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Me and my diet recipes blog – light & yummy

My name is Giovanna and I was born in Italy, in the beautiful city of Naples, but currently I live in the Netherlands with my partner, my son and four lovely cats. I started this blog some time ago as the English companion of my Italian well established blog Mangia senza Pancia, but then I had to put it on hold for a while. Later I decided to continue translating all my recipes in English and hopefully to do so for a long time, sharing with you also some of my tricks for a healthy diet.

I started blogging as I could not find a job but I wanted to keep busy using my skills, which I like to call “computering”. I studied maths at university at the very beginning of the computer age, and then worked in IT for many years mainly in Italy and in London. Blogging has been so far the best solution to keep my IT skills up to date, being creative, build my own little business but mainly: BEING MYSELF!

Currently I manage an extensive club on facebook where I give food and diet advice, gained through my experience and with my great surprise this group has grown quite a lot, to the point that I hold “diet events” and so I had to open my own company. This has been a real turn of my life: from computer nerd to helping people… and I love it! Maybe one day I will be able to do a parallel group also in English, who knows!

Food & Diet

As most Neapolitan people I love good food: Mediterranean and of course Italian style are my favourites and cooking is amongst one of my preferred pastimes. But everything should be done with measure: during my life I became overweight more than once! Luckily I have always managed to lose the extra kilos. I tried losing weight in many ways but eventually I understood that it is better to do so following a healthy diet, balanced, suitable for the whole family and that gives me satisfaction when I eat. I found all these characteristics in the Weight Watchers Propoints diet which I already knew from London, where I followed the 1-2-3 Success plan.

In 2012, having again piled quite a few kilos due to a period of major stress with my job, I started my Italian blog Mangia senza Pancia, which literally means “eat without tummy”, meaning that it is possible to eat in such manner to fill satisfied and stay slim. As the days passed I wrote on my blog what I cooked and ate and of course all my feelings: a complete diary together with all the recipes I cooked everyday. By the end of 2014 I lost about 50 pounds, becoming also quite expert at cooking light and at calculating the Weight Watchers Propoints of the different ingredients.

Fitness

Obviously a good diet must be accompanied by some physical activity too. During the actual diet period I started with Tai Chi, which helped a lot for my mind but then I needed something more cardio and I started Zumba, which I absolutely loved and still do. 

Since then, after losing all that weight, I have gone wild: bootcamp, nordic walking and currently running too, which I was never able to do, even when I was a girl! This was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me: from having become a couch potato I now go running 3 times a week, and also do one lesson of zumba and one of pilates. I am getting very fit, capable to endure hours of exercising, which before I would not even have dreamt of…

Why an English diet recipes blog

After a year of blogging in Italian I decided to open also a companion blog in English and share my cooking with non Italian readers. I have many Dutch and English friends who cannot read my current blog but can see all the pictures go by on facebook. They ask me how to cook what they see on the pictures, so I thought opening Light&Yummy was a very good idea! Then I had not time to translate for a while but here I am again, very determined to add at least one recipe per week. Of course all your comments, positive or negative, are welcome … I will be happy to answer to all your questions the best way I can.

Okay, lot’s of work awaits so, here I go!

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Pan cooked chicken with potatoes and peas: a light meal, easy to make

Nothing easier than preparing a one pot dish for the whole family and surely this pan cooked chicken with potatoes and peas is one of the favourites in my house. My son likes particularly that the chicken becomes very tender and juicy while the potatoes are crunchy. The peas add more fibres and some colour too, so the result is a complete and nutritious meal!

I often prepare the chicken simply in a good non sticky pan as I find it very practical. Also in summer, when the weather gets too warm, there will be no hot oven making us sweat in the kitchen!

Remember to use always good quality ingredients, especially when it comes to meat, and make sure the chicken is very lean, or trim away all the visible fat. And now it’s time to read the recipe!

Pan cooked chicken with potatoes and peas – the recipe

Information
  • Type: Full meals
  • Portions: 2 (*)
  • Preparation time: 15 min
  • Cooking time: 30 min
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Weight Watchers ProPoints: 12PP

(*) the photos show only 1 portion

Ingredients

  • 300 g lean chicken breast
  • 300 g potatoes
  • 160 g frozen garden peas
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 3 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp dry white wine
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • a few sprigs of fresh parsley or other herbs, also dried
  • salt and pepper to taste
Preparation

To begin with, wash the potatoes very well, cut them in wedges and boil them for about 5 to 10 minutes in slightly salted water: they must be only a little soft. Drain and let them cool down.

When the potato wedges are cooled down, dress them with 1 teaspoon of olive oil massaging them with your hands so that all the potatoes are well coated. Trust me: 1 teaspoon is enough! Roast the potatoes in a hot non sticky pan sprinkling them with a little salt: I use a stone pan which is extremely non sticky. Turn the wedges often so they will become golden on all sides.

While the potatoes cook cut the chicken in strips. Mix in a dish the flour, a bit of salt and pepper and the parsley finely chopped (alternatively use some dried herbs). Coat the chicken strips well in the flour mix either using your hands or inserting everything in a plastic bag and shaking it well.

Lift the potatoes from the pan and set them aside. Next, put in the same pan the garlic chopped and another teaspoon of olive oil. As soon as the garlic starts sizzling add the chicken, turn up the heat and shake the pan frequently so that the chicken strips sear well on the outside. This is what leaves the chicken juicy! To make it even softer add the wine and let it evaporate.

Continue cooking gently at lower temperature and when the chicken is cooked throughout add the peas and a little water. When the peas are softened and the water evaporated add the potatoes too. Stir well, turn the cooker off, add the last teaspoon of olive oil and give it a final mix.

Finally here it is: our pan cooked chicken with potatoes and peas is ready to be served… delicious!

The trick of coating the chicken with flour and use a little wine is infallible, it really helps keeping the meat juices inside and leave the chicken tender, same for other cuts of meat: a couple of points spent on flour and wine are well worth the result! Try to make this pan cooked chicken and if you do so, please leave a comment here below to let me know your opinion.

Buon appetito! 

by Giovanna Buono 

Extra Information

This meal is really filling and the portion is quite big. So, if you like a lighter meal, it is possible to divide the whole recipe in 3 smaller portions of 8 PP each!

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