Light Italian Chicken, Pasta Salad, and Tossed Spinach Salad

To start it off, college students do not have a lot of time on there hands but it doesn't mean they should not have a tasty, yet also, healthy meal. Who here has heard of the "Freshmen 15", where you have gained 15 pounds during your first year of college due to unhealthy eating? I know I have and also experienced this one.

 Recently I have read a story about a man from Fulton, New York and he lost a total of 191 pounds due to a bet that him and his wife made. Before the weight loss, he weighed at a total of 366 pounds. By losing this weight, his main requirement that he followed was cutting back on all the unnecessary portions of food, eating less, and adding exercising to his life style.

This meal, I made on my own without any recipe to follow. This is a light Italian chicken with a side of pasta salad and a tossed spinach salad. It is wonderfully easy for any college student to make and also is very healthy.What makes this meal great is instead of using butter, I'm using olive oil which has all the good unsaturated fats where as butter has saturated fats that are not very healthy for you. Chicken is also very healthy with lower calories compared to red meat and full of protein. I add the cheeses just for a little bit of fat, and I love cheese so it's adding something that I enjoy in little portions. Ingredients for each of these foods are:

Light Italian Chicken
-Thin sliced chicken breast
-Light Italian dressing (any brand of your choice is good; here I used Wishbone)


Pasta Salad
-1 box of Penne pasta
-1 small jar of Roasted red pepper
-Mozzarella Cheese
-Olive Oil
-Salt
-Pepper
-Garlic powder

Spinach Salad
-Fresh spinach
-Fruit and Nut Trail Mix
-Croutons
-Feta cheese
-Raspberry Vinaigrette 

For the Light Italian Chicken, I placed my thin sliced chicken breast in a big zip-lock bag and poured Light Italian dressing in the bag to give the chicken a thick coat to marinate in. I put that aside and start cooking my penne pasta. Boil water and cook the pasta to al dente, which means its just cooked not over cooked where its mushy and not crunchy. This takes approximately 15-20minutes. You want to start tasting and testing the pasta about 10 minutes after it has been cooking. Drain the water of the pasta once finished place in a big bowl and put it in the fridge to cool.

Next you want to chop up your roasted red pepper and mozzarella cheese. Once your pasta has cooled you are going to throw in these ingredients and add about half a cup of olive oil. Put it in a little at a time and stir. You can put less or more in if you prefer. Then you want to season to your preferred taste. This you would also like to put in a little at a time to make sure you are not over powering the meal with certain seasonings.

Now that the pasta is done, you can start cooking your chicken.Take a frying pan and just cover the bottom of the pan with olive oil.Get the pan hot and then turn it down to medium to medium high depending on your stove. Place the Light Italian marinated chicken breast in the pan. Cook it by flipping and you'll see it'll turn white. Thin sliced chicken cooks fast so you don't want to under or over cook. I like to take a knife and cut in the middle to make sure it is white on the inside and cooked. Here is your main course.

The tossed spinach salad is extremely easy and fast to make so that's why I have saved it for last. Grab a heaving handful of spinach and place it in a small bowl, take a small scoop of each remaining ingredient for the salad and drizzle a raspberry vinaigrette dressing over and Voila! You have a tasty and healthy meal.

So go ahead! Try this easy and healthy meal for yourself and enjoy.  :)