Easy, Healthy Meals: Low-carb Chicken Mozzarella with Pesto
Image by Iana Knak
Easy, healthy meals during the week are essential. Our days are usually very demanding, with our exercise routines, work, children, and house chores, even during summer holidays. To continue healthy-clean eating, most of us are looking for easy healthy meals, or “one level” recipes, as a good friend of mine used to say, to add to their repertoire.
With those conditions and goals in mind, I decided to revamp an old recipe into something fast, delicious, and perfect for hot summer days when you need easy, healthy meals that are also delicious to boost your energy. Today, I present to you my roasted chicken mozzarella served with homemade pesto.
Ingredients:
- 2 halves skinless chicken breast (or turkey if you prefer)
- 1 piece of buffalo mozzarella
- 1 tomato
- Spices of your choice (I have used a bit of organic Himalayan salt, a dash of organic cold extracted extra virgin olive oil, black pepper, rosemary)
- Full cup of fresh basil or parsley
- Half cup of pine nut seeds, pistachios, or walnuts
- 1 clove of fresh garlic
- Half cup of grated aged Parmesan cheese (optional)
- Half cup of extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper at your taste
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Using a knife, make transverse cuts in the chicken breasts, but don’t go too deep with the knife; each piece of meat must stay as a whole piece. Use the spices to season the halves as you prefer. Slice the mozzarella and the tomato, filling the cuts you made in the chicken breasts using them in intervals, one slice of mozzarella then one of tomato, until you finish. Pour a little bit of the extra virgin olive oil on the top of the meat and use your hands to spread it evenly around the chicken. Cover with aluminum foil and bring it to the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Then unwrap the chicken and let it cook for another 20 minutes. Remember, chicken is a meat must be eaten well-cooked, so control the time accordingly. Each oven can variate its heat intensity.
For the pesto:
Bring all ingredients to a food processor, blending them until you a get a creamy texture.
When your chicken is ready, serve with a tablespoon of pesto and some fresh salad.
For your information: chicken breasts are great sources of protein, excellent post-heavy workouts or log runs, while buffalo mozzarella, besides providing you with extra protein, is really low in carbohydrates, good for low carb diets. Pesto also carries fantastic nutritional ingredients: the nuts, which are sources of magnesium and potassium, the greens, which contain many vitamins, and extra virgin olive oil, which gives you monounsaturated fats that can help lower blood cholesterol, clot blood in injuries, and much more.
Enjoy this tasty easy, healthy meal!
