One Chicken Breast, Three Meals

There was a time for me, when buying one chicken breast meant cooking and eating it in one meal.  It was only after looking into controlling my weight did I discover I did not need to eat the entire piece in one sitting.  I thought a serving size was everyone gets their own hunk of meat or poultry.  We grow, we learn, we do better.

I roasted a one pound chicken breast with herbs and made three meals.  After dicing the piece of chicken I used one third of it in an arugula salad with pine nuts, freshly chopped bacon bits, and feta cheese to make a very tasty salad.  I also made the same salad without chicken to take with me to lunch.

A second portion of the chicken breast was used in a pasta salad made with sautéed mushrooms, peas, tomatoes, diced onions, and Italian dressing.  Simply cook pasta as directed on packaging and drain.  I personally cannot eat a mushroom unless it is cooked, so in this case, I sautéed the mushrooms very briefly and then added to the drained pasta.  Roma tomatoes were diced while I cooked frozen peas on the stove.  In a large bowl, I mixed pasta, tomatoes, peas, mushrooms, diced onions and chicken with Italian salad dressing for a tasty dish, perfect for when you come home and only want a light meal.

The third portion of the chicken breast was used to make the perfect cold chicken sandwich.  Take some thinly sliced Italian bread and toast with olive oil.  I then added some miracle whip to both slices of bread and combined diced chicken, arugula, diced tomatoes, and bacon bits to make an incredible sandwich.

Reevaluating portions helps you to stretch your dollar and gives you more options.  I have always known how to prepare chicken many ways, but I wasn’t thinking about how much food I was consuming.  I was eating because that is what fit on the plate.  There are so many ways to prepare food, but it is important to eat with your stomach and not with your eyes, as the old folks would say.  What portion is your stomach really asking for you to consume.