Skinny Candied Pecans

Dinner tonight was once again centered around a lean and green approach and I wasn't really in the mood to go all out so why not a salad. One of my favorites is grilled chicken with blue cheese crumbles, diced pears, and candied pecans topped off with a pear vinaigrette. If you take the candies pecans out and don't over do the cheese and dressing this salad doesn't have to many "extra" added calories, but when you take out the pecans there is something missing! This made me think how can I redo these with out losing flavor and really the answer was right in front of me in the form of Splenda. These are great and they had a hard time actually making it to the salad because I wanted to eat them off the pan. These can be stored in an air tight container so if you want to make more then you need and just use them later that totally works. These also go well on just about anything and since they are reduced in calories compared to traditional ones you could put them on just about anything and get away with it right :)

Skinny Candy Pecans:

1 cup pecan pieces
1/4 cup packed Splenda brown sugar
3 tbsp stick margarine
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil.
In a microwave safe mixing bowl melt margarine. Once completely melted add in brown sugar, vanilla, and salt mix together. Add in pecans and stir until completely covered. Pour contents of bowl on to foil lined baking sheet in a single layer (if you pecans are touching that is fine, if they are stacked on top of one another that is not). Put in oven and let cook for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and stir around then place back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove and allow to come to room temperature before handling. Once again you can store these in an air tight container and they will last so if you have left overs don't toss because once you try these you will be looking for something else to put them on. Enjoy y'all!
P.S. I was just thinking that this would work for walnuts also.

Lite Chicken Ranch Foil Packs

Happy New Year! I hope you all have had a great first day of what feels like could be a really great year. This year makes me very giddy with excitement because I will be graduating in December. I didn't think I would ever say that, but it is actually going to happen and if this year is anything like the last is I will be crossing that stage in no time. With the New Year comes resolutions and for me I don't make them. I feel I am just setting myself up for failure so I just strive to make every day a great one and do better this year then the last. I know that the most common resolution is loss weight so here is my store and it all ties in to the food in just a minute, promise.

Back in April I went on this fabulous diet called Medifast. It was easy, it was simple, and I lost 40 pounds. When school started in August I was at my goal weight and went to a modified version and hadn't put a single pound back on until that dreaded day in November known as Thanksgiving which led to a few more pounds added on during that dreaded season called Christmas. I will not even lie, being able to eat anything and everything was great and I had a good time while doing it, but I always knew in the back of my mind that I would be paying for it when I got on the scale and this was the case this morning. So here we are New Year and a couple pounds heavier (enough to make those jeans a little too tight) so it’s back to Medifast. I have to wait for my order to come in so I am doing my modified version and making what would be a roundabout version of a lean and green meal for dinner. I saw this recipe on Kraft but when looking at the reviews it didn't do so good so I changed it up a bit and it was really good. The flavors were just right, the chicken was juicy and perfectly cooked and the broccoli topped it off. I will be posting more healthy meals now that I am back at it and I hope you all enjoy!

Chicken Ranch Foil Packs:

4 Large Chicken breast (if they are thick pound them out to make thinner)

1 bag frozen broccoli florets

4 slices turkey bacon

4 Tbsp. lite Ranch dressing

1/2 cup fat free or reduced fat grated cheddar cheese

Salt, Pepper and other chicken spices

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut 4 foil sheets that are large enough to wrap chicken up completely and allows room for heat circulation. In other words you want to have wiggle room for your chicken don't wrap the foil supper tight.

Place one chicken breast on each foil sheet. Season your chicken like you would if you were just going to bake it. I just used garlic and pepper. After this place one (1) tablespoon of ranch dressing over chicken breast. Next you want to sprinkle cheese over the chicken evenly dividing it between each breast. 

Cook your bacon, I am guilty I cook it in the microwave). Crumble one strip of cooked bacon over each chicken breast. Finally top chicken with frozen broccoli. Don't steam the broccoli it will get very mushy if you do. Once again just evenly divide the broccoli between each chicken breast.

Wrap up your chicken using the tenting method. Pulling both sides up and rolling them down and then rolling the ends up. Don't roll the foil all the way down to the chicken only about half way.

Place on baking sheet and cook for 35 minutes. 

Once out of the oven carefully unwrap and serve. Enjoy y'all!

Recipe adapted from kraftfood.com