Erica shares another healthy recipe.

•        Healthy breakfast (hard boiled egg or yogurt or milk & cereal),
•        Savory morning snack (nuts or a piece of cheese or popcorn or vegetables),
•        Lunch (leftovers or a sandwich),
•        Fruit for an afternoon snack (trying to limit my intake of refined sugar so no more afternoon sweet tooth!),
•        A serving of grains, vegetables and meat for dinner (only eating out once a week),
•       And lots of water throughout the day.

Here's a teaser of the recipe I'm blogging about tonight. It's the chicken I make over a bed of greens.

That has been my diet for the past few months.  I've also kept up with my work out regimen. I do a 7 minute ab workout each morning as soon as I get up, walk a leisurely half mile at my morning break, walk a brisk half mile after my shift at work and attend a yoga class once a week. My secret is that I watch "America's Next Top Model" during my walks on the treadmill. I see all those beautiful people and notice how far away my body is from that physique. It makes me stick to my diet and exercise. LOL I don't know if it's working (I rarely weigh myself) but I don't look or feel any larger so I guess it's doing something.

Why am I telling you all of this? Who knows, really. Sometimes I just like to say things out loud to affirm that this is actually what is happening in my life. Or maybe, my job has become very busy and craft shows are picking up and the combination of the two is making me delirious. Anyway, here is a recipe I made up a while ago. I made it for Wes & his friends last Christmas. That time I used salmon (instead of chicken) but the recipe tonight uses chicken, and really, you can switch out choices of meats and it turns out the same.

Simple baked chicken with fresh vegetables:

Ingredients needed: chicken breast, asparagus, basil (I used fresh basil we grew ourselves), tomato, goat cheese and Cuban seasoning 

1. Cut the asparagus to be the same size as the piece of chicken breast. 

       I cut the ends and bottom half of the stalk off. I discarded the ends and saved the bottom half for egg drop soup... maybe I'll blog about that next week.

2. Slice the tomato.

3. Place the asparagus on a large sheet of aluminum foil and the place the chicken on top to your "asparagus boat."

4. Place tomatoes and basil on top of the chicken.

5. Sprinkle with your seasoning.

6. Wrap the foil all the way around your chicken and vegetables and place your foil chicken package on a baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes.

7. Garnish with goat cheese and serve with rice or bread. Or if you want to replicate my recipe exactly, I served it over a bed of spring mix greens with a few banana peppers on the side and a drizzle of Italian dressing on top.

And there you have it... a super simple and inexpensive healthy dinner idea. Someone sign me up for Top Chef! 

       P.S. I've been on a reality TV competition kick. I started with a few seasons of Project Runway, then I moved on to watching RuPaul's Drag Race with a friend (Lacey, we still need to finish that season!) Now, I'm concurrently watching America's Next Top Model (cue Tyra saying "Cycle 22...double X, double I") and So You Think You Can Dance. And, I'm thinking of starting Top Chef: Masters. 

       Do I have a problem? LOL