serving over angel hair pasta or rice.  It was so yummy.  Only one dirty pan to clean up – my kind of cooking!  Now its time for some exercise!

QOTD:  Any delicious spinach recipe or links to share?

Gorgeous Sunrise start to my day

Workout:  6.0 mile run with Cop in 56:38

.5 mile walk with Cop and 2 mile walk with Macy

So I've had to remind myself about four times already that it is Tuesday not Monday.  That happened to anyone else? 

I struggled a little bit getting out of bed this morning.  I was just beating that snooze button up.  However, I finally managed to swing my legs down and touch the floor at 5:50 and was out the door by 6 for my morning run.  Copper and I tackled more hills, including a new one we never thought we'd accomplish.  Why is it that some hills look more fearsome then others until you are actual pounding your feet up them?  It was a big old hill but really didn't seem that rough once I got going.  We ended up with 6 miles and the last mile I decided to push myself again to work on lowering that overall pace. 

When I made it back, I took several excellent blogger's advice and mixed up a smoothie.  I had frozen blueberries, frozen black red raspberries and frozen strawberries along with yogurt, splash of OJ, half a banana and a scoop of whey protein.  It was surprisingly tasty even though I was just tossing things in.  I need to do some looking for recipes to follow. 

Getting the proper nutrition is something I've really been struggling with.  On these hot summer days, I just don't feel like cooking or eating.  So my lunches just turn into several snacking episodes (with not the best snacks) and dinners end up being sandwiches or burgers or something easy I can do on the grill.   I am hoping I can get into the routine of having smoothies or eggs after my morning runs and then really focusing on something healthy and with protein for lunch.  I think for lunch today I will mix up some tuna salad on a whole wheat tortilla.  That should fill me up till dinner.  We have lots of leftovers to clean up from the weekend. 

QOTD:  Do you have any great  recipes or links for smoothies or quick, easy, simple and healthy lunches to share?

Running really does clear the mind.

Today's Workout:  3.6 miles in 31 mins with Dad and SB.

Yesterday's Workout:  4.3 miles in 37 mins with Dad.

I felt pretty good yesterday.  A little frustrated with  my students but that is to be expected in May.  I got a good run in with my Dad before the rain hit.  It was a lot warmer than I thought it would be but actually had a really good run.  I always struggle in the beginning of spring/summer getting use to the weather change.  Hopefully my body is getting use to things. 

We did a loop around a local park and then ran out and back half of the bike path.  We kept a really good pace even though Dad was coughing up a lung must of the run.  My knees and IT band felt the best they have in a long time.  Can compression capris help with IT band and knee issues??  I just got them and seem to feel a difference when I wear them.  

When I got home from the run though the grumpy pants must have found me.  I was quite crabby and couldn't shake it.  This morning I woke up and was still crabby.  Somehow I managed through the day without screaming at a student.  By 3 pm I was really looking forward to my run to attempt run the crabbiness out of me.

Since I teach in a classroom with no windows I had no idea what it was like today.  It was quite chilly today  but once I got moving I warmed up quickly.  Dad, SB and I met down at the local college and ran around campus.  It was windy today, but the campus buildings broke things up and we didn't really notice it until the end.  The pace wasn't as fast as yesterday but I felt good again.   We had great conversations going the whole run which made it go by fast.  My Dad had me laughing pretty good at his story about a scary jellybean.

I think the run helped.  I felt much less crabbier when I got home.  I attempted to make homemade pizza tonight for the first time.  I started at 5:30 and didn't get to eat the pizza until 7:45.  I don't think it is suppose to take two hours.  And if it does take that long I should have fluffy delicious pizza crust not the flat, hard, rock like crust we ate.  I think the yeast with an expiration date of 5/5/2011 might have expired a while ago. 

One of these days I will tackle these troubles I have with making breads and pizza crusts that actually rise.  Anyone have good pizza crust recipes to share???

Spring is in the Air

It really feels like spring is right around the corner at the moment, BUT according to noaa.gov there is lots of rain and snow on the way.  Today was a great day.  My hubby and I spent most of the day together.  We took Cabella over to the club to chase some rabbits, did a few errands and then came home and set up the big pen for the little girls.  They are going to be moving outside during the day.

I made a fantastic dinner tonight.  I got the recipe from Kraft Foods for a Parmesan-Crusted Stuff Chicken Breast and modified it a bit.

It was very delicious and very easy to make.  I modified it for just the two of us by doing the following:

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breast
• 24 fresh asparagus spears, trimmed
• mozzarella and cheddar cheese
• Tastefully Simple Seasoning Salt
• Italian Seasoning
• Parmesan Cheese
• Chicken Stuffing

Steps:

1. Heat oven to 400. 
2. Make a cut in the long side chicken breast, being careful not to cut through the other side.  I pounded the breast out a little bit since it was so thick.  I also sprinkled Seasoning Salt and Italian Seasoning on the inside. 
3. Fill pocket with a few spears of asparagus and sprinkle with mozzerlla and cheddar cheese.
4. Fold over the other side, place on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, and sprinkle chicken with Parmesan Cheese.
5. Put chicken in oven for about 15 minutes.
6. After 15 mins, put the rest of the asparagus spears on the cookie sheet with a little olive oil and seasoning salt sprinkled on top.  I also sprinkled some more mozzerella on top of the chicken.
7. Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
8. While the chicken is finishing up, make up Chicken Stuffing following instructions on package.

We both really enjoyed it.  It was tasty, filling and we didn't have any leftovers.  That's a good meal in my book.