Recipe: Chicken Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese

I tested out a new recipe Friday night from my The Low GI Diet book. Its a very simple and easy dish to make. The meal is high in folate, niacin, beta-carotene and fibre. Here is the recipe:

Chicken Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese

4 chicken breast fillets

4 slices of swiss cheese, cut into thin strips

80g mushrooms

40g baby spinach leaves

4 wooden toothpicks

2 teaspoons of olive oil

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 1/3 cups (300ml) Italian tomato cooknig sauce

1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, finely shredded

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut a deep slit (making sure not to cut all the way through) along the length of each chicken breast. Fill each evenly wih cheese, mushrooms and spinach. Secure the opening with toothpicks.

2. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frypan over a medium-high heat. Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and peppper. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each sode or until well browned.

3. Transfer the chicken to a shallow overproof dish and pour over the cooking sauce. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

4. Meanwhile, steam some vegetables. The recipe says steam carrots, beans andsweet corn.

5. Remove the toothpicks and place the chicken breasts on serving plates. Pour over the sauce and sprinkle with the basil. Serve with the vegegtables.

Here is the finished dish.....

The other half was very happy indeed with this recipe and I will be making this recipe again for sure! Every Wednesday and Friday about a five minute drive out of town I go to a local fruit and vegetable man. He grows his own fruit and vegetables but also visit the main markets to get other fruit and veg he doesn't have. I couldn't make it out there Wednesday but manage to get there Friday. Take alook at what I got for $21.00!

My partner calls him my "Boyfriend" becasue I am always raving on about him and how great the food is. If only you could see this man.... :) I'm making a beef casserole as we speak ..... Mmmm yum and I am trying another new recipe tomorrow Meatballs, I've never made meatballs.

Weekly Meal Planner

I know it's Tuesday evening but I thought I'd show you my meal planner for the week. Wednesday's are normally my day off so I go grocery shopping. So every Tuesday's I sit down and work out what I am going to eat for the rest of the week and I try my best to stick to it. Breakfast and dinner are the two main meals I ALWAYS stick to. They are both my favourite meals of the day, I hate lunch because whatever I plan to eat that day I never want to eat it.

As you can see I didn;t do to well Monday.....Oh well. Going to the gym tomorrow morning for first time this week. I have to weight and measured to so I'll update you all on that too. Sorry for the  bad hand writing, next time I will type up my menu plan for you all.

Tomorrow night I am using a new recipe, chicken fajita stacks....Mmmmmmmm sounds yummy doesn't it?

Weaknesses..and what's cooking good looking!

If you're wondering why I called this blog "My Little Pot Belly" it's because since my last year of high school (2000) I have always been self consicous of my stomach. Ok so it's not huge or round but I have little roll/pot belly. I make sure what clothes I wear to disguse this belly. I remember saying to my sister in law the other day, I would be completely happy with my body if I had a flat stomach. She said to me to get a flat stomach I would have to not eat, which is correct. And maybe because I do have a HUGE love for carbs and it doesn't really help. I have succeeded with two diets where I achieved my flat stomach but of course I go back to my old ways. One diet was only for health reasons and the other was from a 6 week challenge I did last year at my gym. It was fantastic and I did really well. I only lost 1.6kg but that's alot but enough for my body weight. My main goal is to maintain a healhty lifestyle and eating habit. Not DIET! I hate the word diet, I think it should be BANNED!

Here are my weaknesses:

Fizzy drinks

Bread

Potatos

Hot chips

Potato chips

All fast food restaruants

Chocolate

Ice-cream

You're thinking that's all of mine too? the problem is I ate all if this when I was younger and never put weight on. AS I am getting older I have to watch what I eat as I can't eat all of this all the time. My main battle is snacking, I need to slow down on them and watch what type of snack I eat. But with the dinner side everythings fine, I love cooking and I love trying new recipes. Tonight I tried a new recipe a vegetarian one. I got the recipe from this months issue of the Healthy Food Gudie Australia. I actually wasn't too keen on the taste but I still ate it anyway.

sweet potato curry with rice

It's filled with potato, sweet potato, peas and kidney beans. I was meant to put in baby spinach but I couldn't find any and yoghurt as I am lactose intolerant so I left that out just to be safe. The other half will eat this on nightshift tomorrow night. He's such a great sport I am always willing to try a new recipe and if I don't like it he always finishes his off.

This recipe is

LOW FAT'

HIGH PROTEIN

HIGH FIBRE

HIGH IRON

If you would like the recipe let me know and I will be happy to post it up for you all. Next week I will show you my weekly menu plan where I plan out my food for the week.

What did you eat for dinner?

Welcome to My Little Pot Belly!

Welcome to My little pot belly! the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about starting a blog about my love/hate relationship with food. I know I am not the only one here that has this same problem. My little pot belly isn't a place for me to whinge and whine that I am fat and ugly so I get sympathy from complete strangers, that's not what this is about. Beside fashion, food is always on mind constantly.....every second and minute of the day. I live for lunch time at work so I can stuff my face with food. SO be prepared for:

my obsession with my weekly menu plan

my shopping list

what new recipes I have found

New recipes I have tested

My attempt to go to the gym

how strict I follow my weekly menu plan

My ongoing obsession with my little pot belly

If you follow any other food blogs can you pretty pretty please give me a name or a link so I can make some foodie friends.

I hope all enjoy this journey as much as I do!

x

P.S please excuse the very plain layout will get onto it ASAP!