Pesto Chicken Pizza

Chicken? and Pizza? Not exactly things a vegetarian and lactose intolerant person usually talks about, but after my best friend, Bailey, made this last weekend I knew it would be something I had to make for my meat-and-cheese eating family!

This pizza is loaded with yummy, healthy sauteed vegetables, pesto (healthy fats!) for sauce, and chicken and feta cheese on top of a whole wheat crust.

Pesto Chicken Pizza
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat pre-made pizza crust
3 chicken tenderloins
1 bunch spinach
1 bell pepper, chopped
2/3 cup mushrooms, sliced
one onion, sliced
1/2 cup pesto sauce (Newman's Own makes a great pesto!)
1/2 - 2/3 cup feta cheese

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.Saute onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms together over medium heat. While the vegetables are cooking, spread the pesto over the whole wheat crust.

3. Saute the spinach and set aside.

4. Cook the chicken tenderloins over medium heat until fully cooked. With a fork and knife shred the tenderloins into small bits.
5. Time to put the pizza together! Spread the sauteed spinach over the pizza, then spread the chicken, and layer the vegetables on top of the chicken. Finally, sprinkle the cheese on top.
6. Bake for 15 min at 350.

This recipe is very versatile, you can use any vegetables you have on hand. Plus, with pre-made crust and sauce it's one fast pizza! It got the Amanda approval, too! : )

Baking, birthdays, and bodypumpin'

The weekend started off how most of my weekends do, with a run!

I haven't run much around the area I recently moved to, but I've discovered some routes that are interesting and have sidewalk the entire way! This run got to about 5.28 miles.

Reviewing that past couple of days...
Thursday my sister, a couple friends, and I visited our high school history teacher, Gayley, to celebrate her birthday!

Pinterest inspired birthday card I made Gayley 

It was great to spend some time hanging out with Gayley on her beautiful screened-in-porch. We talked into the night over a layered fruit and pound cake I made (I will be sure to post about!).

As a small gift we gave her Bath and Body Works Country Apple body lotion and a bag of peanut butter granola I made. This recipe is from Julie @ pbfingers.com and it is AWESOME and so easy. Granola is super expensive at the store so I am glad to have this recipe on hand. The only addition I made was to add about a 1/2 cup of raisins for 3 cups of oats.

Friday.

A surprise day off for me from work! I started the day off with a run, followed by some baking! My dad loved the pb granola I made for Gayley, so I made another batch of the addictive oats. 

I simultaneously baked some Bangin' Banana Bread. This time, however, I made the bread into muffins. The nice thing about making Banana Bread into muffins is that they cook way faster, try 35 minutes (the original loaf takes 60 minutes)! Amanda loved the muffins and we both agreed they make a good on-the-go breakfast and snack.

The only change I will make next time when making Banana Bread muffins is to add 1.5 tsp of baking powder to help the muffins rise a bit more. I did the nutrition breakdown for the muffins on fatsecret.com.

Amanda and I headed to our nearest Starbucks to get some work done. Amanda studied for the LSAT while I sent emails, worked on my Fall schedule, and transfer credits.

Sometimes the Pike roast is too strong for me, but lately since I've been asking for soymilk I think it tastes really great! I think it might be that the soymilk is vanilla flavored! YUM.

It ended up being a sister-filled day as Amanda FINALLY agreed to go to a Bodypump class with me. I can't tell you how excited I was : ). We started off with 20 minutes on the elliptical to warm up and then were ready for some pumpin'.

Pre Pump!

I had never been to this specific instructor, but she was great! She even walked around the room adjusting form, which I really appreciated! But, boy, this gal does not take breaks! My arms were jello after class and so were Amanda's!

My goal for the rest of the weekend is to relax since soon it will be back to the hustle-and-bustle of fall semester. I can't believe I am already a college Junior!

Here's some light weekend reading:
Making the Case for Eating Fruit
Abs Workout: The Fastest Way to Lose Belly Fat

Have a great weekend!

Sara

Amanda cooking dinner!

Amanda has been on a roll making some delicious dinners lately, so I thought I would highlight just a couple.
Two nights ago we had fish taco's for the first time!

Very delicious and so easy to make! We bought two large fillets of frozen wild salmon and baked it in the oven for close to half an hour. We used Kickin' Chickin' (ironic, I know) seasoning because that's all we had, but we'll probably use something more simple (and less salty) next time to season the fish.

Once the fish was done, we just forked some of the meat into whole wheat tortillas and topped it with all the usual taco fillings: salsa, guacamole, and cheese (obviously I didn't have this last ingredient).

Delicious, healthy, and very versatile! I recommend making fish tacos, using any fish you have on hand and stuffing the taco's with your favorite taco fillings! Good job Amanda!

Although I am a vegetarian, Amanda's dinner last night smelled so good I just had to post about it! Amanda made her first slow-cooker BBQ Chicken! 

I was amazed at how little preparation this recipe that filled the entire house with the mouth-watering smells of molasses, brown sugar, and spices took!

Amanda filled the crock pot with a pound of chicken and then followed the direction on the back of the BBQ chicken seasonings packet. Chicken, seasoning packet, brown sugar, ketchup, and water were combined into the crock pot and allowed to cook on high for 4 hours.

Amanda added store-bought bbq sauce and made herself a sandwich. To go on the side, I steamed green beans for about 10 minutes, then sauteed them with onions, black pepper, and butter. Even as a vegetarian I can't help but admit this looked yummy! Oh well, the sacrifices we make : ).

Well done Amanda cooking protein-packed dinners!

Glimpse into the future: look out for my first circuit workout coming soon!

Sara