On Thursday, I was determined to clean out the fridge..well, at least that was my excuse so I could make room for a hefty grocery store run this weekend and my new delivered goodies from NutsOnline 🙂 I discovered NutsOnline a couple years ago and I have never been disappointed with any of the items I’ve ordered…and I’ve ordered a bunch – from nuts, dried fruits, flours, snack mixes, baking ingredients, candy, chocolate, etc – they have it all! My latest order included 1 pound packages of teff flour, sun-dried tomatoes, unsweetened shredded coconut, cacao nibs, roasted/unsalted almonds, white chia seeds, a two sample packs of goji berries and turkish figs — YUM! You can expect some new recipes soon from this highly-anticipated online delivery!!!

Now back to the recipe — I had bits of leftover veggies and a half pound of chicken tenders I needed to use up. I was having a bit of a brain lapse and couldn’t think of anything really creative to make on the fly, so I shuffled through my old recipe binder from 4 years ago. Side note – I used to print off recipes I found online, write my own suggestions down after looking through the recipe reviews and organize them in 4-inch binder…unfortunately, I don’t have much time for that now and just bookmark, plus it saves trees! As I was thumbing through the “poultry section”, I  came across a recipe for Chicken Bruschetta from Cooking Light that inspired this easy weeknight meal. I even found the original recipe online too, which can be found here at myrecipes.com.

This light meal is great served with garlic bread or with a side of garlic roasted potatoes. The vegetable topping is delicious served over broiled chicken as stated here or as I have made it in the past with grilled chicken, whichever you prefer!

Chicken with Balsamic-Bruschetta Vegetables

Ingredients

1/2 lb of chicken tenders (could use skinless,boneless chicken breasts, just make sure they aren’t too thick)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 small yellow squash, chopped (or use zucchini)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 plum tomato, chopped
1/2 cup chopped red onion
big handful of fresh spinach
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Grated parmesan cheese for sprinkling  (about 2-3 Tbsp)
Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Combine garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Drizzle chicken with a tsp of oil and then sprinkle with garlic powder mixture. Place the chicken on a broiler pan, and broil for 5 minutes, flip chicken over and broil another 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink inside. Remove the chicken from pan, and keep warm.
3. Heat remaining 2 tsp of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, squash, and minced garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add tomato, onion, spinach, basil, and vinegar and salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/8 of pepper), then sauté 3 minutes. Serve the vegetable mixture over chicken; sprinkle with cheese and enjoy!

Serves 2 (could easily be doubled or tripled)