Pesto chicken bake

Hey everyone,

So I figured a good place to begin blogging would be to cover one of my favourite pass-times, cooking. I love nothing more than trying a new recipe, and there's nothing I won't give a good go. At the minute, I am following the Slimming World plan in an effort to shed some extra pounds. I want to lose about 40lbs, or roughly 3 stone. I am like the vast majority of those who embark on such missions - facing an uphill struggle. But I've had a really good week and I am really determined - even attending a party at the weekend I managed to stay on plan. *Pat on back.* So this recipe is sourced from Slimming World, in case anyone thought I was genius enough to make it up.

Ingredients:
4 x 115g skinless chicken breasts
Low calorie cooking spray

For the marinade:
3 garlic cloves
6 tbsp freshly chopped basil, plus a few leaves to garnish
2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 tbsp chicken stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Blending the marinade

Method:

1. Make the marinade: peel and grate the garlic, place in a food processor along with the basil, parsley, vinegar and stock and blend until the mixture is fairly smooth. Season to taste.

2. Make 3 slashes on each chicken breast, place in a bowl and pour the marinade over, rubbing into the slashes. Cover, place in the fridge and leave to marinate for at least 2 hours.

3. Place the chicken breasts in a roasting tin sprayed with low calorie cooking spray and roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 190°C/170°C Fan/Gas 5, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender.

4. Serve the chicken pesto roast sliced and garnished with a few basil leaves.

Marinading

Now, that's the official recipe. But I decided to put a little twist on it, of the cheesy variety. I am using my healthy extra A (see Slimming World for details on the plan) as Parmesan, which I will sprinkle over the chicken for the final 5/6 minutes of step 3. I would use approximately 30g per chicken breast for really good coverage, 30g being a Healthy Extra A portion. A portion (one breast) is free on Slimming World (or 6 syns if you are not using your cheese for HEA). Alternatively, you could leave off the cheese and the whole thing would be free.

Finished meal

Alongside this, I served roasted new potatoes tossed in crushed garlic and rosemary, and spinach salad with balsamic vinegar dressing.

End of a long day - Bake Off :)

All in all this was a really simple recipe, especially for a week night. It would be great to rustle up the night before and have in the fridge just waiting to pop into the oven for 20 mins when you walk through the door. Just enough time to pop in the shower, wash the day away and get into some comfy fresh PJs. Which is definitely how I played it.

And for dessert... 11 syns of French Fancies and the Great British Bake Off with lovely sofa cuddles from my man. A glorious end to any day.      


Take care

C