Roasted Chicken, Chickpea Spirals, Broccoli and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

So simple. So yummy. I find that the key really is to season my food properly, but I am a veggie lover all the way, so they don’t need much for me. The chicken adds even more fantastically filling protein and tasty fat. I had a skinless chicken breast already roasted in the fridge, but this would be a great meal for a rotisserie chicken or really any leftovers. If you are starting from scratch, I roast chicken breasts, that I usually season the night before with salt and pepper, in the Ninja at Bake/400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Cooking time will, obviously, depend on the thickness, but I take the internal temp to 165 degrees and then let them rest for at least 10 minutes before I slice them…or whatever it is I might be doing with them.

Before
After

As always, substitute in your favorite products, but I have taken gluten, dairy, and added sugar out of my diet for a month. Even when I am not restricting gluten, it turns out that I enjoy a lot of the “pasta” products that have come out recently. It’s not because I think that pasta is “bad” or I shouldn’t eat it, but because I love the extra bang for my buck that I get in the protein department with some of them. A word of caution for any beginners…I have given many a lecture about pasta replacements that go something like this, “Please, accept this food for what it is. You will be disappointed if you think that what you are about to eat is comparable to semolina pasta, but you may decide you really like it if you let it stand alone.” Now that I have gotten that noodley bit caveat out of the way….
My favorite of the bunch on the market these days are the Chickapea brand products. I love all of their shapes and the noodles cook really fast, which means that I can still reap all the time saving benefits of a box of pasta. You also get all the other benefits. They are reasonably priced, shelf stable, and they have a little selection of shapes to keep it interesting. They are a huge part of my rotation these days. 🙂