Get some extra veg into your family's diet with this Whole30 compliant meal of Roasted Chicken and Vegetables with Courgetti and a Creamy Pesto Sauce.
Whole30
I mentioned in yesterday's Sweet Potato Curly Fries post that I am doing something called Whole30 for a month, the idea being to clean up my diet and hopefully improve my sleeping and my overall health.
As part of this programme I have eliminated all grains from my diet and so I have been using one of my favourite kitchen gadgets, a spiralizer, nearly every day in an attempt to create pasta and noodle-like substitutions from vegetables.
Don't worry, I'm not going to post only Whole30 posts for the next month as am still cooking "normal" food for my family and want this blog to very much remain full of family friendly fussy eating-busting recipes.
However I am trying to improve all of our eating habits, not just mine, cut down on everyone's sugar intake and up their portions of vegetables every day.
So if my family have eaten and enjoyed some of my Whole30 meals then I will post those recipes here.
If you want to see more (or less!) of these kinds of recipes please do let me know.
The Recipe
This recipe of Roasted Chicken and Vegetables with Courgetti and Creamy Pesto went down a storm at dinnertime earlier this week.
I don't think my family are quite ready to completely swap spaghetti for courgetti (and to be honest I don't want to eliminate grains from my fussy eater's diet completely) so I had the idea of serving half and half instead.
I mixed the courgetti in with their spaghetti and they didn't even notice! What a fantastic way of sneaking some extra veg into their diets!
Courgetti (or zoodles if you are across the pond!) can be eaten raw but I prefer to take the bite out of it and warm it slightly by giving it a very quick saute.
If you want to try mixing it with spaghetti, simply add it to the pan of cooking pasta for the last 2 minutes, then drain and add your sauce as normal.
OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY ENJOY
Garlic & Parmesan Broccoli Mash - This garlic and parmesan flavoured Broccoli Mash makes a really delicious low carb side dish.
Chicken & Ham Omelette - In less than 10 minutes you can whip up this delicious and healthy lunch idea; a simple omelette filled with chicken, ham, tomato and avocado
Roasted Chicken & Veg Courgetti with Creamy Pesto
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Meal
- Cuisine: European
Description
Get some extra veg into your family's diet with this Whole30 compliant meal of Roasted Chicken and Vegetables with Courgetti and a Creamy Pesto Sauce
Ingredients
- Roasted Chicken & Vegetables:
- ½ tbsp oil
- 3 chicken breasts, diced
- ½ head of broccoli, cut into florets
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 1 pepper, chopped
- ½ courgette, chopped
- seasoning of your choice
- Courgetti with Creamy Pesto:
- 3 courgettes, spiralized
- 125g spinach
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 50ml olive oil
- 100ml coconut milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c.
- Toss the chicken in the oil and put onto a baking tray. Season the chicken with any seasoning of your choice. I used salt, pepper and dried oregano. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Add the brocolli, cherry tomatoes, pepper and chopped courgette and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile make the pesto by blitzing the spinach, garlic and olive oil in a food processor until smooth. Add the coconut milk and blitz again. You can vary the amount of coconut milk to make the pesto more or less creamy.
- Saute the courgetti in a little oil for 3 minutes. Stir in the pesto and continue to saute for another 1-2 minutes until the pesto has warmed.
- Remove the chicken and vegetables from the oven and serve on top of the creamy pesto courgetti.
Notes
To make this recipe family friendly simply substitute half of the courgetti for normal spaghetti and add some grated parmesan on top.
Shauna says
Am just embarking on my Whole30 journey so was really pleased to find this recipe. It was really tasty and I'm now excited to try some of your other Whole30 recipes.
SuzyHomemakerUk says
This sounds delicious! My Husband and I have cut potatoes, Pasta, Rice and Bread from our diet for a month to see whether doing so helps drop a few pounds. In doing so, it's opening up our palates to different food choices, which is brilliant. After trying a chicken and corgetti ready meal from M&S, I really fancied trying something for myself and that's when I stumbled across your recipe. Thank you! I don't have any coconut milk, but I do have Philadelphia and ready-made pesto, so I thought I'd try that. I have, however, pinned your recipe for future use! Thanks for sharing. Sue x
Abbie says
How many calories per serving would you say this is?
Ciara Attwell says
I have no idea sorry Abbie. I don't count calories.
Phil says
Made this for myself tonight with a couple of minor tweaks to the pesto (pine nuts & basil). It was wonderful! Thanks!
Ciara Attwell says
Thanks Phil, really glad you enjoyed it.
Emma | Fork and Good says
This. Looks. Lush. Youre' inspiring me to get my spiralise on!
Ciara Attwell says
You definitely should Emma. There's a whole world of veg that can be spiralized!