Cooking My Way: Chicken Spaghetti with Spinach Salad

It's recipe Wednesday! Yes, you read that right. I am officially declaring Wednesday's as recipe sharing day on my blog. I am always looking for new, healthy recipes to make for my family and I don't mind sharing with you guys. Thank you to those of you who have shared recipes with me.

The spaghetti recipe today comes from my friend, Rebekah Fries Phillips. She saw my post on Facebook about loving to cook in the crock pot and graciously shared a couple of recipes with me. I followed the recipe exactly and it was so yummy. However, I like to make things my own so, I am going to include what I'm going to do differently next time.

Here we go...

Crock Pot Chicken Spaghetti

1 onion diced
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 cans of Italian diced tomatoes
whole wheat spaghetti noodles

Dice onion and place in bottom of crock pot. Place the chicken breast on top. Pour over the cans of tomatoes. Turn on low and cook on low for at least 4 hours. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Easy!

*I did add a little kosher salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to my crock pot after I put in the tomatoes. I do have to say, that while this recipe was really yummy, the sauce was a little thin. So next time, I will add some tomato sauce and a bit of paste just to thicken it up. I will probably cut up a bell pepper or throw a bag of frozen seasoning blend in there next time. Maybe some mushrooms too. The recipe is really versatile. I think you can really make it what you want. That's another reason I love it so much and wanted to share it with you.

On Sunday, I just opened a can of green beans to go with it. Normally, I cook them with a ham flavored Goya pack and some oregano. The oregano gives the beans a great flavor plus it complements the flavors of the spaghetti. But unfortunately I was out of oregano so I decided to use coriander seed powder. It was pretty yummy too.

We had leftovers on Monday and since we had eaten all the green beans on Sunday, I decided to make us a quick salad.

Spinach Salad

Fresh baby spinach leaves
Nuts (I wanted to use pecans or walnuts but what I had of each had gone bad. So, I used almonds)
Goat cheese
Shredded carrots
Pomegranate dressing

I sort of just eyeballed the amounts in the salad. I only made enough for me and Ryan so I took out two bowls, filled each with spinach. I tossed in a handful of nuts, sprinkled some goat cheese and carrots. I made a homemade pomegranate dressing. The dressing recipe is courtesy of Clara via a magazine article she read.

Pomegranate Dressing
(The recipe is for one serving but it's for two cups of spinach. I doubt you'll eat a huge salad like that if you are eating the spaghetti with it. I made it according to the recipe and split the dressing between Ryan and myself. I still think it was a tad too much. It could probably be easily split between three or four people for a small side salad. Or you could always use the dressing on the side method and just dip your fork into the dressing before each bite. Just be sure you pour yourself some and aren't double dipping! ;) )

2 Tbs of 100% pomegranate juice
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp of Dijon mustard

Place all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together. YUMMY! :)

Once again, I hope you enjoy these recipes. Let me know if you try them and what changes you make, if any. Also, if there are other recipes that I haven't shared that you are interested in, leave me a comment and let me know.

Peace, Love, and Healthy Living,

Jessica