Yia Yia's Greek Green Beans (Clean Version)

There have been so many changes in my life since I lost my Yia Yia to Pancreatic Cancer. I've gotten married to a man she would have loved, and had a son who will never know exactly how amazing she was first hand. People say that time heals all wounds, but even all these years later, I find myself sobbing uncontrollably when I think about not having her here.

One thing that I could always count on was that when I went to Yia Yia's house, I was going to eat..and I was going to eat SO GOOD. A Southern Greek woman with kitchen skills that would put any Food Network Chef to shame. There are times when I am feeling a little down, or not feeling well at all and that's when I love to crack open my recipe book and make something that my Yia Yia would have made for me. It makes me feel like maybe she's not so far away..like she never really left at all.

Wasn't she beautiful?

For this cleaned up recipe you will need:

2 to 2.5 Lbs Fresh Green Beans (Cut to about 1 inch long)

1 Large Yellow Onion (Chopped)

1 Tbs. Minced Garlic

1 Tbs. Olive Oil

2-3 Large Tomatoes (Diced and crushed) - Yia Yia used 1 Can of Contadena Crushed Tomatoes

1/2 Tbs. Oregano

2 Bay Leaves

Salt & Pepper to taste

In a medium to large pan, heat up the garlic and onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the onions are more of a clear color and have softened up, add the green beans, oregano, salt and pepper and tomatoes. Mix the ingredients to blend them together and add your bay leaves to the pot. You're going to need to take them out before you eat later so I always try and keep them peeking out just a tad so they are easy to find later. Bring to a low boil then lower the heat to juuuuuust a simmer. Cover and simmer for 45 mins. 

Now, I apologize for the terrible phone picture, but I have been having camera difficulties lately, thus the lag in posts. Things should be up and running again soon though. 

As for nutritional information, please note that this is just an estimate. The nutritional value of your pie will vary depending on the ingredients you choose & portions you add. It should be used as a guide and not a definite. Happy eating loves!

Zucchini Boats

Last week I kind of cringed when I realized it was about time for me to start dinner. I watch a friend’s daughter while she is at work so my day starts at 5:00 A.M. 3 days a week which can make for an almost torturous long, tired, grumpy day..especially when the rest of the day includes playing taxi for my step children, maid at home, body builder (ha!), and chef.

I’m not a chef of any sort, but I would certainly like to think that I know my way around a kitchen. I didn’t have anything planned and needed something put together rather quickly so I grabbed some veggies to base my meal around and ended up grilling up some chicken. But nobody cares about boring old chicken..let me tell you about the zucchini boats I made.

It was just me and the hubby eating the zucchini so I took 1 medium/large one, cleaned it, and sliced the ends off and then cut it in half length wise. I then spooned out the insides leaving about 1/4 of an inch still inside. I took the scoopings and tossed them in a mixing bowl & placed the zucchini “boats” in a baking dish I sprayed with coconut oil and lightly sprayed the zucchini before putting them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

While those were in the oven, I took my mixing bowl with the scooping and added:

• 1 diced medium yellow onion
• 2-3 diced roma tomatoes
• 1/4-1/2 cup of spinach
• 2 cloves of diced garlic
• 1tbs parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

and mixed them together.

I had cooked rice in the fridge from earlier, so after laying a thin layer of that in the bottom of my boats I topped them, and surrounded them (you can never have too much tomato, spinach, or onion right?) with the contents of my mixing bowl and topped them with some grated parmesan.

I put them back in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 mins. (Just watch for the onions and tomato to brown up a bit and you’re good to go. I completely forgot to take a photo of them out of the oven because we were hungry and they smelled SO good.

For it being a quick thrown together kind of “side dish” (we both agreed this is good enough for a main dish very soon.) it was actually super yummy and filling. The kind of good that makes you ignore your chicken. 

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

After running the kids around all day, I completely forgot that I hadn't planned out a dinner. Instead of throwing together a salad and some veggies, I decided to cook up the chicken breasts I conveniently had in the fridge. (My past self knowing my future self would probably neglect my chef duties today.)

Now, I just threw in ingredients that sounded good to us/we had on hand but here it goes:

Ingredients (per chicken breast):

1 Boneless skinless chicken breast (Tenderized to about 1/4 an inch...I don't have one of these newfangled gadgets so I use a ziplock bag and a heavy pan)

1tbs Cream cheese (no it's not clean, but what the hubby wants, the hubby gets)

1-2tbs Mozzarella cheese (see above)

about 1/4 a cup of Spinach (washed & drained well...I squeeze mine between some paper towels to get the extra water out)

some salt and pepper & oregano to taste

1 Roma tomato cut in half

Directions:

I preheated my oven to 375 degrees and got to pounding those breasts. HA!

