Apolinaras really enjoyed the last Israeli couscous dish I made. In fact, he said it would have been a 10 if I hadn’t included the spinach in the salad, haha. He snuck another box into our cart at Trader Joe’s recently, which I thought was pretty cute, and since he’s completely spoiled, I decided to whip up a dish featuring the couscous and some tasty shrimp for him the very next day.

I basted the skewered shrimp with a sauce mixed up from Thai sweet chili sauce, apricot preserves, and a touch of rice wine vinegar. Then I cooked the shrimp up quickly on my grill pan and served them atop a bed of Israeli couscous with red onion, red pepper, and corn. This was such a lovely light summer meal!

Sweet Chili Apricot Shrimp Skewers over Israeli Couscous
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Shrimp:
1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup low sugar apricot preserves
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Israeli Couscous:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 1/3 cups Israeli Couscous (1 8-ounce box from Trader Joe’s)
1 3/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups cooked corn

Directions:
To make the shrimp, soak 6 wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes. Thread shrimp onto the skewers. Place sweet chili sauce, apricot preserves, vinegar, and salt in a small bowl and mix well. Brush shrimp evenly with about half the sauce with a pastry brush. Heat a greased grill pan over medium high heat and cook shrimp for 2 minutes on each side, or until pink and cooked through, basting well with the remaining half of the sauce while cooking.

To make the couscous, heat canola oil over medium high heat in a large saucepan; add onion and red pepper and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Add couscous and sauté 2 minutes or until light brown. Add chicken broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, put on lid, and simmer for 8 minutes or until broth is absorbed and couscous is tender. Mix in corn. Serve by evenly distributing couscous on three plate and placing shrimp skewers on top. Makes 3 servings.

Nutrition: 476 calories, 9.3g fat, 6.9g fiber, 38.0g protein per serving
Cost: $4.80 per serving

I’m often asked how I manage to post original recipes so often while working long hours and hitting the gym the majority of the days of the week. Well, what I usually do is work in bursts. I may perfect three or four recipes in one weekend and then take a break. I feel most comfortable when I have at least six or so recipes ready to go in my “blog” folder on my desktop, which sounds like a lot, but is really only three weeks worth. Then when I’m extra busy at work, on vacation, or spending all my kitchen time developing recipes for a contest, I can go a couple weeks without cooking for my blog. I end up rarely posting recipes right away, because I’d rather take my time editing the photos, writing up the recipe, calculating the nutrition info, etc, but the chicken I made tonight was SO good that I had to make an exception!

I stuffed chicken breasts with a creamy mixture of mascarpone and blue cheese, shallots, spinach, and turkey bacon, and then coated the stuffed breasts with pecans. This recipe does take a bit of time to put together, so I pounded out my chicken, made my stuffing, and assembled my pecan coating yesterday. Then everything came together in about 40 minutes tonight, which is the max amount of time I want to spend cooking on a weeknight. I am already looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!

Spinach, Bacon, and Blue Cheese Stuffed Pecan Crusted Chicken Breasts
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup chopped shallots (4-5 large shallots)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 strips turkey bacon, chopped
4 cups baby spinach (4 ounces)
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecans, pulsed in the food processor until finely ground
1/2 cup panko
1/4 cup flour
4 large boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 eggs, beaten

Directions:
Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a medium nonstick pan and sauté shallots for 5 to 7 minutes or until softened; add garlic and sauté 1 additional minute. Remove from heat and place in a medium bowl. Add bacon to the same pan and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes or until browned. Place bacon in the same bowl with the shallots. Add spinach to the pan and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes or until wilted. Add spinach to the bowl and allow ingredients to cool completely to room temperature. Add blue cheese, mascarpone cheese, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the bowl and mix until well combined.

Meanwhile, place chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to 1/3-inch thickness using a meat mallet. Place filling evenly lengthwise down each chicken breast, roll up the sides, and secure with toothpicks. Mix ground pecans, panko, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in a shallow pan. Put the flour in a shallow dish and lightly dredge both sides of the stuffed chicken in the flour. Place the beaten eggs in another shallow dish and dredge both sides of the flour coated chicken in the egg mixture; place chicken in the pecan mixture and coat well on all sides.

