Recipe Friday? Pesto Chicken with Spaghetti Squash & Snow Peas

Pesto Chicken with Spaghetti Squash and Snow Peas

• 1 spagehtti squash, cooked and shredded
• 1 small bag of frozen snowpeas, steamed (I did it in the microwave to save time)
• 4 chicken cutlets, diced and marinated in about 3 T pesto sauce for about 2 hours
• 1 extra heaping spoonful of pesto sauce to mix in with the spaghetti squash
• Some chopped walnuts for crunch
  

Basically I cooked the squash for about 45 minutes to an hour at 400 (make sure you either cut it in half, or poke holes in it...my co-worker stuck one in the oven whole and it exploded in her oven and blew the door open). Then I sauteed the chicken after it had marinated, and cooked the snowpeas.

After the squash was done I mixed in a bit of the pesto sauce with it (was almost too greasy since the sauce was not homemade) and topped it with the snowpeas and chicken. I also added some walnuts on the top for crunch. (I didn't use all of the squash, only enough for me and Matt. There is usually leftovers when we make one of these.) The chicken was definitely the best part!! It was so flavorful, and so easy to make.

Matt said the squash was a little bland but I didn't mind it. Next time though, I would probably mix the squash with some tomato sauce of some sort or either just some diced tomatoes to cut down on the grease factor. Either way though, it was a quick and pretty healthy dinner.

I also thought I would show the differences between the green smoothies that I have become so quickly addicted to.

Spinach vs. Kale Green Smoothies

Spinach

Kale

Both of these smoothies were made with about the same amount of ingredients:

• 3+ cups of greens (whatever I could fit into the blender)
• 4-6 ice cubes
• <1 cup Plain Soy Milk Light
  
• 1 banana (actually I only used a 1/2 in this morning's spinach smoothie because I used a ton of spinach and didn't know if it would all fit)
• 1 spoonful of PB (left that out with this morning's spinach one b/c I have RAN OUT)
• (Sometimes I add ground flax seeds for an extra boost of healthy Omega-3 fats)
  

All in all, I would say that if you're new to drinking these Green Monsters (as Angela would call them) I would start off with a spinach one because the spinach blends much easier into a liquidy drink, and it's hard to even taste it. If you will notice, it get pretty frothy at the top. These tend to take on the flavor of the banana and the milk more so than the spinach.

When you use kale, it is more detectable since it is a more sturdy green in general. I tend to like them both, and only used spinach this morning because I was out of my organic kale that I bought earlier in the week. Kale smoothies are more gritty? I would say. Not in a bad way, but the green doesn't blend as smooth as the spinach does.

Benefits of kale: This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese. Benefits of spinach: This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Niacin and Zinc, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

{Sorry for the weird pics, but I have started making these babies at work. Yes, everyone here thinks I'm crazy. Yes, they give me weird looks. But the blender here is sooo much better than my food processor at home!}

***
Check out my Barney Butter review if you haven't already, and stay tuned for more product & food reviews to come soon!

My first run post-marathon will come tonight and I promise I will get back to running related rambles after that. I think I'm just going to go out on a easy 4.5 miler to get back into the game. I'm also planning a bridge bike ride tomorrow morning and possibly an 8 miler on Sunday. So pumped for the weekend! Going to beach it up!