As some of you may know my cooking style is a bit mad scientist-ish. I like to pull all my produce, meats and cheeses out of the fridge and stare at them until something hits me square in the face. Let me tell you boys and girls I got hit hard in the face today… This came out perfect and so tasty, hell it was even the perfect amount for my meal prepping macros!
I took two portions with mozzarella and basil and baked for about 10 minutes.
This recipe has a hefty mix of vegetables, protein and healthy animal fats perfect for a ketogenic diet. You can sub in and out the vegetables of your choice, for example on another occasion I used mushrooms and tomatoes, it was quite tasty!
Trader Joe's really has my back with this recipe too! The frozen organic riced cauliflower is delicious and convenient, they seem to sell out of the stuff a lot, so when I start getting low on supply I make sure to stock up with 7 or 8 bags and stack it up in my freezer. The asparagus comes courtesy of TJ's as well and is also from the frozen section. I generally stick to fresh vegetables, but the convenience and longevity of the frozen version is pretty hard to pass up.
The spinach I used was fresh, but TJ's has a pretty good frozen brand. I personally just think the frozen spinach is too soggy. Spinach is also extremely light so it's hard to tell what 5 oz. of spinach actually looks like. Here is a comparison next to my regular sized coffee mug...
5 oz of spinach
If you don't have a Trader Joe's or a source of riced cauliflower you can easily make your own with a grater. Two bags of the frozen stuff is about the equivalent of one medium head of cauliflower.
The first step of this recipe is to microwave the cauliflower. If you don't have/use a microwave you can do this in a pan as well. The point of this step is to get rid of the moisture, which can ruin a lot of recipes if you are not careful. Like most vegetables cauliflower has a lot of water and will sweat out of it once it's heated. So be sure to do this before adding the cauliflower in with all the other ingredients.
I divided it into 6 servings. Each serving with about 640 calories and only 5 net carbs (without the topped mozzarella bake) But the best part is, is that it's a one pan dish so clean up is a breeze!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Chicken Breast
- 12 ounces Bacon
- 1 cup Parmesan Cheese
- 3 tablespoons Butter
- 6 cups Cauliflower
- 12 ounces Asparagus
- 5 ounces Spinach
- 1 tablespoon Garlic
- Salt/Pepper to taste
- Fresh Basil for garnish
- Mozzarella Cheese
Cooking instructions
Rice your cauliflower. Microwave for 4 minutes, stir, and microwave for 4 more minutes.
Mix a tablespoon of butter into the cauliflower.
Using an extra-large pan (oven safe if you want this to truly be one pan) cook the bacon on a medium heat (6 out of 10). Remove and set to the side.
Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste and add to to pan, still cooking at a medium heat and using the bacon drippings as a cooking fat. Cook until no visible pink and then remove. Set the chicken aside with the bacon.
Add garlic, asparagus, spinach and the 2 remaining tablespoons of butter. Let the spinach cook down for about 2 minutes constantly stirring and mixing. You really want to evenly distribute the fats and juices!
Reduce pan heat down to a medium-low (3 out of 10)
Dice chicken and bacon into desired size. This should be done roughly 10 minutes after cooking the chicken as you want to give the chicken time to rest (it's still cooking a bit in the middle).
Add chicken, bacon, butter and garlic. Stir until evenly mixed.
Add the cauliflower rice and and parmesan cheese and continue stirring until evenly mixed.
Stir until evenly mixed and serve.
Now here’s where you can go one of two ways:
The Meal Prep route - This makes 6 perfect dinner portions, or 3 lunch and 3 dinner. It’s your world!
The Cheesy Bake route - In the picture above I took two servings and dumped them into an oven safe dish. Then, I broiled for about 10 minutes, until the cheese was lightly browned. I used about ¼ cup per serving.
*Remember that the broiler is HIGH heat from the top of the oven, so the higher up you put the dish the faster it will cook, and the broiler will cook the top of the bake fast. 10 minutes is all you need, maybe less depending on how strong your oven is, so watch closely!