Heat oven to 350˚F. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat in a large nonstick pan and place two chicken breasts in the pan. Use large tongs to rotate the chicken and sear it on all four sides. Place seared chicken breasts seam side up in a large baking pan and repeat with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and two chicken breasts. Bake at 350˚F for 18 to 22 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink in the center. Allow to rest 5 minutes, then remove toothpicks, and cut on a bias. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 415 calories, 24.4g fat, 2.1g fiber, 35.2g protein per serving
Cost: $1.35 per serving

My younger brother went through a phase when he was about five where he was obsessed with cantaloupe. I remember him easily downing four or five slices at a time, which I didn’t really understand since I was such a picky eater. In fact, I used to regularly make fun of him because he told everyone that he wanted to be a cantaloupe farmer when he grew up. I was pretty sure, at the ripe old age of nine, that this would never happen. Poor guy, it’s cute now looking back and realizing that he loved the fruit so much that he imagined working in a job where he could eat it all day!

Anyway, whenever I see a cantaloupe, I think of my brother, and I recently realized there were no recipes featuring it on my blog. This had to change! So, I whipped up chicken breasts with an ancho honey glaze over tropical rice with cantaloupe, pineapple, and almonds. This one is for you Richard!

Ancho Honey Chicken over Tropical Rice
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Chicken:
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worchershire sauce
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

Tropical Rice:
2 cups finely chopped cantaloupe
2 cups finely chopped fresh pineapple
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
4 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup toasted slivered almonds
2 tablespoons canola oil
Juice of one lime
3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
To make the chicken, heat oven to 350˚F. Place brown sugar, honey, vinegar, Worchershire sauce, ancho chile powder, cayenne pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until brown sugar is dissolved and mixture has reduced to 1/4 cup. Sprinkle chicken breasts with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Place chicken breasts on a grill pan heated over medium high heat and sear chicken breasts on both sides for 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly browned. Place seared chicken in a 13×9-inch baking dish and use a pastry brush to rub half the glaze on all sides of the chicken breasts. Bake at 350˚F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and baste with remaining glaze. Bake an additional 2 minutes at 350˚F or until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the center.

Meanwhile, make the tropical rice by mixing cantaloupe, pineapple, red pepper, and onion in a large bowl. Remove 1/3 cup fruit mixture for chicken garnish, if desired. Stir in rice, toasted almonds, canola oil, lime juice, and salt until well mixed.

To serve, place rice on 4 plates and top each with a piece of chicken and fruit garnish. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 869 calories, 29.4g fat, 9.3g fiber, 66.4g protein per serving
Cost: $2.85 per serving

If you happened to peek in my fridge last weekend, you would have known I was on a sugar high. Imagine tins of cupcakes and bowls of custard and ganache precariously balancing on trays of brownies, cheesecakes, and tarts. I’ve been hard at work creating recipes for the Pillsbury Bake-Off and have been devoting all my efforts to my strongest category – desserts! I’m having a blast dreaming up new treats, and although I don’t think I’ll get through my entire list of ideas before the recipes are due April 18, I’m definitely doing my best! I often find that when I’ve been overindulging my sweet tooth that I actually start craving more healthy meals than usual. Enter this salad.

It was inspired by a salad I had at an airport. Yep, an airport salad, that had a delicious Thai sweet chili dressing. I mixed romaine lettuce with red peppers and cucumbers and topped them with sesame soba noodles (since I’m now convinced all salads need some carbs), chicken, and peanuts. The vinaigrette, which contained sweet chili sauce from Trader Joe’s, canola oil, rice vinegar, and a touch of soy sauce, pulled it all together. This is definitely my favorite plate of greens on my blog so far! Ok, off to work on my next Bake-Off entry!

Chicken and Soba Romaine Salad with Thai Vinaigrette
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Soba Noodles:
8 ounces soba noodles
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Thai Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce

For Assembly:
3 hearts of romaine lettuce (24 ounces), cut into bite sized pieces
2 red peppers, chopped
1 English cucumber, sliced
2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into bite sized strips
1/2 cup salted peanuts

Directions:
Prepare soba noodles according to package directions, drain, and rinse with cold water. Place noodles in a large bowl and mix in soy sauce and sesame oil. Whisk sweet chili sauce, canola oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce in a small bowl to make the vinaigrette. To serve, mix romaine lettuce with red pepper and cucumber slices. Distribute greens on four plates and evenly top with soba noodles, chicken, and peanuts. Drizzle on desired amount of vinaigrette. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 681 calories, 29.2g fat, 4.7g fiber, 43.1g protein per serving
Cost: $2.99 per serving