ArcaMax

Cut the Cravings

Popeye to the Rescue!

Six days into my diet, I woke up craving spinach. I thought, “What’s up with that?”

I started researching options for a new entrée recipe using spinach. I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted some spinach. I also started to do research on why I was craving spinach, of all things.

Your body craves things to give you a signal that it needs help in a certain area. Or a combination or areas. Spinach is chock full of Vitamin K and has a great deal of Vitamin B. When you satisfy your craving for spinach you accomplish several things:

Here’s HUGE News! Spinach actually helps cut cravings for other things! When you are six days into a diet your body is calling out cravings. Interesting thing is that doesn’t mean you’re hungry. Your brain controls cravings. Your body controls your hunger. Your brain is trying to tell you something. Your brain is trying to tell you to either fix this problem or you might go off the deep end and blow your diet. Sound familiar? Most people blow their diet before a week is over, and the vast majority before week 2 is over. Most people would not think to cure their cravings for chocolate, chips or other junk foods by eating spinach. But it works. So eat a spinach salad. Eat an entrée like this one that uses a lot of spinach or even do one of those spinach smoothies to squelch your cravings in your recent attempt to lose weight.

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Spinach Chicken

Related Recipes at PlanZDiet.com:
Garlic "Fried Chicken
Zippy Szechuan Chicken and Veggies

This is a gourmet recipe, but so easy! This is definitely fancy enough to serve to a small dinner party.

Servings: Serves 4 if you are going to serve an additional vegetable. If not, you can split this between two people and each get a big bunch of spinach. If serving four, be sure to cook up 4 chicken breast halves.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breast halves weighing approximately 6 oz each
¼ tsp of Italian seasoning
¼ cup of chopped green onion
1 tsp of minced garlic (jar garlic will work)
A pinch of red pepper flakes (This depends on how spicy you like your food. Less than a quarter tsp of flakes made it plenty flavorful for me. If you want this very mild you can just skip the flakes.)
¼ cup of whipping cream
2 Tbl of sour cream
4 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach, or one 10 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained. Get as much moisture squished out as possible. Fresh will be MUCH better though. The mound of spinach on my cupboard was about the size of a football. Don’t worry, it cooks way down. Chop the spinach into shreds and pieces about 1-inch in size. There is no magic to this. It just makes it easier to eat if it’s all chopped up. If you are using baby spinach that means you leave in the stems, too.
1 Tbl of chopped pimento. Drain them first. You can substitute chopped red bell pepper if you prefer but the pimento is really good. I don’t eat them often so I found them delightful.
Sea salt to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. To cook this quickly and keep the chicken juicy, one option is to pound down the chicken. I put the chicken pieces, one at a time, into a large baggie. I then use my meat mallet to pound them down uniformly to half-inch thick; maybe even a little less. Spray an ovenproof pan with olive oil spray and place your chicken in, breast topside up. Spray again with olive oil spray and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.

If you prefer, you can also add a step prior and saute one side of the breast pieces for three minutes so they get a browner crust on one side. Then flip them over put them in the oven. This is only cosmetic though so your choice.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes depending on how thick your chicken breast pieces are. Make sure there is no pink remaining. I cut a small slit in the thickest part of the breast to be sure it’s done.

As the chicken is baking:

In a medium saute pan add a spritz of olive oil. Add the green onions, garlic and pepper flakes. Heat on medium high and stir just until the onions begin to loosen. Then add the cream and sour cream. Stir to incorporate it. Then add the spinach (you might need to do this in batches or mound it in your pan). With a pair of tongs, continually stir in the spinach and get it coated with the sauce. Add the pimento and continue to stir until the sauce looks like it’s thickening up a bit and coating the spinach. Grate on a bit of sea salt to brighten up the flavor a bit. This only takes a few minutes and it will be done. If the chicken isn’t done you can just turn this off and let it sit. Reheat just before serving.

When the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the oven. Serve with the spinach mounded on top or on the side. Your choice.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola