A Colorful Plate for Dinner

When cooking, try to have a variety of color on your plate.  This is the best way to get the vitamins and minerals you need daily from your food.  Tonight's dinner looks like it was hard work, but it wasn't.  

Pesto Chicken, roasted asparagus, 1/4 of a sweet potato and a salad!

I always put my salad on my dinner plate instead of in a separate bowl. I tell myself this keeps me from eating too much of the other things....(Ha!) This salad was made with baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers and goat cheese.  I bought goat cheese crumbles at Aldi's the other day.  Aldi's grocery stores are here in NW Arkansas but I had never visited one until recently.  They have a great selection of cheeses and salad dressing and their prices are amazing. My favorite dressing is just a regular balsamic vinaigrette.

Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables and it just so happens it is a "super" food - filled with too many amazing vitamins and benefits to list here, but it is a "perfect" veggie!  I simply wash it, cut the stems about 1 " from the bottom and place on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt and diced garlic or garlic powder and bake on about 350' for 20-25 minutes.  When it starts to brown a little, take it out and put some parmesan cheese on the top and pop it back in the oven for about 5 minutes. 

For the pesto chicken (I recommend using fresh not frozen chicken breasts), place them in a baking dish sprayed with Pam.  Spread pesto sauce on each breast, and top with a slice of mozzarella cheese, and slice a tomato with thin slices and place on top of the cheese.  Bake on 350' for about 30 minutes - I usually check it about 20 minutes in. Try not to overcook it - chicken can get very tough pretty quickly. This is a healthy dinner and will 

fill you up and it's a nice presentation if you are cooking for friends or family!