Running Mama Cooks

Who doesn't love laughing cow cheese?! (besides you Leslie lol!) This recipe caught my eye on Juliann's Easy Eats and I thought it came out great. Lots of flavor, easy to prepare, and relatively low fat.

I served it with leftover kielbasa pasta that we had last night (minus the kielbasa part, since we ate it all yesterday!!)

Barnyard Cordon Bleu
adapted from cooking light by way of Juliann's Easy Eats

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
5 teaspoons butter, melted
1 large garlic clove, minced (I used a 1/2 tsp of garlic powder)
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless thin cut chicken breasts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 thin slices low salt-ham (about 2 ounces)
4 wedges of light laughing cow cheese
Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place broth in a small microwave-safe bowl; microwave at high 15 seconds or until warm. Stir in butter and garlic. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and paprika in a medium shallow bowl; set aside.

Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt, oregano, and pepper. Spread the laughing cow cheese on the chicken breast. Top each breast half with 1 slice of ham. Roll up each breast half jelly-roll fashion. Dip each roll in chicken broth mixture; dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place rolls, seam side down, in an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 28 minutes or until juices run clear and tops are golden.

For now at least!! Since I haven't raced in quite some time, I thought I'd update you on my running during pregnancy so far. Although I haven't been running as much as I'd like, I am still getting out there, at least once a week.

Whenever we have company for dinner, I love serving something special. I feel like this meal fit the bill. I made my parmesan crusted tilapia but added a little twist. It came out great and I think it took an already tasty fish dish to another level.

The instructions are exactly the same as the link above, but the topping was a bit different. I put a handful of fresh basil, 5 sundried tomatoes, and 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts in the food processor and pulsed until finely chopped. Then I added a cup of parmesan cheese and 2 tbs of dried basil and pulsed to combine. This made enough topping for 9 tilapia filets. The flavor was amazing!!


My main side dish was Pioneer Woman's Sundried Tomato Risotto. Wow! Definitely make this if you love risotto. It was awesome

Sundried Tomato Risotto
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
½ whole Large Yellow Onion, Diced
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 cups Arborio Rice, Uncooked
8 whole Sundried Tomatoes Packed In Oil, Drained And Minced
1 cup Dry White Wine (optional)
7 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth (I used low sodium vegetable broth)
Salt As Needed
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 cup Parmesan, Freshly Grated
¼ cups Heavy Whipping Cream
Fresh Basil, Chiffonade (I used dried basil)


Preparation Instructions

Heat broth (note: it’s important the broth be low sodium) in a saucepan or in a microwave safe pitcher. Set aside.

Heat butter and olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add dry rice. Stir to coat and cook for 3 minutes, stirring gently.

Pour in wine. Stir and cook over medium-low heat until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add in minced sundried tomatoes and stir.

Then begin adding broth, one cup at a time, stirring gently while the rice absorbs the liquid each time. Repeat this until the rice is done—it usually takes between 6 and 8 cups of broth. The rice should have a slight bite to it, but not be crunchy at all.

Remove from heat, then stir in Parmesan and heavy cream. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

I originally thought I was going to skip the heavy cream at the end, but decided what the heck, since it was a special dinner. I'm glad I went for it. And I'm really happy to have some leftovers today. Is 9am too early for risotto?

I also served roasted asparagus (425 for 15 mins with olive oil and salt) and a simple Caesar salad.

Big Thanks to Lynsey and John for coming to dinner!

I was wandering around Wegmans this afternoon looking for something quick I could make after teaching boot camp and pilates tonight and the stir fry veggies caught my eye. They have chicken already cut up, all ready to stir fry, so it really makes it easy. I came home and made my own stir fry sauce and popped it in the fridge. It was so quick to throw together. And so yummy.

I have to admit I was worried about this one, since I made so many changes to the original recipe, but it turned out great! I often say that I have no business baking (not my strong suit!), but since my daughter was begging to "make a recipe" this morning, I decided making a healthy apple bread would be a fun project.

I used this recipe as a jumping off point. I was going to make muffins, but the batter was very dense and seemed to lend itself better to bread. I think the addition of the plain yogurt was key, the end result was very moist, yet hearty bread. My only regret is that I didn't have whole wheat flour on hand.

1 egg
3/4 cup skim milk
3 tablespoons canola or olive oil
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
2 medium golden delicious apples, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1 cup flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, beat together egg, milk, oil, and sugar. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Fold egg mixture into dry mixture, just to moisten. Stir in yogurt.

Nothing better than lasagna, such good comfort food! I really liked this twist on regular lasagna from Gina's Weight Watcher's Blog, they were cute and delicious. Here is the original recipe.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls
Adapted from Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes


Ingredients:

8 lasagna noodles, cooked
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
15 oz part skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more
1 egg
salt and fresh pepper
32 oz homemade marinara sauce
8oz part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Remove foil for the last 5 mins. Open the oven door and broil until the cheese is browned and bubbly. Makes 8 rolls.

Ready for the oven:

Despite growing up in a large Italian family with a mother who is a great cook, it wasn't until about a year ago that I made my own homemade marinara sauce.

I was always intimidated so I stuck with the jarred sauce. One day I decided to give it a go, so I looked at a bunch of recipes and also watched my mom make her sauce before coming up with my own version. Since making my own, I will never go back to the jarred stuff! Its so easy to make a big pot, have enough for dinner, and left overs to freeze for future use. Not to mention the house smells amazing for the rest of the day!

So if you are the way I was, trust me and just give it a try. This recipe usually makes enough for one meal (pound of pasta, homemade pizza, baked ziti, lasagna, etc) and enough to freeze for at least one more.

What you need:


UPDATE - I usually grate some carrot into the sauce with the onions now, and also use my immersion blender to smooth out the sauce.