Baked chicken breasts, garlic broccoli and roasted cauliflower

A meal like this goes into the category of comfort food for me. It's easy to prepare, delicious to eat, and you feel good after you eat it. Boneless chicken breasts are a favorite in my house, and baking them is one of the easiest ways to prepare them. Only caveat is to season them well and not overcook them. I always use naturally raised, grain fed chicken, which you can buy at most supermarkets these days. Our local market, Stop and Shop, carries the Nature's Promise brand.

Baked Chicken Breasts:

Place the washed chicken breasts into a baking dish. Add about 1 tbsp of good olive oil, sliced sweet white onion, quartered Campari tomatoes,  handful of chopped chives, tbsp of chopped parsley, a dollop of pesto on each breast, juice of 1/2 lemon, handful of Pecorino Romano cheese, a sprinkle of panko bread crumbs, and salt and pepper.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (for the last 5 minutes place under the broiler to brown). Remove from the heat and let them sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

Garlic  Broccoli:

Wash, trim, and then peel the ends of your broccoli spears.

Cut them in quarters, lengthwise. Bring water to boil in your saute pan and add the broccoli spears, steaming in covered pan for about 4-5 minutes, or until just tender. Remove from pan and plunge in ice water. Drain and pat dry.

Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a saute pan with 3 garlic cloves (sliced), salt and pepper.

Add the broccoli to the pan:

Cook over low-medium heat, turning about every 5 minutes. Cook for about 15-18 minutes to allow the garlic flavored oil to permeate the broccoli.

My roasted cauliflower recipe can be found here. You can cook this with the chicken, just turn up the oven to 375 after the chicken is done and let it cook for a bit longer.

I served the chicken, with the delicious pan juices, over Quinoa (you can find cooking instructions here).

Enjoy!