Greek Potatoes & Skinny Chicken Francese

Happy hump day readers! Its a nice treat that the week kicked off on a Tuesday making the week fly by pretty fast. The weather has been amazing with lots of sunshine and a cool breeze. Yesterday we went for almost a 4 mile jog and enjoyed taking in some rays. We had a super busy Memorial Day weekend (more John than me) but it was a blast! This weekend brings another round of busy days, but one of my best girls will be in from London, so we are most definitely looking forward to her arrival. Friday night we have a birthday party in Manhattan for a friend of ours and I can't wait to see more friends this weekend. Its gonna be a packed one.

Since we had a bunch of lemons in the fridge I was inspired to make a lemony dish: lightened up chicken francese and zesty roasted potatoes.  I've been really trying to utilize what we have already available in the fridge instead of running out and buying more ingredients. I guess you can say I have a shopping problem, both clothes and food ;) But a stocked fridge has always been important to me. My mom always made sure we had tons of food in the house and I guess you can say that is where I get my appreciation and love for food from.

Here is everything you will need for your lemon Greek potatoes. Six russet potatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 lemon, olive oil, fresh parsley, rosemary and whole oregano. Props to my fresh parsley and rosemary from my hanging herb garden. I am obsessed with heading onto the porch and pickin' away!

Peel and dice your potatoes into about 1 inch squares. Once diced, place them in a deep nonstick pan and drizzle with 2 tbsp of olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, a few sprigs of rosemary, chopped parsley, 2 tbsp of oregano and 1/3 cup of water. I also added a little salt and fresh ground pepper. Once mixed all together cover tightly with tin foil. Preheat your oven on 400 degrees. Save your garlic cloves for later.

Bake your potatoes for 40 minutes without taking off the tight foil. After 40 minutes, remove foil and add your minced garlic. I moved my potatoes to the top rack and gave another good mix. You will roast them for another 30 minutes, mixing every 10 minutes to make sure your tatters don't stick.

While my potatoes cooked, I prepped my chicken for my francese. Here is what you'll need. Five chicken cutlets sliced thin, 3/4 cups of flour, cooking wine, low sodium chicken broth, butter, 2 egg whites, 1-2 lemons, pepper, fresh parsley.

Dredge your chicken breasts in egg whites and seasoned flour. I seasoned with a little bit of fresh ground pepper.

Spray a deep pan with nonstick spray and brown your chicken 3 minutes on each side. Once all of the chicken has been cooked, remove from the pan onto a dish. Mix 15 oz of chicken broth with 1/4 cup of flour, whisk well to dissolve flour. Add the mixture to the pan you cooked your chicken in. Add 1/4 cup of cooking wine or any white wine you have available, 1 tsp of butter, lemon slices, juice of one lemon and chopped parsley. Whisk well and bring to a simmer on medium heat. Add your chicken back into the pan and cover. Cook for another 5-10 minutes.

This dish came out so delicious and was the perfect light meal for a cool day. The white wine and lemon sauce came out so tasty that I couldn't help but dip my lemon potatoes in it as well. While our meal cooked, I prepped some cabbage we had. This is a recipe my mom used to make and it is so healthy and satisfying. You chop up a head of cabbage really well, boil in a large pot with about 3 cups of water and season with garlic powder, salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic salt and crush red pepper. Let simmer for a few hours until it is nice and soft. This was a recipe we used to make from a Weight Watchers cook book and it is extremely low in calories and fat and is a great side dish or lunch option. I'm really excited for our local farmer's market to start up again this June. We love to get all of our fresh veggies and fruit from there and they always have huge, fresh heads of greens and other yummy veggies.

 

Over the weekend I strolled into a local grocery store that I had been wanting to try out for a while now. I was surprised to see all of their organic, gluten free and healthier options for a lot cheaper than our local Stop & Shop. The name of the store was called Aldi and I bought some really great products for about more than half the price I've seen in other stores. They carry a brand called Fit & Active and they had a ton of great options from breakfast and snack options to fruits and veggies.

This sweet treat is packed with dark chocolate, dried cranberries, almonds, raisins and walnuts. Usually nuts and trail mixes are pretty up there, but this entire container only cost $3.99. Steal!

Maybe I live under a rock or haven't been down the rice aisle in a while, but this was a new find too. Grain Salad by Betty Crocker comes in a ton of different varieties, but this one caught my eye. Brown rice, wild red rice, quinoa, cranberries, almonds in a sweet vinaigrette. It reminded me of a cranberry, walnut couscous salad I would get from Whole Foods, so I figured why not give it a whirl.

And last but not least, these beautiful pillowy stuffed tortelloni. I couldn't walk passed this and not buy them when I saw what they were filled with and for $1.29 a package, fuggedaboutit! I had to make it happen. We typically don't cook pasta too often, but I don't know why a creamy alfredo sauce came into play when I saw this. Holy yum. I'll let you know how they are!

Its been a long day of cooking and prepping, so I think its time to chill on the couch with John and catch up on some shows. Hope you all are having a great start to the week!