Then I spread on my other fillings starting with cream cheese..

Then the mozzarella and spinach.

Then I rolled them up and laid them in a baking dish sprayed with some non stick cooking spray (I personally prefer the trader joe's coconut oil)

Then I repeated the process for the hubbin and cut up two tomatoes so we could each have one..because they looked too good to share!

I sprinkled the tomatoes with a bit of salt, pepper, and oregano..ahhhh tying in the flavors of the chicken. ;)

After about 40 minutes I pulled these bad boys out of the oven and made myself a salad on the side and sat down to dinner.

I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese so I think when I make this again I will probably skip it in mine or at least just spread on a little bit, but the chicken was super juicy and the filling was great ESPECIALLY when I mixed in the tomatoes. MMM. Go try it!

Vegetable Tian

Guys......guys......I've been busy in the kitchen this morning as my two year old is wreaking havoc at my mom's house and my husband is working overtime. I've done research for a few blog posts (that will be coming soon) and was originally going to save this post for another day but it is SO good I can't even...I want to scream it from the top of Mount Rubidoux, but it's hot and I'm too lazy to hike to the top today.

Ah yes! The recipe! Today I decided that since my lovely husband is hard at work on a Saturday bringing home the "bacon" if you will..I would bring him a nice dinner so he didn't have to grab some fast food during his shift. After poking through my fridge I decided I would make some grilled chicken breast with vegetable tian by the fabulous Ina Garten. Now, I've seen many a pin with variations on this dish, but my favorite is just a tad different than the "original" and can be found at For the Love of Cooking.

For this recipe you will need:

• 2tbs of Olive Oil (1 for sautéing & 1 to drizzle on top
• 1/2 Yellow Onion (Diced)
• 2 Cloves Garlic (Minced)
• 1-2 Russet Potatoes (Unpeeled)
• 1 Zucchini
• 1 Squash
• 3 Large Roma Tomatoes
• Sea Salt, Pepper & Thyme to taste
• 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese

Mouth watering yet? First step is to dice the onion and sauté it in 1tbs of olive oil for about 8 minutes or until they are transparent. Once they are ready to go, add your two garlic cloves and let it go for another minute or so. Transfer the yummy mix that has certainly made your house smell gloriously nummy to your baking dish. (Make sure to spray some non-stick cooking spray in that bad boy so you can get all of the dish out later.)

The recipe is for one baking dish, but I wanted something more individualized and pretty so I used my little ramekins..because...cute.

                              

While the onions were cooking I was busy slicing up about 1/4 of an inch sections of my veggies. Now, I was just cooking two servings so I used 2 Roma tomatoes, 1 medium zucchini and 1 medium squash. INSTEAD of a few Russet potatoes, I opted to use 1 medium sweet potato. I am OB-sessed with these fantastic sweet and savory yums and they are stinking good for you too! You can learn more about the benefits of sweet potatoes here. But since The sweet potato was a tad large for my ramekins I just laid two slices of it on top of the onion & garlic mixture.

Now you get to assemble the zucchini, squash and tomato in a circular pattern and drizzle that bad boy with your remaining tbs of olive oil.

Don't forget the salt, pepper & thyme!

Cover the dish (or in my case, dishes) with tin foil and bake at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. After 30-40 minutes remove the tin foil and sprinkle with your 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. *DROOL*

Pop that back in the oven uncovered for another 25-30 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Let me take you on a little side trip before the unveiling...I said earlier I decided to make 2 cute ramekins full of tian goodness..remember? WELL..as I took #1 out of the oven (shortly after this photo..)

I DROPPED THE DANG RAMEKIN!!!!! I was so bummed. It was comparable to when a child loses a balloon..

The purest form of heartbreak.

After I wiped my tears and the floor of my kitchen, I pulled the surviving tian out of the oven CAREFULLY and set up a "to-go" dinner for the hubby.

On the menu: Grilled chicken, vegetable tian, honeydew melon, and some clean eating crockpot bread I made this morning.

Hope you like it babe! ;) See you soon!

As for today's workout..It's time to work on these guns!! Head over here to get some!!