My criteria for most of my healthy meals:
- Well balanced macros
- Typically veggie-loaded
- Great flavor
Bonus points if I can use up what I’m pulling out of the garden or already have in the fridge!
In this case, it was cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. I have ONE tomato vine that is just a mutant! It’s produced more cherry tomatoes than I know what to do with, and we harvest them by the truckload — seriously 😆 We collect them in my kid’s dump truck every week:
Hashtag momlife!
The kids love to come help me pick the tomatoes. As you can see, Ivy doesn’t discriminate between the green unripe ones and the juicy red ones but you know, we’ll get there. There are PLENTY to go around.
But really, I am a total veggie queen, and I will add veggies into any recipe where I feel like I need more.
This was not one of those recipes needing more though!
I would normally choose a lunch that contains a carb serving (for a daytime energy boost!), but if I had to make one without, this one was a great, nutritious choice for either lunch or dinner.
You can buy spiralized zucchini “noodles” or zoodles from certain supermarkets, but I prefer to just do it myself with a handy dandy spiralizer! If you’re in need, this spiralizer by Brieftons is similar to the one I have, but with some even better features (mine’s older at this point)! You can make all kinds of fun dishes with them like these:
Especially if you’ve got kids, you know that sometimes a different presentation can be a total game changer! It’s the little things 🤷♀️
Health Benefits
If there’s one thing veggies are great for, it’s fiber! Fiber helps keep things moving in your GI tract if ya know what I’m sayin’, and it helps you feel satiated after eating. But your typical vegetable will also contain it’s fair share of micronutrients, too!
Zucchini
Perhaps the coolest thing about it is that it contains two compounds that filter blue light and can help protect the cells in our eyes (hellooooo WFH life)! Zukes are rich in antioxidants, folate, potassium, and vitamin A. It’s a naturally low-calorie, -fat and -sugar food, and it’s SO versatile. I literally just ate the last spoonful of my pumpkin spice overnight oats that included shredded zucchini, okay? That’s the level of versatility we’re working with. I sneak it into my kids’ foods all the time too (wanna see what I mean?) for some hidden veggie power. Plus zoodles are a nice, low-carb alternative when craving pasta, one of my personal biggest food obsessions.
Cherry Tomatoes
I love being able to pick these off the vine and pop them in my mouth, and this vine I’ve got growing outside totally understood the assignment. Cherry tomatoes are rich in particularly vitamin C and lycopene, a compound that can help all kinds of things like inflammation, blood clotting issues, bone health support, AND it acts as natural sunscreen by limiting UV damage to your skin! They are also a good source of vitamin A, vitamin E, and potassium.
Basil
My soul herb! The one I will never stop trying to grow. Yes, “trying”, because my green thumb is just limited to like, the nail, but I’m always trying to let them grow out, you know? Basil is full of antioxidants, magnesium, and it’s particular essential oils (namely in the fresh leaves vs. dried basil) that are great for your body in a multitude of ways. Basil even has antibacterial properties to help fight respiratory, urinary, abdominal and skin infections 🙌
Lemon
A dream of mine is to have a few citrus trees. There are SO many uses for lemons around the house and I’m just obsessed with the clean smell. Diet-wise, they are thought to aid in weight loss and reduce the risk of heart disease, anemia, kidney stones, digestive issues, and cancer. They’re also rich in vitamin C and fiber. While it’s true that you will consume less of all of these micronutrients in just the juice, I just love the flavor that they add to finish off a dish!
Red Bell Pepper
Did you know peppers are technically a fruit? And the red ones are actually ripe green peppers?? They are considered the healthiest bell pepper! These guys are a great source of vitamins A (think eye health) and vitamin C — guys, just 1/2 cup of raw red pepper provides you with 159% of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C! Like many naturally orange/red foods, red peppers are rich in beta-carotene, another compound that supports vision. I love all the pepper colors, but I try to opt for red more often than not!
Part of a Balanced Meal Plan
The company I partner with for fitness coaching, and well, pretty much everything fitness-related (the way I eat, the habits I build, the supplements I use, the fill-the-nutrition-gap shakes my entire family drinks daily, etc etc) has two different full nutrition programs to offer as of now. I have gone through them both and in typical me fashion, I like to combine the basics from each program and mesh them into my own supercharged version. I may veer just a little, but for the most part, I think it’s pretty solid! Hey, it works for me.
The result of that training has been the meal plans I put together for myself each week and share here on the blog. There’s a very specific thought process (plenty, actually) that goes along with these, trust me! Each meal plan post will give you more information on those programs if you’d like to learn more about them and see what I mean.
Because this Lemon Pesto Chicken and Zoodles recipe does not have a carb serving, it would be best as a dinner dish (a 2B Mindset tenet). The thought process is that carbs are consumed for energy, and better to frontload them in the morning and at lunch for daytime energy whereas you wouldn’t typically need it when winding down for the night. However, I meal prepped mine for lunch because sometimes I’m a rebel and do what I want 🤟 You do what makes you happy.
This is Portion-Fix compliant as well.
There are plenty of bloggers I have discovered who have chosen to focus on recipes that fit our nutrition plans, and the basis for this one came from CarrieElle.com!
Lemon Pesto Chicken & Zoodles
Equipment
- Colander
- Large skillet or saute pan
- Spiralizer
Ingredients
- 24 oz chicken breasts trimmed of fat & diced
- 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
- 3 zucchini
- 2 red bell peppers chopped
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
- 2.5 Tbsp. Pesto
- 1/2 lemon
- 1 cup spinach
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- fresh basil a handful, chopped
- garlic salt
- black pepper
- Optional: canned artichokes, pine nuts, black olives
Instructions
- Allow tomatoes (and artichokes if opting to use them) to drain and remove any loose insides that may add to the moisture content (see notes at the end of recipe!)
- Heat a saute pan to medium. Add either your choice of olive oil or I like to use a little broth to "water saute" and cut back on oil. Add chicken, Italian seasoning, a little garlic salt and pepper and cook 6-8 minutes, stirring a couple times, until chicken is cooked through. It should be a little browned on the outside. Remove to a plate.
- While the chicken cooks, spiralize the zucchini to create zoodles. Once they are cut, wrap them up in a paper towel and squeeze to get any moisture out.
- In the saute pan, heat 2 tsp. of oil. Cook bell pepper and tomato until soft, just a few minutes. Once ready, add the zoodles, basil, spinach and cook 2-3 minutes until greens are wilted and zoodles are beginning to soften. Stir in cooked chicken.
- Squeeze half a lemon over the top. Add pesto, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Enjoy!
